Blender for Beginners

[rich_is_bored]

You are correct. Also it's impossible to make a non-planar triangle.

[aidakeeley]

Once again... Thanks, Rich!

[Sotha]

But the grain of the wood is still lying in the wrong direction on the chair legs. No woodsman ever cuts a length of wood across the grain which is the weakest direction. That chair would break if sat upon. It would shear across the grain and the legs would break in half.

 

Heh.. I'm no woodsman.

 

+9 minutes of work.

 

[Fidcal]

I don't understand half of what's being said and I'm not sure I want to.

 

The right way to write a tutorial is something like Arcturus' with a simple list of instructions to complete one task from start to finish. A set of such instructions for each of the different tasks needed. I can't believe that everything one needs to know is in that one chair tutorial and then you have all the basics to make models.

 

@Sotha: I'd still like to see it in a Dark Mod screenshot or you've still not finished.

[Sotha]

I can't believe that everything one needs to know is in that one chair tutorial and then you have all the basics to make models.

Of course. Such a claim has not been made by anyone. But can you deny that completing a chair tutorial is not a good start for learn modeling? Especially, when blender is so unintuitive that you cannot accomplish anything at all from scratch without proper instructions.

 

@Sotha: I'd still like to see it in a Dark Mod screenshot or you've still not finished.

Like I said, the idea was to test modeling and general use of Blender. At present I'm not going bother to get the model I'll never use in DR. There is no point to see the trouble until there is a genuine need for a new model.

 

The instructions Arcturus gives look fairly straightforward and understandable. If the information is correct and accurate it seems it would not take too long.

[OrbWeaver]

EDIT: Never mind.

[Fidcal]

Yes I agree it's a good start. I wish there were more such tutorials though.

 

The last I remember of Blender I was making those simple grass blend panel models which turned out to be impractical. Then somewhere along the line I finished off Heart. Then started on Alchemist and finished that and modelling has taken a back seat.

[Sotha]

Got bored in DR. Needed some change. Wanted to try Blender, my old nemesis, instead. It thought it would be nice (pitifully attempt) to create a custom loot rod/scepter for my next FM.

 

Something like this:

I thought that the shaft and the sphere could be easily gold, for a blender newbie like me.

 

After reading yet another tutorial and few hours of work I got this:

The solid rendering looks decent and I'm quite proud of that if taken into account my limited skills in this area.

 

I wanted to texture the thing. I extracted some gold.dds texture from the darkmod .zip's and applied it on the rod. Looks like crap. I'm sure I'm missing something, but I'm not entirely sure what. If someone knows, please tell me.

 

I'm happy I can now make simple blocky objects like chairs and simple round objects like rods. My lack of ability in texturing is a huge problem.

[rich_is_bored]

In what way does it look like crap? Are you referring to the lack of shading? The texture stretching? Faceting? Also what version of Blender are you using? 2.4? 2.5?

 

If you have the display shading set to multitexture then everything will appear full bright when in textured mode. You can view your objects with proper textures and illumination if you change the display mode to GLSL.

 

Also, you can get rid of that faceted appearance by selecting the object and applying smooth shading to it.

 

In regards to texture stretching, you can fix it by properly UV mapping the object. This video explains the concept pretty well...

 

http://www.guerrillacg.org/home/3d-texturing/basics-of-uv-mapping

[Sotha]

Hm. Making progress, I suppose.

That above scepter took few hours to create. And it uses subsurfs.

 

To keep practicing I started again from scratch. This following work was done in one hour. It was created by extruding a cylinder, so the vertices are 'real,' not due to some applied modifier.

 

 

I put some textures in but it still looks rather weird. This time I remembered to unwrap the object, but it still does not look right.

 

 

 

In what way does it look like crap? Are you referring to the lack of shading? The texture stretching? Faceting? Also what version of Blender are you using? 2.4? 2.5?

 

I mean it looks weird. It is difficult to assess the form of the object. Maybe it is due to lack of shading, I not certain. Texture stretching is probably okay with this newest one, since I unwrapped it.

The Blender version is 2.49a.

 

If you have the display shading set to multitexture then everything will appear full bright when in textured mode. You can view your objects with proper textures and illumination if you change the display mode to GLSL.

In the game-menu, right? Okay, now I see some shading, when I start the game-engine.

 

Also, you can get rid of that faceted appearance by selecting the object and applying smooth shading to it.

 

In regards to texture stretching, you can fix it by properly UV mapping the object. This video explains the concept pretty well...

 

Thank you for help! I'll check that out.

 

One basic question. If my object has subsurfs, will it look round in the TDM, or should objects have only 'real' vertices as in a cube or a cylinder.

[Sotha]

Ooh. Got an eureka-moment for the uv mapping. Now textures are aligned much better.

 

The cylindrical parts were easy: I just added one seam according to Arcturus's tutorial and unwrapping provided nice results.

 

The pointy parts are difficult though. If I add a seam and unwrap, the faces are not rectangular in the uw editor. They are rotated so that they are aligned circularly. The only way to get them rectangular was to first make the pointy parts cylidrical, then apply uv-map, the then make the cylinder back pointy again.

 

So much to learn... But it's rewarding to make progress every now and then..

[rich_is_bored]

I don't recall exactly where the display shading setting was located in 2.49. It's been nearly a year now since I last used it. I think it's under the game menu but I'm not sure. I do know that you don't have to start the game engine to see it take effect as demonstrated here...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRInhvXRU4A

 

I believe the rational behind rendering textures full bright by default in textured mode is because it's primary purpose is to facilitate adjusting the way a texture maps to an object. And since shadows and highlights can obstruct your view of the texture underneath it could prove difficult to find texture seams or other faults.

 

Personally I think it's good enough to get a sense of form in solid shading mode when your actually modeling and I only use textured mode when I'm adjusting UV coordinates. But GLSL mode is there should you want to get a rough idea what the object will look like in a game.

 

Also, modifiers like subdivision surface do not translate to game engines. It's strictly a modeling tool. You must apply the modifier so that the polygons and vertices become "real" before you export.

 

For comparison it's a bit like image editing with non-destructive adjustments and layers. In the end the stack is flattened and the effects applied so that you can save a JPG, TGA, ect...

[Sotha]

Okay. Tried to get my work in DR, but I am running into trouble here.

Arcturus' tutorial says:

File -> Export -> ASCII Scene (.ase) v0.6.2.

Pick a directory e.g. doom3\darkmod\models\darkmod\ furniture\ and type a name of new ase file e.g. chair_old.ase.

Press "Export ASCII Scene".

 

UV Image as Material - yes, path to wood textures will be stored in ASE file

 

I have installed the scripts, but the exporter does not have the option "UV image as material!" When I open the file in a text editor, there is no reference to TDM materials I can change manually. Assistance, bitte?

 

I tried ASE exporter versions 0.6.9 and 0.6.10, but neither has it. I cannot proceed since I cannot get the darkmod materials set up on the model.

[nbohr1more]

I lost track of which is the current advised version but these threads might help fill-in-the-blank until an expert pipes up:

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/11459-vertex-colored-ase-models-using-darkradiant-and-blender-253-beta/

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/10906-ase-export-script-for-dark-radiant/

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/11399-ase-export-script-for-blender-253-beta/

[Arcturus]

 

That's rather highpoly for a game model but it's a nice start. You can save polys by making all elements separate meshes in stead of one:

 

 

I don't recall exactly where the display shading setting was located in 2.49. It's been nearly a year now since I last used it. I think it's under the game menu but I'm not sure.

Edit: Scrap that. 'Draw type' shaded only shows approximate texture.

 

I have installed the scripts, but the exporter does not have the option "UV image as material!" When I open the file in a text editor, there is no reference to TDM materials I can change manually. Assistance, bitte?

 

I tried ASE exporter versions 0.6.9 and 0.6.10, but neither has it. I cannot proceed since I cannot get the darkmod materials set up on the model.

I use Blender 2.41-2.43 ASE export from here: http://www.katsbits.com/tools/#ase It's v0.6.2. With this version you don't need to create materials, only assign images in uv\image editor.

 

I lost track of which is the current advised version but these threads might help fill-in-the-blank until an expert pipes up:

 

http://modetwo.net/d...ender-253-beta/

 

http://modetwo.net/d...r-dark-radiant/

 

http://modetwo.net/d...ender-253-beta/

I think these are only for Blendeer 2.5.

[Sotha]

Thank you very much for advice!

 

Tonight I decided to restart from scratch again.

 

After quick modeling and texturing I took the older ase export script and it worked. I could continue.

I edited the .ase file by hand and changed the *bitmap* entries.

I got the model to DR!

 

Here is my rod in all its glory:

 

But then when I put it in a map and started TDM it looked like this:

No textures after all?

 

I'm pretty sure I did everything as mentioned in the tutorial. What's wrong?

[Baddcog]

For some reason you stirke me as the type of person who would be showing his rod in all it's glory for the world to see, lol.

 

 

It looks as though it ONLY has the gold texture.

 

When exporting the ase each material needs to be it's own seperate mesh. So you'll have 3 seperate pieces that are exported as one model.

If they are all one mesh then you'll only get one material on that mesh.

[Sotha]

For some reason you stirke me as the type of person who would be showing his rod in all it's glory for the world to see, lol.

 

But of course. That's what we finns do in sauna.

 

It looks as though it ONLY has the gold texture.

Oh, good point.

 

When exporting the ase each material needs to be it's own seperate mesh. So you'll have 3 seperate pieces that are exported as one model.

If they are all one mesh then you'll only get one material on that mesh.

 

Okay. But the rod consists of several meshes. But the meshes are a single object in blender. So I should break the components into different objects?

 

EDIT: looked at purse_p.lwo. Indeed. Separate objects.

 

EDIT2: Does anyone know how to fish out a mesh inside an object and make that mesh into another object?

[Arcturus]

Okay. But the rod consists of several meshes. But the meshes are a single object in blender. So I should break the components into different objects?

 

Exactly. That's not in the tutorial. Just select all faces that will be using the same material and hit 'P'.

[Sotha]

Exactly. That's not in the tutorial. Just select all faces that are meant to use one material and hit 'P'.

 

Hehe. Too late.. I with obsessive persistency and utter stubbornness I remodeled the entire thing again from scratch, this time into separate objects. I think it's good practice since I'm getting better and faster every time. I feel I could even write a wiki article on modeling for mappers now.

 

This time I added some silver parts and made the handle look more pretty. I even figured out how to put collision mesh and texture on the rod. It can be made into a moveable just by making it into the appropriate entity.

 

Here's a few more pics of the new version of my rod. It is 533 vertices and 453 polys. Almost half the polys in the trophy-loot.

 

 

 

 

Those who are nice, get to touch my rod in my upcoming FM once it's done and released. If I get really excited in this modeling business, there might be other custom loot as well.

 

Thanks for everyone's help with this. It isn't much difficult create something simple like this once the basics are known. For those people, who say Blender is confusing, I have to comment that using DR after Blender is also very confusing. It's like suddenly writing with your off hand. Luckily readjusting back to DR is quick.

 

I suppose the logical step forward for me would be to try and learn next to create those beautiful textures, which create the details on top of the model. Any pointers to good tutorials or videos?

[Baddcog]

Ewww, I think I'll skip that map!

 

Also, when you are comparing poly counts is that including shadow and collision on yours? Because those are also counted in DR.

 

(I was also no neccessarily going for lowest polycount possible on that item.)

 

Be sure to make a def file and test it out in game before you submit/move on. Alot of times you think you have a good collision but the map will crash and tell you the collision is bad.

[Sotha]

Ewww, I think I'll skip that map!

 

Also, when you are comparing poly counts is that including shadow and collision on yours? Because those are also counted in DR.

Okay, I just looked at the values DR says in the model selector. I've no idea what is a shadow texture.

 

Be sure to make a def file

What's that? Why? How?

 

 

and test it out in game before you submit/move on. Alot of times you think you have a good collision but the map will crash and tell you the collision is bad.

I made the rod moveable and threw it around for my own pleasure. It seemed to behave as expected. The collision mesh is a 6 sided cylinder with a pinched other end. It covers the whole rod.

 

If there is a problem will the map crash upon loading, or can it simply crash when the object collides unfavourably thus making it more difficult to spot problems?

[Nosslak]

There's a new Blender version out, 2.54 Beta this time around:

Blendernation

[Baddcog]

Shadow mesh is used to simplify the models lighting and it has major performance gains. All models over 250 should probably have one. The simplest shape you can make that fits the general shape of your object.

 

Make the objects textures have the prop

noshadows

 

so the object itself doesn't cast any shadows on other things. Put the simple mesh inside the object in 3d, put //base/textures/common/shadow on it. shadow2 will not cast shadows on the object it is assigned to (just export both meshes in one .ase file)

 

Your collision mesh sounds simple enough. maybe just a 5 sided cylinder or box would be best (with a smaller end). weird collision meshes IF they let you in game can cause weirdness, player deaths, etc...

 

(is your collision mesh exported with your ase or is it made in DR?)

 

If you made a moveable model then you know what a def file is right? lol

[Sotha]

Shadow mesh is used to simplify the models lighting and it has major performance gains. All models over 250 should probably have one. The simplest shape you can make that fits the general shape of your object.

Clever.

 

 

Make the objects textures have the prop

noshadows

 

Is this a material (.mtr-file) thing or is it set in blender? What's a prop?

 

Your collision mesh sounds simple enough. maybe just a 5 sided cylinder or box would be best (with a smaller end). weird collision meshes IF they let you in game can cause weirdness, player deaths, etc...

 

(is your collision mesh exported with your ase or is it made in DR?)

 

The collision mesh is in blender, a simple cylinder with a narrow end.

 

If you made a moveable model then you know what a def file is right? lol

Well, no. I made the moveable by creating a moveable_base entity and giving it the model param, which points to the medal.ase.