Bone Temple WIP/ Gmax questions

[Legacy_Failed.Bard]

                 I've been working on a placeable, that I'm planning to eventually convert to a tilegroup.

  I've been having some issues with Gmax when I mirror parts of it though, where only half the model is getting copied.  I'm not sure if it's something in the mirroring itself doing it though, or the ResetXForm I seem to have to do to the mirrored part before I can export the whole of it again.

  It's made up from the giant bone models in cep (not sure original source, is fky for FunkySwerve?), zlc_fky_* (b83, e88, e91, and p32) and the skulls are zlc_ccp_b83 in core 0.  Textures are two of the bone ones Carcerian posted in the textures post.
  Assuming I set it right, the mdl itself is in my projects here (Edit:  Link now points to updated model), and here's a screenie of the buggy model part to show what the current issue is.


               
               

               

                     Modifié par Failed.Bard, 07 juillet 2012 - 07:20 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Carcerian]

               Never use gmax's mirror function, as its horribly bugged and inverts your selection as your screenie shows...

Instead Clone your object and from the modifiers dropdown menu add a Mirror modifier (under parametric modifiers)
to your cloned object.



You will get identical results, except without turning your object inside-out like a bad 80's teleporter accident '>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Carcerian, 07 juillet 2012 - 06:39 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Failed.Bard]

                 Cloning did the trick, and even allowed me to set the naming convention for the new parts.  Here's a full shot of the "fixed" model, to give an idea of the scale.

  I think (eventually) it'd be a 3x3 group, the intention being to have the ground beneath it using the danglymesh, not sure what I'll set the surface material as yet but befinately not grass.  Something greenish and unnatural.



Now to make the second version, without the upper ring.  The bones all coming together in the center instead.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Failed.Bard]

                 Here's the second style of it.  I used an obsidian texture on the verticals instead of bone, just for contrast really.  I'm not sure entirely what texture I'll use in the finished product, since that'll be partly reflective of the colour used for the ground beneath it.



I might still need to combine the large end of the horizintal ribs to each other, so I can better close off the ends.  The skulls mostly hide that part right now.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Failed.Bard]

                 I ran into an issue with another of the default functions.  Modifiers -=> Mesh Editing -=> Cap Holes.
 
  It doesn't seem to leave a recognizable mesh as far as the exporter is concerned   Is there another function that does the same, or will I have to stop being lazy and manually cap off the visible open ends in it?
  I can simply hide the holes as it is, but I have an idea for the second version of it that I won't have that option for.

 If I go that route, I'll likely have a pile of specific emittor and animation related questions, but I'll worry about that once I'm happy with the model itself.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_NWN_baba yaga]

               Cap holes messes up more then it is helpfull imo. You´re safer creating the polys manually as to fix the strange results of the buggy modifier. Dont know for what kind of model this was build into it but last time I used it to cap a trunk... fixing it took me longer as connecting the verts by myself:D

And cool idea with the cagelike structure of the temples, looking good so far:) And a suggestion for the 2nd one. Maybe you add some sharp long teeth to the skulls...
               
               

               

                     Modifié par NWN_baba yaga, 08 juillet 2012 - 03:54 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Failed.Bard]

                 Not that I know how to link the animations to work with nwn, but here's the initial rigging setup for the close2open and open2close animations.  I left a couple frames the same between the parts for the open animation to use.

  I'll have to start setting up some emitters for where the peaks come together, for sparks at contact and for use in the closed animation.
  I'm not sure about using so many frames for it (0-60 for close2open, 61-100 for open2close), but with that size an object I figured more was better.

  Any advice anyone might have on how to do the initial setup on the animation keys in Gmax would be appreciated.  I found import options for it, but not the creation ones.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Failed.Bard]

                 Okay, so animations was as simple as selecting the model root, and noticing the little slidy bar on the side beneath the animations list.  So far my model has the default, open, closed, open2close, and close2open animations working, so it's coming along nicely.

  My end caps are a bit crube, but look better than they did completely open.  With the added animations I need to change the general shape of the bottom horizontal ring now.

 The first version I still want to make into a tile still, but with the other it just seemed to me like it needed animations, so it'll have to stay as a placeable.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rubies]

               If you awkwardly mess up your model the best way to start fixing it tends to be Right Click -> Convert to Editable Mesh -> fix it up by hand a bit. At least that's what I do. Sometimes saves a bit of hassle when needing to reset xforms after some scaling's gone on. '>

The animations are looking nice! As long as you have your default frames between each anim it's pretty much fine.

Have you thought about unwrapping something that size, or is it okay, texture-wise?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Rubies, 09 juillet 2012 - 09:07 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Failed.Bard]

               

Rubies wrote...

If you awkwardly mess up your model the best way to start fixing it tends to be Right Click -> Convert to Editable Mesh -> fix it up by hand a bit. At least that's what I do. Sometimes saves a bit of hassle when needing to reset xforms after some scaling's gone on. '>

The animations are looking nice! As long as you have your default frames between each anim it's pretty much fine.

Have you thought about unwrapping something that size, or is it okay, texture-wise?

  It actually doesn't look that bad texture wise.  The bone textures I was using are both 512x512, and the obsidian on the vertical ribs is 1024x1024, which likely really helped with that part.

  I'm on to the wok mesh now.  Once I get that in and working I'll upload the newest mdl for it.  If I wait until I figure out the emitters for it I'll likely never get it finished.

  It's turned out better, and more interesting, than I'd expected for my first attempt at placeables.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Failed.Bard]

                 My wok mesh crashes gmax on export, so I'm a bit stumped on that part of it still.

  Oddly, exporting it and then reimporting the mdl seems to screw up the animation keys as well.  It's odd, since they seem to work properly in game.  It might be because I have some empty keys still at the end I was planning to use for off2on, on, and on2off.

  Anyways, for anyone curious, here's the mdl, dds textures, and gmax files all neatly zipped up.

  This is what it looks like now open and closed:






  And here's a clip of how it looks in game.

I'll likely not have anymore time to work on it again until next week-end.