Gmax Turorials/suggestions

[KBell]

Im new to the modeling community and i just started modeling a lightsaber hilt with G max and its looking pretty bland and plain and i was hoping that some experienced modders out there could type out their own sugestions or tips on the creation of a saber hilt to make it look better. Or, if possible, could someone post a few links to some tutorials on how to make saber hilts? Thanks and i hope this will help me, because i really want to make a saber hilt that i could be proud of and share with the community

 

If you want to you can e-mail me with suggestions or links at

 

Bakers8er@Yahoo.com

[SilentMobius]

Writing tutorials is quite a bit of work. How about you post some screenshots and those of us who have make saber hilts might give you a few pointers?

[KBell]

I dont know how to post screen shots but if ou like i could send you the model. its in g-max form. if you want it just give me your e-mail address SilentMobious and ill send it to you. feel free to add anything to the model. i havent added any tags or skinned the damned thing. if you do add on to it, send a text file explaining what you did to it and how you did it. that would REALLY help me. i hate to admit it but im a stupid noobie at modeling so bear with me on some stuff k?

[SilentMobius]

Well you see I'm a programmer and a bit (little bit) of a modeler, and I'm stuck in the middle of a battle droid right now (also, until someone mods JKII so that different players can use different saber models I'm not that interested)

But I know my way around Max and skinning and general stuff... and if I can help I will.

 

You have an email address right? Most ISP's will give you some webspace with your account, ftp the screenshots to your account and just post the link.

[KBell]

or i could just send you the model as a reference pic and tell me whats wrong with it and if possible tell me hoe to fix it

[Gram_Reaper]

Hey, Im Doing the same saber model tutorial but i have one problem. How can you import the saber_w.md3 file for sizing. Ive tried everything and it still says it cant be imported. And modeling is awesome so far

[KBell]

if your using g-max then go up to file, import and go to the Base folder of the Jediknight 2 directory and go to models, weapons, saber and you might have to view all files that are MD3's i think and it should work.

[Gram_Reaper]

yeah thanks for the help but its still njot working. If you downloaded any plugins or anything that you used then tell me if they helped import oter files.

[KBell]

ohhhhh i know what you need! its in this Brothers In Arms website, not sure what the address is and you go to the download section and download the only plug-in the have there.

 

 

 

sorry bout that oh go to http://www.Jk2models.cjb.net and go to the tutorials section and go to the tutorial "how to create a saber model and put it ingame all with G-max" and in the begining they post a ling to the brothers in Arms website

[Gram_Reaper]

I got the plugins but they dont seem to be working tell me where you put them in your gmax folder

 

thanks

[Gram_Reaper]

Never Mind the last one Baker. I just have one question, how did you convert all of them into meshes. I did it but the only attach list thing is the saber_w file. Im stuck so ill wait for reply

[KBell]

right click on the saber handle and click "convert to Mesh" and click attach list and everything on or near with probley be in that list. hope that helps.

[SilentMobius]

Here is a screenshot of BakerS8er's saber.

 

http://www.silentmobius.co.uk/GFX/Highpoly_saber.jpg

 

Here are my points of note.

 

1. Why does the main cylinder have 4 vertical sections, does that help the model in any way?

2. the main cylinder had at _least_ 15 sides, is this necessary? how many sides do the main cylinders of the JKII sabers have?

3 Desann's saber has some form of sphere on the bottom, look at that to see what is considered a reasonable amount of polys for a sphere.

4. The cone you have used has 4 vertical sections, again why?

5. All of your objects have capped ends even when those ends cannot be seen, why?

 

If you don't know how to control the polycount on primitives, you need to read the gmax help on primitives.

Also look up selecting faces and deleting.

 

And as I said, I and _not_ going to do this for you.

[KBell]

Silent Mobious- thanks for the help and the all important screen shot. It was VERY clumsy of me to overlook the blaytant misuse of polygons in the 4 sections you talked about. i will get to work fixing those RIGHT AWAY. But the last thing you mentioned, the objects have capped ends when the ends cant be seen, should i look up "capped Ends" in the help section of the G-max file? i have no idea what capped ends are and how to delete them or make them visible. Im sorry if i sound reliant on just solely you but i am a real stupid newbie who needs someone to explain these sometimes complex thing to me. Again i am REALLY appriciative of all the help you have given me especially with the Boolean effect. oh and 1 more q, is it possible to "detach" all that i have "attached" cause if i need to go back and cut down the poly count after i have already attached all the parts of the saber, i need to detach all of them right?

[SilentMobius]

Capped ends: I believe the is an option when you create a cylinder not to put polycons over the ends of tube (AKA "capping" it) hovever I just select the object, go to the modify tab, check to see if the object is currently an "editable mesh" if not collapse it down, go to the "Faces" selection, then select the faces I don't want and press del.

 

Now from what you showed me you sub objects are still primitives and havent been collapsed into meshes, so if you go to the modify tab with the object selected you will find the parameters of the primitive (height, width, length, segments)

 

You _need_ to know this stuff if you want to model anything usefull in gmax (or max for that matter)

 

Keyworks to look up in the help

collapse, modifier tab, select faces, primitive

 

How about going through the Gmax tutorials?

[KBell]

i have 1 Gmax tutorial and i think it is by the brothers in arms called" how to create a saber and put it in game with g-max"

it was somewhat useful but i got caught on the uvwrapping and unwraping part. I know i NEED to know this stuff to create anything useful with G-max but EVERYONE has to learn SOMETIME in their lives. This has been the first modeling program i have used EVER so please understand that this is a difficult process for me. As for the capping, i know exactly what your talking about and will get to work on that a soon as possible.

I already know how to set parimeters when the AREN'T attached but when they are, i have no idea hot to detach them but i will most certainly try to find out if it gets you from saying that i "need to know this stuff" no offence intened.

[SilentMobius]

I'm not sure what you mean by "attached" I had no problem selecting and deleting faces from the model you sent me.

 

If you mean "linked" that shouldn't stop you editing the mesh at a face level, if you have collapsed all the primitives together into one editable mesh then you would be better off starting again with the version with seperate primitives.

 

I know everyone has to learn sometimes, but this is not the forum to learn about gmax, this is the forum to discuss WIP and problems with getting the mesh _into_ JKII.

[Steg]

there is a simple gmax modelling and indepth skinning tutorial on my site (c my sig)

hope its helpful

 

Steg

[KBell]

Silent Mobious- i know this isnt the forum for me to learn at. but which forum is?

 

Steg- i have been using that tutorial too, in some ways it was very helpful so thanks.

[SilentMobius]

Um...

http://www.gmaxsupport.com/html/forum.asp

maybe

[Gram_Reaper]

Hey

 

I Like your saber model Baker. If that was skined it would be sweet. Right now Im Working on Ulic-Quel Droma Saber. Its Coming along but ive started over about 5 or 6 times. Once it gets there ill send you guys a screen

[KBell]

thanks its nice to see newbies like us creating saber hilts ourselves rather than just downloading the ones other people have. i hope to see your progress so far on your saber hilt Gram

[Gram_Reaper]

Hey Baker , wheres the right triangle button in Gmax, I need to make the tags a saber

[KBell]

i think you need to create your own right triangle . use the "line" option and draw a right triangle , size doesnt matter, and name it "tag_flash" i think

[-[MotU]-Lyger|=-]

how would i shrink my saber model to fit the saber_w.md3?? and how do i found out how many polys and verticies im using?? be specific.