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Author Topic: Redo of Soldier Body model  (Read 58303 times)

Offline Winter

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #120 on: October 12, 2009, 12:06:31 am »
Here. Now it looks like one-piece suit.

I meant more adding a separate crotch zip for the trousers. One-piece suits tend to be impractical and difficult to get into. Would that be possible?

Regards,
Winter

Offline Mattn

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #121 on: October 12, 2009, 01:06:55 pm »
Maybe.  Blender does have texture deform capability, I'd have to take a closer look at it to see how it works.  Normally - as far as I know - the shape is finalized first, before texturing starts, and altering the base shape can be a bad idea after the texture is done and in some cases means re-doing the texture later, but for a minor tweak to fatten the thighs just a little I think it can be done (so Migel would not have to start all over with a new texture for a new shape).

the texture coords should not change if you only move the vertices a little bit. adding new ones might break it - yes.

Offline Migel

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #122 on: October 14, 2009, 09:52:38 am »
Well, that's it. (Rapidshare once again) http://rapidshare.com/files/292793449/New.zip.html
Separate zip, more muscles and PSD. Only problem is that making new camo will take more than just change of background layer... Folds and muscles drawn right on camo (meaning it will take more time than ctrl-c/ctrl-v).
« Last Edit: October 14, 2009, 11:52:23 am by Migel »

Offline misiek

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #123 on: October 14, 2009, 06:14:35 pm »
It looks great, when we will see it in game? ;)

Offline Destructavator

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #124 on: October 14, 2009, 06:17:36 pm »
Looks good, Migel.  I'm going to play with it in GIMP with colorization options on selected layers to try to make alternate camo colors.

It looks great, when we will see it in game? ;)

Well, for one thing we at least need a female version, something I'll get ready as soon as I can.

Offline Destructavator

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #125 on: October 14, 2009, 07:56:41 pm »
...Only problem is that making new camo will take more than just change of background layer... Folds and muscles drawn right on camo (meaning it will take more time than ctrl-c/ctrl-v).

I figured it out!

Thankfully you left the original Blender-created image inside the .PSD as a non-visible layer, and I've found that by combining that old image with the layer that has the folds and specular highlights on the camo, I was able to blend them in a special way that just gave me the difference between the two, in other words, just the fabric folds and the highlights and such all by themselves against an alpha background.

I then found I can apply this newly created layer to new Blender-generated textures with different camo colors, and make it very easy to make different versions of the completed texture with different camouflage while preserving all the details and all of your hard work.

I just need to tweak some stuff, but when I'm done I'll upload some new files, and making new camo patterns with the completed texture should be easy (as long as anyone who wants to add camo patterns grabs both the PSD and the .Blend file together).

Thanks again, Migel.

Offline Destructavator

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #126 on: October 15, 2009, 04:39:49 am »
I'm done (at least for now) re-working the skeleton, so if vedrit is prepared to start animating, here's the updated .blend file:

http://destructavator.com/92dl/Soldier_Armor_v6_31.zip

I'm still working on putting more camo colors in Migel's texture for alternate skins, but that shouldn't affect the animation process, more skins can always be applied after/during animation.

For backup, could someone please put this file in the data source with a note that it is in a pre-animation but animation-ready state?


Offline vedrit

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #127 on: October 15, 2009, 09:57:56 pm »
Sweet. I'll get on that. Just to make sure, every animation cycle has to start with the default pose?

Offline Destructavator

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #128 on: October 15, 2009, 10:33:04 pm »
Sweet. I'll get on that. Just to make sure, every animation cycle has to start with the default pose?

If I remember right, every animation intended to loop should start and end with the same pose, other "play-once" animations obviously start in one pose and end in another (such as standing up from crouching, for example).

A few notes regarding animations with Blender, using the skeleton (forgive me for the parts you already know):

- The blender file I provided is set to 30 FPS.  Blender uses a keyframe system and fills in the in-between frames automatically, and the game engine IIRC goes even further by automatically animating the mesh smoothly between frames.  If memory serves, with the MD2 format you can have different animations at different speeds in the same file, the text file that goes with the MD2 - also read by the game - lists in an index the starting, stopping, and animation speeds of each animation the game's code calls, along with names for the animations (I think the wiki has an example).

- The file I provided also has a snap-to with the grid and rotation of everything, I think rotation snaps to increments of 5 degrees.  You can override this when dragging by holding down CTRL while dragging.

- You can specify rotating a specific axis only by left-clicking an axis arrow-head in pose mode.  You can also use the keyboard, press "R" for rotate then the letter of the axis, X, Y, or Z.  You can then type the number of degrees you want to rotate, and use a minus sign or decimal point if needed.

- I'd recommend selecting the axis with the keyboard so you can choose between rotating on a *global* or *local* axis.  When you first press "R" and then the key for the axis, it defaults to global rotation, pressing the key for the axis a second time switches to local axis of rotation, which is cool because it then rotates related to how the parent bone is, giving you more control and making proper rotation much easier.

- I've found in quick tests that if you plan to twist a limb and hand/foot, it helps to split up the rotation among the different bones (part of the rotation in the shoulder/hip, part in the mid-joint, part in the end, for example).  I've also found this works better for the head and neck as well.

- Before final export the head will be replaced by an empty to become a TAG, and TAGs will also be placed in the hands, don't worry about that for now, you should be able to animate without them for now.  (The TAGs tell the game where to add the head and carried in-hand objects/weapons.)

- If you accidentally add a keyframe in the wrong place with "I" you can delete it with "CTRL-I" if I remember right.  There are also buttons in the upper bar right below the model view for copying, pasting, and mirroring poses, which helps sometimes.

- You can also tweak things in the Action Editor panel for each bone if you know how (If not, don't worry about it).

- Pressing "W" then "clear user transform" will reset all the bones.

- Remember that individual bones can have independent keyframes, you can set them for the whole mesh by selecting all the bones at once and then adding a keyframe.

- The arrow keys navigate between keyframes.  Changing frames resets the bones to the last pose, so after making one keyframe, *first* advance to a new keyframe and *then* work on a new pose, otherwise you can lose all your changes for the next pose (I've suffered this mistake myself...   :P  ).

Have fun!

Edit: If I'm wrong on any of these points, anyone is free to correct me.

Edit(2): If the skeleton needs work or should be re-done, please let me know...


« Last Edit: October 15, 2009, 10:35:07 pm by Destructavator »

Offline vedrit

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #129 on: October 16, 2009, 07:03:36 am »
Im going to add to your list, though I believe that deleting key frames is alt + i, though my fingers know it better than my mind, heh.
For cycle animations, such as walking, the IPO Curve window in the Animation mode helps. ctrl+r. click to add a sort of key frame (have yet to figure out how to delete it though....)

Edit: After completing a very fast (visually and work-wise, under an hour to do, and 6 steps in 3 seconds) walk cycle, I started to play more in the IPO window. I find that adding a point by ctrl+r. click was not the right way to do it, rather, i works better. hitting tab allows me to adjust the IPO curve controllers, giving me finer graphical control over the animation.
Within this mode of adjusting the controls, is where the ctrl+ r. click comes in. I can add a point, move it, and adjust how it curves the line
« Last Edit: October 16, 2009, 07:59:31 am by vedrit »

Offline Destructavator

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #130 on: October 16, 2009, 07:24:10 am »
Yes, you're right, it is ALT-I and not CTRL-I, I remembered that it was one of those but forgot which one when I typed all that - thanks for clearing that up.

I haven't actually tried this in the IPO editor, but lots of stuff can be deleted just with the "Delete" key in various views.  That's just a guess for the answer to that one.

...Actually, for animating bones and not whole meshes, don't you want the "action" editor instead of the "IPO Curve" editor?  I've found that when I add keyframes for poses the bones all show up in the action editor with key points for adjusting things.


Offline vedrit

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #131 on: October 16, 2009, 07:58:49 am »
Depends on what your doing. For cycles, you can first do it through action, and that gives you a good stating point. But IPO is where you can line up the starting and ending poses so it repeats seamlessly.
The animation teacher I had for 2 years said that there are more ways of doing animation and modeling than just one or two. And none of them are wrong.

Offline Mattn

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #132 on: October 23, 2009, 05:16:58 pm »

Offline TrashMan

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #133 on: November 16, 2009, 10:15:42 pm »
Say, would it be possible to get this mesh in some other format?

I want to try makign a few armor/soldier models and this would make a good basilne

Offline Destructavator

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Re: Redo of Soldier Body model
« Reply #134 on: November 17, 2009, 01:17:25 am »
These (screen-shot below) are the formats Blender can export to, more are also available from extra plug-ins.

Is there a format you would prefer?

I have this (un-armored) version and just one version with some type of armor done (It hasn't yet been decided which armor type to replace yet), so it would be a great help if someone else were to also do some of the modeling work here.

It would also speed up development - I'm personally split working on a number of projects right now.

Once vedrit finishes animations, I should be able to import the skeleton into almost any other new soldier model (with some occasional tweaking and adjustments).