thinking of trying to remake some OTA models

[Wartender]

well, the title says it all. I'm a pretty noobish modeler, and i can't texture to save my life, i don't have a clue how to animate things for spring, etc. etc.

So, can anyone link me to some helpful things? i'v looked at the tutorial section here but there's nothing i really need
what i'm looking for is:

• a texturing tutorial: just how to make good textures (in GIMP) i can figure out UVmapping on my own
  a link to the original OTA models (to have something to remake )

i'm not really thinking of animating anything yet, i'll look into that if/when i get good at texturing/ have something worth animating.

also, anything which i haven't mentioned that you may think will be helpful to me will be greatly appreciated as well

just to show that i'm at least a bit serious about this: a (yes, crappy, and still very much WIP) flash remake:


not convinced i'm serious yet? ask maackey, i've tried doing other things before but they pale in comparison even to this (shitty) flash.

[Kenku]

Hey with BA:R going around, more power to ya! The flash doesn't look too bad for a start either.

[manolo_]

yeah looks quiet okay

[Jazcash]

Nice Flash. Looks a lil' flat though.

[Hoi]

With militairy stuff, function goes before looks. How will this flash aim at something close to it? The barrels are too close to the hull, if it's firing to the sides then it won't be able to rotate the barrels down. Try raising the turret and maybe the barrels can be a bit bigger too.

It's ok, but quite simple.

[Wartender]

Nice Flash. Looks a lil' flat though.

well i looked at the flash in BA and it's really flat so i thought it was supposed to be xD

With militairy stuff, function goes before looks. How will this flash aim at something close to it? The barrels are too close to the hull, if it's firing to the sides then it won't be able to rotate the barrels down. Try raising the turret and maybe the barrels can be a bit bigger too.

well, due to the flash being flat it shouldn't have to aim down, but i'll see what i can do. This is more of a test i don't expect it to make it into any game (especially since it isn't even textured)

[Gota]

Yay.
definitely make more you got potential.

[Wartender]

thanks for the love and all but.. can anyone actually link me to somewhere where i can get OTA models and/or some basic texturing tutorial? xD

[caldera]

you can easily unpack BA with 7 zip. The models can be viewed with upspring. Please continue your work, your flash is looking really nice.

[manolo_]

you can easily unpack BA with 7 zip. The models can be viewed with upspring. Please continue your work, your flash is looking really nice.

caldera kannst auch was modelln . und ├╝brigens gibt es nicht erst seit bar remodells

[Wartender]

@caldera: good idea, but can i open them with blender? i'm on linux so iirc i can't run upspring.

@manolo: was i supposed to understand that? xD

[manolo_]

no, or i would have written it in english

btw: http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=57

[Wartender]

ok so the models are in .3do format, is there any way to import them into blender?

[maackey]

I think upspring can export them to .3ds or .obj, which in turn can be imported into wings/blender.

oops, completely skipped the linux/upspring part. To a certain extent upspring works under wine, but you've likely already tried that do you have *no* access to a windows machine at all? I don't really know of any other program that can handle .3do's but then again I try to stay away from the ancient deprecated stuff.

[Wartender]

upsring works well enough in wine, thanks! :D

does anyone know how i should get started learning to make textures for these kinds of things? i'm no good at GIMP, but i can learn

EDIT: trying out UVmapping on my flash, i've noticed that the texture gets distorted, is that because many polys are linked to one another? should i separate them all or have a maximum of one edge connected to any other poly?

you can see because the PEW PEW PEW goes from being very slanted to straight, and it should all be slanted the same way

also it's next to the OTA flash <3

[manolo_]

but you could add some nice details at the chains and above them

[Jazcash]

I think most OTA models are much flatter than they should be, supposedly because Cavedog designed them to be seen from above so didn't worry too much about the height and bulkiness of them.

Seeing a lot of people are remaking OTA models, it's worth pointing out that you don't have to stick to the original design style. Every model can always be improved whether it's in terms of shape, texture, performance ingame, animations etc.

So yeah, I think if you gave it a bit more "tank like" bulkiness to it, it would shape up nicely.