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Calling the masters

Here you can discuss building custom ships, texturing and 3D modeling in Freelancer

Post Sat Nov 13, 2004 2:07 pm

Calling the masters

Im new to this forum, and must say its great. OK. down to busines, I'm looking for some one to do a ship mod for me, since I know nothing about moding, programing or 3D moddeling I thought Id turn to the pro's for help. I realy wish to see my prototypes in action.

I've 3 or 4 moddels for batleships and cruisers, and one for a heavy fighter.

Please Email me at [email protected] for more information since i'm only on this site in the weekends, but I do check my Email every night.

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong section...

Post Sat Nov 13, 2004 2:18 pm

Are they skinned? Are they textured? Do you have DDS textures made, with mipmaps? Drizzt's tutorial + HardCMP + Kasdian's texturing guide are what you need.

Making a ship is a fairly complex process... if you have models completed, skinned and exported to CMP and MAT, then you might get a few bites, if people like your work. If all you have is rough, unskinned geometry... I hate to sound like a meanie, but people aren't likely to help you. The guides are there for a reason.

Post Sat Nov 13, 2004 2:33 pm

Basicly, I only have the drafts on paper. I know nothig about modding, all the terms you used seems above my head...

Post Sat Nov 13, 2004 6:39 pm

Erm... well, basically you're asking for a lot there, if you can't even model it in 3D. Tell you what... scan your drawings and put them up in this post (keep them reasonably small, no more than 600X600, of course). Maybe, just maybe, somebody will think your drawings are so cool that they should be made into working ships. I wouldn't hold your breath, but hey... maybe you're an awesome concept artist, and people will jump all over your ideas

I wouldn't hold your breath, though, unless you are an awesome concept artist... those of us who make visual things for the game have plenty of ideas of our own- some crappy, but mainly good ones. If you look through the screenshots of the literally hundreds of mods stored on TLR, you will see a breadth of variety and quality centered around the word, "spaceship" that is just totally amazing to behold. Sure, there are lots of things from movies, but there are also lots of amazing original designs, well-worth checking out. If you can match in drawings what the best of us do in 3D, then somebody may take you up on your ideas. If not (and be honest with yourself here)... then you need to go find a 3D modeling application and begin the long learning curve, just like we did. If you want some help and guidance in that direction, I can point you towards some FREE software you can use, and some almost-free software (Milkshape3D) which you can use to get from concept model to Freelancer masterpiece.

Post Sat Nov 13, 2004 10:39 pm

Actualy I'm curently messing around with Milkshape 3D, got it from a friend of mine,all I need is some tutorials. I can do the most basic, but with the textures I'll need guidance,can you recomend any program wich would be easy to use?

I'll also redo my basic designs and post the raw data on this sight,just in case.

Thanx for the help

Post Sat Nov 13, 2004 11:35 pm

To do the textures, here are my suggestions (this assumes that you want to spend no money on professional tools- be warned, though, that you tend to get what you pay for)

1. When you're done with your model, export it in the Wavefront OBJ format (you can find this under File-->Export).

2. Import it into UVMapper, which is the fully-functional precursor to UVMapper Pro (which is an amazing tool if you have $60 available... spend it). You can find it at www.uvmapper.com

3. Use UVMapper to make valid UV projections for each part of your model (UVs are... ah... sort've like little gridlines running across the model's surfaces, and you can change their direction and projection for different parts of the model to make textures look how you want them to). The first time you do this, I can garantee you will make mistakes... it's a learning process you'll just have to master. You save your model and the texturemap with this application, which will save you a TON of confusion/pain when it comes to texturing.... try a sphere or a cube first, this tool takes some patience and practice to use.

4. Go get any halfway-decent freeware graphics application ... erm... here I'm stuck. I'm addicted to Photoshop, which costs real money but is THE professional tool.... googles a bit... oh yeah, you can download... GIMP, which is freeware and halfway-decent (although it ain't Photoshop). It'll work for most texturing jobs just fine, really.

OK, so now (a week or two later and probably after uttering words I won't use on this Forum)... you have a model with a texture. Import it into Milkshape again, and then create and apply the texture to it by making a new Material and assigning the texture to it (your friend can help you here, I'm sure). Assuming that you did everything right (which is not likely, your first time, but have patience), will now have a model that's ready to export in the CMP format, which is what Freelancer uses. Further details about how to put your texture on the ship in a format that Freelancer can read properly (and the hazards thereof) can be read in Kasdian's guide to texturing, which I mentioned briefly above.

So, uh... when you get your first decent-looking ship done (if you're persistant and intelligent, you can master the basics in about a month) then if you get stuck, please ask more questions. The community welcomes budding shipwrights who apply themselves (and aren't as dumb or wanting to do as many twisted things to FL's engine as I am, heh).

Post Sun Nov 14, 2004 1:34 am

We have a 3D modelling and texturing forum you know........

I will move the thread tomorrow (gives you time to see this and not wonder what happened to the thread )

Post Sun Nov 14, 2004 4:06 am

Thanx a million Argh, and thanx Chips, I'll give it a shot... I think i'll be able to become familiar with the 3D and texture, but the final progaming will take a while...

chips, where are you planing to move this post to?

Post Sun Nov 14, 2004 4:16 am

here

and as you now know that it is being moved, i will move it

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