Create units with OpenFX

[Dease]

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?

 

[muffins]

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

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

 

[Mr. Will]

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

 

[Neomega]

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

@Mr.Will - Sleleton tutorial posted 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.

 

[Dease]

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

 

[Neomega]

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.

 

[muffins]

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.

 

[Neomega]

Odd way to do it. 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 ) 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.

 

[Dease]

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 I just render .tif's and convert them the same time as I rename them

 

[Dease]

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

 

[muffins]

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.

 

[Dease]

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

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 although on my little test it made two separate forms for some reason.

 

[Spart]

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!
Just saying Hello,
-Spart

 

[Mr. Will]

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

 

[Mr. Will]

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

 

[muffins]

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

nice tank btw

 

[The Great Apple]

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

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

 

[muffins]

... grrrrrr ...

blinking textures in OpenFX

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!

 

[Neomega]

... grrrrrr ...

blinking textures in OpenFX

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!

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.

 

[The Great Apple]

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?