Starting an Animation - from scratch

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a5'
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by a5' » 13 Aug 2010, 17:27

Hm.

I'm not sure what you don't understand?

top of screen, render menu and then follow the above directions
RENDER> TEXTURE > Image::
click new and navigate to an image.
a5'
watch the game starts after you accept the part, to redirect your mind.
--n.O.[SP]

Phalitine
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by Phalitine » 14 Aug 2010, 22:06

so what you are saying is that this will apply a texture to the model(s) plates/layers, and when the plates move they each will keep their respctive part of the texture while they move.

I am fimilure with raw triangle face object and how to apply a UV texture to it in XNA C# coding. but not sure how to do the same with moving models.

maybe I am using the wrong terms/names...

a5'
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by a5' » 15 Aug 2010, 00:00

Hm.

no I didn't realize thats what you meant. I guess its kind of obvious now that I think of it.


I'm not sure how I would do that although I think I would cut it up in a paint program such as photoshop or gimp and then apply the individual textures to each triangle. You could probably even render a wireframe with capture, only capture one frame, .

set the viewport to wireframe (top right)

capture ( camera icon)

you could use that as a stencil...

in the paint program..

I think I might not be the best person to answer this but this is the only thing that comes to mind right now...

tell me if this sounds like a sollution.

a5'
watch the game starts after you accept the part, to redirect your mind.
--n.O.[SP]

Phalitine
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by Phalitine » 15 Aug 2010, 16:43

Well, it this were an easy task, then it would have ben finish a long time ago. like I said, I could do this all in code, but was not sure if that is how it should be done.

I was under the imperssion that these modeling tools helps simplify this stuff. I can even get a simple texture on a model in one.

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Hirazi Blue
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by Hirazi Blue » 15 Aug 2010, 16:56

Phalitine wrote:I was under the imperssion that these modeling tools helps simplify this stuff.
They should. Maybe you should look at some specific Mod Tool related texturing tutorials like this one, aptly called "Texturing for XNA"
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Phalitine
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by Phalitine » 15 Aug 2010, 22:57

So, I played with this software (SoftImage Mod Tool Pro) all weekend. I managed at on point to texture my model, but when i went back and try to reproduce what I did, I can not.

I have gone through adding materials, textures, try mapping by drag and drop, follow tutorials, write ups. How do you guys manage to get this stuff to work for you. Am I trying to hard?

I guess I am going to have to go find a book on using the software, any good suggestions?

a5'
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by a5' » 15 Aug 2010, 23:58

try this,

softimage manual

a5.
watch the game starts after you accept the part, to redirect your mind.
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Hirazi Blue
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by Hirazi Blue » 16 Aug 2010, 13:07

No RTFM on my watch... X( ;)
Sadly, however, there aren't really that many good books for Softimage and its predecessor XSI. (Actually for Softimage as the application "produced" by Autodesk I am not aware of any books.) So pointing to the User's Guide isn't that much of an RTFM after all ( :D ). But the User's Guide can be quite a handful to process all at once. There are however numerous tutorials on the internet, in written form or as videos. A good place to start would be Ed Harriss' website, which is a collection of older (but mostly still useful), mostly written tutorials on a wide range of topics....
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a5'
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by a5' » 16 Aug 2010, 14:24

That's really the issue, I looked around and didn't see anything and edharris didn't look relevant. BUT, on the page I linked to (I don't think you can "deep link" in the manual) there is a section for texturing, so I figured I'd give it a shot... and I'm not sure that the MOD tool has a manual or direct access.

a5
watch the game starts after you accept the part, to redirect your mind.
--n.O.[SP]

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Hirazi Blue
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by Hirazi Blue » 16 Aug 2010, 15:32

If you want to link to individual pages of the User's Guide, use the link you gave yourself, surf to the page you want & copy the address of the frame containing the page you want to link to... (which I can do in one click in Opera, but requires opening the properties of the frame (and copying the address manually) in IE, as far as I can tell)
For instance Texturing
(this opens the page without the nagivational sidebar)
;)
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Phalitine
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by Phalitine » 17 Aug 2010, 14:36

Thank you all for the suggestions on books, articles and tuts. I have been scouring around looking and reading everything I can. I truly did not like that this was going to be this difficult. I believe I have the basic knowledge of modeling down. I may not know the correct lingo, however I am learning.

This was supposed to be one of the easiest moving models to add to my game, a simple door with eight plates that move in unison to open and close, with the ability to add a variety of textures whenever the need arises. Chest and cabinets were next do to the true 3D effects needed. Then I was going to move on to the more challenging ones creatures and players.

I have already managed to add basic non-moving items to my world, scaling, transforming and rotating as needed. I know I will have to create UV maps for the texture to align correctly.

I am not sure the software is in total cooperation. Whenever I switch it to texture mode it adds the generic watermarked texture.
Attachments
watermarked texture
watermarked texture
TextureRendered.PNG (25.29 KiB) Viewed 4692 times

a5'
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by a5' » 17 Aug 2010, 16:27

Phalitine wrote: I know I will have to create UV maps for the texture to align correctly.

I am not sure the software is in total cooperation. Whenever I switch it to texture mode it adds the generic watermarked texture.
I'm not sure where I can help but a couple of things:

1.) You can use predefined techniques to map to objects-- in your case planar would probably work-- rather than defining a uv map.

2.) What is texture mode? Do you mean when you assign a texture and you get the property editor window?

....Oh wait a minute, maybe that is the equivalent of the noicon pic..

if thats the case, press the plug icon on the upper right of the property editor to assign an image.
TexturePPG.jpg
TexturePPG.jpg (107.81 KiB) Viewed 4688 times
to get there ^ as I said before, go to

RENDER > TEXTURE > IMAGE

a5
watch the game starts after you accept the part, to redirect your mind.
--n.O.[SP]

Phalitine
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by Phalitine » 19 Aug 2010, 02:20

a5' wrote: to get there ^ as I said before, go to

RENDER > TEXTURE > IMAGE
a5
Yes, that is what I have been doing. I can get the texture into the material manager and render tree. But every time I try to drag and drop the Scene Material onto my model it does nothing.

The two sceen shots I have included shows the model, made up from 8 layers each of the triangles on its own layer. The animation portion works prefectly. each one of the triangles is going to have a portion of the texture.
Attachments
Door in mid open.
Door in mid open.
TextureRenderedMidway.PNG (27.84 KiB) Viewed 4684 times
Door in open position.
Door in open position.
TextureRenderedOpen.PNG (39.73 KiB) Viewed 4684 times
Door face closed.
Door face closed.
TextureRendered.PNG (26.38 KiB) Viewed 4684 times

Phalitine
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by Phalitine » 19 Aug 2010, 02:22

And this shows the texture I want to apply. If you apply the triangles above over the texture you show see what I am talking about.
Attachments
The texture.
The texture.
BrickWall.jpg (29.63 KiB) Viewed 4684 times

a5'
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by a5' » 19 Aug 2010, 19:06

I think I distilled this into a process.



Middle click the model null

Render > Texture > Image --- find image
pin down window with the keyhole icon on top.

Render > Porperty > Texture Projection > Create new Texture Projection

press OK

Press Edit > Freeze

on the right panel

try the animation.

a5'
watch the game starts after you accept the part, to redirect your mind.
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dwigfor
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Re: Starting an Animation - from scratch

Post by dwigfor » 19 Aug 2010, 23:06

I think the Noesis training videos would help you, especially with your texturing problems - take a look at the dynamite prop videos - http://www.moddb.com/groups/noesis-inte ... /downloads

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