Help, I wanna make units, BUT.....

[Spacer One]

Ok, Im broke, and cant afford to dump cash into a prog to make units...I got the Poser 6 demo to see what there was to see, Big let down, its all but unusable...

My question is, Ive heard POV-ray and other progs can be used...I need a budget friendly way to make units, and someone to gimme a starter on how the prog works...

Or alternatly, if there is a copy of Poser5 or someone has the set up file...or a "free" version, please let me know...Im desperate to start working on units, but Im not gonna buy a prog until I know I can do it...

 

[Takhisis]

Well, POV-Ray, Open FX, Wally, GIMP and some other programs are free.
Also, what you really need (FLICster and/or Civ3FlcEdit) for making the storyboards, are free, and found on this site´s utility programs section.
Be careful with what you say. Is "free" in Poser "crack"?

 

[Supa]

Well, GIMP won't be that useful for units.. Unless you're making cut'n'past units.

 

[Ogedei_the_Mad]

Can't you also make units in DAZ (which is a free download, by the way) or would that only work for Poser?

 

[Spacer One]

Well, POV-Ray, Open FX, Wally, GIMP and some other programs are free.
Also, what you really need (FLICster and/or Civ3FlcEdit) for making the storyboards, are free, and found on this site´s utility programs section.
Be careful with what you say. Is "free" in Poser "crack"?

@Takhisis(Ive been meaning to complinent your choice in names, let me take this opportunity)
First off, Im not stupid enough to ask for a crack in open forum...the thought did cross my mnd, but I will contact people priovatly if it comes to that

Ok, I have GIMP, Flicster, PSP and several other progs Im familiar with...

civflicedit never works when I dowlload it...maybe my HD sucks?
Open FX and Wally are mysteries to me, I will look into them

what I really need is someone, maybe yourself(or not) to explain the ideas involved...I have downloaded and looked at the stuff needed to make units, but have no idea how to compile it into a working unit...

 

[odintheking]

OpenFX is a really useful 3d program that is free. Wally is just a program similar to GIMP/PSP. I'd prefer GIMP for storyboards because Wally has a hard time opening huge images.

 

[Takhisis]

Thanks for the compliment... There was an idiot who openly said he was a cracker & he wanted some help etc. and got chunked out of here , so anyone, just shut up, or Nuitari will unleash his power once more
Back to topic: What you need is to create a NEW flc file with FLICster, arrange all the settings, etc. and then export it so you can edit it with an image editor.
Then you re-export it as a flc an, basically, that´s it.

 

[Spacer One]

I'll see what I can do right now...thanx so far...

oh, one more thing...can you be a little more specific about "arrange all the settings"?

 

[muffins]

He means frame size and frame count.

However, before you even get to that stage you need something to put into the frames. FLICster is the very last tool you use to turn a complete storyboard into a Civ3-format animation.

 

[Spacer One]

ok...lemme get this straight...I need to make a storyboard first?...

where Im lost is the 3-d rendering...how do I get 8 directional pics for a unit?...do I draw them all from scratch of is there some sort of template I can alter?...Maybe this question lies in the 3-d prog...there was a model to use in the poser6 demo...is there also a prog that has an editable 3-d model? or am I going about this wrong...

Someone who is willing to help please PM me so I can end this public display of ignorance...

 

[Takhisis]

Someone who is willing to help please PM me so I can end this public display of ignorance...

You shouldn´t care about your so called ignorance. I once asked what CFC meant. Shame on me! Poser has models... but it´s U$D200, so that´s too much for my savings (Civ4 and Freespace 2 come first) also you should PM Muffins -lemon scented- , or aaglo, or Orthanc, or anyone else who´s been making units for long, and ask them more specifically.
Like you, I´m in the process of learning still.

 

[Bjornlo]

Byrce is very easy and very good for hard surface units. Cost is less then 100. (80 or so). Some have used the Daz3d Platinum club to get it for less then 1/2 this. EBay typically has it available for cheap too.

Otherwise you need a few tools.

PEdit (or photoshop) to make palettes with.
Flicster or Civ3FLCEdit to make PCX files into FLC files.
a paint program that can paint indexed PCX files (such as Photoshop or Paintshop or GIMP)
and some render program (Poser, Bryce, Lightwave, 3ds Max, POV-Ray, Blender, OpenFX, etc).

Blender, OpenFX and POV-Ray are all free. There are several people using each one. I think there are tutorials on OpenFX and Blender. There are also tutorials out on the web for all of the tools I mentioned. Before you manage to make units, you must learn your tool a little. Get 2-3 of these tutorials and follow them step by step. Then make a few items on your own (not units, just misc stuff).
When I was teaching myself the basics of Bryce I made alot of buildings, wonders, etc. Just to learn how stuff worked. I later made my first unit in Bryce and struggled by making it all harder then neccessary. Wyrmshadow (by far the most prolific unit creator, and a Bryce expert) took pity on me and showed me where I was working too hard. But before that point I was already 1/2 way through my next unit.
Basically if you want to do it, just do it. But, don't expect it to be instant or easy. Unit creation, especially at first, is hard work.

btw: Daz3d has a free program called Daz Studio that works with POSER models. It is designed to work with Bryce, but I believe it works as a stand alone item.

 

[Ogedei_the_Mad]

Bryce is a really good option for non-humanoid units. It's fairly straightforward. I haven't even read the manual yet, and I've already figured out how to perform boolean operations. It's far from being as sophisticated as 3d Studio Max (arguably the granddaddy of all 3d modelling programs), but with a combination of boolean operations, terrain editing, and a lot of patience, you can do practically anything.

 

[Spacer One]

thanx Bjornio...best advice so far, Im gonna go with POV-ray for now, although this is the first ive heard of Bryce, so I'll look at that too...

Thanx for the input everyone, I hope to be bringing you samples soon...

 

[Takhisis]

It seems you are very brave! POV-Ray is a text-based thing, pretty hard to learn (I can only make a round sphere, shame really, tsk, tsk.
Have you downloaded FLICster and/or Civ3FlcEdit?

 

[muffins]

Some useful links

OpenFX

A great OpenFX tutorial by TheMorpheus. The thread is also filled with lots of helpful info.

A Bulk Rename Utility which I find useful in renaming all the frames before putting through Steph's SBB (Steph's Storyboard Builder)

Mihov Image Resizer (a bulk image resizing tool) since graphics rendered at a large size and scaled down are of a better quality than graphics rendered at a small size to begin with.

A very useful palette editor that I can't live without and some useful advice about what your palette should look like

 

[Spacer One]

brilliant...A tie for most useful info...thanx muffin...that is exactly what I wanted

 

[Takhisis]

Byrce is very easy and very good for hard surface units. Cost is less then 100. (80 or so). Some have used the Daz3d Platinum club to get it for less then 1/2 this. EBay typically has it available for cheap too.

Bryce costs $99.99 according to the official site. DAZ3D is free. I don´t know about the Platinum edition.

 

[Bjornlo]

Bryce costs $99.99 according to the official site. DAZ3D is free. I don´t know about the Platinum edition.

Platinum club not platinum edition.
You can get Bryce for less then 100.00 if you look around. For openers they often have a huge discount if you join their platinum club. This discount is more then the cost to join, and you can cancel your club membership at any time.
E-Bay typically has Bryce 5.5 for less the 80.00
My copy of bryce was bought for just under 80.00, though not on ebay.
Also 2 of my friends bought Bryce from Fry's electronics (aka outpost.com) on sale for 39.99.
Just have to look and buy when you find a price you like.

 

[MaxArt]

I was wondering why nobody mentions Animation Shop (that comes in bundle with Paint Shop Pro) as a FLC editor. I never tried FLICster, but I think that AS is pretty good as a flic editor.
The only problem is that AS is shareware... (it won't stop to work if the trial period has ended, though: it only shows the nag screen when it starts, reminding to register the copy, just like PSP).