Create units with OpenFX

[A Viking Yeti]

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 ...

 

[Dease]

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

 

[muffins]

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

 

[A Viking Yeti]

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

 

[Dease]

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 ), now I have to redo all of my renderings with a blue texture since the explosion was civspecific ), Blue is the best cause it doesn't mix with anything like the background or the darker colours in the bottom row

 

[A Viking Yeti]

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...

 

[Dease]

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

 

[Neomega]

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.....

 

[muffins]

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 ), now I have to redo all of my renderings with a blue texture since the explosion was civspecific ), 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

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

 

[Kenta'arka]

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

 

[Neomega]

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.

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

 

[muffins]

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

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



I think I'll go and sulk now

 

[Neomega]

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.

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.

 

[muffins]

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

 

[Dease]

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

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

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

 

[Kenta'arka]

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

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

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...

 

[muffins]

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

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

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

 

[Mr. Will]

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

 

[A Viking Yeti]

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.

 

[muffins]

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