3D Cafe has LOADS of free models to download
http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/anatomy.asp
You an also get loads of textures below
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/texture/

Did you download the full package?
They are in OpenFX-->models-->figures

You sniper could use some work, but also is big compared to civ III inf.

I downloaded both packages, and I only have one demo file in the models folder - no figures folder.

I just spit it out and cropped it (not specifically to Civ size) to see how much detail transfers and if it looks close to what a good Civ unit should. I'm adding camo tonight, along with a few minor details. For never using a 3D program before, I think the reduced Civ unit image wasn't bad for a couple hours of work.

TO Dease: That's just like the problem I had with the "shattered" model (except it wasn't a robot, just a "shattered" model). It worked with a different model, though. I have no idea how to fix it or what causes it, and if anyone else figures that out, I'd like to know.

TO sourboy: I think, even at Civ level, the model still needs a bit of work. However, for you first shot at modeling ever, I think it's very good. It took me a bit before I could model anything like that (at least in anim8or).

OK, I've got joints built but when I pose them I don't see them move and the part is in the same place. Can I preview what I've moved with the skeleton?

@mr. will - are you sure you attached verticies to the skeleton

@A Viking Hairy Man - I FIXED IT YAY!!! openfx doesn't hate me after all :love: all I had to do was open the models and "set the model center" it messed up cause I just deleted the body from the wepons instead of making new ones I guess

You an also get loads of textures below
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/texture/

:worship: Thanks!!! I was so texture starved for my unit I had to make my own :crazyeye: THANK YOUUUUUUU!!!! :goodjob:

@sourboy - most details are noticable at civ size

TO Mr. Will: Also, you have to go back to model editing mode and update the OpenGL preview to see the changes (just click the object select tool or hit "O" to go back).

TO Dease (from The Furry Norseman :p): I'm glad you got it to work, if I hadn't already completely redone my death animation, I'd try that.

TO muffins: Oh... *immediately adds both to favs* I didn't even notice the links :D. Thanks, these'll be great...

Is there any way to rotate a model and the skeleton at the same time, or do I have to reposition all the joints seperately?

Is there any way to rotate a model and the skeleton at the same time, or do I have to reposition all the joints seperately?

Your joints should be attatched to vertices, so if you rotate your vertices, the joints should follow.

Hmm, I'll try. Also, another question if it's not too much trouble :D? I have two models with (obviously) seperate skeletons, how do I put them together? Thanks for all the help, by the way...

EDIT: For some reason the rotation thing won't work. I have all the verticies assigned to the proper bone, but when I rotate the model, and then view it (via reposition joints), they're in the same place :confused:.

Hmm, I'll try. Also, another question if it's not too much trouble :D? I have two models with (obviously) seperate skeletons, how do I put them together? Thanks for all the help, by the way...

EDIT: For some reason the rotation thing won't work. I have all the verticies assigned to the proper bone, but when I rotate the model, and then view it (via reposition joints), they're in the same place :confused:.

hmm.. I don't know then. Glad I didn't have to spend the time figuring that out. :D Of course, their copuld be an option somewhere.... If you concetrate real hard on the help menu, and follow any link you don't understand, I actually think it does a pretty good job of explaining thing. And that is probably the best way.

I couldn't figure out texturing, and tried for hours doing it without the help manual. But then I realized, while doing the tutorials, I was thinking, "Man, there is no way I could have figured this out myself!" That made me concetrate on using the help manual. Because trial and error just is not very efficient.

*GASP*... Anything but the... Help MENU! ;) Oh well, maybe I'll find some miracle option and all my worries will disappear... Or I could just move the joints myself but... That'd take work :D.

Thanks anyway, if I can just get those two problems fixed, then I can animate, yay! And then comes the palette... *sigh*

EDIT: I'm finally finished with the model and skeleton... Whew... I had to redo the skeleton for the legs and tail ( :mad: ), but as I was going through I found it MUCH easier than the first time... Lesson here, save your work (a lot), practice practice practice, and finally... VISIT CIVFANATICS A LOT! :p I now have the full model and skeleton, and I'll hopefully start animating tomorrow.

Anyway, anyone have any idea (or guess) as to when the rest of this tutorial will be made/posted. I am very earger to see exactly how he animates foot units (not that it does my specific model any help).

EDIT #2: I was just setting up the template (you know, for tomorrow ;) ), and before I saved it let me pose the model, afterward if I pressed "V" or selected the vertex tool, it told me "Robot manipulation is not possible". :mad: :aargh: :wallbash: Can someone please help me?

Hmm, I'll try. Also, another question if it's not too much trouble :D? I have two models with (obviously) seperate skeletons, how do I put them together? Thanks for all the help, by the way...

EDIT: For some reason the rotation thing won't work. I have all the verticies assigned to the proper bone, but when I rotate the model, and then view it (via reposition joints), they're in the same place :confused:.
The skeleton will only follow the model of you rotate the model in Skeleton > Pose.

EDIT #2: I was just setting up the template (you know, for tomorrow ;) ), and before I saved it let me pose the model, afterward if I pressed "V" or selected the vertex tool, it told me "Robot manipulation is not possible". :mad: :aargh: :wallbash: Can someone please help me?
You can only pose a 'Robot' in a 'Costume' Keyframe.

In a similar fashion, you can only move something in a 'Postion' keyframe, rotate it in a 'Rotation' keyframe and can only scale it in a 'Size' Keyframe.

To see the keyframes for any given object/robot/light/camera etc, press 'A' (Actor) select your robot or model and the Keyframes should appear as below (as long as you've got the option to see them in the view menu ticked ;) )

I might post my own tutorial giving people a complete step-by-step guide to making units. There are a lot of little things to learn :crazyeye:

Have you got enough frames there Muffins? :eek:

A quick question about shattering models - is there a special button, or do you have to manually split the model (I want lots of bits flying everywhere :D)

Have you got enough frames there Muffins? :eek:

A quick question about shattering models - is there a special button, or do you have to manually split the model (I want lots of bits flying everywhere :D)
I animate everything on one strip. :p

Shattering doesn't always work for all models. In designer select your objects/model and Click Actions > Seperate Polygons. Sometimes that works fine and sometimes it really does "seperate" the polygons in your model :p You shouldn't see any change in your model (save before you try)

In the animator you then select your model and click Edit > Special Effect and select the Explode special effect. You've then got several options on how your model gets 'shattered'

EDIT: I can't remember but you might have to be in a costume keyframe to see the "Special Effect" entry in the Edit menu :confused:

It doesn't always work or always work correctly so try with a simple shape first :goodjob:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/Stardocking_L.gif

well, thats all for now, I hope. I'll animate it as a unit later. For now I got what I needed to contiune, a tech chooser icon. :D

I actually have an animation going! [dance] But it's really hard to get 'em to move realistically :p. At least that comes down to practice... Thanks for all the help everyone :D.

BTW: That looks great Neomega, can hardly wait to see it finished...

:aargh: OpenFX hates me again :mad: while it will let me insert more than 1 model/robot it only renders halfway and then I get an error :cry: all my other animation still work render fine same with the presets that came with the 40mb version (they have >1 model/robot) I'll attach an image of what I'm saying, any ideas???
EDIT: I think it MAY have something to do with the fact that the OpenGL Renderer ("normal" renderer works fine)can'r find the appropriate .exe file (RENDERERGL.EXE IIRC) does anyone else have this problem?

:aargh: OpenFX hates me again :mad: while it will let me insert more than 1 model/robot it only renders halfway and then I get an error :cry: all my other animation still work render fine same with the presets that came with the 40mb version (they have >1 model/robot) I'll attach an image of what I'm saying, any ideas???
EDIT: I think it MAY have something to do with the fact that the OpenGL Renderer ("normal" renderer works fine)can'r find the appropriate .exe file (RENDERERGL.EXE IIRC) does anyone else have this problem?
I remember I had a similar problem with one of my tanks. It turned out to be a texture in an object that I had appear later in the animation and Render always crashed as soon as it tried to render it. I solved it by deleteing all the maps/textures and then re-applying them.

I think I had two maps of the same name - each on a different model.

That is one seriously cool space dock, Neomega :goodjob:

Can't wait to see the final unit! :D

That is one seriously cool space dock, Neomega :goodjob:

Can't wait to see the final unit! :D

I am thinking of making the default have a ship docked, and the cranes moving, slowest speed possible, 60 frame animation, and for fidget, having the ship leave, in 20 frames, the dock is empty for 20 frames, and then "a" ship, (curiously looking like the ship that was just there) comes back for the last 20 frames.

But for now, I am going back to work on all the icons for my tech tree, (about 66% done)

I am thinking of making the default have a ship docked, and the cranes moving, slowest speed possible, 60 frame animation, and for fidget, having the ship leave, in 20 frames, the dock is empty for 20 frames, and then "a" ship, (curiously looking like the ship that was just there) comes back for the last 20 frames.

But for now, I am going back to work on all the icons for my tech tree, (about 66% done)
I strongly recomend that you don't give your animations 60 frames :) If you give your animations 20 frames each then you risk going over Civfanatics 3mb upload limit. My warhounds use between 16 to 24 frames in each animation and each zip was 2.8mb

If you're worried about animation speed then don't ... you can change the animation speed in FLICster and view it before you export the civ-flic :D

Kinboat usually uses 16 frames an animation and his stuff is the best :goodjob:

SKELETONS ARE EVIL!!! :mad:

Can someone give a complete walkthrough on how to build a simple skeleton? I keep trying to build them through the hiearchy but can't see anything happening, and nothing at all happens when I pose things, even if I update the viewer thing. Do I put the joints in the hiearchy and then try to build them or vice-versa? I'm sorry for asking so many questions but I've tried to figure it out myself quite a few times.

Also, is there an easier way to do the palette than clicking every single color in your unit?

Thanks all, you've been very helpful.

I strongly recomend that you don't give your animations 60 frames :) If you give your animations 20 frames each then you risk going over Civfanatics 3mb upload limit. My warhounds use between 16 to 24 frames in each animation and each zip was 2.8mb

If you're worried about animation speed then don't ... you can change the animation speed in FLICster and view it before you export the civ-flic :D

Kinboat usually uses 16 frames an animation and his stuff is the best :goodjob:

Well, since it would be part of the mod, there is no upload limit.

I know, but a sixty frame animation at slowest speed would make the fidget apper like a default. perhaps only 5 frames should be spent on take-off and landing. A nice thing about .FLCs is they optimize animations, so a 10 frame default is alot smaller, (because of little movement, therefore little pixel change) than a 10 frame death (alot of movement, twisting, explosions maybe, and lots of different pixels)

I think a sixty frame at super slow speed lasts for 2 minutes. That means the Space dock would appear empty for about 1.75 minutes during it's "fidget" animation.

TO Neomega: Cool idea, big file though. I look forward to seeing the results, and downloading the mod (well, not the "downloading", but the mod :p).

TO Mr. Will: I make my skeleton in the hierarchy menu, then you select all the verticies that will be controled by that bone and select the proper bone in the hierarchy menu, then click the attach button in the hierarchy menu and all the verticies should then be assigned to that particular bone. Save, and pose (if needed). After you're happy with the skeleton and associated model, you can save and import i tas a robot for animation in the animator.

A nice thing about .FLCs is they optimize animations, so a 10 frame default is alot smaller, (because of little movement, therefore little pixel change) than a 10 frame death (alot of movement, twisting, explosions maybe, and lots of different pixels)
Cool!! :goodjob: I didn't realise that. I'm just going to have to try that out on the Baneblade :D

[dance][dance][dance][dance][dance]
YAY!!! it worked! Thanks muffins :goodjob: you are :king: :worship:
(BTW, nice avatar but i was thinking somthing a bit more edible :p)

It turned out to be that two separate models were using the same texture, so I just made a duplicate texture and it's all good now :D

Also, mainly out of curiosity, (since tif works good) why can't I render bmp's with resolutions that arn't multiples of 20??? If I try then the image is all skewed and multicoloured horizontal lines are all over it

I had no idea it did that... Thanks for telling, I didn't want to have to find that out myself...

YAY!!! it worked! Thanks muffins :goodjob: you are :king: :worship:
(BTW, nice avatar but i was thinking somthing a bit more edible :p)

It turned out to be that two separate models were using the same texture, so I just made a duplicate texture and it's all good now :D

Also, mainly out of curiosity, (since tif works good) why can't I render bmp's with resolutions that arn't multiples of 20??? If I try then the image is all skewed and multicoloured horizontal lines are all over it
For some reason with bitmaps, OpenFX only does it right if the small number from the resolution is exactly 75% of the larger number without fractions (ie 156x117, 160x120, 164x123, 168x126) ... it might be the maths or the bitmap format or something. :confused: If you do render directly to small civ-sized bitmaps then remember to right-click your cameras and change their aspect ratio to 1.2 or your images will get squished :D

And I found out why you can only see the skeleton in animator and not the model ... you have 'draw bounded' turned on in the View menu. Click View > Draw Full to change that :goodjob:

yeah, I dicovered how to see the verticies a while back, even easier is the f6 button :)
That's quite a strange system OFX has there with bitmaps :crazyeye: I already got my resolutions figured out so I'm just gonna render in single .tif's and batch convert/rename 'em :D

Another thing, (although I doubt there's a solution) does anyone know how to bypass or deal with the ringframe civ units have at the end of each direction? very annoying because the west anims always look wierd if they loop, and some (like muffins tank) don't even get to the good part (like explosions or gun shots). Info on these ringframes can be found in the flicster thread but it stops short of how to deal with 'em ;)

Don't know what the ringframe is that your talking about. I've not had any problems with flicster.

Anywho...
I've had an annoying problem that I've finally found a solution. Thought I'd share with you.

I don't know if the problem is how The Morpheous set up the template file, but that's where I found the problem. When rendering to GIF there would be an area of "off magenta" colors along the top border. This same area is present in BMP's (only visible in 256 colors) but is usually edited out when applying the unit pallete. However, I needed to have shades of black to magenta for an explosion and so the spot was present. NOTE: This problem was only in the SW and one other direction.

To solve the problem I selected light1 opened the size keyframe and changed the cone angle from 15 to 45.

Also, another tip I've learned. If you want to use a postpro laser or lens effect on some lights, change your ground color to black. The effects won't loose color as they pass from the unit to the ground. You will need to be prepared to do some pallete adjusting and possibly filling in some pixels if black also happens to be in your unit. If you use Pedit, you can place the black where the magenta would be and reserve one spot to move the black of your unit to once you've completed your storyboard.

BTW I forgot who said it many posts ago, but thanks for letting us know about OpenFX rendering all frames to BMP when a range is selected. I didn't think it would do that and had no desire to render each frame individually.

If anybody can find a way for OpenFX to start counting with 0000 instead of 0001 so that I can import straight to SBB without renaming my sequence. Attack and Default are fine as the last is usually identical to the first anyway, but Death is of course NOT.

I know they provide the source code for OpenFX. It would be great if somebody could modify OpenFX to render as a CivIII Flc. Something like OpenFlicster... Too bad I don't know any programming....

If anybody can find a way for OpenFX to start counting with 0000 instead of 0001 so that I can import straight to SBB without renaming my sequence. Attack and Default are fine as the last is usually identical to the first anyway, but Death is of course NOT.
Here's a link to a Bulk Rename Utility called BRU that I use for that :D
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22983,00.asp

If anybody can find a way for OpenFX to start counting with 0000 instead of 0001 so that I can import straight to SBB without renaming my sequence. Attack and Default are fine as the last is usually identical to the first anyway, but Death is of course NOT.


SBB has a little check box labelled first = 1. This starts the sequence with 0001 rather than 0000 (might be latest version only).

Another trick to avoid renaming is to put a 0 on the end of all your .bmp names, so they have the correct amount of 0s for SBB

SBB has a little check box labelled first = 1. This starts the sequence with 0001 rather than 0000 (might be latest version only).

Another trick to avoid renaming is to put a 0 on the end of all your .bmp names, so they have the correct amount of 0s for SBB
OpenFX removes all numbers at the end of any file-name and replaces it with the frame number whic is very annoying :)

I never noticed that about SBB - thanks! :goodjob:

OpenFX removes all numbers at the end of any file-name and replaces it with the frame number whic is very annoying :)


No it doesn't. It does cut off the end of file names if they are too long (but I don't know how long too long is)

I must have an old version or something then :lol:

I have to number my test renders with "one", "two", "three" etc or OpenFX will just knock off the "1, 2, 3" and save over the previous render

@rug_007 - It's not me that risks getting blacklisted ;)

If anyone is wondering what rug is talking about then click below to see
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=93333&page=5
I think I made the mistake of posting in his thread or something :confused:

Rug_007 - Warned for flaming.

<deleted>
I have never emailed you

I still don't know what I've done to enrage you :confused: but if it's something that I've said then I apoligise

Stay cool! :cool: :goodjob:

Nobody's taken sides, dude. We just don't want a bunch of off-topic flamings toward a person obviously trying not to argue you with you. Calm down, it's only a website. To associate a simple post with his political views is a misguided assumtion, and a very rude one at that. Please stop posting here unless you have something to contribute to the thread (that's on topic)...

Anyway, on topic now, thanks for the link muffins, that'll help a lot. Usually I'll put the name of the animation (i.e. death, attack, et cetera) and then a "0" right after, and with death's and defaults and such I can usually copy the first frame and rename it "0000". That won't work for running animations, so this is a very useful tool... :goodjob:

How exactly were you attacked?

<deleted>
You seem to be confusing 'posts' with 'threads' and 'threads' with 'websites'. You also seem confused about how forums work. Forums are there for discussion and the exhange of ideas. People can start threads but no-one owns them.

If I was to post a new civ-unit in a new thread and then banned people from posting there, it would not only be completely unreasonable and ridiculous, it would also be 100% against what these forums are for :goodjob:

Don't know what the ringframe is that your talking about. I've not had any problems with flicster.

It's not an actual problem with flicster just a problem with the west direction that is present in seeminly every unit (ever the firaxian ones) it's also why some people have had problems with thier animations if it's less than 8 frames. Heres the explanation of ring frames in the flicster thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=10208) Post #5 (all of it :eek: )

I fail to see where he attacked you on this thread. As for the other thread he was correcting a mistake of yours and worded it very badly. And if you are upset about all the comments on the other thread just ask a mod to delete the comments.

<deleted>
Your "site"? You have no idea what a forum is, do you? :( You started a thread which is open to all to post in it. A thread is not a website

What site?!?! WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?!?! You only had a thread, and he makes one little freakin' comment, then you flip out... You're obsessive. A simple emoticon would've have been the most you would've needed to get across your point. But instead you decided to come here and annoy everyone with random, meanigless, dribble... You're a distraction, an annoyance, and just plain psychotic...

Fine, see if they give a rat's arse about it either. "No further comment"? HOORAY!!!

EDIT: I'm going to be quite so I don't get myself banned (as he almost assuredly will, either for this or other outburts which are sure to happen)...

What site?!?! WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?!?! You only had a thread, and he makes one little freakin' comment, then you flip out... You're obsessive. A simple emoticon would've have been the most you would've needed to get across your point. But instead you decided to come here and annoy everyone with random, meanigless, dribble... You're a distraction, an annoyance, and just plain psychotic...

Annoy is not quite the word I am looking for. :mad: :rolleyes:

TO MarineCoprs: The word I was lookin' for would've gotten be banned... :p.

TO rug_007: Why don't you add yourself to that list, as you're the most belligerent person here (other than possibly me, but I didn't start it :lol: )...

I request that a mod PLEASE delete all posts that are part of this pointless fight and that everyone else just ignore rug's antagonizing remarks so that this thread could get a bit more back on topic
BTW, I have reported one of rug's more flaming posts to a mod

Wasn't that a comment rug? Going back on your word there...


I hope this thread get's attacked by a mod with a chainsaw - it will be impossable to find things through the flame soon...

BTW, I have reported it to a mod, so it shouldn't be long...

I request that a mod PLEASE delete all posts that are part of this pointless fight and that everyone else just ignore rug's antagonizing remarks so that this thread could get a bit more back on topic

Maybe someone should PM a mod... I don't think this is going to stop anytime soon. Sorry for threadjacking, BTW :blush: .

I think this is the most consistant activity Tutorials, Reference, & Guides has ever had - it's usually pretty quiet but we're getting at least a post a minute!

Maybe someone should PM a mod... I don't think this is going to stop anytime soon. Sorry for threadjacking, BTW :blush: .

I have PM'd both Padma and Turner.

I think this is the most consistant activity Tutorials, Reference, & Guides has ever had - it's usually pretty quiet but we're getting at least a post a minute!

Unfortunately, of abosultely no contribution to the topic and absolutely useless (unless you're here for a good laugh :mischief: )...

I have PM'd both Padma and Turner.

Thank you...

Bah, none of the mods are online

I think this is the most consistant activity Tutorials, Reference, & Guides has ever had - it's usually pretty quiet but we're getting at least a post a minute!

Actually, this thread has been very lively, because there are about 3 or 4 new unit creators because of Morpheus' tutorial.

Rug_007 had a thread that had a bunch of nice pictures posted, but had the entire thing deleted because it wasn't stickied three months ago, and you can go back and see this started because apparently the popularity of this thread was making "his" thread disappear.

Bah, none of the mods are online

NOOOO! Who will save us? :p

Actually, this thread has been very lively, because there are about 3 or 4 new unit creators because of Morpheus' tutorial.

Rug_007 had a thread that had a bunch of nice pictures posted, but had the entire thing deleted because it wasn't stickied three months ago, and you can go back and see this started because apparently the popularity of this thread was making "his" thread disappear.

Is that why he's so angry, 'cause I still can't firgure out what pissed him off so much... I thought it was just muffins comment...

Bah, none of the mods are online
They usually use invisible mode so noone can spot them, I've reported the thread so hopefully this will stop soon.
BTW my inbox has about 20 emails in a row 'bout people repling to this thread :eek:

TURNER 727 it looks like i will have to include you also in my complaint. I see you have taken sides.

Send that email to Thunderfall@civfanatics.net. I warned you once on this, and you continued to flame and troll. Have a nice 7 day vacation for excessive trolling, and another 3 for publicly discussing moderator actions, instead of PMing myself or Thunderfall about it.

People....don't feed the trolls. If you have a problem with a poster, report the post.

I'm going to open this thread back up. Any more trolling and flaming will be dealt with in a simular manner.

Again, people....don't feed the trolls. Report the posts, let the mods take care of it. It's what we're here for.

YAY! I have a question: is there any way to shrink the rendered animation without actually shrinking the model itself (i.e. cropping)?

EDIT: I was messing around, trying to get the background to be a pure color, and if you just change the color of the light directly above the scene, the background is pure magenta. Unfortunately, this makes the models considerably more reflective... Any idea on how to retain model specularity without using the overhead light?

YAY! I have a question: is there any way to shrink the rendered animation without actually shrinking the model itself (i.e. cropping)?

EDIT: I was messing around, trying to get the background to be a pure color, and if you just change the color of the light directly above the scene, the background is pure magenta. Unfortunately, this makes the models considerably more reflective... Any idea on how to retain model specularity without using the overhead light?

For the first part, I think you can just render to a smaller size image. Just be careful as to your sizes and image type. I understand that bmps need to have certain ratios when you get smaller than what OpenFX provides.

For the second part, don't change the color of the light. Just change the cone angle of the overhead light to 45 instead 15. It will cover a larger area thus making the background a pure color. See my last post from yesterday about this (it could be a couple pages back by now...)

Hope those ideas help.

Oh, thanks. That'll help my palette work considerably... About the first part, my .bmp's work fine. I usually render with a 1:1 ratio... I'm not sure why you guys are getting such odd results :confused:.

EDIT: The cone size alteration did reduce some of the colors, but there are still several colors. Any idea why (I even increased the angle to 90%)...

EDIT #2: I reduced the light color slightly (to normal light-gray), and the background thing worked out just fine. The model's color change is practically unoticable... Thanks for the help.

Would you use two bones for a cannon recoil and the like, or is there some trick to that? If it's not two bones, I have no idea what it is... :confused:

Would you use two bones for a cannon recoil and the like, or is there some trick to that? If it's not two bones, I have no idea what it is... :confused:
This is how I'm doing it.

I have a bone that is just a pivot point for the gun, followed by the joint I use to evevate the gun (I attach the gun base, sheath and gun-sheild etc to this one).

I then have two recoil joints (the first one is right in the air :D ) and I attach the recoiling part of the gun barrel to the joint on the very end. To recoil all you do is move both recoil joints backward slightly, keeping the barrel level ... that's it :goodjob:

Thanks muffins, I was just about to ask about that...
Is there an easier way to make your palette without clicking every single shade of color in your unit?

TO muffins: Thanks, sounds pretty easy... And best of all, I won't really have to redo any vertex assignments... YAY!

TO Mr. Will: I don't think so, but it'd be nice to have a program that automatically selects all the colors on the picture, and then puts them in the palette in their proper places... If I got a lot better at C++ coding, I'd try, but that'll take a while :p...

For easier palette work - find an original (or completed custom) unit and exprt as a single storyboard, it'll spit out a .pal palette so pedit can read it, just change the nescessary colours :D

I've always used a palette from one of Kinboats units. He has all the anti-alasing colours very well set up :D

Hmm... Thanks for the tips. Especially since that's my least favorite part of unit creation (and the part I'm worst at :p).

Once you know the basics it's all good, but just another tip, if you're going to use a fireball, DO NOT make the civ colour red (yes it sound obvious but I didn't realize it until after a 45 min rendering session (just for the attack :eek: ), now I have to redo all of my renderings with a blue texture since the explosion was civspecific :mad: ), Blue is the best cause it doesn't mix with anything like the background or the darker colours in the bottom row

I'm glad I always use blue... 45 mins? WHAT IN THE SAM HECK ARE YOU RENDERING?! My renders don't take much more than 30 seconds to, at most, 1 min...

45 mins? WHAT IN THE SAM HECK ARE YOU RENDERING?! My renders don't take much more than 30 seconds to, at most, 1 min...
All 8 directions for a 60 frame attack sequence, with 4 (small) fireballs in each, at best AA, 165x165, .tif format singleframe.
On a 733mhz with 384mb ram

That takes ~45 tedious minutes, I would die if I didn't have music blasting out and civfanatics.com to read :D

Grr....

Anybody perchance know why when working on my model my joints get all lined up and rotating across the proper planes, and then when I save it, and re-open, they all are back to their original planes of rotation?

Very frustrating..... :mad:

Once you know the basics it's all good, but just another tip, if you're going to use a fireball, DO NOT make the civ colour red (yes it sound obvious but I didn't realize it until after a 45 min rendering session (just for the attack :eek: ), now I have to redo all of my renderings with a blue texture since the explosion was civspecific :mad: ), Blue is the best cause it doesn't mix with anything like the background or the darker colours in the bottom row
I've done that one too :lol:

If anyone uses the 'glow' post-production effect (for gunflashes or melting or whatever) be aware that the 'red' setting will turn nearby blue objects magenta (because of the glow effect) and the 'blue' setting will turn nearby red coloured objects magenta.

Correcting the storyboard in PSP with a colour replacer brush is a pain :mad:

I'm glad I always use blue... 45 mins? WHAT IN THE SAM HECK ARE YOU RENDERING?! My renders don't take much more than 30 seconds to, at most, 1 min...

Hmm, 45mins is ok if you got a TV next to your PC ;) Some of my aniamtions needed 40-50mins to to render all directions, I even got a model, that will take 3 hours to render (30frames/8Directions) But I don't think I will become that crazy someday :D

Well, I figured out texturing. I really need to get back to work on my mod, but this was fun. The next Icon I need to make is for underground cities, which I think would be better done in Blender.

This is the Jump RAV, you'll find it in the third era, next to it's cousin the War RAV, except you'll need all 3 Industrialization resources.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/JumpRAV_preview.gif

Only 1734 faces. I hope to see it running around the battlefields of my Civ IV mod as well. ;)

I've just stumbled upon a major no-no in OpenFX Designer that will totally courpt your saved model if you're not careful.

If you've got a model that has a skeleton then don't insert another model that also has a skeleton. If you do then you will be sorry :cry:

I found this out when I tried to insert a muzzel-end for my Shadowsword tank that I created with the Boolean function.

The Boolean function allows you to cut a deselected object with a selected object ... but then attaches all the cut parts to newly created skeleton joints. I tried to insert the model without deleteing the skeleton ... and lost my tank

:cry: :cry: :cry:

I think I'll go and sulk now :(

Hmm. now I know how the first cavemen tasteing strange berries felt.

Sorry Muffins, but I suppose I would prefer it happen to you than me. :p

I used Rhino, which had limited saves, so I never saved until I had completely felt satisfied with my model. Lost a couple to powersurges. dozens of hours of texturing and modeling lost forever.

So saving is a free luxury. I have default, default2, default3 and default4 for my "Jump RAV'. I really don't trust OpenFX much at all, as I have had it crash plenty of times when I would make a wrong move.

"Save, save and save again" should be the OpenFX motto, I think :)

I tried to insert the model without deleteing the skeleton ... and lost my tank.

:cry: that sucks! and that was a amazing tank too!!! :cry:

this is why I have a folder called Openfx backup, I've had too many time when I lost my work due to crashes and the like so I always save the same model atleast twice, once in the normal ofx folder and the other in the ofx backup folder. Also if I am about to do alot of work on a certain model I save the previous model as v1.0 or whatever. Could call me paranoid but it annoys me immensly if I have to redo somthing i've already done :mad:

:cry: that sucks! and that was a amazing tank too!!! :cry:

this is why I have a folder called Openfx backup, I've had too many time when I lost my work due to crashes and the like so I always save the same model atleast twice, once in the normal ofx folder and the other in the ofx backup folder. Also if I am about to do alot of work on a certain model I save the previous model as v1.0 or whatever. Could call me paranoid but it annoys me immensly if I have to redo somthing i've already done :mad:

Then I'm paranoid too, I always get a backup copy of the models, and if I'm working on a biq, I back it up before I change anything major. I think I got 10 or more versions of the star trek mod on my HD... :crazyeye:

:cry: that sucks! and that was a amazing tank too!!! :cry:

The Baneblade is fine :goodjob: I'm up to "BanebladeFinalSkel_v12" in my saved models folder :D

I only lost the Shadowsword variant of the Baneblade, which isn't too bad :)

You do muzzleflashes with the Post-Pro Glow effect, right? How do I use it?

I wish I had been as paranoid. But after having to redo all my animations twice, I'm now very paranoid. I keep backups, and save after even minor changes...

I KEEP BACKUPS OF MY BACKUPS!... J/k, I'm not that paranoid, but still.

You do muzzleflashes with the Post-Pro Glow effect, right? How do I use it?
Create a simple shape for your gunflash in designer and give it a colour that you don't use anywhere else in your model. Write down the exact RGB colour numbers (this is going to be your keycolour ;) ).

Then click the 'Texture' tab (while you're in the 'Attributes > Material Settings' window) and click 'Internal'. Choose the 'Luminous' texture and save your model.

In Animator insert your gunflash model and click Insert > Post-Pro (or Edit > Insert Actor > Post-Pro in the menus) and choose 'Glow'.

Click the colour in the window that pops up, click 'Define Custom Colours' and enter the exact RGB numbers from your model. Click OK.

You should then see something like below :goodjob:

What kind of shape looks most realistic for a muzzleflash? All of mine look sort of odd.
Also, could you re-explain recoil joints again? I seem to be doing that wrong also as my gun begins going up, too.

@mr. will - not positive about your questions so i'll let someone who uses that technique to answer ;)

@Everyone - does anyone know how to use nurbs? there's no help in the help file and no tutorials on the ofx site, anyone know?

What kind of shape looks most realistic for a muzzleflash? All of mine look sort of odd.
Also, could you re-explain recoil joints again? I seem to be doing that wrong also as my gun begins going up, too.
If you look at the shadow from the muzzel flash pic I posted you'll see that the shapes I use are hand-drawn spikey things. They're flat as a pancake but I duplicate them and rotate through 90 degrees to give a 3D shape.

It usually looks better if you render at a higher resolution and then resize back down to civ-sized. I think that's because it's a post-production thingy :confused:

Recoil - Start with a joint that acts as the rotation point for the gun. The next joint is used to elevate/move the gun and you attach the gun-base to that one. Next comes two recoil joints. After the recoil joints you have another joint that you attach the gun barrel to.

You position the two recoil joints so that they work like a spring (look at the skeleton pic I posted a while ago), or like a 'thigh-master' :) exercise thingy. You should be able to move the first recoil joint back, and then use the second recoil joint to correct the gun angle

... like below :D

My designer has started crashing every few miniutes :(. I've reinstalled, and restarted but it keeps getting a memery error. I can use it for about 5 mins before it crashes again... could it be a corrupt save of the model? I don't want to do it again!

Any suggestions?

My designer has started crashing every few miniutes :(. I've reinstalled, and restarted but it keeps getting a memery error. I can use it for about 5 mins before it crashes again... could it be a corrupt save of the model? I don't want to do it again!

Any suggestions?


I had a problem when I imported a model.
It was just a ring I had premade, no more than 60 faces, and then put it in with one of my buildings I was designing, and it caused some problems.

My designer has started crashing every few miniutes :(. I've reinstalled, and restarted but it keeps getting a memery error. I can use it for about 5 mins before it crashes again... could it be a corrupt save of the model? I don't want to do it again!

Any suggestions?
I get problems when OpenFX crashes and then brings down WinManagment with it. Whack Ctrl-Atl-Delete and see if it's listed. Close it if it is.

It could be a texture instead. Both Dease and I had problems when using the same texture on two seperate models in Animator.

If that doesn't solve your computer problems then I can only suggest the "Windows Solution" (ie - picking it up and throwing it out of the nearest one :D )

Turns out I had a disk space shortage. I haven't tried dabbling into textures yet - they seem quite complicated, and I can't tell at a glance what they will look like. Also all the ones I've seen available to download don't seem to suit my unit. I've just started on skeletons and after a few teething problems (trying to work out how they work) they seem to work quite well. I might save textures till next time.


If that doesn't solve your computer problems then I can only suggest the "Windows Solution" (ie - picking it up and throwing it out of the nearest one :D )
LOL, good olde windows

I have a small problem with skeletons - it seems that if I edit a skeleton after starting to animate the newly attached joints disappear from all previously done things. Is this just a fact of life, or is there a workaround?

EDIT: Nevermind; worked it out

My designer has started crashing every few miniutes :(. I've reinstalled, and restarted but it keeps getting a memery error. I can use it for about 5 mins before it crashes again... could it be a corrupt save of the model? I don't want to do it again!

Any suggestions?

That happens to me all the time if I get above 15k faces, use the simplify action to reduce the #, I REALLY need a new computer so that's probably the problem :(

@muffins (and anyone else who wants to help)-
My skeletons only have circles and huge 3D squares, and look nothing like yours. Also, when I move things in my skeletons, they end up in odd places, whereas with your skeleton (on your Leman Russ model, thanks for posting it!) they seem to make sense when I move them (I can move skeletons at least, just can's make them.) :lol: I think that I need to figure out the basics of making a skeleton. Can you explain (for the fourth time, I think :mischief: ) how to make even simple skeletons, taking in the fact that I have no idea AT ALL how to do them, as in I can't even make a hinge joint? (Kinda like a Skeletons for Dummies Tutorial.) I'm really sorry for being so annoying, but I've played with skeletons for most of my time in OpenFX haven't learned a thing. (The help file is useless.) If I'm coming across as rude, I am sincerely sorry, but I just can't make skeletons to save my life. HELP!

Thank everyone here for putting up with me!

That happens to me all the time if I get above 15k faces, use the simplify action to reduce the #, I REALLY need a new computer so that's probably the problem :(
Blimmy! :eek: I'm up to 20,000 polygons and my computer hardly slows at all

:D sorry :D didn't mean to make fun

@Mr. Will - gimmie a day or two and I'll post a step-by-step skeleton turtorial for you :goodjob:

Thank you very much muffins! I don't know what I'd do without you!
(Picture a curly-haired teen using sledgehammer on computer...) :lol:
THANK YOU!

Sorry, I haven't read the whole thread, but can someone answer me some questions about OpenFX?

1. What formats of 3d objects can be used, and saved? For example can I read and write 3ds and 3ds MAX models?

2. How big is a full installation?

@BeBro
1. I'm not quite sure... It can open 3ds models I know, but I'm not sure about what others.

2.It's about 93.1 mb on my computer.

Thanks a lot :)

1. It can save and open .mfx .dfx and .3ds I think the animator can only open/save .ofx formats

2. from openfx.org the largest installation is 40mb although a newer version (I think) can be found here (http://www.ee.qub.ac.uk/graphics/whatsnew.htm) It's 45mb, if you have a slow internet connection a 10mb file can be found at openfx.org :D

Sorry, I haven't read the whole thread, but can someone answer me some questions about OpenFX?

1. What formats of 3d objects can be used, and saved? For example can I read and write 3ds and 3ds MAX models?

2. How big is a full installation?

I have not found a way to write any file but .mfx, OpenFX's own file system.

It can open four types of files .dxf, .mfx, .3ds and .stl.

I opened a 3ds file last night and it did ok, even applying the textures the model came with.

Thx for the info, I would be most interested in something that can open 3ds MAX models, since there are some very good free MAX models on the web, but my Cinema4D cannot open them (only normal 3ds) :(

That's strange, why is my install so big...
Oh well, at least it works.

I have not found a way to write any file but .mfx, OpenFX's own file system.
Just click File > Export Model and you have a choice of four formats (DFX, 3DS, STL and VRML) :goodjob:

That's strange, why is my install so big...
Oh well, at least it works.
the download is zipped and thus reduces alot of the size, if your looking at how big your open fx folder is then it probably is ~100mb :)
@muffins - do you know how to make the forms that are makeable with nurbs into forms with actual verticies?

@Dease - Sorry, I don't even know what a nurb is or what it does :confused:

@Mr.Will - Sleleton tutorial posted :goodjob: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=94071

:D :D
Thank you muffins. See your tutorial for more praise, o skeleton master. :thanx:

@Dease - Sorry, I don't even know what a nurb is or what it does :confused:

@Mr.Will - Sleleton tutorial posted :goodjob: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=94071

A nurb is a curve rotated around an axis. IT doesn't use a mesh, but probably has to be converted into a mesh to be used in OpenFX or Blender.

The main advantage of Nurbs is they can make more smooth gentle contours, as opposed to grabbing vertices and pulling them away from a spere.

Any idea as to how to convert it into a form with verticies? I've made alot of generic shapes with nurbs that would speed my modeling immensly but can't seem to get them to convert :(

Any idea as to how to convert it into a form with verticies? I've made alot of generic shapes with nurbs that would speed my modeling immensly but can't seem to get them to convert :(

Blender can use Nurbs.......

Somewhere around there... check your help file maybe... should be a bit about how to convert nurbs to mesh. I know Rhino can do it. It is a trial version limited to 25 saves, if all else fails.

I actually came to make this note:

It appears, no matter what you do.... OpenFX likes to actually render it's magenta as 248 0 248, instead of 255 0 255.

This is with one light, white wiht either 0's or 100's. I messed around a bit with the shading and lighting... and nothing seemed to make a difference.

I actually came to make this note:

It appears, no matter what you do.... OpenFX likes to actually render it's magenta as 248 0 248, instead of 255 0 255.

This is with one light, white wiht either 0's or 100's. I messed around a bit with the shading and lighting... and nothing seemed to make a difference.
I've never had that problem.

I use 5 lights though. 4 that are N, S, E, W and without shadow (and using the grey colour on the far right in the top row) and one directly above the model, using the same colour and with shadow.

Odd way to do it. :p Why not just directly render to Bitmap frames? I just select a range of frames, select bitmaps and a civ-sized frame (with max anti-alising :D ) When OpenFX asks if you want to reset to an animation click no.

The problem with gifs is that they were designed to be used with simple graphics with few colours (like 256) and be able to be kept small in size. Bitmaps are perfect for high quality rendering.


Hmm... every time I try this, I get "smeared" renderings... allthough during the preview it looks fine. :(

There's somthing to to with the ratio of the 2 dimensions, I find if you use a 1:1 ratio the dimension has to be a multiple of 20 :crazyeye: I just render .tif's and convert them the same time as I rename them :D

I use 5 lights though. 4 that are N, S, E, W and without shadow (and using the grey colour on the far right in the top row) and one directly above the model, using the same colour and with shadow.

I used to use that set-up but with my current unit it was too dark and looked very wierd if I intensified the 4 edge lights so I added 4 more lights(at the diagonal directions) for a total of 9 and decreased the intensity of all, it seems to work perfectly now :D

Hmm... every time I try this, I get "smeared" renderings... allthough during the preview it looks fine. :(
The smaller nubber of the resolution has to be exactly 75% of the larger number, without fractions.

eg - 180x135, 176x132, 172x129, 168x126 etc

I always use an aspect ratio of 1.2 so that if I render a special effect at a larger resolution and then resize it back down to civ-size, the unit in the frames will still exactly match the smaller renderings in size.

I figured out how to make nurbs into forms with veriticies! [dance] :D

first, make sure your form made with nurbs is selected, then in the edit-->nurbs menu choose regular triangulation and it makes it into a form with verticies :D although on my little test it made two separate forms for some reason. ;)

Hello, this is my first post. I'm currently making an Artic Tank model which is going to be animated by Mr.Will. I'm also working on a Anti-Air version. I'm using Open FX and it is going to be my first unit! :D
Just saying Hello,
-Spart

It looks better in Flicster, but this is my first working FLC.
Flc2Gif takes away some of the glory... :lol:

errrrrr....
It looks like crap now. How do y'all do better looking previews?
Believe me, it looks much better in flicster.

errrrrr....
It looks like crap now. How do y'all do better looking previews?
Believe me, it looks much better in flicster.
For a preview, I render straight to a Flic and then convert it to an animated gif with PSP Animation Shop :D

nice tank btw :goodjob:

For a preview, I render straight to a Flic and then convert it to an animated gif with PSP Animation Shop :D


I was rendering straight into .gif - I'll have a go at this method next time, as my .gifs often come out rather strange... (transparent bits and miscellanious white splodges)

EDIT: Had a go, but can't get it to work properly, might have another go later

:mad: ... grrrrrr ... :mad:

blinking textures in OpenFX :cry:

Does anyone know how to fix a texture to a certain object/vertices so that it stays in place if you pose your model in animator? I've tried to use 'fixed-to' mapping but can't seem to work out how to use it

someone help me pleeeeese! :cry:

:D

:mad: ... grrrrrr ... :mad:

blinking textures in OpenFX :cry:

Does anyone know how to fix a texture to a certain object/vertices so that it stays in place if you pose your model in animator? I've tried to use 'fixed-to' mapping but can't seem to work out how to use it

someone help me pleeeeese! :cry:

:D

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/foxmiss.gif

here is my missile animation

Fixed to mapping... IT all has to be done in the right steps. You have to have the objects selected, and then you go to attributes --> fixed to mapping --> convert normal map to fixed to map.

Then you edit your texture, and choose fixed mapping in the edit screen ( maps --> edit map

You may have to play with the two settings in attributes --> material settings that have to do with decals and tiling, because planar can use one, but not the other, and cylindrical can use the other but not the one.

Also, the Blender tutorial section has a link to a great starting texturemap, that has letters, numbers ad colors so you can fairly easily pinpoint where you are painting in your 2d editing program.



The uploads seem to not be working.

Question about resolutions, and lens sizes.

If I were to increase the resolution of a frame by 20% would I have to decrease the lens size by 20% for the unit to appear the same size? Or is it slightly more complicated than this?

Question about resolutions, and lens sizes.

If I were to increase the resolution of a frame by 20% would I have to decrease the lens size by 20% for the unit to appear the same size? Or is it slightly more complicated than this?

I think you would be better off scaling the model down 20%.

I think you would be better off scaling the model down 20%.
Errrrm... good point - I didn't think of that :blush:

EDIT: Not really ideal, as positions are all thrown off, it'll take about an hour to fix it all, so if anybody knows by what lens percentage I need to reduce it by for a 20% increase in resulution I'd be grateful. If not I'll do some experiments...

Errrrm... good point - I didn't think of that :blush:

EDIT: Not really ideal, as positions are all thrown off, it'll take about an hour to fix it all, so if anybody knows by what lens percentage I need to reduce it by for a 20% increase in resulution I'd be grateful. If not I'll do some experiments...

Not sure what you are doing, but having your original center point at 0,0,0... (not 0,0,1... not sure why Morpheus did that) makes it pretty easy to reposition your unit. You can also do some eyeballing, and using your 2d editor, can do some side by sidew comparisons. That is what I did when I realized my soldeir was too big.

What I mean is, I am not sure why you want to scale up.

If it is to add a beam weapon, I have always worked in 239 x 239 cells for all animations, so scale problems would not arise. Unfortuantely to get BMPs you need multiples of 20... so 220 x 220 would probably be advised.

I've been working in 200x150, but need more space for the missile animation, so I'm upsizing to 240x180. There are quite a few different objects involved in this animation, and I am too lazy to shift them all so they all work again (each smoke puff would have to be moved manually, and the rockets appear to be going too fast). Several bodges have been made along the way which confuse the issue as well, and it would be far easier just to resize using lens sizes.

If I know I can also trim down the resolution of the other animations, cutting out some redundant magenta, and saving space and rendering time.

Not sure what you are doing, but having your original center point at 0,0,0... (not 0,0,1... not sure why Morpheus did that)

The Morpheous use 0,0,1 because he was demonstrating with a flying unit which sits a little higher than the ground units. In fact my Borg Tacticle Cube was centered at 0,0,1.7 because when rendered at 240x240 that was the position needed to center the unit properly within the map grid in game.

[here is my missile animation.

:wow: oh, my word! Now THAT is cool! :wow:

How did you do the missile smoke-trail? :drool:

:wow: oh, my word! Now THAT is cool! :wow:

How did you do the missile smoke-trail? :drool:

My bad, I must have promised on a different thread to show the missile animation once I got home....

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=2027257#post2027257

Is where the discussion was occuring....

Just a heads up, OpenFX v1.1 has just been released. :)

http://www.openfx.org/index.html

Just a heads up, OpenFX v1.1 has just been released. :)

http://www.openfx.org/index.html


Well I'll be damned, first word from the site in over a year.....

How do you do civilopedia pictures? I think it's been asked before but I don't know where.

BTW, here is my next animation challenge after i post the Artic Tank, hopefully I won't screw up the beautiful model, which is done by Spart, my artistic brother. Anyone have any tips on animating bi-pedal units?

How do you do civilopedia pictures? I think it's been asked before but I don't know where.

BTW, here is my next animation challenge after i post the Artic Tank, hopefully I won't screw up the beautiful model, which is done by Spart, my artistic brother. Anyone have any tips on animating bi-pedal units?
Take your pic in Animator, then in PSP resize to 128x128 and decrease the colour depth to 256 colours. Edit the palette so that the very last colour (bottom right I think in the palette view) is the magenta/pink colour. The small pedia pics are done the same way but to 32x32 size.

The only helpful advice I can give for that rather cool mech is to take your time and model the walk on an ostrich or the rear-legs of a dog :)

Take your pic in Animator, then in PSP resize to 128x128 and decrease the colour depth to 256 colours. Edit the palette so that the very last colour (bottom right I think in the palette view) is the magenta/pink colour. The small pedia pics are done the same way but to 32x32 size.


last two colors. And it is that way for all civ III files.

Anyone have any tips on animating bi-pedal units?
With my dreadnaught I found the run to be the hardest animation. You need quite a bit of movement (it would be horrible without a skelleton), and, what muffins said.

A new version? Great! Though it doesn't seem to have many changes, it's the bugfixes I'm looking forward too.

Anyone have any tips on animating bi-pedal units?

Break it up into a set of four, and draw a stick figure storyboard, with a white leg and a black leg. That's how I finally figured it out. Reverse joint is fairly difficult because you can't walk around and figure it out. I believe reverse joint is a more bumpy ride...

This is how I did it :p 24 frames and the keyframes were set 3 frames apart

Muffins,
I made these when I was bored last week. I heard the Muffin Army was low on ideas... :lol:

EDIT: Sorry - this post was a load of nonsence

EDIT 2: No it wasn't... has anybody else found there are more bugs in version 1.1 than in version 1.0?

How many joints do you reccomend in my unit's legs?

EDIT: Sorry - this post was a load of nonsence

EDIT 2: No it wasn't... has anybody else found there are more bugs in version 1.1 than in version 1.0?

I wouldn't be surprised. New versions always seem to add a bug for every one they fix.

I really did not see a need to upgrade, so I haven't.



legs should have a hip, a knee, an ankle and a toe joint.

The hip attatches to the pelvis, The upperleg attaches to teh knee, the lower leg attaches to the ankle, and the foot attaches to the toe.

I found a mesh online that I'd like to animate, but it has greater than 65535 vertices. OpenFX will not let me render the image. Does anybody know how I can reduce the number of vertices? I tried breaking the mesh up into smaller logical segments, but each section also had too many vertices.

I found a mesh online that I'd like to animate, but it has greater than 65535 vertices. OpenFX will not let me render the image. Does anybody know how I can reduce the number of vertices? I tried breaking the mesh up into smaller logical segments, but each section also had too many vertices.
In the designer, go Actions --> plugin actions --> simplify.

Also I just noticed a cool thing which makes it render with 4 figure numbers - on render setup go to settings, and there is a thing you can change there..

Does anyone know how to make animated textures work? I want to make special effects for my spaceships, but cant workout how to get them working (just seems to crash render).

Does anyone know how to make animated textures work? I want to make special effects for my spaceships, but cant workout how to get them working (just seems to crash render).


I don't... but I would assume rule #1 would be the frame count for the OpenFX animation would have to match the frame count for the 2d animation. Also I would guess most "special" effects, like transparency, raytracing... maybe even glossiness or hotspots, may cause problems.

My advice would be make a model that is just a plane.... paste the texture to it, and then experiment.

Does anyone have any pointers on tank treads? I have been trying to make one but it doesn't come out that good. BTW, the animation on Generic Mech has been delayed...Mr.Will is still trying to make its walk work. Now I'm working on an AA Tank. So far all I have is the turret. Also, could you give some help on the radar thing?

What I'm basing it on...

Sorry no idea about tracks...

Has anybody any ideas on how to do good sparks? I've tried fireball with very low noise smoothness, and density, and I've tried 'pyro'. If somebody clever can work out a good easy way of doing it I would be grateful. I almost decided to model each spark individually as a little sphere with glow on it, but then I realised how long it would take for something not too major...

EDIT: Here is the animation I'm trying to add it to (if it's going insanely fast, download it to your PC, then run it)

On Blender's homepage, their is a tutorial on treads.... it may give some good pointers.

Sorry no idea about tracks...

Has anybody any ideas on how to do good sparks? I've tried fireball with very low noise smoothness, and density, and I've tried 'pyro'. If somebody clever can work out a good easy way of doing it I would be grateful. I almost decided to model each spark individually as a little sphere with glow on it, but then I realised how long it would take for something not too major...

EDIT: Here is the animation I'm trying to add it to (if it's going insanely fast, download it to your PC, then run it)
After looking at your pic, this is how I'd do it. In OpenFX, I'd play with the fire only option in the fireball till there was just a small amount of fire where the blade hits the enemy. In paint program, I'd edit the storyboard and manually throw out the sparks using the color of the small fireball. Hopefully, you don't have that many frames where the blade will be throwing sparks...

I'll do a big title, just in case somebody is looking for this later... - it doesn't really deserve a new thread.

HOW TO DO SMOKE IN OPENFX

Ok. You have a nice looking unit, but there is something missing... SMOKE. This is how to do it, or at least, how I do it:

Firstly you need to know about postpro effects in OpenFX. They are cunning and slippery things, and are always out to get you in one way or another. At the moment my renderer will only sometimes render smoke at all, other times it crashes... The postpro effects can be found by scrolling in the keyframer, but won't come up there if you select them in the select actor thingy. They also live at that spot (0,0,0) where you can never find them unless you know they're there. THEY ARE EVIL.

That being said, here we go:

There are two types of smoke. Expanding smoke, and, errr, not expanding smoke. I have been mainly using the second type in my units, and you need to have had the postpro running for a while before you get going, so it's best not to do it in the first 4 or so frames if you want non-expanding smoke. Start anytime after frame 4 and it'll work fine.

Step 1: Render WITHOUT smoke... just do, don't argue - you'll see why later
Step 2: Set up a dummy light, and set it up to attenuate
Step 3: Add a fireball postpro, and sort out the colours on the preset grayscale at the bottom (dark darkest, then centre, then outer). I find the explosion setting is the best, but you might want to experiment with this. Then set the postpro to you new dummy light.

For smoke trails: (for rockets etc...)

Step 4: Position your dummy light just behind your object Step 5: Give it another position keyframe at the end of the animation, setting this to a point for the smoke to blow to. Note down how much it moves each frame, each bit of smoke will have to do about the same amount of movement or it'll look odd.
Step 6: Start the costume keyframe the frame AFTER you set it behind the rocket (this is optional - but I feel it looks better)
Step 7: Move the animation on one keyframe. Repeat untill you have the desired amount of smoke.
Step 8: Continued after repeating smoke part

Repeating smoke (for vehicle dust trails, exausts, etc.)

Step 3: Decide how long you want the trail to be. You will have to use 2-5 smoke puffs, depending on the length.
Step 4: Posistion your first dummy light where you want the first piece of smoke to appear.
Step 5: Increment your position keyframer so that each part runs for 3 (or whatever) frames before returning back to the original position.
Step 6: Just before each of the new keyframes put another keyframe. This one will be where the smoke is moving to, and should be up, and maybe in some other direction.
Step 7: NOTE DOWN THE POSITIONS FROM WHICH IT IS COMING FROM AND TO. You will need to use these alot.
Step 8: Repeat the process, shifting all the keyframes for the new dummy light to the right one (for the final one you may have to do some maths/guessing to work out where it will be)
Step 9: Repeat until you have done all the smoke puffs.

This is quicker than smoke trails, as you only have to do 2-5 lights and alot of it is repetition. If the object is moving you have to think a bit with relativity - always have the smoke moving relative to the start point.

Now you have your smoke you're ready to render - but I have to go and eat, so I'll continue this later (I'll reserve the next post...)

Now, where was I....

Ok, now you have all the smoke you need you can render. Render.

Now you should have two storyboards. One has the unit without the smoke, while one has it with the smoke.

Use an image editing program to place the image with smoke over the top of the image without (In PSP you copy it, then paste as new layer).

Set this new layer's transparency to about 50% BEFORE applying any palette. Then apply the pallette, and hopefully all the smoke will go into the alpha blend palette, as it will be magenta, and the area of smoke covering the unit will be slightly transparent allowing you to see the unit underneath.

If you don't understand any part of this, ask me and I'll see if I can come up with a better explaination.

EDIT: I've exprimented some more (oh dear...) and I've found that if you render with about 5 density, explosion and flames, and the postpro ending near the end of the animation you get quite a good fade effect, without having to render twice - test is still in progress though, I might come up with some palette problems later :mischief:

Nice, Mr.Will will(:lol:) use that later when he does the attack for the MP....eh...I forgot the other letters...but Thanks! If you want to see my latest unit look at the previews!

A big question...
How do you keep so much quality when you transfer from the animator to the flc? My units look twice as good as a preview .gif than they do as a Civ .flc. Why?

Compare for yourself... (Gif in link, flc in attachment)
Gif post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2054710&postcount=1)

A big question...
How do you keep so much quality when you transfer from the animator to the flc? My units look twice as good as a preview .gif than they do as a Civ .flc. Why?

Compare for yourself... (Gif in link, flc in attachment)
Gif post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2054710&postcount=1)
That's easy ... your preview is bigger :D Or I should say that the camera is more zoomed-in in the preview, so the tank takes up more pixels and more detail can be seen.

You could probably use a few more lights to show off the model too ;)

How much bigger should it be? Should I render it at high resolution and shrink it in SBB or is there some magical number that I can render it straight into? Also, how many lights do you have, their settings, etc. I was really dissapointed at the loss of quality.

How much bigger should it be? Should I render it at high resolution and shrink it in SBB or is there some magical number that I can render it straight into? Also, how many lights do you have, their settings, etc. I was really dissapointed at the loss of quality.

Really, it's trial and error but I find that using resolution of 240 x 240 for the image size is best. That's the max size for a civ3 unit cell. However, your unit maybe too large or too small at the size. What I do is render one frame and copy it and lay it over another unit of similar size and design. Then I resize or move the unit position in openfx as needed to get my unit in the right position. As far as detail and loss of quality, there will be some because you are going from a 16 million color bmp to a 256 color pcx. That's where picking good pallete colors come in. Also, I was using the standard 4 lamps at n, s, e, w and 1 lamp above. On my next unit, I'm trying 8 lamps one at each direction and 1 lamp above. I don't remember any of the settings right now. If the unit comes out looking good, I'll share my template for others to play with...

I understand some quality loss but this is too much. Do you mean render at 240x240 or render at a high resolution and shrink to 240x240 in SBB? Thanks for your help. Also, good luck with your lighting experiment, I can't wait for your results.

I render straight to 240x240 in OpenFX that way I can take my rendered bmps into SBB without resizing. Basically, I resize & reposition the model to render to the correct size and place. Think of it this way, by changing the size and position of the unit first you get the detail of the unit at the size needed. Whereas if you change the size and position after rendering the unit, you will loose more detail in the shrinking. Try it out both ways.... You'll see a difference.
If you know that your unit can be in a smaller size ratio than 240x240, you should be able to use that size as well... There were some earlier posts about certain ratios not working with certain file formats so you might want to check those out....

At 240x240 it looks squished... It's also overly large and it doesn't have much more quality over my original .flc, although it does have some. Muffins seems to retain almost all of his quality in the transfer, I lose most of mine. Can I stretch it anymore without getting less resolution? It's too short.

I've not had any problems with "squish" although I know that the image preview during render is squished but the final image is in the correct ratio.
You don't have keep aspect ratio checked I hope. That may cause some squish if you force a 240x240 ratio...

If your overlay is large then you need to reduce the size in OpenFX

in the animator go to the model keyframer open the size keyframer and reduced all three settings by the same percentage. For instance my borg tactical cube was reduced to 83% rather than 100%

What file format are you rendering to? I believe muffins renders to bmps. I also have started doing that once I learned how SBB worked. Bmps are in 16 million colors and should have all the quality in detail.

Then your only loss in detail should be when you convert the finished storyboard to a 256 color pcx....

Also, I suppose that if your maps, texture and colors for the entire unit remain under 256 colors minus the civ specific number of colors then you won't loose any detail at all. However, I'm not sure how to keep tabs on all that....

Nevermind, I think I get it now. Check out the MPDV thread.

Just a quicky ... I've noticed a very useful option burried in one of the options tabs when you click render. You can set the ambiant lighting! Yay! :)

This means that you can increase the 'lighting' without adding more lights or changing their brightness.

Yeah, I usually increase by 20% instaed of the default. However, on my current unit that didn't help like it did on the other. So I added more lights. I think it depends on what you are doing as to whether more lights or just an increase in ambience will help...

At 240x240 it looks squished... It's also overly large and it doesn't have much more quality over my original .flc, although it does have some. Muffins seems to retain almost all of his quality in the transfer, I lose most of mine. Can I stretch it anymore without getting less resolution? It's too short.

loss of detail mostly a palette issue. If the unit is small, you will have to accept that you will not be able to see the gold "Eagle Globe and Anchor" pin on a Marine's hat. Also muffin's units tend to be larger models.

Ambient lighting: Allthough not optimal, it is functional. I have one spotlight very high up, and very slightly off center, my ambeint is set to 30, and my shading is to to 35 or 40... (experimenting with 35). This way changing views is very easy, just select the camera, press C and render.

I have another problem...
My muzzleflashes dissapeared in one of my renderings. Why?
Also, the muzzleflashes that do survive rendering usually have a reddish tint,it makes them look odd. How do I fix this?

What colour are you using for the flashes? I usually use the 2nd orange one down. Where do you get the redish tint? I've found the glow can take some of the magenta through into the alpha blend, when against the magenta background.

Are the flashes large enough for the anti-aliasing not to alter the colour, taking it away from the key colour - that can mean none gets glowed. And... I know it seems obvious... but make sure you have the keycolour right, and that the gunflash is luminous.

Has anybody managed to get explosion working (the postpro which flings bits of model everywhere)? I want to use it for shattering glass.

I've separated the polygons, and have got the glass as it's own model, and it all seems to work fine in the animater, but when it comes to render it... doesn't. Just a black screen, nothing produced. It seems to load the textures, then say it's finished. I don't have any textures used twice... anybody any ideas?

For some reason, it works for some models, doesn't work for some others and does some really strange things to others :( I've never really had a serious problem with it though

You might want to try and 'seperate' different combinations of polygons 'cos it might just be the maths involved

I've found a different way of doing dust trails (I've never fancied doing it with 10-squillion dummy lights that had to be told where to go :p )

A deformed tube with knobbly bits on, duplicated about 8 times to make it really long (and self repeating) and given transparancy. All you have to do then is put the magentaish colours into the lighter end of the smoke/haze part of the palette

I have tested this in-game btw :cool:

An easily anwered question, I hope...
Muffins, earlier you said that your muzzleflashes are custom shapes which you rotate to make 3d or something like that. I tried to copy a flat polygon and rotate it but couldn't, it would roatate both. Then, I copied something and unselected the shape, but now it won't paste. :mad: The copy option is useless for me right now as it pastes the sem thing in the same place. How do I us e the copy and paste in OpenFX without getting the same shape in the same place?

[offtopic] Has anyone here ever used Mozilla? It's very cool. (This isn't meant as advertising if anyone were to take it that way,, just a reccomendation.)

An easily anwered question, I hope...
Muffins, earlier you said that your muzzleflashes are custom shapes which you rotate to make 3d or something like that. I tried to copy a flat polygon and rotate it but couldn't, it would roatate both. Then, I copied something and unselected the shape, but now it won't paste. :mad: The copy option is useless for me right now as it pastes the sem thing in the same place. How do I us e the copy and paste in OpenFX without getting the same shape in the same place?

[offtopic] Has anyone here ever used Mozilla? It's very cool. (This isn't meant as advertising if anyone were to take it that way,, just a reccomendation.)
Select the stuff you want to copy. Click Actions > Duplicate. This will deselect the original object, select the newly created copy and change the tool to 'Move'. This way you can move the copy without altering the original. It doesn't matter that the copy is right on top of the original. If you don't want to move it - but want to scale or rotate the copy instead - then just click the tool you want to use. With gunflashes I've always double-clicked the rotate button and typed in 90 degrees.

If that doesn't help I can always give you all my gunflash objects if you want them.

I've never heard of Mozilla :) give us a screen-shot and a description of what it is ... pleeeeease. I'm thinking of experimenting with other progs like Blender or even *** gasps *** buying the kind of prog that the likes of Kinboat and aaglo etc use

:worship: ALL HAIL KINBOAT! :worship:

:lol:

A deformed tube with knobbly bits on, duplicated about 8 times to make it really long (and self repeating) and given transparancy. All you have to do then is put the magentaish colours into the lighter end of the smoke/haze part of the palette

I have tested this in-game btw :cool:
That looks rather good, although they seem to go on a bit too long, and your getting the FLICster bug. I would download the latest SBB which fixes that.

Mozilla is a web browser, and it is very cool. http://www.mozilla.org

Sorry muffins, but Mozilla is a web browser, and it's excellent. You should download it and try it. It has so many add-ons... Wow.

About the tube, you just bend it to a more natural looking smoke trail look?

What colour are you using for the flashes? I usually use the 2nd orange one down. Where do you get the redish tint? I've found the glow can take some of the magenta through into the alpha blend, when against the magenta background.

Are the flashes large enough for the anti-aliasing not to alter the colour, taking it away from the key colour - that can mean none gets glowed. And... I know it seems obvious... but make sure you have the keycolour right, and that the gunflash is luminous.

So I shouldn't use the glow effect? I think the reddish tint is coming through after the magenta and into the alpha blend. I have luminous shapes and the right keycolor, but I don't remember being able to choose your glow color. I'll look at it again.

So I shouldn't use the glow effect? I think the reddish tint is coming through after the magenta and into the alpha blend. I have luminous shapes and the right keycolor, but I don't remember being able to choose your glow color. I'll look at it again.
There is the option to chose hot/warm/some other two ones. The warm seems to lighten the chosen key colour, while hot makes the inside white, and lightens the edges.

As for the reddish tint, it's the same as I got. I think you'd have to manually remove it, or set it as a high transpareny colour in the smoke/shadow palette.

I'm pretty sure it only shows up because of the magenta background because in the shots where the blast is in front of a non-magenta object it looks fine. Oh well, fixing it manually isn't that bad.

Select the stuff you want to copy. Click Actions > Duplicate. This will deselect the original object, select the newly created copy and change the tool to 'Move'. This way you can move the copy without altering the original. It doesn't matter that the copy is right on top of the original. If you don't want to move it - but want to scale or rotate the copy instead - then just click the tool you want to use. With gunflashes I've always double-clicked the rotate button and typed in 90 degrees.

If that doesn't help I can always give you all my gunflash objects if you want them.

I've never heard of Mozilla :) give us a screen-shot and a description of what it is ... pleeeeease. I'm thinking of experimenting with other progs like Blender or even *** gasps *** buying the kind of prog that the likes of Kinboat and aaglo etc use

:worship: ALL HAIL KINBOAT! :worship:

:lol:


Save your money, blender is professional grade.

I use Mozilla firefox as my web-browser.

Sorry muffins, but Mozilla is a web browser, and it's excellent. You should download it and try it. It has so many add-ons... Wow.

About the tube, you just bend it to a more natural looking smoke trail look?
This is what I did if you want to have a look

@Neomega - Downloading Blender even as I type this :)

The Morpheous once said that he uses a model for things like phasor fire and torpedos. Does any body know how to do that? I am growing weary of changing all my postpro effects... Don't know if anyone noticed but all postpro effects loose some color quality because of the background color. The only background color that doesn't is black... That's not an option since all Borg units have black in them... So help in using a model for phasors and torpedos would be great. Any ideas?

There is a phaser model somewhere in the net. I dowloaded it. If you want I could email it to you or post it here. To the torps I use a mesh of 4 small torps. I could do the same. Look in my units and you can see them in action, if you want.

Adler

There is a phaser model somewhere in the net. I dowloaded it. If you want I could email it to you or post it here. To the torps I use a mesh of 4 small torps. I could do the same. Look in my units and you can see them in action, if you want.

Adler
Pass them on please. And a brief explanation of how to put them to work in the model. If you don't mind, others might be interested so you could post them in the thread. If not, you can e-mail them to me. If my e-mail is not in my profile, drop me a PM and I'll let you know what it is...

Thanks

No prob. Here they are.

Adler

um, im having problems downloading OpenFX... after the download, it give me a choice to extract to a regular folder or save it to a compressed file....i click on the save it to a compressed file one, and it says " system cannot find file specified "... can anyone help me out here?

No prob. Here they are.

Adler
Thanks I'll give it a try after I get the grass cut..... :D

.....can anyone help me out??

?_?

.....can anyone help me out??

?_?
Firstly, welcome to CFC! May your ozone never be the same again... (sorry, bad pun)

Secondly, make sure you have downloaded the right thing. I almost downloaded the source code the first time. It should be a zipped folder, with a file called setup.exe in it. Run this file, and I think it's fairly self-explanitary. If you are doing this... then... errr... I don't know....

Hi, I'm new to this unit making malarkey and I'm having problems using SBB V1.04. Where to I point it for the Main Source Folder and Second Source Folder? I've tried using the SW.pcx for the main and my SW00~SW16.bmp as second to no avail. Am also losing a LOT of quality on .gif and/or .bmp to .pcx but I'll relook over the parts about palette's to try and fix that myself.

Anyway heres a pic of my current project in its horribly deformed low quality .pcx form :suicide:

Hi, I'm new to this unit making malarkey and I'm having problems using SBB V1.04. Where to I point it for the Main Source Folder and Second Source Folder? I've tried using the SW.pcx for the main and my SW00~SW16.bmp as second to no avail. Am also losing a LOT of quality on .gif and/or .bmp to .pcx but I'll relook over the parts about palette's to try and fix that myself.

First off this is the OpenFX thread, but I'll answer your question anyway...
When I used SBB v1.04 (v1.06 is now available) I only used the main source folder. This is where you select any one of your bmp images that will make up your storyboard. To give you an example:
You are making a unit with 10 frames per direction. You need to either render from a 3d program or convert from another file source into bmp files (one for each frame of each direction). The bmps for each direction should go into the associated folder. The folders must be called N, S, E, W, SW, SE, NW, NE. These can be under another folder if you don't want them directly visible in your top level directory. Make sure your bmps are numbered with 0000 to 0009 (if you use the non win98 version for single units, you can have your bmps numbered with 0001 to whatever so long as you check the box before doing anything else.) After the bmps are in the correct folders and properly numbered open SBB. Point the main source folder to any one of your bmps in one of the eight direction folders. After you do that SBB will automatically read the images and fill in the generate storyboard file name. Press generate storyboard and you will get a bmp storyboard that will need to be converted to a pcx storyboard. This is where you need to pick a good pallete for your unit.

After you get your pcx storyboard, you will need to use flicster if you haven't already....

I hope this helps you... For more information and assistance with SBB I suggest going to the SBB thread. There is a lot more there than what I know...

Secondly, make sure you have downloaded the right thing. I almost downloaded the source code the first time. It should be a zipped folder, with a file called setup.exe in it. Run this file, and I think it's fairly self-explanitary. If you are doing this... then... errr... I don't know....

Yeah, well i downloaded the thing and i go to extract the friggen files and it says no files to extract!!! I don't know what i'm doing wrong ):

Yeah, well i downloaded the thing and i go to extract the friggen files and it says no files to extract!!! I don't know what i'm doing wrong ):
Download it again, I would say the first download failed (I'm guessing you're on 56k/ISDN) A good free program to make sure the download works, which also accelerates the download, and allows you to pause it, can be found here: www.getright.com

Umm.... I think theres something wrong with my computer.... I went to go download that getright or whatever and the same thing happened! Is there a way that i can post a screenshot of the download window? Sorry if i'm bothering you...

No problem.

I don't know what you know, so I'm going to explain the whole process: Press print screen, then open up paint or some other graphics package, paste, and save as a .jpg. Then, at the bottom of the page where you post there is a manage attachments button, press this, find your file, and upload it. If the file is too big for this (over 500k) press the upload file button at the bottom, then link to the file in your post.

Also getright has a special download for people who can't download it... which is smaller: http://www.getright.com/setuploader.html

God...this is just way to complicated so i'll just tell what i did then i'll leave....I clicked on openFX on the first page...it took me to the website, and i clicked on one of the mirrors to download...it finished downloading and took me to the screen where you have the option of saving it or extracting it to a folder... i clicked on extract the regular folder option and clicked next to extract...I then get a window that says " no files to extract "..... btw, i have high-speed internet not dial-up....

That's pretty much how I got my copy. Except that I prefer to save the file and open it later. Perhaps you might want to try to save it first, then use winzip to unzip the file.... Good luck. Hope you can get the program. We can always use more unit designers :)

I think I've finally worked out how this works, but I have a question: Does anybody know how to stop it from adding hundreds of joints