Project Reforged: Replacement of ALL Default Weapon Models

[Legacy__six]

               My kudos unto you.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <*laughing her raven laugh*...>

I forgot to vote?! Holy Moly! <you're lazy>
Er, hush. Don't see *you* voting! <you weren't looking. left him ten snails>
Snai... oh, you *didn't*! <heh. 'course i did>
*face palms* He hates me. <nah, they were rainbow snails from the bay of stones>
He'll never talk to me again.

<...*at the old man*>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               I like that bird.

Reforged: Light Blades now available on the Vault.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               

Models done for the next group (heavy blades).  Now onto taking hundreds of screenshots in the toolset to turn into inventory icons.

Shown above is a toolset shot of the basic swords (part 1, color 1 on each).  I am pleased with the results.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par The Amethyst Dragon, 29 juillet 2012 - 01:34 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               First, those are really nice.  Your katana looks a little crinkly though.  Is that just an artifact from the screenshot?

Second, I haven't done this in a while and I'm not sure exactly if this will work for what you want, but if you use Acaos's last version of the NWN Explorer Reborn and go into File->Options in the "Model Projection" section there might be some tools to help automate the process of making inventory icons, or at least certain kinds of them.  In conjunction with those settings, you can right click on a model in the left hand list view and if you select "Export TGA", I believe it will save a screenshot of the item based on the parameters set in the "Model Projection" options. 

So, for instance, set a certain fixed viewport size and viewing distance, rotation, etc. and then go through the models one by one, right clicking and "Export TGA" on each. I could have sworn there was a way to batch even this process but I can't seem to remember what it was, if it existed.  Workflow would finish up with you loading each and removing whatever obnoxious background color you chose to replace with alpha in GIMP, etc.

Again, not sure if that's going to benefit you much because I don't think there's an easy way to load all parts of the model in Explorer like you can in the toolset.  FWIW.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par OldTimeRadio, 29 juillet 2012 - 02:22 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               Thanks OldTimeRadio.

Checked out NWN Explorer Reborn.  It doesn't seem to be able to handle the metallic alpha channel as shininess for me, instead showing as transparency.  I'll have to fiddle with the settings a few more times, just to be sure.

Using Aurora + Photoshop has been working so far.  Set a model appearance, take screenshot, paste into Photoshop, rename layer to part number/color (such as "t 1 7" for top part 1 color 7), jump back to toolset and repeat (without closing item properties window, so viewing aspect always stays the same)...

Then I end up with a stack of up to 80ish layers for each weapon piece (such as the top "blade") in a single psd file that I can remove the grey background from, do any cropping/resizing needed, and everything stays lined up.  I create a guide image so that I can exactly match up cropping between the psd for each of the three parts of each weapon.  That way when I get to cropping and resizing, everything is done exactly the same so they still line up.

On the katana: Yeah, the toolset doesn't always produce the cleanest images when an item is on the ground.  It's just an issue with the screenshot.  The toolset doesn't appreciate curves like the full game does.  Even the original toolset image (before BioWare social shrinkage to 540 pixels) shows them.  Probably doesn't help that I had the "show area lighting" turned on for that pic.

The toolset provides shots that a) look like the weapons in-game and don't use anti-aliasing.  Makes it much better for cutting into top/middle/bottom parts if there's no blurry edges to start with.

The screenshots I use get copied directly into a Photoshop image instead of saved to a tga that I then have to load into Photoshop.  Saves on images on my hard drive that I don't really need.

An advantage to using a layered image...you can use the same selection for at least 10 icons (each color of the same part) for cutting out the background and the same alpha channel image for 10 finished icons. '>

I believe I made about 920 models this time around (between all of the default parts+colors and the extra colors and models for my PW).  That's what happens when you group together most of the swords, which have lots of options to start with.

On top of it all, I'm working on buying and moving into a different house.  Trying to bang out as much NWN productivity as possible before I get sidelined by closing, painting, repairs to new house, moving, unpacking, and renting out current house.

Hey!  Who drank my Diet Dew?  I'm the only one awake here, but I don't remember finishing the can...


               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               Wow, that last post was longer than I anticipated.  Hopefully there's something helpful in there for others that want to make new weapons and matching icons.  If not...um...sorry.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               Yeah, definitely.  Thanks for the mini-tutorial/workflow!  Inventory icons have sort of been a bane for me so I appreciate the info.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Carcerian]

               Nice trick to know!

@ OTR Inventory Icons are a pain for sure...



If you widen an area, move the items to the new area, then undo, the items stay when the area is changed back, thus giving you a clear area to screenshot...

My Workflow for making simple transparent inventory items:

1. Use Windows Paint to paint the mask area null black (0,0,0), save as BMP.
2. Use PaintShopPro to create the alpha channel using Mask Menu > New > From Image > Any Non-0 Value.
3. Again in PSP, Mask Menu  > Save to Alpha Channel, finally saving as TGA,

The only thing you have to watch for is pure black were you don't want it, so make a custom black if needed 1,0,0 to paint black areas you don't want transparent.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Carcerian, 30 juillet 2012 - 12:23 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Carcerian]

               @ The Crystalline Entity

Great looking new weapons!
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Carcerian, 29 juillet 2012 - 07:09 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               I've finally finished with all of the work for the "heavy blades", and my PW players are now enjoying them.  A month or so and they'll be available on the Vault.  I've even got them all pre-packaged, just waiting on me making a demo module and taking some promotional screenshots for the Vault page.

Buying a house and moving has been a major drain on my NWN time.  I'm hoping things get settled down soon so I can dedicate some extra time to this project and others.

This means I'm done with 6 of the 8 parts to Project Reforged.

Next on the agenda is a group of weapons I call the "unusual weapons"...kama, sickle, whip, dart, and shuriken. Basically weapons that didn't really fit in the other categories and may have something odd about them.  For instance, darts and shuriken are not 3-part weapon models; they are simple 1-part models.  Whips are a whole mess of animations and pieces and skinmeshing.  Sickles and kamas are so limited in variety in the default resources (and in real life examples) that they shouldn't take long at all to reforge...kind of like kukris in that regards.

After these, then final group will be the "ranged weapons"....bows, crossbows, and slings.  Weapons that launch other weapons at distant targets.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Borden Haelven]

               

The Amethyst Dragon wrote...

I've finally finished with all of the work for the "heavy blades", and my PW players are now enjoying them. A month or so and they'll be available on the Vault. I've even got them all pre-packaged, just waiting on me making a demo module and taking some promotional screenshots for the Vault page.

Buying a house and moving has been a major drain on my NWN time. I'm hoping things get settled down soon so I can dedicate some extra time to this project and others.

This means I'm done with 6 of the 8 parts to Project Reforged.

Next on the agenda is a group of weapons I call the "unusual weapons"...kama, sickle, whip, dart, and shuriken. Basically weapons that didn't really fit in the other categories and may have something odd about them. For instance, darts and shuriken are not 3-part weapon models; they are simple 1-part models. Whips are a whole mess of animations and pieces and skinmeshing. Sickles and kamas are so limited in variety in the default resources (and in real life examples) that they shouldn't take long at all to reforge...kind of like kukris in that regards.

After these, then final group will be the "ranged weapons"....bows, crossbows, and slings. Weapons that launch other weapons at distant targets.

Good luck in your new home, feel free to use the high quality steel produced in my foundry   for any further additions. At a special discount of course...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               Starting work on reforging the whip.  What a pain in the posterior.  This thing has built-in animations (a lot of them), and the whole thing is a skin-mesh.  To top it off, it's only got 8 or 9 bones for the whole thing, so right now it look very blocky when it's supposed to be looped up and held in hand.

I'm strongly considering working from scratch on the thing, with 24-36 segments, dumping the skinmesh, and remaking all of the animations.  I'd start with a straight whip though, instead of the curled mess that's the start of the default whip's animations.

Hopefully my fire whip from a previous month's CCC is the only whip that uses the default whip as a supermodel for animations.

Sickles are done, and are getting a big update in shape...instead of a handle with a little hook on the end, they will actually look like sickles (short handle, large curved blade).  Now, more than half the weapon is the blade.  With the change in shape, I also had to redo the VFX models.  Not tested in-game yet, but I don't think just cloning emitters causes too much trouble (it didn't with my fire whip). A lot of work just to give druids a proper weapon.
<>

Kamas are also done.  Nothing groundbreaking on those.  It's a basic kama, just with an improved shape and textures.

Darts are done and getting a major makeover.  First, they will be looking like actual ancient darts.  Basically, short, heavy arrows (they predate arrows), with a smaller head, longer shaft, and fletching at the end.  Second, they are being turned around 180 degrees, so that they look right with the default dart-throwing animations.

Shuriken are not yet done, but those shouldn't take very long.  I'm going to be modeling them after some of my Improved Shuriken, just with new (and further improved) models & textures (and inventory icons).

Haven't done any inventory icons yet.  Those are just tedious, so I save all of them for the end of a group of weapons.

The end of the project is in sight.  I finish this group, then the ranged weapons (like bows and crossbows), and I'm done.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               That sounds great.

Unfortuantely I'll miss out on these as I am wrapping up Arnheim's expanded HAKs, but maybe a patch later for those whips is in order.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               I salute you for attemping an overhaul on those whips!  I'd like to throw out a request that when you're done with them you write up a little post-mortem about how you approached animating them.  I have no flippin' idea how those were even done except possibly with the bones as items attached to a spline path which was then manipulated to get that crazy coiling/uncoiling effect.