OK, this is my first attempt at a unit. There is still things that I need to add,(Track tensioner, drive sprockets, track, etc), but I think that it's far enough along to post a preview. I decided to stick with blender for the modeling. Here is a picture of my progress.

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There are some details that I wanted to add, but I don't have the time, patience, or skills to do so. I'm open to suggestions on how best to finish this project. Please let me know what you think.

I can definately see the Sheridan but the turret to hull proportions don't look right.

THe hull seems too wide for the turret (it'S about 2:1 broad and I would say a ratio of 3:2 would do much better)

I realized that just after I posted, I just didn't have time to repost. Here it is again with a few changes.

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I enlarged the turret, put the hull on a diet and lengthened it a little. Look any better?

maybe I should make the gun a little bigger also.

First off - looks like a mighty fine work in progress :goodjob:

Second - even though you haven't said it's a Sheridan, I definitely agree with Wyrmshadow about the similarity to the M551. That being said, I might move the turret a bit forward, as below.

Best,

Oz

Looks very good! But are there no tank treads?

Looks very good! But are there no tank treads?

Because there are hundreds and are difficult to make. Speaking for myself, I could definately do something with this model right now.

I'm glad that you guys noticed that this is a Sheridan. I neglected to mention the name on purpose because I wasn't sure if anyone would see the Sheridan like I did. I'm almost done with the suspension, and then I will post another picture. The track will be difficult to make, all I can say is thank god for the duplicate option. I have to say the hardest thing for me so far was the turret. I took me three weeks to do that one.

Wyrm- I want to finish the suspension and then I would be more than glad to let you have the model. As much as I would like to do it myself, I only have a few days left before I have to go to school. I will clear housing and send my wife and daughter home before then, and once that happens, I won't be able to do anything until sometime around June.

Ok, finally got it finished. Here are the shots.

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tell me what you think.

I dont know anything about this tank, but it looks very good to me :)

One thing I forgot to mention is that the track didn't go together as well as I had intended. One track shoe is smaller than all of the others.

i like it 19Delta. and i've got a place for it, too :) well done.

Looks excellent :goodjob: Are you going to include a paradrop anim?

Best,

Oz

Looks excellent :goodjob: Are you going to include a paradrop anim?

Best,

Oz

Considering that the Sherridan was used by the 82nd Airborne because it was air droppable I think a paradrop animation would be appropriate.

Since I haven't got enough time to do animations, I was hoping Wyrmshadow would take over this project. The only things I would like to see is a paradrop animation, an alternate attack with the shelilagh missile, and the smoke grenade launchers firing in the victory animation. It is, of course, up to Wyrmshadow if he wants to do it.

Here is a shot of a Sheridan airdrop.
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Don't know how hard this one would be since the C-130 flies close to ground and heavy drops it. Maybe a generic drop animation would be easier.

Hey soldja boy. You make me model, me luv you long time.

Sent you a PM.

A most interesting development. Good work. Always liked these vehicles.

Ok, I emailed the files to your e-mail Wyrmshadow. The first e-mail is the original model in blender format. The second e-mail has the entire model and then two more seperate files with the hull and turret seperately. All are true space format. The third e-mail is the suspension also in true space format. Hope you can do something with this. Thanks again for taking this project.

Okay I had to completely toss away the suspension and the tracks and I spent about an hour seperating all the parts. For the future, combining everything into 1 object.....not a good idea. This is the M551 at the proper tank scale that I am using. Expect it to be done soon.

Looks good. What do you mean when you say not to combine everything into one object? Do you mean to do each part (hull, turret, suspension) seperately and then combine them later? Or did I combine too many little parts together to make one major part, as is the case with the track and the suspension? Didn't think I would get to see it at this scale so quickly though. I can't say thank you enough.

the 2nd part. The turret was one object, the hull was 1 object etc.. I had to throw away the suspension because when I seperated the segments (diff program) the suspension, wheels, tracks were still linked in random ways. Don't worry, I've got plenty of wheels and suspension systems in my parts bag. The low-polygon tracks I took from my M24 Chaffee.

Ok, finally got it finished. Here are the shots.

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tell me what you think.

Looks great, when you get completely done I will diffidently download.

I think I understand. When I made the track I just made one track and then duplicated it a bunch of times. When I originally put it together it wasn't connected, it just looked that way. I went ahead and connected all of the track pads together so that I could select it all as one object and duplicate it for the other side. Kind of got in a hurry. I made the road wheels and the arms as one object. Next time I won't try to have everything connected together.

I got some really bad news. For the past 3 days I've been trying to animate your tank but Bryce is not cooperating. It's just locking up evertyime I try to render a frame. I still have no idea why yet as it's not just 1 thing all the time.

That's not good. I appreciate the effort though. Just let me know if you can get it to work. There's no hurry really. My orders are delayed for a while. Thanks again.

I had to seriously dumb down the texture, Bryce was having seizures with it. So it won't be that nice shiny metallic stuff I've had in the past that worke just fine, I don't know. Maybe it just didnt like your model. Btw, I had to extensively change/add things onto it.

Looks great guys. I am subscribing to this thread so I can see the final product. Keep up the good work. :goodjob:

I decided to render all night instead of going out drinking. Since the victory is taking an hour each direction, expect it to be posted sometime tomorrow morning.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h199/Wyrmshadow3/Civstuff/Sheridan.gif
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h199/Wyrmshadow3/Civstuff/Other.gif

I decided to render all night instead of going out drinking.

:eek: :worship: :goodjob: ,

;)

It's perfect. So good that if there is any complaints I may consider going to the complainer's house to beat them with a bat. I don't know how I could ever thank you. The next time I build a model, I won't bunch everything together. Thanks again.

Since the victory is taking an hour each direction, expect it to be posted sometime tomorrow morning.


Told ya
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=5094404#post5094404

I said in another post that I was working on a K1 MBT. I just wanted to keep everyone updated on my progress. This is all I will be able to do for a while because I am going to a leadership course for the next two weeks starting tommorrow. There is a good chance that I'll have to live there for that time, if not then I should be done sooner.

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I know it's not finished, but this is all I can do for now. I still need to add the side skirts, turret(obviously), idler wheel, drive sprockets, and various other things. Wyrmshadow gave me his model of a K1, but it didn't look right to me, I wanted to build my own and see which one looks better. I'm trying not to make the mistake of bunching everything together into one object again, so it's taking a little longer than the Sheridan. Does anyone think that it's starting to look like a K1?

The Hyundai K1 looks like a mini-Abrams with a little bit of difference. Looks like you got the major parts down like the off-center driver's position.

Yeah, I'm still working on it. Did you see the XK2? That's a nice looking tank if it does everything it's supposed to do. Might even better than the M1. Supposed to have a 132 mm main gun from the Germans. I think that is has the same hull as the K1, so all I have to do is make a different turret and throw on there.

Yes I've seen pics of it on Militaryphotos.net. Look's scary.

OK, I'm back from my course. I've been putting in some work to finish up on the hull and the suspension on the K1. I haven't made the turret yet I just wanted to post my progress for everyone. This is what I have so far.

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I have already made the changes to the track to make it wider, it's just not in this picture. Like I said above, I haven't made the turret yet. I think I will save that for tommorrow.

Ok, it's been a long time since I posted anything, but I just got back from school. I've been working on my K1 model. It's still not done but I think that it's close enough that I can post a couple of previews. Let me know what you think.

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Nice stuff! Always good to have talented people around :)

I'm glad you like it. As far as the talented part goes, not so much. All I know how to do at the moment is build a model. I don't know how to color, animate, or any of that other stuff. I am trying to learn though. My CO saw me working on it while I was at the office when we were just sitting around and now he calls me the rain man. If he only knew.

If I say you`re talented, you`re talented. Never said you were skilled :p
Practice and you`ll learn all that other stuff :)

Wow! You're a great modeler. In my opinion, animating is WAAAAAY easier than modeling. I think you might find it kind of easy, given the patience you have with modeling.

Thanks guys. I'm still learning blender. I didn't really find the whole modeling process that hard once I figured out the interface and some of the terms. The noob to pro guide at wikibooks really helps out a lot. I didn't make it past putting the hat on the stick man though. I'd say that there is a great deal more that I don't know compared to what I do know.

OK, I finally got it finished. It's not as detailed as I would like it to be, but most of that stuff is probably not going to show up at civ scale anyway. The only thing I think I could have done better is the machineguns up top and the sponson around the turret. I haven't put any extra equipment on it yet. I think I will wait until I figure out the animation part of the whole thing first. What do you think?

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By the way, did anyone catch the last episode of SG-1 last night?

Nicely done Delta-dude!

Your work looks really, really good. :beer:

And the season-ending SG-1 was a hoot, if only for the romantic "outcome".

Best,

Oz

I know that I said I wanted to finish this one my self, but I'm moving soon and I won't be able to do it for a long while. I want to hand this off to someone else and let this beast come to life. If there are any takers just let me know.

This is my third model. I'm not going to say what it is supposed to be yet. I want to see what everyone thinks it is first.

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The pic of the wings forward was taken before I added the engine and slimmed the fuselage.

This is my third model. I'm not going to say what it is supposed to be yet. I want to see what everyone thinks it is first.

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The pic of the wings forward was taken before I added the engine and slimmed the fuselage.

Easy. Its a B1B. :D A bit slim but a B1B none the less.

Close, but no :cowboy: . Look closer, there are a few subtle differences that give it away.

Close, but no :cowboy: . Look closer, there are a few subtle differences that give it away.


AH then it must be the Tu-160, The Russian copy of the B1B. It didn't even occur to me that it would be the Tu-160. I just saw the shape and assumed it was the B1B,

You got it. I remember Wyrmshadow blasting some guy complaining about there not being a Tu-160 in his post war Soviet Airforce thread. He said that a Tu-160 model didn't exist. When I got done with my K-1 model, I started working on this. It didn't turn out as good as I had intended, but I still think that it looks nice for my first airplane. Maybe Wyrmshadow can do something with this. The only thing I didn't put in was the insides, landing gear, and the bombay doors. May do that later.

teehee. will do.

just e-mailed you the file. It's the Blender file. I added the bombay doors. Decided not to put the landing gear, since it probably won't be visible in game. I didn't put glass in the cockpit windows due me not knowing how to yet. Thanks for taking this one. The K1's up for grabs if you want it.

I dont have any way of loading Blender files.

What if I import the parts to Truespace, and then send you the files that way?

Yes thats fine. I'll probaly modify it somewhat within Cinema4 as well.. like adding glass. Although I don't know why you made those tall thingies over the engines.

I just sent them. If you're talking about the fins at the base of the wings, they fold down when the wings move forward and they move up when the wings are swept back. I guess it's some kind of stabilization thing. They are probably a little too big though.

Have you given the K-1 to Wyrm as well?

no I haven't yet. If he wants it I will be happy to give it to him though.

Already got one from another source.

ok, that's cool, I remember you sent one to me, something was weird about the way it looked, so I went ahead and made my own model.

I've exported all of the parts of my K1 to truespace format. If anyone wants to use them I would be happy to e-mail them to you. I'm still trying to figure out Bryce and go beyond modeling on Blender, so I won't be releasing this one my self (unless of course I figure it out in the next few days or so). I do have a question for wyrmshadow though. I watched your tutorial for Bryce, but I don't have a blue background, and I don't have anything in the edit materials menu. How can I get those things? I have the free version of Bryce 5. Does that have anything to do with this problem?

Look for the template in my 1st post in my Tutorials thread. That's the bryce file I use as the standard for all my things. It's unusual that you dont have anything at all in your materials library.. Also I made a lot of my own textures by importing images, not difficult, just gotta find the right button in your materials editor.

Thanks, I didn't even notice the template was there. Where do you import your textures for your materials library? By the way, the Blackjack wasn't too sloppy was it?

Wow, you really do wonders with Blender 19Delta! :goodjob: I downloaded Blender a while back but found it too awkward to work with. I take it Blender is better for creating complex shapes than Bryce is?

I havent taken a really close look at it yet but Im sure that I will have to modify it somewhat with spare parts that I have. If you don't have ANY materials to work with, try going to Renderosity.com. They have a bunch of free stuff. Or.. while you're in the materials editor, to the left of the Specular Halo color is a little dial. Its the randomizer, click it and presto you got a random texture.

Thanks man. I do know that you will have to modify the bombay doors. I got to looking at them and I realized that they were supposed to be long and narrow. The ones I put on there are fat and short.

@Gary: From what I understand, blender is a very powerful program once you learn all of the little tricks and things with it. I found that the blender noob to pro guide helps a lot if you follow it step by step. You can find it at wikibooks. I think that bryce is really meant more for animating 3d models already put together rather than creating them from nothing.

Does anyone know if a US M110 series howitzer has ever been made, or if a model exists?

#1. No
#2. I have a model.

Think I could get that model from you?

It's been a while since I posted anything on here, but I've been experimenting on adding some textures for my K1. I think that I've finally settled on a proper camo scheme, but it still seems a little cartoonish to me. I would appreciate some feedback from the community. Maybe someone has some suggestions for this part of the process.

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Thanks go to wyrmshadow for the current progress. Without his help I would still be staring at a gray model in blender wondering what to do next.

Reminds me of NATO MERDC type cammo.

Maybe someone has some suggestions for this part of the process.

Great work BTW man, about the textures, well its hard to make decent textures for 3D models, take lots of patience.

Maybe this pictures can help you out?

This photo looks like the camo you are after.
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/military-camouflage-5.jpg

You can also picks the colors from here, who knows..
http://www.texturemaker.com/incoming/Camouflage_Resampled.jpg

I've been looking for a good ROK army camo pattern much like the first link that you had there. The pattern has to be the vehicle pattern though. ROK army uniform patterns are different. I haven't been able to find one, so I decided to go off of several pictures that I downloaded. I'm not completely happy with them (mainly because they look so cartoonish). If anyone has some tips to make them look closer to the pictures, I would appreciate it.

I redid the textures a little bit. All I really did was make the green a little bit darker. Here it is again.

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I've viewed the tutorials and I've been messing around with this thing in Bryce, but I can't seem to figure out what to do. I know this is probably beginning to annoy the piss out of some of you, but someone is going to have to break it down to me caveman style. Right now I'm at the point where I have textured the tank and I am ready to animate it. Maybe I haven't viewed the right one of wyrmshadow's tutorial, but I haven't been able to get on the internet in the evening time due to connection problems with my DSL. I just need someone that doesn't care to waste their time on me to walk me through a couple of these animations. After that, I should be able to do the rest myself. Thanks, and sorry for any trouble that I may cause.

Thanks, and sorry for any trouble that I may cause.

You're trying to give us toys and you're apologizing? :crazyeye: Tsk, tsk. ;)

Best,

Oz

I think you have the pattern down pat. Reminds me exactly of the ROK vehicles I saw.

I've viewed the tutorials and I've been messing around with this thing in Bryce, but I can't seem to figure out what to do. I know this is probably beginning to annoy the piss out of some of you, but someone is going to have to break it down to me caveman style. Right now I'm at the point where I have textured the tank and I am ready to animate it. Maybe I haven't viewed the right one of wyrmshadow's tutorial, but I haven't been able to get on the internet in the evening time due to connection problems with my DSL. I just need someone that doesn't care to waste their time on me to walk me through a couple of these animations. After that, I should be able to do the rest myself. Thanks, and sorry for any trouble that I may cause.

Ok, basics:
You have a model (lets make it a tank). It consists of a left tread, right tread, main chassis, turret, barrel.

Assumption: you use 15 frames of animation for each anim (not a requirement) I have used both less and more.

In default Animation:
You open your Bryce scene. The camera angle is set to the correct position. The lighting is correct. The camera is parented to the ground.
You add a series of animation controllers. Invisible objects which you move to control the motion of your unit. This is similar to BONES in other 3d applications. Anywhere there is a joint there is a need for an anim controller.

Create Animation controllers
So create a MAIN anim controller called TANK contoller postion it at the center of your tank on the ground. Lets all this Main_anim_tank
add another position it in the middle or tread_right, and call this anim_tread_right, make another for the other side called anim_tread_left
Add one in the center of the rotation point for the turret, call it Anim_turret
add one exactly at the base of the barrel, call it anim_barrel
Finally add one called Anim_chassis (at the center of the chassis body)
note: this is a simplified version you will typically need more controllers than I am outlining, I just do not feel like writing a book today.

Group your model
Now the model should be partially ungrouped. The grouping should match the animation groups. 1 left tread, 1 right tread, 1 chassis, 1 turret, 1 barrel group

Parent animation controllers
Now all the BASIC controllers are in place. Parent the right tread to the right controller, left tread to the left anim contoller, turret to it's controller, barrel to its controller, turrent to its controller.
Next parent the barrel controller to the turrent controller, parent the turrent controller to the chassis controller parent the chassis controller to the MAIN controller, parent the tread controllers to the MAIN controller. (note: you might alternately want either a single tread controller or want both tread controllers parented to a Main_Tread_Anim and parent that to the MAIN controller).

Basic settings recap
Your tank is grouped in to the followinr groups:
Left Tread, Right Tread, chassis, turret, barrel
These are parented as follows
left tread -> Left Tread Anim ctrl -> Main Anim Ctrl
Right tread -> Right Tread Anim ctrl -> Main Anim Ctrl
Barrel -> Barrel Anim ctrl -> Turrent Anim Controller -> Chassis Anim Controller -> Main Anim Ctrl
Turret -> Turrent Anim Controller -> Chassis Anim Controller -> Main Anim Ctrl
Chassis -> Chassis Anim Controller -> Main Anim Ctrl


Set initial key frames
Now go to File menu and Animation setup and change the Duration Frame # to 15. (0-15 = 16 frames, this will give you 1 extra frame of animation which you will delete later to make for SMOOTH looping).

here I will use the Frame number not the frame count. So the first frame is Frame 0, the final frame is called Frame 15 (but is in fact the 16th frame)
Just remember that the number I use is the same as the one displayed in the Bryce timeline at the base of the anim.

Now select all the animation controllers (every one at once or one at a time) and keyframe them all in frame 0 to the start position (no movement)

Now got to frame 15 select all the animation controllers (every one at once or one at a time) and keyframe them all in frame 15 to the start position (no movement)
Now frame 0 and 15 are set to the default position.

You will now save this BR5 (or BR6) file and make a copy of it, and move the copy some place safe. Call the copy "unitname_donotuse.br5"

You are now ready to being your animation.

Enough for now, more later.

Create Default Animation
Load your BASE scene (the BR5 you saved as as template, NOT the one named DONOTUSE.
Save the BASE as UnitnameDefault.

You have 15 frames to work with. Frame 0 and frame 16 must remain exactly the same, and not be changed.
Lets add some engine vibration (most civ vehicles have this).

These next steps are easier to visualize if you map them out first.

f0 = 0
f1 = 1
f2 = 0
f3 = -1
f4 = 0
f5 = 1
f6 = 0
f7 = -1
f8 = 0
f9 = 1
f10 = 0
f11 = -1
f12 = 0
f13 = 1
f14 = 0
f15 = -1
f16 = 0

See the pattern? the -1/1 numbers are the amount to vary your Y coordinate by. But unless the unit you are working with is VERY large, this is going to be far too much. Just use some small number such as .1 instead, remember that subtle is much better than over the top.

move the frame selector (slider at the base of the scene) to frame 1
select your chassis controller edit the Y co-ordinate to + some small number, I will use 1
key frame the chassis controller only.

move the frame selector (slider at the base of the scene) to frame 3
select your chassis controller edit the Y co-ordinate to + some small number, I will use -1
key frame the chassis controller only.

repeat until the pattern is complete.

now we have engine vibration. For the default this is typically enough. You want very little movement, but at least some. This will seem to breath life in your unit. Too much and it is just annoying and distracting. With this particular pattern, you could actually shorten the default anim to 4 frames and have it be just as good.
If you want to play around, you might want to add just a little barrel movement. But since the movement must be very subtle, side to side will work better than up and down. Subtle up and down combined with the vibration will give the illusion that the barrel is bending.
Once you have this basic down, save it and make a backup.

Create fidget Animation
Load your default animation.

go to frame 3
select your barrel controller
keyframe it

go to frame 12
select your barrel controller
keyframe it

Go to frame 8
select your barrel controller
Make sure you are in OBJECT SPACE
change the rotation of your barrel controller on to 30 degrees (this should raise your barrel)
keyframe it

done
Selecting frame 8 means that it rises somewhat slower than it drops.
The inbetween positions do not need to be keyframed.


Create fortify Animation
Load your default animation.

Make sure you are in OBJECT SPACE

go to frame 3
select your turret controller
30 degrees rotate it so that the left
keyframe it

go to frame 3
select your turret controller
30 degrees rotate it so that the right
keyframe it

done
The barrel will now pan to the right and then to the left.
The inbetween positions do not need to be keyframed.

Create Attack Animation
use the above logic, but remember:
that the gun must fire, so it must have muzzle flash. A tank "should" but does not HAVE to have smoke as well. smoke is a challenge for new guys.
the barrel must move backwards slightly (or a lot),
the turret should probably lift slightly.
There should be NO engine vibration.
the chassis should rock backwards
the recoil is faster than the recovery, but the recovery should not take ages.
The attacks must loop, and so do not forget to go back to recovery in the same manner as above.

Create victory Animation
use the above logic, but remember:
suggestion, the standard (but silly) is to have the turret spin around. You will probably have to key frame at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%
Alternate is to raise a flag up and down. Have a little man pop out (humans are tough to animate correctly in bryce, but can be done)

Create defeat Animation
use the above logic, but remember:
Have it buck and toss about a bit.
Fire looks good here.
maybe a series of explosions (which the tank reacts to).
The final position should not be taken in frame 15, but it should seem to be still (dead) for several frames before this. minimum is 3 frames, 5-6 is better.


----------

When you are completely done with these animations, you can choose 1 of 2 options. Render all but the last frame, or key frame EVERYTHING in frame 15 and then delete frame 16 by going to the file menu and animation setup and changing the last frame from 15 to 14 (meaning 0 to 14, or 15 frames). This is because frame 0 and frame 15 are identical and so frame 14 (the 15th image) will transition perfectly to frame 0, and because the animations (in this example) are the same at the base position all the animations will loop smoothly.

boy, Bjornlo... these are great instructions! You should go into teaching... :)

boy, Bjornlo... these are great instructions! You should go into teaching... :)

Thanks, I've done that a little in the past (math, CompSci & programming). This time I was just responding to a PM that 19delta sent me asking for some pointers.

Im going to have to disagree with the DEFAULT animation. You can save a lot of work if you use the Advanced Motion Lab instead of using the tedious method described here. Plus it would be much smoother. That is IF you want it to move. I've gone away from ships and vehicles doing anything in the default animation. Too many chefs spoil the pot, too much animation of it doing nothing ruins the picture. You can go from 1 or 2 extremes. Either it starts a cartoonish bouncing like the Firaxis tank, or.. it doesnt look like it's doing anything but the outline of it has a lot of moving pixels.

UTooB (http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5UDgVKpsg0)

I've rendered my first animation. How the hell do I post a preview? Everytime I try to attach the one that Bryce gives me, it says invalid file.

Take a screenshot of the preview and make a png of it?

you can also render a shot... then in the FILE menu it has "Save Image As" and do a crappy jpg.

I've rendered my first animation. How the hell do I post a preview? Everytime I try to attach the one that Bryce gives me, it says invalid file.

With an animation, you have two render output formats, BMP or AVI. There are several AVI to GIF converter programs. I prefer Animation Shop Pro, came free (included) with an older version of Paint Shop Pro I bought off of Ebay for less than 20 bucks. If I remember it was 9 bucks complete with shipping.. MSRP (full suggested retail) on Animation Shop is 19 bucks, so there are no doubt good ways to get it cheap.

There is a minor problem with this form of preview, and that is that the that the palette with be better than allows (more colors). But, over all this is a trivial issue for a preview (advance view of the unit to show work in progress).

For final previews (as in a view of the final unit), it is better to use BMPS and either create a FLC with the correct palette and save off a single facing of that and use in a GIF creator. There are a number of free ones, including Microsoft GIF Animator, which I have used, for example in the early jeep I made using multiple layers and C&P I recreated the preview with a correct palette on an in game ground.
Also, Animation Shop can load FLC files, even Civ3's own weird ones (but it can not save Civ3 valid FLCS). So you can just load the FLC, select the facing you want in the preview and paste it in a new GIF animation.

ps: never render out to a JPG, Bryce has possibly the worst JPG compression routine ever. If you want to render out a still image, render out a single BMP (uncompressed) and resave it as a JPG in a working program like Photoshop, Paintshop of TheGimp.

Ok, here is a preview for the run animation. This is all I have done thus far. I would like a little feed back before I move on to the rest of it. The animation moves kind of slow. I'm using Microsoft GIF animator, and I can't seem to figure out how to make the animation run at normal speed.


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Thanks to wyrmshadow for the dust and for setting up with me over instant messager and walking me through the whole process.

Remember what I told you about the Advanced Motion Lab. It can give it a smooth bounce... The same can be applied to the ROTATION as well as POSITION graphs.. Right now the bounce back and forth is a little jerky. Do a Easterly run so maybe we can see the wheels and tracks better, and see if you remembered my lessons.

You can also download a Bryce file with run smoke and such I posted here for comparison fun.

There are some minor issues with that animation.
1. the smoke has over lapping transparencies (or similar) bug present. Parts of the smoke are disappearing. If you look at the smoke file I posted you will see the difference.
2. the motion is not quite right. under acceleration, the vehicle should rock a little instead. Also you might want to experiment with a little side to side motion. Quite a few units include some there. It is enough to have it go left once and right once, if you even bother to include this. more side to side than that and it might look goofy.

on the advance motion lab, it does make somethings seem smoother but not everything needs it or even benifits from it. What you can do with it is change the ratio between frames. With standard keyframing, you get an even division of movement from one key frame to the next. With enough frames of animation, what you get with motion lab is instead of a linear movement (equal division of movement between key frames) you can optionally get a "bell curved shape" where as you approach the transition point the relative movement per frame decreases. Example: a car rocks to the left, and as it approaches the transition point it can look smoother if it moves less per frame (slows down) before switching directions. At civ scale and with very restrictive frame counts the benifit is marginal. I think it is worth learning, and worth adding to your Bryce tool kit, but I think it is over kill for a first unit.

How big are your units Delta? Same size as Ripptide tanks?

171756


Ok, here it is again. I didn't include the dust in this animation. I want to try something like that on my own. I figured out what I was doing wrong the first time. I was using too many key frames for the movements. I still can't seem to make the preview GIF run at normal speed. Does anyone have any solutions to that problem?

How big are your units Delta? Same size as Ripptide tanks?

That's what I'm aiming for.

That's what I'm aiming for.

F-Ripptide. He didn't use any system of scale. I scaled the tank myself to my own tanks.

F-Ripptide. He didn't use any system of scale. I scaled the tank myself to my own tanks.

what he said ^^^
Ripptides tanks are not the worst on there. Well modeled, but not that well animated but over all "ok". But, they are not scaled. I think they are just eyeballed to be more or less the same size.

171756


Ok, here it is again. I didn't include the dust in this animation. I want to try something like that on my own. I figured out what I was doing wrong the first time. I was using too many key frames for the movements. I still can't seem to make the preview GIF run at normal speed. Does anyone have any solutions to that problem?

There is a little button called Fast Preview, I think you have it selected since there is a disappearing antenna which almost only happens when this is selected.

How many frames is tha above run?

You can edit a GIFs speed by editing its frame delay, several programs can do this.

I suggest you have some sort of smoke, dust, tracks, or something when it moves. You can compare and contrast that which Wyrmshadow gave you and the one I posted for DL and come up with your own if you want. But something should be there to show movement.

I guess you're right there. Honestly, I'm not sure. I've always thought of redoing the M1. There were things about it I didn't like. I think what I will do is build the models according to their size compared to other tanks. I will start with the K1. If I redo the M1, then it will be a bit larger than the K1, because according to real life, the M1 is slightly larger than the K1. So really what I will do is scale my tanks according to their real life counterparts.

I can't seem to find the link you posted for your smoke file in your earlier post.

I guess you're right there. Honestly, I'm not sure. I've always thought of redoing the M1. There were things about it I didn't like. I think what I will do is build the models according to their size compared to other tanks. I will start with the K1. If I redo the M1, then it will be a bit larger than the K1, because according to real life, the M1 is slightly larger than the K1. So really what I will do is scale my tanks according to their real life counterparts.

You do not need to scale it while modeling. I model in rather random scales. The more detailed, the larger I make it since modelers have a finite ZOOM-IN range, but can typically zoom way out for the really big models.

Instead you import your model (in whatever scale) in to Bryce. You eyeball it (get the size sorta close). You set your camera, scene, etc and do a test render. You load this image in to a paint program, could the pixels and compare this count to your base (this can vary, for fighters {including space fighters} I use the cockpit, for tanks I use the length of the chassis if I can get it or the size of some known portion such as a hatch cover in a pinch).

This comparison in size is needed for just about every vehicle type since you an not just load it can go like you can with PDM based units. You also have to remember things are not scaled globally but with their class.
Some of these classes include
dudes
dudes on horses
dudes in wagons/chariots
small cars like jeeps
medium cars like APCs (can be scaled to work with cars)
big "cars" like tanks.
small planes
large planes
small wood boats
medium wood boats
etc..

I can't seem to find the link you posted for your smoke file in your earlier post.

Rats... it was here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=5526554&postcount=6
but it seems the problem we had deleted it. I will repost it over easter.

Here's what I do for scale:
I import an object that I'm positive of atleast 1 dimension.. such as width for tanks.. Lengths get sorta iffy because they dont alway tell you if it included the barrel or not.

So I make a Bryce primative.. a BOX.. and I make it's width equal to the known size, i center it. I like to work in feet.. 1 Bryce unit=1 foot. .. I group the imported object and just manually adjust it's overal size until it's width lines up exactly with the width of the box. This way I can somewhat accurately interchange parts without guessing ontheir sizes.

All that work doesn't matter in the preview size of cource. I just take it into photoshop, do a few measurements and change the zoom of the camera accordingly.

For an M1 I suggest you don't do anything...because there are lots and lots of free models online of it.
http://gunpoint-3d.com/model-M1Abrams.html

I took a look at the file. He's a quick learner but he wasn't using the Advanced Motion Lab to give him a smooth bounce.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h199/Wyrmshadow3/KoreaRun.gif

Once you get all of the directions animated for a certain animation (i.e. run), how do you make them into a flic file?

There's a LOT of tutorials for that dude.
But the program you definately need to find is Steph's Storyboard builder that will combine all those loose images into big bmp storyboards.

Go to the tutorial section and read parts of Utahjazz's tutorial (for poser) it includes all the info you need.

Ok, thanks.

It's allmost done Isn't it?

it's getting there. There are still a few things left to do before this one can roll off the assembly line.

Ok, I feel like a , but I'm going to ask anyway. I've been using Stephs Story Board Builder. I've read the tutorials. I've gotten as far as putting the individual frames for each direction into their respective folders. I can't seem to figure out how to upload them into SBB to create a storyboard. I'm sure it's something simple that I'm missing. Can anyone help a out?

Just select any file from any folder, and generate. If the files are in the correct folders, it'll do the rest itself. :)

As long as you don't use numbers for the file names. Bryce does it automatically when it makes bmp files of an animation.
Run0000.bmp
Run0001.bmp
Run0002.bmp

etc etc... but things mess up in SBB when you use names that already have numbers in them.
F-15run0000.bmp
F-15run0001.bmp

That was it. I had it labeled as K1run0000 and so on. Thank you very much.

19delta:
Any progress on yours ships?

I've restarted work on it today. I actually got off of work at a decent hour today. I worked on a little while in my office before I went home. I'm about a third to halfway done with the primary superstructure. It's getting there, it's just slow going.

To change the subject though. Where is the tutorial for transferring storyboards to flicster? Maybe I need to get more sleep at night, or maybe I need to stop drinking so much whiskey, but I seem to have a bad case of the here recently.

I've restarted work on it today. I actually got off of work at a decent hour today. I worked on a little while in my office before I went home. I'm about a third to halfway done with the primary superstructure. It's getting there, it's just slow going.

To change the subject though. Where is the tutorial for transferring storyboards to flicster? Maybe I need to get more sleep at night, or maybe I need to stop drinking so much whiskey, but I seem to have a bad case of the here recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9_Af5NQcmg

I don't have photo shop. Does anyone know of a place where I find a free one or a similar program that can perform the same functions?

The GIMP i'm sure can handle it.

I've got the GIMP, but now I'm lost. I know the tutorials are there, I'm just tired of combing through them, and I've been having a bad week anyway. I'm going to put this down for a while because the more I try to understand it the more frustrated I get. If anyone wants to help out, I would greatly appreciate it. If not, I understand. Thanks.

19Delta

I've exported the file to flc format, but now I get this:

Creator : FAIL (0)
Color Depth : PASS
FLC Flags : PASS
Frame count : FAIL (0 frames X 0 directions, 1 total frames)
Geometry : FAIL (3857 X 1929)
Size : PASS
FLC Type : PASS
Directions : FAIL (0)
FlicAnimHeader Size : FAIL
Original Geometry : FAIL (0 X 0)
This may be a standard (non-Civ3) FLC.

What have I done wrong?

I have no idea bro! I whish I could help u, but I cant. Who can??

Are you saving the file as an indexed file or as a RGB file?
Where do you get your error?

indexed file. I exported it in flc format. When I opened it with flicster, I only saw the two tabs. I clicked on the second tab and that's when I got that message.

zip it up and send me a storyboard and I'll take a look at it.

I thought this would be a nice change from fighting with flicster for a few posts. You can also find this link in my signature below. It's amazing how a person(s) can go to college for 4, 6, or 8 years and still be one of the dumbest SOBs that currently waste oxygen here upon planet earth. This video is really funny though.

How far are we with the tank?

been kind of busy, working on it here and there, I spent leave last week trying to get my mom and her husband a place to live and a job to hold them over. I will get around to it, but I have to handle the RL issues first.

thought I would try to pick up where I left off. I started with the animations of the different directions in the run file. I extracted all of the frames from each direction into folder (E, SE, SW, W, SW, NW, NE, N, S) just like the directions in SBB says. I followed the directions for SBB. I tried to generate the storyboard, but it would only do one direction. If I loaded up the E file, then it would only build a story board for the E direction. All of the other directions were grayed out. What have I done wrong?

Are you still putting numbers in the file name?

no, the only numbers in the frames are the 0000, 0001, 0002, etc.

figured out the problem. I put the direction in the file name, instead of just the folder name. I'm having a whole new problem now. I've gotten as far as having an actual functioning flic file, but when I play it, it looks like the flic file is playing on a broken TV.

Sounds like there is something wrong with the number of frames you are using (actual vs. what you entered into flicster) OR you have the wrong size frame.

I set it at 16 frames, and 240x240. It must be the frame size. Would that be a problem with flicster, or somewhere else.

In Flick Edit I get that all the time when viewing downloaded units. Haven't looked much to see what causes it but the same files always play perfectly in FLICster.

Can anyone guess what this one is?

177997

M1 Abrams?

that would be the most obvious answer, but no. however, it does use components from the Abrams.

M-60-2000?

you are correct. The M-60-2000 other wise known as the 120S MBT. That one got me at first. I got a flyer from the General Dynamics booth at the Armor Conference a couple of years ago. I was looking at it the other day, and then I realized that it wasn't an M1. It gives me an idea, but I have some other things on my plate. I would say that you win the prize, but I already planned on putting something together for you.

Btw. How fare is ur K1 tank doing? When wil it be ready?

Wanted to bump this thread so that I could keep track of it a little better. Something else is coming out of the factory soon, but I'm not posting any pics until it is complete.

Here is a few pics to show you what I was doing last weekend though.

190346 190347
190348 190349
190350 190351
190352 190353
190354 190355


You'll have to ignore the date on the camera. I can't change it because the only button that works is the one that takes the pictures. I've dropped it a few too many times.

reminds me of some of the wait staff at my fav bar.

It's been a long while since I posted anything. Between work and college, I've not had much time to post anything. Here is my newest creation, the Swedish Strv-103 or more commonly known as the S-tank. This is what I was talking about making for wyrmshadow. This is the only picture that I'm posting right now.


200478

Cool unit! But what happend to the K1 MBT??

I still have it. I just haven't really had a chance to work on the animations. I also decided that I wanted to add a tank commander to it and I haven't gotten around to making one. Don't worry though, I've been wanting to get that one off of my assembly line for quite a while now, and I think that I will be working on that one next.

Here is a few more pics of the S-tank. I didn't go as in detail on a few things becuase you won't be able to notice that stuff in civ scale.


200504 200505
200506 200507

Just got the model. It's fine one, only a little bit of modification needed from me. What is the machinegun you used?

The machine gun is the one from loader's hatch on my K1. I couldn't find any pictures with a clear enough angle to make the machine gun that was on the S-tank, so I just took the one that I made, and exported it. I had to make the ammo can that was on the side, and change a few minor details, but I think it matched up pretty nicely.

Here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=7695084#post7695084) you go buddy.

19Delta:
Is it possible to subtract one object from another in Blender?
Say I wanted to make a cube with a round hole through it,
can I make a cube, then make a cylinder going through the
cube, and finally subtract the cylinder from the cube to create
the hole?

If it is, I haven't figured it out yet. What I would normally do with something like that, is take a normal cube, delete the faces that I wanted to put the hole through, place a cylinder in the middle, and then fill in the faces around the ends of the tube. It's a little time consuming, but it's the only method that I know of right now. Hope this helps.

19Delta:
I asked this question on the blenderartists.org forum, here's
how to do it:

Using the Boolean menu (W in Object Mode) presents the following options:

Intersect -
Creates a new object whose surface encloses the volume common to both original objects.

Union -
Creates a new object whose surface encloses the total volume of both original objects.

Difference -
The only operation in which the order of selection is important, the active object is subtracted from the selected object.
That is, the resulting object surface encloses a volume which is the volume belonging to the selected and inactive object,
but not to the selected and active one.

ok, thanks for the info

I've been working on my K1. I redid the textures because I thought it looked too bright. Thanks to Wyrmshadow for the help.

Here is a preview
220957

I know that the textures still need some work, but I think I got the colors right this time. I will revisit this model at a later date and time when I get better at making textures, but for now, my priority is to get this model turned into a unit.

The colors look a lot better now. Getting the hang of photoshop now?

The colors look a lot better now. Getting the hang of photoshop now?

Yes definitely. I still need to work on getting the patterns to match up, but that will come with time. Thanks again for your help.

It looks most promising :)

It looks most promising :)

The thing is, he's doing this all on his own. I'm showing him how in the techinical sense, but I'm not doing anything for him.

The thing is, he's doing this all on his own. I'm showing him how in the techinical sense, but I'm not doing anything for him.

@19Delta: :clap:

Best,

Oz

After almost three years, it's finally done.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=8303302#post8303302

Congratulations!

I've been away for quite a while. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still around and i still work on models here and there. I'm currently in transition right now. I'm in the process of moving to Ft. Hood, TX. Right now I'm in Ft. Knox, KY at the Advanced Leader's Course (formally BNCOC). I'm going to be here for a few more weeks and the course material takes up most of my time. When I get settled into my new home after January, I will have more time on my hands. I'll post some more models as they are completed.

Can't wait....