Author Topic: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP) (Read 28855 times)

cbudd · « **on:** 2013-10-05 01:03:14 »

I've been modeling for a week now, so I have low expectations of myself. Here is what we have so far!

Criticism happily accepted!

cmh175 · « **Reply #1 on:** 2013-10-06 01:10:33 »

It looks pretty good, you've been modeling for a week? As in this one model, or you read tutorials and a dummies guide and have a weeks worth of experience? Either way you're off to a great start. The only thing I'd mention is the face looks a bit long, which in turn makes it look thinner and the nose longer. It may fit better with the texture applied so it's hard to say. She's a very anime styled character, large eyes with more hair than anything else. I think if you moved the eyes and nose down closer to the mouth, making the forehead bigger, it'll look really close. If you're going for a more realistic look though it may work pretty well.

cbudd · « **Reply #2 on:** 2013-10-06 02:56:16 »

Thanks,

Yeah, I have a weeks worth of modeling experience, this is the first thing I have attempted. I agree with you, in fact I've already revised the nose and eyes, as well as widened the cheeks a bit to make her a little more proportional. Thanks for the feedback!

Mayo Master · « **Reply #3 on:** 2013-10-06 04:27:09 »

That one is pretty tough to attempt, especially as the first thing you try to model! I find that organic objects and characters are the hardest thing to do. Personally I don't have the eye for drawing people, I wouldn't even try this one even after more than a year of experience!
Anyway, personally I'd suggest you model simpler things as a way to practice. The second suggestion I'd have is: gather as many reference pictures as you can. If you manage to find good full-face and profile pictures, setting the images as background would be of great help. Besides, you can learn a great deal just by making close observations of the object you're trying to model.

cbudd · « **Reply #4 on:** 2013-10-06 22:51:17 »

Okay, a little update. Bigger eyes, fixed a crooked nose, some other detail changes...

Long way to go, but I am going to quit on the head for now and start fleshing out the rest of the body. The ear is giving me a hard time

I am sure to still make some minor changes to the face (in fact, just after loading this I gave a little more indention to above the nostril area on the nose) but I need to break from it for a while so I can get a fresh perspective on it later.

cbudd · « **Reply #5 on:** 2013-10-11 06:53:20 »

So, I am working on texturing my Aeris head model. I got the UV mapping part down, but I am having issues with actually getting it to import back into blender properly. When I export the UV map, it looks fine. I edit it with GIMP to get my colors in, but then when I import it back into blender it doesn't match up!

As you can see, the drawn textures are all offset to the right, and it doesn't match up when rendering. Although I can move the things around to make it sort of fit, I am concerned that the UV mapping will be wrong when it comes time to import the model into the game.

Anyone have any ideas or know what I am doing wrong?

Thanks!

cmh175 · « **Reply #6 on:** 2013-10-11 13:20:50 »

Not sure what happened, Blender isn't horribly great with uv mapping, in my opinion at least. For example it'll strip the uv mapping if you export to a .3ds. Basically you'll have to realign the layout. It seems pretty even though, you maybe able to just select the whole thing and adjust it together. Once the layout is aligned and looks good on the model it'll be fine when you import it just make sure to flip the Y in pcreator.

By the way, since Blender cant export .3ds files I use .obj and use Meshlab to export to .3ds. Works fine and is a great program for checking pieces before importing.

cbudd · « **Reply #7 on:** 2013-10-11 13:54:38 »

Quote from: cmh175 on 2013-10-11 13:20:50

Not sure what happened, Blender isn't horribly great with uv mapping, in my opinion at least. For example it'll strip the uv mapping if you export to a .3ds. Basically you'll have to realign the layout. It seems pretty even though, you maybe able to just select the whole thing and adjust it together. Once the layout is aligned and looks good on the model it'll be fine when you import it just make sure to flip the Y in pcreator.

By the way, since Blender cant export .3ds files I use .obj and use Meshlab to export to .3ds. Works fine and is a great program for checking pieces before importing.

Unfortunately I can't just select it all and drag it - it is like it has been shrunk down or twisted somehow, so the left side won't match up unless I start trying to drag a bunch of the vertices around. I could and would do that, but my concern is that when I eventually export the model and get it turned into a .p file the texture may not line up properly.

I suppose I could try and realign the map, export the image again, then re-import it and see if it matches. That is the only thing I can think to do at this point.

cmh175 · « **Reply #8 on:** 2013-10-11 15:18:30 »

I think that's the best thing you can do. Adjusting uv mapping can be more work than editing the model, for me at least. I'd get the texture and everything to where you want it, then fix the mapping in Bender. I wouldn't export the mapping again or anything, it'll probably just screw itself up again.

cbudd · « **Reply #9 on:** 2013-10-11 15:53:51 »

Okay, thanks for the advice. Hopefully I will have something that works in the next week or two. I'm definitely concerned with the texturing because I'm really not much of an artist

cbudd · « **Reply #10 on:** 2013-10-13 08:06:48 »

Well, it's really late but I finally am getting somewhere...

cbudd · « **Reply #11 on:** 2013-10-13 08:56:45 »

Incidentally, if anyone knows how to export the model from blender and have it keep the UV coordinates I would love to hear how to go about it! I've tried exporting as and object file, using biturn and wings 3d to convert to .3ds format, but I just can't get the UV map to go with it.

cmh175 · « **Reply #12 on:** 2013-10-13 16:27:46 »

Only use biturn to convert ff7 files to 3ds. It doesn't work well for anything else really. I export from Blender with .obj (regardless of the models current format) and use Meshlab to convert to .3ds. It's also good for double checking pieces for holes.

cbudd · « **Reply #13 on:** 2013-10-13 19:18:20 »

Well, I tried that but still no uv coordinates for Pcreator

I can see the texture in meshlab, but no matter what I do I can't see the uv map to put the texture in pcreator. Very frustrating to say the least. Can I export the uv map itself somehow?

Borde · « **Reply #14 on:** 2013-10-13 21:08:24 »

Kimera should be able to read 3ds files with UVs directly. If it doesn't, I'd like to know.

cmh175 · « **Reply #15 on:** 2013-10-13 21:14:09 »

I haven't tried that yet, I'll have to do that soon. Blender doesn't give a lot of options for uv mapping. You can export it as a png, but not as a working layout. More importantly I'd like to be able to import an edited uv layout.

Did you select the piece in pcreator? There's a drop down menu, select the piece and it'll turn red on the screen. Then you can add the texture and flip the Y on the uv layout. Otherwise it wont let you add either.

cbudd · « **Reply #16 on:** 2013-10-13 22:41:19 »

Quote from: Borde on 2013-10-13 21:08:24

Kimera should be able to read 3ds files with UVs directly. If it doesn't, I'd like to know.

I can open the Aeris head that originally came with FF7 that has been converted to a .3ds file. I can't open my blender converted .3ds file, though.

cbudd · « **Reply #17 on:** 2013-10-13 22:43:37 »

Quote from: cmh175 on 2013-10-13 21:14:09

I haven't tried that yet, I'll have to do that soon. Blender doesn't give a lot of options for uv mapping. You can export it as a png, but not as a working layout. More importantly I'd like to be able to import an edited uv layout.

Did you select the piece in pcreator? There's a drop down menu, select the piece and it'll turn red on the screen. Then you can add the texture and flip the Y on the uv layout. Otherwise it wont let you add either.

Yeah, I selected the piece. When I open the UV coordinates part, it gives me no options to do anything because it doesn't see anything, unfortunately.

I guess there must be something with the model that is not allowing it to work. I just don't have a clue what it could be

cbudd · « **Reply #18 on:** 2013-10-13 22:52:34 »

Quote from: Borde on 2013-10-13 21:08:24

Kimera should be able to read 3ds files with UVs directly. If it doesn't, I'd like to know.

Incidentally, I can load my model after it has been converted to a .p file, but it has no textures nor can I add any.

cbudd · « **Reply #19 on:** 2013-10-13 22:57:18 »

Does naming matter with regards to what pcreator will see as a texture? As long as it is a 24 bit bmp I should be good, right?

cmh175 · « **Reply #20 on:** 2013-10-14 14:36:17 »

When you have the piece selected in pcreator does it give you the option to add the texture or is it greyed out? If you have it set for a battle model do you have textures checked?

cbudd · « **Reply #21 on:** 2013-10-14 16:08:45 »

Quote from: cmh175 on 2013-10-14 14:36:17

When you have the piece selected in pcreator does it give you the option to add the texture or is it greyed out? If you have it set for a battle model do you have textures checked?

I'm at work right now, but I will do my best to recall. I have been working under field model (although switching to battle model did not seem to make a difference for me) and I would pull down the drop down menu and check the texture option (texture file(s) or something like that?)

I would then go to the uv coordinates option which pops up a second window. Everything is greyed out and nothing shows but the blue axis lines. It by default is listed as view all. Selecting my model in the uv coordinate window does not change anything, either.

Is there a program other than 3ds max that allows you to export a .uvw file? I wonder if I can get a .uvw file then I could import that into pcreator and add textures...

The only other thing that I can think of right now is that somehow I have missed a step in blender that is not allowing the uv map to export properly with the object file. My only problem with that is that opening the file in wings3d or meshlab shows the texture just fine.

Maybe there is something going on with the model that doesn't agree with the .3ds format, like an open area or something that it doesn't like?

cbudd · « **Reply #22 on:** 2013-10-14 16:15:40 »

I saw this while doing a little research.

From here...

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=65297

Quote

Umm... you do know that .3DS format is from stone-age and everyone who still uses it today is asking for trouble? I bet that you don't remember for example that .3DS supports only 8+3 characters in a filename, so "HugeCockpitPanel.jpg" is shortened to-- well, something "totally different" like Monty Python would say. Filename mismatch would explain why .OBJ works but .3DS doesn't if it's texture problem.

I may try to rename my texture file to something simple (like 1.bmp or something) then export it. Maybe my texture name is too long and it is getting lost in the translation...

Borde · « **Reply #23 on:** 2013-10-14 23:35:03 »

Quote from: cbudd on 2013-10-13 22:41:19

I can open the Aeris head that originally came with FF7 that has been converted to a .3ds file. I can't open my blender converted .3ds file, though.

I'd like to have a look at that file if possible. The one comming from Blender.

cbudd · « **Reply #24 on:** 2013-10-14 23:50:58 »

Quote from: Borde on 2013-10-14 23:35:03

I'd like to have a look at that file if possible. The one comming from Blender.

Sure. I can send you the original blender file and/or the exported object file.

I also noticed that I am probably running an older version of kimera, so I need to get the latest one just to double check.

Thanks everyone for their help so far!