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My DF Mod assignment - map object skinning; showcase & critiques


jp-30

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Hi All,

 

With the recent problems with the site, I thought I should start up my own thread so the others in the team can see my progress, and provide me with feedback & suggestions.

 

My assignment was given to me thus;

 

Please welcome jp-30 to the MOD. JP is a skin artist and

will be doing all the prop models for the maps that Kazashi has been modeling.

 

I'm about 1/2 way through the first batch of map objects, so thought it was time to show you how they're coming along. Feel free to offer suggestions, especially if you're part of the Mod team. :p

 

table0-screenshot.jpg

 

smalite1-screenshot.jpg

 

smalite2-screenshot.jpg

 

lobvalve1-screenshot.jpg

 

chain-screenshot.jpg

 

beerpipe-screenshot.jpg

 

ashtray-screenshot.jpg

 

 

My Comments: Using Milkshape as my model viewer gives some unusual lighting effects. For example see the dark patches on the ashtray above that are not anywhere to be seen on the actual texture. These, I imagine won't show up in-game as dark patches.

 

I think I will make the skin on the beerpipe more intricate to match the original sprite.

 

I believe Darth_Linux will be taking care of the shaders for all the glowy bits on several of the skins. A transparency shader might also be in order for the holes in the chain links that are solid at present.

 

I assumed the tabletob was glowing from the sprite, but this feature can easily be removed if I've misread it. (??)

 

Also there's a smashed table , smashed chair, smashed lflrlit, smashed hanglit etc that I have no model or skinmap for. Are the smashed states of these objects being made via a 2nd skin (with transparency alpha channels) on the original model?

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those look very nice jp-30. i realize that youre only doing the skins for these world models, but on the smalite2 i think that the gray bars going up the sides should be round at the top. other than that, the models and skins are fine, and i cant wait to see them ingame or otherwise without the Milkshape lighting problem. i think theyll look a lot better. and shaders too...those should look great when theyre done! the table top would look really awesome all glowing or perhaps with a a moving static-type effect. good work! :)

 

P.S. i love the ashtray, i find it so funny they had one in DF..but maybe a little more definition on the cigarettes?

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Hi Jeff. Uhh. Yeah, here I am... I was getting impatient waiting for the mod, so thought I'd join to try and contribute. :D

 

those look very nice jp-30. i realize that youre only doing the skins for these world models, but on the smalite2 i think that the gray bars going up the sides should be round at the top. other than that, the models and skins are fine...

 

Well, I'm just working with the models given to me.

 

There's a chance I've skinned the smalite2 opposite to the way the modeller intended. Maybe he intended the blue glowy bits to be protruding from the canister slightly. It sort of looks this way on the sprite, but I ended up putting that down to the sprite trying to look like it's glowing out beyond the ribs of the canister. If this is the way it's supposed to be I then I could texture the curved bits up over the half globe.

 

But I tried it both ways initially, and the way I ended up texturing it seemed to make more "sense". maybe the model maker can shed more light on it (no pun intended)

 

...and i cant wait to see them ingame or otherwise without the Milkshape lighting problem. i think theyll look a lot better. and shaders too...those should look great when theyre done! the table top would look really awesome all glowing or perhaps with a a moving static-type effect. good work!

 

 

Indeed. :) Maybe the table pulsating slightly? Anyway, the shaders aren't my forte.

 

 

P.S. i love the ashtray, i find it so funny they had one in DF..but maybe a little more definition on the cigarettes?

 

Well, all the skins are created at 200% and scaled back to 100% to match the skinmaps I was given to work from. The Ashtray skinmap was given to me at 256x256 pixels, which means the area in the sand on the ashtray ends up a circle of diameter ~100 pixels. There's not a lot I can do to sharpen that up once it's stretched across the model, but I do have my working versions at 512x512 pixels - so if any of the map objects needed a better defined skin, using the double resolution version should be OK. I guess it's a file size issue. There are a lot higher priority items and textures that deserve the bytes than these little objects.

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Keep up the good work JP, would be cool if you showed on the team's chat more often.

 

There are chats? :confused:

 

With the site being down since the day I joined, someone's gotta let me know (via email) when & where these things are held.

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everything is looking real good JP - thanks!

 

I'll write the shaders but what I'll need is a second imagefile that only has the "glowy" bits against a black background. You might make the light radiate out a bit more on those second images, then the shader will combine the two images at run time.

 

also, I don't yet know how we'll be managing the broken models yet. We probably won't be able to trigger a second model that's in a destroyed state, but rather just have the model throw gibs and fade out or something ala Half-Life.

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Here are the rest of my first assignment textures. There are a few rogue md3's in my pile with no sprite to work from that I'll try and sort out, and I still have to make the associated "glow" textures for D_L's shaders.

 

 

barrel_exp-screenshot.jpg

 

hanglit-screenshot.jpg

 

lflrlit-screenshot.jpg

 

tallit-screenshot.jpg

 

chair000-screenshot.jpg

 

cards-screenshot.jpg

 

lit4-screenshot.jpg

 

 

 

Comments: None really, other than "lit4" milkshape lighting makes it appear way too dark (compare it to the actual texture) and "lit4" has a tube within tube arrangement for the flourescent bulb, which doesn't come across well without a semi transparency shader on the outer one.

 

 

Feedback appreciated...

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Looks very good, all of it. They really do look the way 3d versions of the originally flat sprites should look. Only two things: the exploding barrel should probably be more rounded, and lit4 doesn't sit that well with me. That last one didn't really seem like it should, more just a black rod with white stripes on it. Could look better with lighting, though the barrel is certainly off.

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Thanks for the comments guys. :)

 

Only two things: the exploding barrel should probably be more rounded, and lit4 doesn't sit that well with me. That last one didn't really seem like it should, more just a black rod with white stripes on it. Could look better with lighting, though the barrel is certainly off.

 

As I said in my comments, lit4 just doesn't look right in Milkshape. The "shaft" looks black and featureless, though you can see the texture (bottom left of the screenshot) has a gun blue metallic colour, with indented ridge. And the bulb area looks wrong because it needs shaders - a semi transparent "glass" effect for the outer cylinder and a glow for the inner fluro-bulb.

 

As for the roundness of exploding_barrel, The model itself is out of my control, but remember this thing is going to be tiny in-game and a hexagon is a good enough approximation of a cylinder in this case.

 

The hi-res models like weapons, enemies & maps need the polys, small objects like lights etc don't. Don't want to kill the framerate or inflate the mod download size unnecessarily.

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Originally posted by jp-30

Hi Jeff. Uhh. Yeah, here I am... I was getting impatient waiting for the mod, so thought I'd join to try and contribute. :D

 

 

 

Well, I'm just working with the models given to me.

 

There's a chance I've skinned the smalite2 opposite to the way the modeller intended. Maybe he intended the blue glowy bits to be protruding from the canister slightly. It sort of looks this way on the sprite, but I ended up putting that down to the sprite trying to look like it's glowing out beyond the ribs of the canister. If this is the way it's supposed to be I then I could texture the curved bits up over the half globe.

 

But I tried it both ways initially, and the way I ended up texturing it seemed to make more "sense". maybe the model maker can shed more light on it (no pun intended)

 

 

 

 

Indeed. :) Maybe the table pulsating slightly? Anyway, the shaders aren't my forte.

 

 

 

 

Well, all the skins are created at 200% and scaled back to 100% to match the skinmaps I was given to work from. The Ashtray skinmap was given to me at 256x256 pixels, which means the area in the sand on the ashtray ends up a circle of diameter ~100 pixels. There's not a lot I can do to sharpen that up once it's stretched across the model, but I do have my working versions at 512x512 pixels - so if any of the map objects needed a better defined skin, using the double resolution version should be OK. I guess it's a file size issue. There are a lot higher priority items and textures that deserve the bytes than these little objects.

 

Hey JP 30, I remember you from TFN, cool that you're working on this MOD, hopefully it will get done sooner now.

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LOL. Yeah, I hear the MOD release has come forward 4 hours due to the time I've put into these skins.

 

;)

 

Oh, and rerexamining the exploding barrel (after reading the comments by ImmolatedYoda above), the panels to the right and left of the control panel segment look flat to me on the sprite, so I think a hexagon was 100% the correct call as far as the model goes.

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Finally I also have found my way to this thread :)

 

three words: jp-30, nice work!!!

 

Although we don't use to count the number of hours we're working for the MOD, its a constant improvement process :p

 

Perhaps just a note on the polygons...

Look at the chair... imo it has to be circular.

I think we can add some more polys without fear,

e.g. using a dodecaeder (12 sides) instead of a hexagon (6 sides) for the ground surface.

Even the MD3 support LOD, therfore it would be nice to see even small items are detailed.

Anyways, any 3D model is better than the DF sprites :D

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