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Topic Starter Topic: looking for a good Q3A model animation and skinning tutorial
Magnus
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Joined: 16 Feb 2005
Posts: 528
PostPosted: 11-23-2005 03:23 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Hey all.

Just looking for a good model animation tutorial for animating models for Q3A and Q3TA with gmax in mind if possible.

I larned on my own how to model and I know I could make a great model it is just that it may as well be a statue because I have learned very little about animation.
The best I can do so far is animateing new ammo models like getting a rocket model to rotate.

Also I would like to learn how to map a skin immage onto a model. I have made many skins shaders and A.I. files for existing Q3A models that look great but they already had the skin files mapped out as to where on the model what part of the immage should be applied.
If I were to make a new model and a skin immage for it I would have no clue as to how to make sure the face portion of the immage ended up properly applied to the face area of the model for example.

Any advice or direction to a good tut for these subjects would be a great help.

Thanks.



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Uh, well....good luck with that. :shrug:

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^misantropia^
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PostPosted: 11-23-2005 06:54 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


What program are you using, Magnus? (3DS MAX 7, IIRC?)
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obsidian
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Joined: 04 Feb 2002
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PostPosted: 11-23-2005 07:10 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Ahem...

Magnus wrote:
Just looking for a good model animation tutorial for animating models for Q3A and Q3TA with gmax in mind if possible.


Have you tried Polycount?



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Magnus
It starts. I win. The end!
It starts. I win. The end!
Joined: 16 Feb 2005
Posts: 528
PostPosted: 11-23-2005 09:07 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Yea I have tried pollycount in the past, but I am in the process of going back over their site. They have lots of resources, but it seems that none of them address exactly what I am looking for.
I also went back over JAQUAYS.com, but many of the links to the tutorials that even come close to what I am looking for are dead links now.

Also yes I am useing gmax, but I am willing to change the program that I use if there is a good tutorial that is known for it that covers animation and mapping the skin immages to the model as well as how to use the new (too me) program.

BTW, Greetings misantropia! Hope your doing well.

I am just tired of making models that have a really cool structure and concept, but they just stand there in my editor because I dont know how to animate them and or map the skin to the model.

Hopefully someone will read this that knows right off hand of the tutorials I need.
In the meantime I am going to go back to searching.

Happy hollidays to all those that have a holliday to celibrate this week!



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Uh, well....good luck with that. :shrug:

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obsidian
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PostPosted: 11-24-2005 07:46 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Paul Steed (Q3A character modeler at Id) also wrote some miscellaneous articles on game development in general. He wrote a few article on modeling and character animations.

http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.30/totb/

IIRC, you can download the character animations that were used for Q3A, I think it was on Polycount. You can use that to rig the model to the IK Bones animation to get your model working.

He's using 3dsMAX with Character Studio (a series of tools built into MAX). I'm not sure if Gmax has the same functionalities. Otherwise, MAX is a pretty pricy program to buy, so you may want to look for cheaper alternatives that gives you the option to animate your characters.

Look into using these free/low-cost programs:
Maya Personal License Edition (Free like Gmax)?
Milkshape 3D (Cheap)?
Blender 3D (Open source - free)?

BTW, got any screenshots of the models you're working on?



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Magnus
It starts. I win. The end!
It starts. I win. The end!
Joined: 16 Feb 2005
Posts: 528
PostPosted: 11-24-2005 10:16 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Awesome obsidian! Exelent resource! I love the uesing the bones animation and applying them to my models. That is killer!

It wont work for some of my models though, but you have well put me on the road to animating.

Thank you greatly.

obsidian wrote:
BTW, got any screenshots of the models you're working on?


Not yet, but I'll make some and post them soon.
Right now I am working on bringing about 8 of the Q1 and Q2 enemy models into Q3A for a mod. Like the Feind and Ogre from Q1 and the Enforcer and Iron Maden from Q2, but I have 8 that are custom origonal ideas of my own.
A male and female Gothic Barbarian style set. A set of Futureistic humans with cybronic implants, but more like PI from Q3:TA than like Anarki and Slash. A set of Human Soldiers. And a set of what would seem to be the spawn of demon posesed humans that bread with some kind of wicked ailen.

I hope to be able to use my understanding of the Q3A engine physics to make models that are optimised in their construction as well as look good.
I already have figured out how to make models that are "Smarter" and "More Skilled" than the normal bots. They even defeat the supposed "super bots" of CPMA with ease even in the CPMA maps that are supposed to be optimised for the super bots.

I have managed to get them to make better decisions on the fly. Like with normal bots if you fire a rocket out in front of them in their line of direction so it will hit them when they get to where you aimed the rocket they will just keep running in the same path and get hit.
My bots will change course or even stop or reverse their direction to avoid getting hit all the while exacting deadly precision on you.

Hopefully when I am finnished I will have a set of models/bots that just awesome to use.

Anyway. I'm gonna go learn some animation now!

Thanks again.



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Uh, well....good luck with that. :shrug:

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