Jason, Travis and I recently all started doing the Swordmaster tutorial from 3D Total
I also have been working on a couple other pieces of art. I started on an axe that I plan to ZBrush and make it look uber pretty visit my DeviantArt Page for more information. also a staff that I may Zbrush unsure if i want to yet or not. Here you go please leave critiques and comments.
Here ye go!
Swordmaster head WiP 1 by ~Gephoria on deviantART
WTFStaff 1 WIP 3 by ~Gephoria on deviantART
Today I found the "HOLY GRAIL" of zbrush tutorials. After downloading dozens of gigabytes worth of videos that later i realized they are so large i cannot more them from one location to another hard drive I found something useful! I came upon these videos while noticing a ZBrush 3.5 advertisement, naturally I was curious on what was new in 3.5. I visited the Pixologic website in search of the new features but I never got to them last night nor thismorning yet...
What I did discover is that Pixologic hosts free professional quality training videos on ZBrush. I feel stupid for not locating these earlier (or they could be brand spanking new) in my education. They really teach you all you could need to know about how to utilize their software. I stumbled upon this vast knowledge and treasure chest of wisdom accidentally and humbly pass it on to my readers!
This is a tutorial based off my learning experiences with Autodesk's 3ds max program. With that being said this tutorial is intended for people who use 3ds max and possess basic knowledge of how to use the program (at least making primitives). With that being covered this tutorial I will cover Layers, Creating cameras in a scene, scene states, and setting up batch rendering. I will be using my own scene and do not believe in downloading stuff for this small tutorial.
Here is the Scene
In this scene I have a platform and three grenades I would like you to start by creating your cameras. To do this simply push "P" to get yourself into a perspective viewport, and when you are content with the positioning of the cameras press "ctrl + C" This will create a camera from the perspective view you are currently in. There are hundreds of ways to create cameras; this is the easiest way for me and probably most beginners also. After you have all of your cameras set in place (however many cameras you want) we can begin this tutorial.
We will start by placing everything into layers in 3ds max. think of layers just like they are in Photoshop, you can hide/unhide layers and freeze/unfreeze layers, you can also control objects by the layer they are on changing the color/scale/rotation whatever variable you can create or think of it can be manipulated by layers in max the way you can manipulate an object on the scene graph. If your scene does not have any layers currently you can make one by hitting the Tools Menu -> Layer Manager.
You select all the objects you would like on your new layer, and simply hit the "new layer" button. This puts all of the selected objects into a new 3ds max layer. The layer you have selected is important and is indicated by a check mark to the right of the name of the layer.
For an example here is my layers dialogue from this scene:
As you can see I like to place all my cameras on one layer, environment on another, and the actual model or center of attention on the default layer. NOTE: If you right click and go to unhide all it will ask if you would like to unhide all layers, if you lose something in your scene this is another way to find it as opposed to the schematic view or other methods (they all work fine I think). This isn't the best way to do it just using it for this example and it's what I’m used to.
Now that we have our layers organized properly we're almost ready. Next step is to set scene states!
You can set up your scene states by pressing the Tools Menu -> Manage Scene States. Next you are presented with a dialogue box that looks something like this:
Next I will select the layers I'd like to hide, my first one I’d like to show everything but the already hidden reference modeling pictures that I have in the scene. When the scene is ready select save button in the Manage Scene States dialogue. This created a scene state that shows everything you had shown (new items added will be excluded from this and will be shown until you re-save the scene state). Next I will do the same only having one grenade show on each one. Eventually you will have all your scene states as I do below:
Ok we are almost ready to start our batch render! How exciting!
Go to Rendering Menu -> Batch Render this will present you with a new dialogue box. Batch render works directly with the scene states, scene states works directly with layers, it all intertwines somehow and there is some programming genius out there laughing at us all but oh well here we go!
Basically all you have to do here is Click or hit the "ADD" button; this adds a line to the batch render. This line has some options
View: Name the view, doesn't matter, you can name these for your own organization.
Camera: Select the camera you would like the render to use
Output Path: completely up to you probably start with C:\...
Range: this will render 1-x frames of your animation.
Resolution: self explanatory
Scene State: set this to your predestinated scene state you would like to render
Preset: this is your own render preset choose wisely!
In the end you can either hit the render button OR you can export a *.bat batch file. To double click later and have that batch file just start rolling with all the delicious information you put into it. It will work flawlessly if you set it up right (and really it's not that complicated until you get into scenes with hundreds of objects dozens of scene states and multiple cameras).
Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!
Today I will be showing the masses about three point lighting. I made this display pedestal or platform whichever you wish to call it.
This is set up with the basic 3ds max default lighting currently we are going to fix this. First thing that comes to mind with three point lighting is there's 3 lights duh! The next picture will show where i put the lights in the scene, keep in mind the key light is usually coming from above via the sun or ceiling fixture.
This is what my image looks like after rendering with the key light!
next we will add the fill light, this is the light that produces rays that bounce from different angles in front of our object. here are the settings for our fill light reference the diagram above for placement, if I had a human model on this i would want my fill light at about eye level with the model.
I did not do a render of just the fill light, sorry if i ruined your hopes and dreams during the tutorial.
Here are the settings for my backlight!
The backlight only, if you turn the fill and key lights off should look something like this:
Now in the end with all 3 lights in place positioned properly, and set up to our specifications will look something like below! This model I created is not using specular mapping, just normal and diffuse in case you were wondering by now.
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I have and hope to see you come back again, until then I'm on the quest for followers and to get out of Minnesota! Farewell Fellow Readers!
Creating TGB/TGE Splash Screens
Start by creating a new project or editing one that you have existing. In the game.cs file add this line of code towards the bottom:
playsplash0();
After that create your two GUI's of your splash screens, I am not going to go over creating the GUI's but I'll give you mine as an example.
//--- OBJECT WRITE BEGIN ---
%guiContent = new GuiFadeinBitmapCtrl(Splash0) {
canSaveDynamicFields = "0";
isContainer = "1";
Profile = "GuiDefaultProfile";
HorizSizing = "right";
VertSizing = "bottom";
Position = "0 0";
Extent = "800 600";
MinExtent = "8 2";
canSave = "1";
Visible = "1";
hovertime = "1000";
bitmap = "~/data/images/Splash0.jpg";
wrap = "0";
fadeinTime = "750";
waitTime = "2500";
fadeoutTime = "500";
done = "0";
};
//--- OBJECT WRITE END ---
then you are going to want to create the Splash.cs file mine was modeled off of a tutorial i did a while back, it's pretty simple and straightforward.
// ============================================================
// Project : Flash Cards
// File : .\game\gameScripts\Splash.cs
// Copyright :
// Author : Brent Jorgenson
// Created on : Tuesday, September 15, 2009 1:35 PM
//
// Editor : TorqueDev v. 1.2.3430.42233
//
// Description :
// :
// :
// ============================================================
function playsplash0(){
canvas.setcontent(Splash0);
schedule(100,0,checksplash0);
echo("Splash 1 init");
}
function checksplash0(){
if(splash0.done)
{
playsplash1();
}
else{
schedule(100,0,checksplash0);
}
}
function playsplash1(){
canvas.setcontent(Splash1);
schedule(100,0,checksplash1);
echo("Splash 2 init");
}
function checksplash1(){
if(Splash1.done){
//startGame("MyProjectFolder/data/levels/MyLevel.t2d");
}
else{
schedule(100,0,checksplash1);
}
}
Next thing you want to do is exec these files
exec("./Splash.cs");
exec("~/gui/Splash0.gui");
exec("~/gui/Splash1.gui");
The only other things to do is add your startgame function or uncommend the one I have in the function checksplash1() put your main menu or first level there and you should be good to go, test it out and have a blast!
Other Tutorials on this topic:
http://tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/TGB/Tutorials/Multiple_Splash_Screens
http://tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/TGB/Tutorials/SplashScreen
How to change your Warcraft 3 background ~ By Gephoria
Let’s start by locating two things first will be on your computer, your Warcraft 3 folder most people have it located at “C:\Program Files\Warcraft III”
Second we need to locate the software online and download it http://w17.easy-share.com/1702547323.html
There may be a different way to install this but I threw mine into the Warcraft III folder for easy location recognition. So it should look something like this “C:\Program Files\Warcraft III\RU-Theme-Wizard\”
It’s as simple as running the “RuTheme.exe” in the folder, I personally have never had Warcraft 3 mess up with this but
IT IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA TO BACK UP FIRST!!!
Now you can select any 3d background you’d like from the available options for both Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne scenarios.
I recently have been playing with Torque Game Builder (TGB) and Microsoft's XNA game engines, both are fun, I'm finding it easier to utilize Torque game builder probably because I've used it before though. XNA's programming in C# seems like in the long run it could be easier to produce with. I will post both online when I complete them just for reference, and others to see if they wish, never limit the content of a blog.
Torque Game Builder - Breakout Tutorial
The only issue I'm having with this final result is the ball get's stuck on the wall when approaching from an acute angle as far as i can tell. Ball also get's stuck in corners easy and sometimes on unbreakable blocks. I was disappointed to see the tutorial ended but I am creating power ups and other fun features on my own now.
XNA Beginner Tutorial
I have not yet finished this tutorial but i am enjoying it non the less. XNA and C# Programming is a new thing to me a new adventure in a sense. I am liking the methods of programming and how well written the notes Microsoft put in the generated code.
That is it for now I'll post another update soon.
