Facial Expressions?

[Domarius]

Wings is purely a modeller, so by exporting to .LWO instead of something generic like .DXF, you dont' really gain anything. Except vertex painting, but I've never used that side of it.

 

But go to the wings3d forums, they will help you out in that area. Lots of people use it in conjunction with other apps, importing and exporting stuff all the time.

[Corth]

I'm sure Wings exports to .obj files, and you can open those in blender, and blender exports to a bunch of things.

 

I know the models that I create, I'll be releasing the maya binary file for, so if you have maya, you can do your own animations with those characters. We will include default arguing and talking animations as well, so the mouth's might not match the speach, but you'll have something to use in your FM's. As for blender ports... I honestly don't know that program enough to make any kind of rig there, sorry.

[obscurus]

Wings is purely a modeller, so by exporting to .LWO instead of something generic like .DXF, you dont' really gain anything.  Except vertex painting, but I've never used that side of it.

 

 

It also does UV mapping, and what I would gain by exporting directly to .ASE or .LWO is a large chunk of time that I could use for other things than converting files multiple times... Having played with Wings 3D for a few weeks now, I have discovered that it does indeed create not only UV maps, you can also create textures that can be painted in Photoshop... It really is a very powerful modeller, but if I could export directly to .ASE I could load my models directly into D3Rad or UnrealEd, and preserve texture coordinates...

 

I still can't get to grips with Blender after a week or so of playing with it, man that learning curve is steep... so different to other progs I've used...

[Domarius]

Yeah because it's a real nerds interface

 

Well ask on the Wings forums about exporting to a format that retains the UV info, they would surely know.

[FishFace]

After all this raving about Wings, I guess I shall have to give it a bash...

[oDDity]

Actually a modeler that a lot of modelers all rave about is Silo (www.nevercenter.com) I haven't used it myself, but apparently it's really easy to learn and use for the neophyte and expert alike, is very efficient, and only costs about 100$.

[Renzatic]

Actually a modeler that a lot of modelers all rave about is Silo (www.nevercenter.com) I haven't used it myself, but apparently it's really easy to learn and use for the neophyte and expert alike, is very efficient, and only costs about 100$.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I just grabbed the personal learning edition. Reminds me alot of a minimalist Maya, though they say there's alot of Lightwave inspired features in there.

 

I'll go through a few tuts and see how it is...if I like it I might buy it.

[oDDity]

Lo, I notice the program is only 3.8 megs. I heard it was pretty compact, and they weren't kidding. I supose because it hasn't got 20 different ways to do the same thing like a lot of apps packed full of shit to look better.

I'll look at it myself, though I doubt anything could drag me away from lightwave.

[Renzatic]

Lo, I notice the program is only 3.8 megs. I heard it was pretty compact, and they weren't kidding. I supose because it hasn't got 20 different ways to do the same thing like a lot of apps packed full of shit to look better.

I'll look at it myself, though I doubt anything could drag me away from lightwave.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I've spent some time with it and I'm pretty damn impressed. It does have alot in common with Lightwave, so if you're used to the way it works you'll catch on pretty fast.

 

Only problem is that the keyboard shortcuts, UI, and whatnot are modelled after Maya. But you can pretty much reconfigure everything to however you want it so it's not too bad...just kinda time consuming at first.

 

I'd recommend it..it's just $110 and looks like it can easily compete with the more expensive modellers. I'd pick it over Blender anyday.

 

Edit: Here's a nice review for anyone considering it.

 

Edit2: HAY GUYS LOOK! I MADE A THING! A THING! I MADE IT!

[oDDity]

I looked at it., It is a lot like lightwave, but you cannot map keys to anything but letters and there are a lot of little handy tools and features missing that I'm used to in lightwave, and I can't see anything extra to replace or better them.

 

THe UI is actually modeled after lightwave, apart from manipulators showing their ugy faces, like in every app except lightwave modeler (and which I hate)

Still, for 4 megabytes and $100 it's a very powerful modeler.

[obscurus]

I've downloaded Silo, and it seems like a pretty good modeller for $100... I might fork out the dough if I keep on liking it. Still doesn't export .ASE or .LWO though... Dammit, it must be a conspiracy to force people to either use stupendously expensive software or outrageously buggy converters to get .ASE export. Time to study Blender tutorials for days on end, methinks. Or download a naughty copy of 3DsMax

 

I've been playing around with Wings some more - man that is a powerfull app, especially for a free one. It has a very good UV unwrap facility that can be automated nicely. I've been making some dummy objects, unwrapping the mesh to a texture, painting it in PSP, and importing it into various rendering apps to see how well the textures hold up. It seems to handle high poly objects quite well... If I get time I'll post some screenies in a bit. It would be nice if it did booleans and lathe/sweep operations, but I guess you can't complain for the price.

[FishFace]

Gack... No booleans/lathes/sweeps? They're part of a staple modeller diet! Blender has them, though, and I can't imagine the first two being incredibly difficult to implement. The trick with the second is implementing it for curves with different resolutions, which blender doesn't handle.

[Domarius]

Wings is totally box modelling. There are tutes that show you how to get the same results as lathe. Boolean and sweep, not sure.

[obscurus]

You can work around the lack of lathe pretty easily by using wedges and the mirror function (and a bit of mathematics)... Booleans seemed a bit involved though, looking at the tutes... There are some things Wings is not very good at, but you can work around a lot of issues with a bit of creativity. But it sure would be nice if those featues were added

Edited July 4, 2005 by obscurus

[Renzatic]

Gack... No booleans/lathes/sweeps? They're part of a staple modeller diet! Blender has them, though, and I can't imagine the first two being incredibly difficult to implement. The trick with the second is implementing it for curves with different resolutions, which blender doesn't handle.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It has booleans and lathes, they're buried in one of the submenus somewhere.

[BlackThief]

just to get back to topic - I just found that little movie made with hl2 http://www.nailbiter.net/gman/

 

and I've to say the facial animations and lip synch are really impressive.

[oDDity]

That's hardly back on topic. Unless te topic was about lipsync in HL2.

[sgt ginge]

It'd be nice to see my enemies cowering in their boots as i jump on them!

[woah]

I just thought I'd bring back this thread instead of making a new to discuss the update.

 

The In-Game characters look great in the screenshots provided, but they have no expression of anger/stress in their assault. Is the Dark Mod still planning on implementing facial expressions for the characters?

[Ishtvan]

They're actually all Zen masters, so they maintain a calm outlook and tranquil expression even in life or death struggles.

[oDDity]

Actually, it's 40 years after a huge accident at the Inventors Guild which involved the emission of huge amounts of radiation, so everyone wears masks to hide their grotesquely deformed and hidiously disfigured features.

[Springheel]

Believe me, when you're playing the game you don't have time to notice the facial expressions. Somehow, the guards seem like they're growling as they hack you to pieces.

[oDDity]

We will probably have very basic lip sync and a few facial positions, but notthing fancy, since it's too much work for too little return, and we simply don't have the manpower to waste on it.

No helpful lip sync technology exists in doom at all, so it all has to be done manually from scratch, and it's all pretty arduous work.

[sparhawk]

Which is an excellent time to insert a plea for a good animator helping us with the mod.

[Dram]

"please, any animators help us in our plight!!"

 

inserted