Mav Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 I don't know if this is the right place to ask *, with the addition of all the new forums and such, sorry if it isn't. Anyway, I've just been tinkering in gmax, making some new lightsaber hilts and I've been trying to make a curved one, anyway I was wondering if there was an easy way to connect the face of one Ngon to the face of another, to make a smooth transition from one Ngon to the next, because so far I have just been trying to drag vertexes and putting them near the other face.... yea yea yea, stop laughing I've never modeled anything before, not even plastic models with glue...LOL. Any help would be greatly appreciated. * this is indeed the right place to ask Just to clear things up: only moderators & admins can post in the tutorial forums. If you want to discuss a tutorial, then just start a thread like this one - Darth333- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seprithro Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 line them up like you want select one of them and go to modify then right click it and hit attach then select teh other piece Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted January 26, 2005 Author Share Posted January 26, 2005 Thanks Sep. I'll try some more tinkering tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T7nowhere Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Before you attach the pieces don't forget to remove the polys that are not going to be seen. However if you can its always better to build the model from a single piece. I found that out the hard way myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mono_Giganto Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 I did too when my first model ended up being 27 pieces.... With some advice from svosh I redid said model in about 1/4 of the time it originally took me, in two pieces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted January 26, 2005 Author Share Posted January 26, 2005 Is it possible to make a curved hilt look, just using one piece? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T7nowhere Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Originally posted by Mono_Giganto I did too when my first model ended up being 27 pieces.... With some advice from svosh I redid said model in about 1/4 of the time it originally took me, in two pieces. What we do with out svösh Is it possible to make a curved hilt look, just using one piece? Yes it is. Here is an example of what a simple single piece ngon can turn into one piece. ALWAYS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted January 26, 2005 Author Share Posted January 26, 2005 Sweet T7, Now I'm reading cchargin's replacer tutorial, and I'm a little confused, so just a few questions.... The hilt model we want to unlink, is originally named: lshandle01, or similar correct? Where do I find the "parent" of the original hilt? And how do you get the Ngon to bend smoothly like that T7? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T7nowhere Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Many extrudes , and then shape it by moving the verts. It can take a bit of time to get it to look the way you want but it is the best way to do it. The hilt model we want to unlink, is originally named: lshandle01, or similar correct? Yes. Just select the old hilt and hit the unlink button(don't worry about it parent). Now to link your hilt, select your model hit the linker button and link your model to the animation dummy (its the blue box to the side of the blades mesh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted January 26, 2005 Author Share Posted January 26, 2005 Okay thanks T7, I'll see what I can do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted January 26, 2005 Author Share Posted January 26, 2005 Here is a W.I.P. look at the model, I am going to be testing this in game and if it works then all that is left to do is add the details(which I'll probably need help with), and texture it (probably need help with this too). Clicky UPDATE: the basic model works in-game HORRAY, I'll start working (asking for help) on details later on tonight or tommorrow, thanks for all the help so far T7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted January 26, 2005 Author Share Posted January 26, 2005 How would I go about making and "ignition button" for the lightsaber, and just sticking it on the model? Oh and I'm guessing that to add ridges, I would just need to increase the number of extrudes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T7nowhere Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 For the button, I either use a boolean and extrude or make a new 6 sided ngon with the box Auto Grid checked. Then make 1 extrude, convert it to edit mesh and attach this new piece to the rest of the model. Personaly I prefer using a boolean and extrude, but for a small piece like this its easyer to just attach a new object. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted January 27, 2005 Author Share Posted January 27, 2005 ummm I got a slight problem..... Didn't happen the first time.... in case you can't tell, the lightsaber is ignited in mid-air...... because the hilt is invisibly attached to his forearm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChAiNz.2da Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 Originally posted by maverick187 ummm I got a slight problem..... Didn't happen the first time.... in case you can't tell, the lightsaber is ignited in mid-air...... because the hilt is invisibly attached to his forearm? Did you reset your saber's pivot points to match the old hit and then resetXform, before linking to the old hilt's parent (blue box)? I wound up just positioning my model to "lay over" the old hilt (make sure it's aligned in all the windows - Top, Left, Perspective, etc.), and then doing steps #7 - #11 of cchargin's replacer tuorial... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted January 27, 2005 Author Share Posted January 27, 2005 Ahhhh, I see I think I may have linked the saber to the old parent before I reset the pivots points and hit resetXform, thanks ChAiNz.2da, just fix this problem, skin and texture the sucker, and my first model ever and mod in a long time will be released, which will leaveme with only the task of practicing to make better models in the future..... well first I need to finish this one, thanks again..... I feel like I did when I first learned to mod in May last year....lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T7nowhere Posted January 28, 2005 Share Posted January 28, 2005 hey, If you plan on modding TSL then this is the perfect time to practice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted January 28, 2005 Author Share Posted January 28, 2005 ^^^^^^^^^^ Well it all depends T7, I will definetly buy TSL and will probably mod a little bit, but if I get accepted to the college of my choice I probably wont have the time to do any extensive mods, but thats a different story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted January 29, 2005 Author Share Posted January 29, 2005 OKay so I read svösh's tutorial for skinning, but I had some problems, I'll try again later, but my question is, do I have to select every polygon on the saber model and detach them one at a time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T7nowhere Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 No, You do not want to detach every poly that would take forever. What you want to do is look at your model and decide which parts will need more detail and you section it up accordenly. Maybe svösh will pop in and give you professional advice. Here is an example of the uvmap I made for Obi wan hilt Now if you look at how the map is laid out you ca see the way I grouped the polys. Each of those sections in the UVmap must be physically detached to element on the model in edit mesh mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted January 29, 2005 Author Share Posted January 29, 2005 WOW, that looks a lot more complicated then the stupid box skin job I did in the tutorial...lol, I guess I'll give it a whirl this weekend and see what I come up with, I've skin 3 or 4 boxes so I'm gonna take the rest of the night off, and pick it up tomorrow probably, thanks for the help T7, oh so about how many poly's did you have to detach and map for that saber? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T7nowhere Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 At the time that model was around 1800 polys but then I did a personal sanity check and reduced it by half. So I actually mapped that model twice, but that one was easy I just used cylinder in UVmapping and then applied UVW unwrap so it was pretty flat in the uv editor. Its really all a learning proccess, if you get stuck just keep at it and it will all flow together eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svösh Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 Basically split it up in logical chunks stuff that can be mapped safely as one go for it. But things like a button switch box or a belt clip you should detach all sides so the mapping won’t be cheap. what I mean is some times in games there is one side of an object not intended to have it’s polys mapped the same as just around the corner a good example I have see in most games is the back side of a sword the thin back side most often is mapped with the pixels from the side of the blade making the back side not so attractive depending on the texture some time you would never know. Often in a FPS game and the effect you get is like a stretched or smeared texture on the ploys that should be mapped correctly. t7's hilt uv is a perfect example you can see the ploys and how he has parts separated logically to allow the texture the best way to be mapped. hope all this helps svösh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted January 29, 2005 Author Share Posted January 29, 2005 Hey good to see ya again svösh, and thanks for the advice, I'll tinker some more tommorrow, and let you guys know if I need more help, thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted January 29, 2005 Author Share Posted January 29, 2005 Okay I got my model, looking how I wanted it, but I tried to uvw map it and skin it and I got nothing, I need a little help, here is a picture of the model in gmax, I need some help with everything though, basically what I tried was detaching the polys of the hilt that I labeled as being a "specific", and I tried some cylinder uvw wraps, but I tried to skin it and when I put it back in gmax I just got that white looking color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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