I can do this. I swear. Even if it take a million years.

SinbadEV · Post by **SinbadEV** » 02 Oct 2007, 17:16

So I am going to make a mod, one new unit at a time without stealing anything from any other mods... and this will be the start of the "SDK" that was discussed in the mods forum. I was thinking we could find a spare artist, scripter/animator, and then I could help put it all together and work on the documentation and such... but now I'm thinking it will be hard to write documentation without having done it myself... so in theory what I make will be ugly and stupid looking but teach me what I need to know to help other people... and thanks to "Practice Makes Perfect" factor of design I might not suck so bad when I'm done.

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 02 Oct 2007, 18:29

Is that mecha-HAL9000?

Crampman · Post by **Crampman** » 02 Oct 2007, 21:19

I can do :
-3D modelling (Not yet uvmapping/texturing)
-Scripting
-SFX stuff

PM me if you're interested

MetalSkin · Post by **MetalSkin** » 03 Oct 2007, 00:20

kinda reminds me of the 3d animated cartoon Reboot. Have you based it from Reboot characters? From memory Reboot was the first rendered cartoon... was very interesting.

Mooseral · Post by **Mooseral** » 03 Oct 2007, 01:10

Woot!

Looks good, for an SDK it doesn't really even need to be particularly pretty... So have at it!

Hey, you could even document the process of building up units while you're at it. Tutorials for this exist, but they're broken up, obsolete, or incomplete. Might be useful for parts of the SDK, meh.

Go Hal-bot Go!

Snipawolf · Post by **Snipawolf** » 03 Oct 2007, 04:43

Are you positive you can script it up right? >___>

SinbadEV · Post by **SinbadEV** » 03 Oct 2007, 06:39

MetalSkin wrote:kinda reminds me of the 3d animated cartoon Reboot. Have you based it from Reboot characters? From memory Reboot was the first rendered cartoon... was very interesting.

It was more based on Hal then reboot... but I definitely remember reboot, they are actually planning to remake that show.

Snipawolf wrote:Are you positive you can script it up right? >___>

Not Even Remotely... but one step at a time eh?

Mooseral wrote:Hey, you could even document the process of building up units while you're at it. Tutorials for this exist, but they're broken up, obsolete, or incomplete. Might be useful for parts of the SDK, meh.

The difficulty in documenting the unit creation process is deciding on the scope and that I use a particular graphics program (Wings) so my tutorial would be for that same program. Now that you mention it I think I will definitely do so however.

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 03 Oct 2007, 17:51

I'm semi-good at modeling/UV mapping, effect sprites and scripting, I lack motivation to finish anything

and texturing a bit.

Well if you need help just ask, even if it's just some advice.

SinbadEV · Post by **SinbadEV** » 04 Oct 2007, 02:16

Alright, so UV mapped and textured (not quite happy with it but "Done" in the "I've filled in all the bits" sense).

SinbadEV · Post by **SinbadEV** » 04 Oct 2007, 05:47

AND We are "in game" (minus any kind of animation)

clumsy_culhane · Post by **clumsy_culhane** » 04 Oct 2007, 08:19

wats with the pixelated torso lol? otherwise gj

SwiftSpear · Post by **SwiftSpear** » 04 Oct 2007, 08:55

Ugly units is ugly

it does a good job of showing off the basics of UV mapping though.

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 04 Oct 2007, 14:33

^ and it hurts..

AF · Post by AF » 04 Oct 2007, 18:46

Get rid of the green shoulders. Remodel the head so its not a cube. That should vastly improve the model.

In future draw concepts before you begin to model. Design before implementation.

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 04 Oct 2007, 21:02

I think this wasn't the point. The point is to crank out some stuff to build the SDK around and to actually gather some DIY knowledge.

Models can be replaced later on anyway which seems to be his intention.

I think you should plan in a troubleshoot section, i.e. mention the alpha channel "bugs" or other oddities, or certain combinations of tags which may produce misbehavior etc.

SinbadEV · Post by **SinbadEV** » 04 Oct 2007, 21:58

While I did plan on "cranking out stuff" to get first hand knowledge (and absolutely recommend this method to others) I also see what AF is saying about the head and shoulders... having looked at my ugly model a few times now I see a lot of room for improvement, in addition I've gotten a lot better at using various filters to get metal/rivet effects during the first run and starting from scratch allows me to implement these ideas... also I can take progress screen shots this time for the turorial.

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 04 Oct 2007, 22:06

Protip: http://www.phong.com/tutorials/metal/

Makes a good background layer for metal parts and it can be done in a minute (or 5 for the first time). Depending on the strength of the blur you can get some half-decent metal looks quickly.

Mooseral · Post by **Mooseral** » 13 Oct 2007, 03:47

Any progress?

How goes the SDK? Anyone else volunteered to help yet?

SinbadEV · Post by **SinbadEV** » 13 Oct 2007, 04:01

Got bored with it when I became frustrated with trying to figure out how to script. I'll get back to it when my motivation comes back... or if I find some people to do the work for me..

Snipawolf · Post by **Snipawolf** » 13 Oct 2007, 04:07

rattle wrote:Protip: http://www.phong.com/tutorials/metal/

Makes a good background layer for metal parts and it can be done in a minute (or 5 for the first time). Depending on the strength of the blur you can get some half-decent metal looks quickly.

Eh, thats alright, but doesn't offer the lighter and darker areas depending.

I use clouds, the shade of the metal I want at 70 percent at full paintbucket, and then use Noise->Scatter RGB, and make the colors correspond, at .10 or so

Spring RTS Engine

I can do this. I swear. Even if it take a million years.

I can do this. I swear. Even if it take a million years.