Hi there!

I've been playing around with Blender a bit, and came up with this lady. The mesh is not finished yet, at the moment it has less than 1300 triangles. I think I won't need so much more triangles, and I'm quite content with the fact. Here's the concept scetch. There is no real textures and rigging yet.

I've been following this template, and I was able to get her into Nexuiz (after some strange and funny effects like a really huge model or an invisible one...): Screenshots. Somehow she has no weapon, I don't know why.

Now I am wondering how to get bump maps and gloss maps to work. I'll have to find out how I can assign UV-Bumpmaps and Reflection-Maps in Blender, and hope that the exporter will sort it out. Mmh... (Haha, the Pyria model source has written "test" on the shirt in her gloss map. Does that show in the game?)

And how would I create my own animations? I see that the export script has an option for animations, but what would the proper setup in Blender be? What do I select to be exported as an animation?

And about that changing colours of shirt and trousers stuff... How would I get the colours assigned to the right faces? Ah, well, I can worry about this detail when the rest is done. If I ever finish, that is...

Bump map is called texturename_bump.tga, and white is "high" and black is "low" for the bumps.

Gloss map is called texturename_gloss.tga.

They are assigned by DP and need no special UV coords in Blender - they simply work by adding the extra tga files, and use the same UV space as the base texture.

As for the animations, absolutely no idea, as I don't know modeling apps.

The weapon attachment probably fails because you don't provide a bone called "bip01 r hand", which is what the weapon attaches to. How to do that in Blender, no idea.

Team coloring is done by adding extra tetxures... texturename_shirt.tga and texturename_pants.tga are used for that. Basically, you cut out the part to be colored from the base texture, and paste it in the _shirt.tga or _pants.tga. Again, the same UV coords are used.

I'm not sure how Blender does its thing. but from the animation packages I do know, you must make sure the vertices to the mesh are attached to the bones in the skeleton. The skeletons available are listed in the forums (with the original models). You *could* just create your own skeleton for your model. If you make your own skeleton, you would have to create all the animations that go with it. If you attach your model to a pre-made skeleton, then you could copy-paste the other animation .smd files to be used for the other animations. Attaching your model to a default skeleton is MUCH easier, but making your own skeleton and animating it is so much better looking. Study the original models to see how they run and then go from there. Btw, your model looks great!!!!!

Thanks divVerent for the explanations of the texture stuff.

divVerent wrote:The weapon attachment probably fails because you don't provide a bone called "bip01 r hand", which is what the weapon attaches to. How to do that in Blender, no idea.

Ah, yes, I have no such bone, but I know how to add one in Blender.

Genegineer: I would like to try my own animations. I think I could do animations that fit my model better than the existing ones. I'll just need to know how to use the export script in Blender correctly. Well, I have a long weekend ahead of me to figure that one out.

Rebecca

I agree, great start for a model. Have you done any other 3D modeling before?

I got nosey and found a bit of your manga gallery http://www.rbreu.de/galerie/manga/manga.html

Looking forward to your future creations

Yes, I have been using Blender for years now, not regularly though.

I have added ears to the mesh and some details on the boots. I am at 1490 triangles now. I started rigging the model, but with low poly and being restricted to weights 0 and 1, it is not very easy to make the model transform smoothly. Especially the knees and the shoulder/armpit area are giving me a hard time. As a workaround to the weight 0/1 restriction, I have added extra bones between upper leg/lower leg and collarbone/upper arm. I'll see how that works out when doing the first real animations.

I was able to get my first little animation into Nexuiz. In Blender, if you select the mesh and the armature (skeleton), the nex_smd_mesh_export.py exports the currently active action. The script has an off-by-one bug when exporting an animation, line 809 should be:

Code: Select all

self.file.write( '%i "%s" %i\n' % ( bone.index, bone.name, bone.parent.index ) )

instead of

Code: Select all

self.file.write( '%i "%s" %i\n' % ( bone.index, bone.name, bone.parent.index + 1 ) )

And zmodel is reporting a wrong bone name on certain errors with the sceleton definition. Line 484 should be

Code: Select all

printf("warning: duplicate global bone definition ...", bone[i].name, bone[i].parent, parent);

instead of

Code: Select all

printf("warning: duplicate global bone definition ...", name, bone[i].parent, parent);

I spent a long time searching for an error with the wrong bone...

Ah, and the model now has a waepon. Adding a bone called "bip01 r hand" did the trick. In the Pyria model, that is just the bone for the hand, but in Blender one should name symmetrical bones something.L and something.R so that Blender recognises them, thus I just added an extra bone for the weapon. Now my model could do funny things with the weapon, juggling for examle...

Next I'll try to do a run animation. Then I'll see if the mesh is ok the way it is now...

I decided I'm done with the rigging now. I had to add some more faces at the knees and shoulders, so I am now at about 1640 triangles. Deformation is still not perfect, but I don't want to spent any more time with it right now. Main problem is that the legs are getting a bit longer when bent because of the deformation in the knee area.

I''ve started to do some animations, which is lots of fun, especially since I have found out how to force the bots to use my model. I can't provide you with any screenshots since I've only one computer available at the moment, but I'll do screenies as soon as I am home again.

I've had some problems with the Blender->smd->zym chain which I posted here: http://alientrap.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=37267

especially since I have found out how to force the bots to use my model

how do you do that? that's something i really want to do.

zuriastrad wrote:

especially since I have found out how to force the bots to use my model

how do you do that? that's something i really want to do.

http://www.alientrap.org/wiki/pmwiki.ph ... tcharacter
set sv_defaultcharacter to 1 and sv_defaultplayermodel to your model. that'll force your model on all players, not just bots, but i guess that's not an issue here... (forcing your model on bots only would require code changes)

fantastic KadaverJack, that does the trick.

I've been very busy lately and not much at home.

I think I have finally some ideas of how to make the mesh deform better. Since I am not that proficient in 3d stuff, there is much trial and error for me... Here is the model with the old mesh and run forwards, jump, die and idle animations (no textures yet): abby.zym

It was fun and I learned a lot, but I thought a rework from scratch would be best -- especially since I decided to start with a high poly model this time. First, it is easier if I only have to concentrate on the shape first, and in a second step worry about the topology/optimasation of the mesh (Blender has this very useful retopo tool). Second, the latest Blender version has enhanced texture/normal map/whatever-else baking tools. I haven't used them yet, but what I saw from screenshots looks very promising.

Here are some screenshots of the new model, still WIP:
001.png
002.png
003.png
As you can see, I am working at the ears right now. Since the clothing will be showing much of the model's figure, I started with a naked model, which I find easier. Plus, one could reuse the body for other models.

.

That's some really big... ears...

Breast size is totally overrated -- it's all about ears! Actually, I just finished the ears and will scale them and attach them to the head soon. Time to sleep now.

One suggestion: the model's waist is just too thin. Only women form the 18th century who has worn a corset has this thin waist.

http://www.corset.dk/News/100-0007_IMG.jpg[/img]

Looking good Rebecca. Keep up the good work, it looks like you've made a lot of progress.

nice progress. You may want to rework the face, as it lacks certain aspects that make faces feminine- at the moment its sort of androgenous. Aside from that, the ears are looking great (although I dont know how you plan on making a poly reduced version of nexuiz), and as C. Brutail said, you probably need to make the waist... human.

Thanks for all the feedback! I've worked a bit on the face: click. Next I'll do the hair and then I think I'm done with the head.

About the waist: You are all right. I started with a cartoon-like reference image, but my high poly model turns out to be more realistic, so the waist is definitely too thin. The problem is that I got so used to the sight that I didn't realize...

I finished the head and added hair. The hair texture/material isn't really to my liking, maybe I'll get some enlightment of how to improve it. On the other hand I think it doesn't really matter for the low poly version.

I reworked the body a little and added some more detail. I'd say the body is finnished, exept for lower legs and hands. I definitely need to refine the knees, since they will be visible at the very end. I needn't do hands and feet, they will be covered in gloves and boots, but I think I will do them for compleetness sake.

Today I had enough of modelling the body, so I started with clothing. It's a bit like playing with dress up dolls, just waaay slower .

Render 1
Render 2
Render 3

Just some minor tweaks.
The forehead is too low. Eyes have to be in the middle of the face, now they appear to be slightly too high, what leads to a long nose. If you can manage to pull the eyes a little bit down, so that the root of the nose has to be pulled down also, the face would look, well more babyface-girly-like. Atm it's a little masculine imho. If I'm not too late for head feedback
The body seems to be pretty much complete though. You could pull the breasts a little higher, but that's just detail.
Kinda reminds me of Leeloo from 5th Element

[GF]HarryButt wrote:the face would look, well more babyface-girly-like.

As for now, I'm not sure if I would want that. I like a bit of imperfection. But it would be no problem moving the vertices of the face around a little, so I could do that any time until I start with the low poly version. So still some time left to think about it.

[GF]HarryButt wrote:Kinda reminds me of Leeloo from 5th Element

I was thinking the same thing. I believe that will change when I work further on the cloths.

Looking good Rebecca. Congratulations on getting this far .

Rebecca wrote:I like a bit of imperfection.

May be, but imo it would fit the general concept of your model. Anyway, it's up to you. I'm just the suggester guy...
It's looking very cool atm.

And btw: If you are actually going to rig/animate this one til the end...

ISN'T THIS A GOOD TIME TO START WITH SEGMENTED MODELS IN NEXUIZ?
There has to be a first up/down-looking model, so why not this one?

[GF]HarryButt wrote:Anyway, it's up to you. I'm just the suggester guy...

Suggestions are really appreciated. I did work on the face a bit.

[GF]HarryButt wrote:ISN'T THIS A GOOD TIME TO START WITH SEGMENTED MODELS IN NEXUIZ?
There has to be a first up/down-looking model, so why not this one?

Is that already supported? What would I have to do?

It is not supported in 2.4.2, and not in svn yet, however we'd really want that supported once. Blub, do you think you can get that to work in CSQC?

What exactly do you mean by segmented models? Like quake3 with the legs, torso and head or something else? Is this so character models can look up and down and if so doesn't darkplaces support a skeletal format like MD5 or the Unreal engine .psa and .psk formats?

Supporting skeletal formats (yes, the engine supports that) and having ways to manipulate bones (no, the engine doesn't support that) are two different things. Model formats aren't everything

render 1
render 2

Now there are cloths! The front of the knees needs some additional tweaking, but other than that I think I'm finished with the high poly modeling.

Next will be some texturing. The face needs some colors, the hair texture can be improved, and there will be some tattoos. I'm wondering if I should make the metal parts look scratched, and maybe the leather as well, or if I should just leave it shiny new. At the moment I am tending towards the latter. Well, one could always make additional skins later on...

Rebecca, this is looking awesome. Can't wait to see this finished

Cheers

What about some tattoos?
Or a tanned/black skin as an alternative?

@ SavageX: Does that mean, that segmented models are depending on LordHavoc's progress with DarkPlaces? I wonder, what he can tell us on this topic...

Segmented models don't depend on LH's engine progress, having the models look up/down *without* segmentation would need engine modifications.