Create units with OpenFX

[A Viking Yeti]

Well, I'll remember next time . Also, I found that once you have some basic verticies assigned, you can unassign and hide others, which helps A LOT when assigning verticies (at least for me, now part of the ribs aren't included in the upper arm... ).

EDIT: Um... This isn't really that important, but is there any particular reason the designer, in poser mode, has a big gox around one upper arm, but not the other? They are virtually the same in design.

BTW: The posing is working great now that I have the proper verticies assigned, .

 

[A Viking Yeti]

I have no patience, can someone tell me please how to make shadows for units (camera directional). Do you just change the properties of the lights by the cameras, or something? Thanks in advance...

BTW: I want to start animating my newly created robot... .

 

[sourboy]

Yeah, animation is on hold for me too. I've actually just finished a base model for a sniper. Problem now is coloring the model. Do I have to upload a palette or textures or is there a default one? Their help menu is sooo useless...

 

[A Viking Yeti]

I had some hang-ups with the tail on my model, so I have time. I know you can select faces and go Attrbutes->Materials, to give them various solid colors. I know you can upload .TIF textures, but I haven't figured out how to get the parts of the texture pattern where I want them on the model, so I'm of no help there.

And, yes, their help menu is somewhat useless. It provides a little help, then you have to seek it out on the net.

 

[sourboy]

I actually found the texture menu buried within another. With a little playing I managed to paint a basic model. That's great news that TIF files can be used! I have a converter that will allow me to essentially make images or convert web images to TIF for texture use.

 

[Neomega]

Looks, uhh...

Did you know there are default human figures in the figures file?

Also, play around a little bit with textures and mapping, there are some built in camo texture IIRC.

 

[Neomega]

I had some hang-ups with the tail on my model, so I have time. I know you can select faces and go Attrbutes->Materials, to give them various solid colors. I know you can upload .TIF textures, but I haven't figured out how to get the parts of the texture pattern where I want them on the model, so I'm of no help there.

And, yes, their help menu is somewhat useless. It provides a little help, then you have to seek it out on the net.

I finally figured that out. Help is a little vague, but if you get comfortable with looking around with attributes--> "maps", "fixed to mapping" and "textures" , eventually it should make sense. I really can't explain it, but it is probably best to try and select a face of a polygon, and then try to project a map onto it. Once you have done that....
....from the manual

3) Execute the Attributes > Fixed-To Mapping > Convert Normal Map to Fixed-To Map command and choose the Map to be converted. Specify whether the Fixed-To Map is to be planar or cylindrical.

That's it. There is no need to keep the map since mapping coordinates have now been recorded at the vertices and will remain until either the coordinates or the vertex is deleted.

Note that this only applies the mapping coordinates to the vertices. To actually apply the Fixed-To Map to the selected vertices you must Set the Map in the Map Attributes dialog and specify that the Map Type is Fixed-To in the Edit Image Map dialog.

after this it is like part of the model, meaning you can make identical copies with the same textures, and stretch, skew and scale, and the textures witll stretch skew and scale right along with it.

 

[Neomega]

Here is a look at my "space Dock" BTW, the "blocky" texture is a large texture cylindrically wrapped around the entire model and assigned to most parts.

The "landing pad" textures took me a day... would have taken me 2 minutes on Rhino. But those are fixed-to texture maps.

 

[muffins]

I have no patience, can someone tell me please how to make shadows for units (camera directional). Do you just change the properties of the lights by the cameras, or something? Thanks in advance...

BTW: I want to start animating my newly created robot... .

If you right-click a camera and select 'light settings' can set the light to cast a shadow or not. To move the shadow just move the light

 

[muffins]

Here is a look at my "space Dock" BTW, the "blocky" texture is a large texture cylindrically wrapped around the entire model and assigned to most parts.

The "landing pad" textures took me a day... would have taken me 2 minutes on Rhino. But those are fixed-to texture maps.

I love that space dock!

I've never used 'fixed-to' texture maps before. What are they used for? I've always just hanged my textures in space the OpenFX tutorial way. Am I missing out on a cool trick?

 

[Mr. Will]

How do you work with skeletons? I can sorta build the joints but I have no idea how to move them. Can someone explain skeletons? Thank you for your patience with me, I've never been a graphic artist kind of guy.

 

[A Viking Yeti]

Well, I build the skeleton in the hierarchy menu Edit->Hierarchy Joints, assign all the verticies to the proper bones in the hierarchy menu (the hard part for me), reposition Edit->Skeleton->Reposition Joints, and then you save. Make sure to save!... I didn't .

Then Shift+A or Edit->Skeleton->Pose, and hope all the verticies are assigned to the proper bone, otherwise different parts of your model will move with other bones... Bad results.

TO Neomega: Thanks for the info, but I'm pretty sure I'll have to mess around with it a bit before I get it right.

TO muffins: Thanks, seems simple enough .

 

[Dease]

@muffins fixed to mapping, in theory, attaches maps directly to the verticies. However in practice, it look like SH!T at least on humanoid units and won't even work for me with "surface" flagged, has to be reflection which makes it all wavy.

Then Shift+A or Edit->Skeleton->Pose, and hope all the verticies are assigned to the proper bone, otherwise different parts of your model will move with other bones... Bad results.

If your making poses to import to the animator, DON'T...at least I found it's harder. Instead pose them in the animator ("V"), there you can see your progress and make minor adjustements in seconds

 

[A Viking Yeti]

I haven't done anything in the animator yet, but the model I had was in a weird position (made him harder to work with), so I had to pose it. I suppose I should've said that though, ...

 

[Neomega]

I love that space dock!

I've never used 'fixed-to' texture maps before. What are they used for? I've always just hanged my textures in space the OpenFX tutorial way. Am I missing out on a cool trick?

Well, somewhat. Fixed to textures help reduce polygon count, which could be helpful later in your hobby career. But htey also allow you to make identical parts with specified textures.

The only fixed-to texture on that space dock are the landing pads. That means I didn't have to resize the texture, and re-line it up.

Whats more, (only using projected texture) if you move an object out of a projected texture, the object will no longer display that texture. So fixed to mapping helps in making parts before final assembly of the model.

 

[A Viking Yeti]

Ok, I've got a texture projected onto my model, one that came with OpenFX (TX18, I think), but how do I resize it? It just put big blotches of color on my model, but I want to reduce the size to make a more textured look...

 

[Neomega]

Ok, I've got a texture projected onto my model, one that came with OpenFX (TX18, I think), but how do I resize it? It just put big blotches of color on my model, but I want to reduce the size to make a more textured look...

There is a command somewhere called move. I belive it is attributes-->material settings-->maps, and then hit the "Set" button, and the move button will be activated, along with edit and drop.

 

[Neomega]

I love that space dock!

I am going to try and make the outer blue bands rotate against eachother to make a gyroscpoic effect. I also plan on adding some gun emplacements and random "blocks" to look like buildings.

 

[Dease]

I am going to try and make the outer blue bands rotate against eachother to make a gyroscpoic effect. I also plan on adding some gun emplacements and random "blocks" to look like buildings.

Best to do that with just colours rather than physically, if you try to do it with morph then it will just look funny if you don't do it frame by frame (I tried with the wheels on my tank and it's not too, realistic )

 

[Dease]

I seem to have run into a very strange problem, if I ever have more than 1 "robot" in the animation on the same frame it will render a black screen and the njust popup the last sucessful render. Could someone try this on thier computer to see if it's my computer messing up or some wierd thing with open fx?
EDIT: Actually, it's more than 1 of robots and/or models too