BT-5 Texture & Model Criticism


(AlphaRed12) #81

I will zip them up for ya. Took me almost 2 yrs to find these scripts, so the least I can do is pass them around to Blenderheads.

Btw, do you have skills in Animating so i could get some tips or advice from you.

Don’t want to be cocky or anything, but I think i do have some quite good animation skills. I’d be happy to help you anytime.


(Pegazus) #82

Thank you very much Alpha Red, the scripts work perfectly and I can now see the churchill body animations. I’l keep these scripts safe, so i wont lose them.


Thanks, I will send you a PM :slight_smile:


(-SSF-Sage) #83

Don’t forget the stop, start and driving animations. They are the ones that makes the tank alive!

Also first frame (0-1) is "non animated"l for the idling tank (used in stopfire too).

Look at the tank script to get idea of the frames (for numbers and such):


startanimation <startframe> <framecount> <fps> [norandom|nolerp|noloop]

Edit. typo


(-SSF-Sage) #84

I tried to move animations from one model to another with nph3rno’s md3compiler, but it seems it has to be same model (amount of objects and vertices).

I did a little digging. Same goes for churchhill and jadg. Here are the frames and animations.


0-1	      Idle/Stop fire	tank stays still

5-45	     Driving (loop)	tank shakes when it moves

45-55	Tank stop		tank "leans" forward, thanks to fast slowing down and moves back up

55-65	Tank start		tank does a little "sidewards shake" and rumbles to move

67-75	 Start fire		tank does a rumble caused by gun recoil

75-91         Empty              Md3compiler shows that it has 91 frames, but only 75 is used


(AlphaRed12) #85

Thank you very much Alpha Red, the scripts work perfectly and I can now see the churchill body animations. I’l keep these scripts safe, so i wont lose them.

Welcome. I’m always happy to help other Blenderheads who need good scripts. Hopefully these will be updated with the new 2.50 release.
Of course, anyone can use them because they work perfectly, they export and import everything including animations (which has been a difficult point in other md3 scripts).


(-SSF-Sage) #86

I already had an exporter with all abilities, but not an importer that is able to import animations. Thanks.

I thought it would be simple, fast and easy to do the animations with lattice animation, what do you think Alpha Red? Btw do you know if it possible to copy animations from churchhill, for example like copying the tag?


(AlphaRed12) #87

I thought it would be simple, fast and easy to do the animations with lattice animation, what do you think Alpha Red? Btw do you know if it possible to copy animations from churchhill, for example like copying the tag?

I’m not sure about using lattice animations. For all my animations I have used bone animations since the exporter cannot see bones so it ignores them and just exports the tags with all the vertex data in them.
I’m pretty sure there isn’t tags on the body of the tank so its only the vertex movements. Thus, I beleive you cannot copy the frames over, would be a pain regardless.


(-SSF-Sage) #88

[QUOTE=Alpha Red;189613]I’m not sure about using lattice animations. For all my animations I have used bone animations since the exporter cannot see bones so it ignores them and just exports the tags with all the vertex data in them.
I’m pretty sure there isn’t tags on the body of the tank so its only the vertex movements. Thus, I beleive you cannot copy the frames over, would be a pain regardless.[/QUOTE]

I think lattice animations would work nicely. Atleast should, I have to try it on a tank. The body has a tag for the turret, and the animations are stored in that.


(-SSF-Sage) #89

Sorry for another double post. I experimented a bit with the lattice animations. After I learned to use it properly, I animated a monkey face in couple minutes. I’m pretty convinced it is the way to go. Shouldn’t take a lot more than 2 hours to animate the tank with that.

I made a lattice with the face, then I animated the lattice with absolute key shapes. The whole thing “follows” the lattice as it deforms (you need 2 rows of “safety zone” tho, to keep a certain part non moving…)

Ps. I haven’t tried exporting the thing I made. I’ll try it tomorrow ingame.


(Pegazus) #90

@Alpha Red
One question about bone animations, aren’t they usualy used on characters? ( i am probably wrong, since my animation knowladge is low )


@Sage
Wooh, you made so much progress Sage in one day, i am impressed. :slight_smile:


(AlphaRed12) #91

Well bone animations work well for weapons becausethey allow you to move the hands quite naturally. Here is an example of my latest bone animation of the Walther P-38.


(-SSF-Sage) #92

The lattice animation works really great ingame. I’ll (atleast try) to animate the tank above with it and if it comes out good, I’ll make it into a tank prefab (with all the goodies like script etc.) for everyone to use.


(-SSF-Sage) #93

Sorry for another double post, but I can’t seem to figure out how to include the tag into the animation. I want the tag to rotate and move with the body in animation. I tried groups and parenting etc. but I don’t really have clue of that kind of stuff in blender.

Ps. the tag is attached with parenting to the body, but doesn’t get moved with lattice, but does otherwise. If I can’t find a solution to this I’ll have to animate the tag separately. :frowning:


(AlphaRed12) #94

I’m not sure. In bone animation, you parent the tag (empty) to the mesh because the mesh is parented to the bone so just by moving the bones oyu move everything. You can try by asking on BA forums, they would know if anyone.


(Pegazus) #95

[quote=Alpha Red;189633]Well bone animations work well for weapons becausethey allow you to move the hands quite naturally. Here is an example of my latest bone animation of the Walther P-38.

Realy nice work, how long did it take you to make all that?


I think it should not have taken quite long, since you are good at animating :slight_smile:


(AlphaRed12) #96

f I total up all the hours, it would’ve taken me not long at all. The key is to work in short amounts over several days. I worked on that for 5 days at around 1-2 hrs at a time. I’m glad that you like it.


(Pegazus) #97

Exactly, if you do too much work then you will get bored of it (happens to me) and eventualy just want to get rid of the project.


(Pegazus) #98

Sorry for double post.

Alpha Red, if you would be interested still in our texture challange i have something for us.
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/2451/image1jok.jpg
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/2539/image2f.jpg
It’s a Sherman Dozer tank.
But it’s not yet finished (just a starting point), if i would manage to get it completly finished, would we do the challange on this tank? :slight_smile:
(the dozer part is very unfinished, and also some spots are odd)


(shagileo) #99

Woah, That tank looks great as it is!
DON’T TEXTURE IT

hehe, great job Pega


(Pegazus) #100

[quote=shagileo;189855]Woah, That tank looks great as it is!
DON’T TEXTURE IT

hehe, great job Pega[/quote]

It’s yet not finished, there is now numerous new detail that gives a new feel :slight_smile:

I need to think of a name for this tank.