Ask those who know : )

KODElendil · Status: Offline

Ask those who know : )

Darth Doughnut · Status: Offline

actually!! if you download my Glass flamberg... theres a GMAX model in there!! the handle of that sword should be the correct size of a saber.. check out some of my other earlier work too like everready flashlight or ninja sword.. i think they might have gmaxfiles in them too since i assumed they needed to be in there when i first made it.

the GMAX file is in the actual PK3

as for importing.. you can actually import MD3 files with the MD3 exporter.. atleast you should be able to...

assuming you got pop'n'fresh MD3 exporter

KODElendil · Status: Offline

thanks I'll give that a try

KODElendil · Status: Offline

I got the pop fresh one but still I can't import a md3 file. It just tells me its the improper file type and thats it. Normally I would say ok to hell with it but I need to look at one of the finished ones to get the scaling right on mine

Darth Doughnut · Status: Offline

you should be able to import 3ds into your GMAX... if so.. whats your email address.. ill send you a few recent sabers i made using 3d studio (since gmax and 3dstudio are same)

KODElendil · Status: Offline

actually I got it to work. Now the only thing I am having a hard time with all these darn vertexes I have to move around when I unwrap it. Any tips you could give for that portion of it would be appreciated

Darth Doughnut · Status: Offline

actually I got it to work. Now the only thing I am having a hard time with all these darn vertexes I have to move around when I unwrap it. Any tips you could give for that portion of it would be appreciated

Im assuming that your skinning the saber as a whole? i cant really vouch for that.. i had the absolute hardest time doing that.

I personally skin each piece idividually.. but latly ive been linking all the pieces that have the same skin.. like if i have 7 cylinders sharing the same skin ill fuze them together and skin them..

I do the whole uvw mapping Per piece.. It makes it so much easier.. and most of the times all you gotta do is apply the skin if its a simple shape.. you dont even have to mess with the vertexs unless you want a part of the skin in a specific area.

In the case of Modeling a large shape/saber.. i would reccomend using the Select face Feature.

After you UVWmap.. and before you hit Edit .. notice there is a little + sign next to your UVWunwrap. hit that plus there should be something there called select face. from there you can select the actual faces that you want to appear on the mapping area.

this part is where it gets tricky.. cause i never truely mastered it.

From the faces you select. you will notice some but not all areas of your model will show . only the faces you selected.. select all the vertexs in that area.. and one of the buttons there allows you to actually detach that area from the model as a whole (only in the editing area.. not in the 3d area) drag that off to the side somewhere out of the box.. and remember what that piece was and basicly you can do your stretching and stuff after you take it appart piece by piece... (see why i say skinning seperatly is better?)

hope this helps.. i know i totaly butchered the whole explination thing.. but then again.. i dont have pictures to show you an easier way..

ill have my tutorial up eventually.. hopefully with my days off sunday and monday ill be able to do it or get some major progress on it.

KODElendil · Status: Offline

sweet I will give that a try tomorrow : )

KODElendil · Status: Offline

OK I gave it a shot this morning but I seem to be having a new issue : ) When I go to try and unwrap just one part I get the whole model even though I only targeted a segment of the model. Is this because I have joined the whole model into one piece? I am guessing this is the reason but I thought I would ask. Also once I have unwrapped a section where do I go from there? I only ask because the tutorial I have been using to try and learn how to do this was written by a Computer Science Engineer with an IQ of about 300. Thus its a little beyond me. Give me a beep sometime one MSN if you have it and perhaps we could chat about how the heck i do this : ) KODElendil@hotmail.com

KODElendil · Status: Offline

Let me ask this. Does this mean I have to make a seperate jpg. for every part of the hilt?

Darth Doughnut · Status: Offline

the way i do it... iuse a seperate JPG for each part of the hilt.

for example.. if i have 2 cylinders that use a gold texture.. ill UVW map them seperatly.. and a apply the same gold texture to them.

Keshire also pointed out to me that it makes it easier to skin if you take all the ones that would say.. use the gold texture.. and bind them together before uvw mapping.

if you are useing simple textures.. like a shiny gold.. just make sure you have cylinder clicked when UVW mapping.. Click Fit.. and then Unwrap.

with the simple texture.. you dont even have to edit.. most of the times you can actually just place the texture on there..

KODElendil · Status: Offline

thank you for all your help on this. One other question and I know I am a total noob for all this but hey as you probably know this stuff aint easy. How do I apply my skin to the model? I mean without that tutorial to guide me now I am kind of lost. I see what your saying about doing each on individually so I clicked on a segment and uv mapped it and then unwrapped it without hitting edit. Now what do I do? How do I apply the skin to the model is where I am going with this. Thank you again for all this much needed help and hopefully someone else will read this thread and can learn from it as well as I did. I have made leaps and bounds in my work today because of your help and as soon as I get it all done I will be sure to load it to your server

KODElendil · Status: Offline

Ok I think I am going to lose my mind :) Every time I try to go in and apply a material to a part of the hilt nothing happens. The program says that the material is applied but all I see is the part just as it was before. In this case the color that I assigned it when I created it. Nothing changes to the actual perspective image. What am I doing wrong?

KODElendil · Status: Offline

well its official. I am the stupidest person alive. I am so used to having to fight this thing I forgot to look for the simple answer...like clicking on the little button that says show material color........................I am going to go hide my head in shame now. Thanks again

KODElendil · Status: Offline

Ok. This will be the last question I ask darth. I have finished skinning. The model is all done. Now how do I put the tags in? And then how do I get it into the game? Plus I have now about six diff. jpgs giving the skin to the model? Do I include those with all the zips I have to do? I won't even try till I hear back from you and thanks again for all the help.

Darth Doughnut · Status: Offline

sorry about my slow responce time here man.. i do night audit and my "manager" is being a .... well.. im not allowed to be on the internet at all.. he thinks im playing games and all im doing is looking up news and responding here.. but anyways off that subject.. tags are about the easiest part of it

Ok. in your create area.. (the area where you have options of creating shapes.. like box, cylinder, things like that) there is a button above called shapes.. which brings you to basicly the flat shapes.. (line, rectangle, ect)

click on rectangle. and make a small square inside your saber (do this in one of the side view modes.. (Front View is about the best )

this is what your saber will emit from. now rotate the square so that the RIGHT side of the square is facing up..

in other words rotate the 3 o clock side to the 12 o clock

make that as straight as possible

Now name it Tag_blade1

If you have more then 1 saber blade

Tag_blade2,3,4,5 up to 7 blades can be added to the saber.

I dont reccomend adding the tag till the saber is the right size or you will have to do it again.. i dont think the tags work if you scale them.. i could be wrong though.

good to see your learning some of it on your own though.. once again.. sorry about not getting back to you quicker

KODElendil · Status: Offline

Having some issues trying to export the model into md3. I have the pop and fresh export plugin but it wants specific frames and I don't know what they are talking about really. I sound like such a noob............oh wait I am arn't I :)

KODElendil · Status: Offline

Sorry again. I just found a tip in my tutorial but now I am getting a strange warning that I am exceeding all these limits on the export of the file. I will give it a try to figure this one out on my own but I don't really know what they are talking about :)

KODElendil · Status: Offline

seems like I post a question and then I answer it :) This time though I am stumped. I have gone through and got it to export. I have made a skin file. I've done all that but when I go to md3 view and try to import the skin I get all these debug warnings that it can't find any of the jpgs I put in...I disregarded the warnings and created my GLM file...I then went and created my pk3 file with all the jpgs,glm,md3, and skin file and put it in my base folder. Nothing. No saber appeared in the game...what am I doing wrong? Is it tied back to all those warnings. And would you prefer I email you all of this and let you take a crack at it because I am stumped at this point. I will give it another crack but I am not to hopeful. This is the part I was scared of anyway :) I am not to good at all these change file to this and load with that program kind of stuff :)