The Elder Scrolls Forums

TES Construction Set and Plugins >> Morrowind Mods

Pages: 1 | 2 | (show all)
Daduke
Diviner

Reged: 07/12/02
Posts: 2172
Loc: Canada
Collection of Tutorials - Modeling
      #1597917 - 07/11/03 01:14 AM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The majority of this post is a simple copy&paste from this post by Drendal.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Ok-Well, I decided that there are far too many simple questions about Max that go unanswered. So I am starting this answers thread. Hopefully you will be able to find the answer to your query here, and maybe it would even become a sticky. This will be an ever growing thread, I'll try to cover issues as I come to them.

-----TEXTURING------

First thing you need to do is go to the downloads section on the main page. http://elderscrolls.com and download the nif exporter for morrowind. This will give you the nif exporter and the tes shader. Install those according to the readme file.

You'll also need a plugin called texporter. it can be found here : http://www.cuneytozdas.com/software/

Ok. Open your file in max. You have your object. You need to basically unwrap the faces of the object so that you can lay a texture across it. Because textures are flat, and meshes aren't. So you basically have to flatten out the mesh so you can put a texture on it.

You will unwrap your mesh using a modifier called unwrap uvw. Add that modifier to your mesh. In the modifier menu, under the Parameters roll out, you will see 4 buttons. Edit, Reset UVW's, Save, and Load. Edit will be the one we are primarily working with. I also sometimes find myself using reset.

Click the edit button. You will most likely see a bunch of lines that vaguely represent your mesh. You can close that now, that was just for viewing what it did.

If your mesh isnt an editable poly or editable mesh, convert it to one.

Using the select face function of the Unwrap UVW modifier. (click the plus sign on Unwrap UVW in the modifier stack, then click on Select Face) select faces that will go together other texture. Once you have them selected, you can click that Edit button again, now you should see a flat representation of those faces you selected. You can scale them and place them in their own little section in that blue square.

Ok, now do it again with another set of faces, stuff like legs, and arms. Legs can usually use the same texture for both, so the faces can be put on top of each other in the uvw. Same with arms. Anything that will have the same texture can be placed on top of each other in the uvw.

Continue selecting faces and unwrapping until you're all finished. This is where texporter comes in. Open up texporter in your utilities menu (the hammer) and set the output size to something square like 512x512 or 256x256. Then click pick object and pick your object. This will create a colorful representation of your unwrapped uvw. Now you can save this file.

Take this file into your favorite image editing program, I prefer photoshop. And make your texture. Paint the faces for the face like a face, paint the faces for the arm like an arm. Etc.

Then save this file as a targa...(or dds if you have the plugin which can be found at elderscrolls.com) into your textures folder.

Open Max again. Press M, this brings up your material editor. An essential tool to max.

Under the shader basic parameters rollout. You'll see a pulldown menu that says blinn. Pull it down and select the TES Shader.

Now under the TES shader rollout, look for diffuse, which has a little gray box next to it and a small square button. Press the button. This brings up a list of material types. Find bitmap and double click. Search through and find your texture that you made. Click ok. Now drag and drop the texture from the material editor onto your mesh.

Close the material editor. Hit F9, this does a quickrender, if everything went well, your mesh should be textured as you wanted it.



----THE SECRET OF THE BIPED-----

Here is another Direct Excerpt. This one from the Existing animation with MAX models (shirts, armour, robes, etc.) ~ Solved! thread.

First off, you're going to have to learn a little bit about Biped and Physique. Instead of going through a long discussion of how this works, I'm going to give you a link to a non-Morrowind Tutorial so you can brush up on the terminoligy and proceedures.

http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/cottages/zedaxis/learn/cstut01.htm

So, let's say you've made this new breastplate for your armour, but it looks funny on the character because it doesn't bend or twist like the other armour does.

1) Open up your max file (or create a new mesh) and attach all of your mesh pieces into one monolithic model. It may be possible to do this with separate meshes (which you add physique to separately), but I had problems with this. Give it a try, if you'd like, and report any successes/failures below. Remember that you'll have to add physique separately to each object if you do.

2) Create a new Biped object 128 max units tall. Change the spine seqments to 3 (from 4). The finger segments need to change as well, but I haven't tested the number. I've read from another poster that you need 2 fingers with 3 sements for 3rd person views and 5 fingers with 3 segments for 1st person views, but other than that, I think everything is default. If you want to use tail animations, I believe they are 3 segments.

3) Put the Biped object (Bip01) into figure mode and align it to origin. You need to move the small diamond shape to just below center. I've found that it works best around halfway between 0,0,0 and the grid mark just below. Be sure to follow the tutorial above on how to move and adjust the Biped... if you do it wrong, it can cause things to not work right.

4) Resize and align your mesh to the proper biped body parts. You can also move the biped limbs and such to better fit your model, if necessary. Basically, make sure things line up well.

5) This step is differnt than the tutorials you'll read about physique. Link your mesh to Bip01 (the biped object). There is a link button (looks like three chain links) in the upper left of the toolbar. Just click your mesh and drag to the diamond on the Biped. Your mesh will become a child object to Bip01.

6) Hide unused bones.

7) Add the Physique modifier to your mesh and attach it to the Biped object. In the dialog box, it's best to choose Rigid and No Blending.

8) Tweak your vertex weighting as it shows you in the tutorial. Only use the Green, Rigid type. You should see your mesh bend with the Biped model.

9) Export with the TES Exporter.

A few things I've noticed:

*Sometimes, when you select vertex under Physique, you don't get any vertex crosses. I've tried unhiding, etc., but nothing worked. It kept me from using the model properly, so I had to fix it or trash the model and start over. In the end, I created a copy of the model and that worked. Don't know why it happened, though...

*If you want to readjust your mesh vertices *after* you've applied Physique, then your going to have to delete Physique first. If you've spent a lot of time tweaking the weighting and aren't planning to *add* vertces, then simply save out a .phy file (disk at the top of the physique rollout), delete Physique, adjust your vertices, reapply Physique and reload your .phy file.

*If you want to *MOVE* your mesh after you've linked it to the Biped, you're going to have to *UNLINK* first. Before you unlink, you should probably delete Physique as well.

*You can attach vertices to any bone, not just the ones for the particular body part you're woking with.

*I tried to do multiple body parts in one max file with the hopes of hiding the models I didn't need when I saved... this didn't work. You're going to need to delete unneeded meshes before you export.

Have fun and happy modding!

-MD



---MODEL CREATION/EXPORTING-------

Modelling:

Ok, you hear a lot of talk about poly counts, and games suffering because of them. A good number of polys to shoot for on a weapon is about 500. That could be a little prohibiting, but that way, if you go over, you still have plenty of room before you get absurd, and if you dont go over, you're an efficient modeller. And dont underestimate the power of textures, a low poly mesh can be made exquisite with a detailed texture.

OK, so you've got your nice mesh, but it has lots of modifiers on it, which is not preferable for exporting(though it probably wont really mess ya up) So save your file. Then on your modifier stack, right click the top modifier and click collapse all. This will flatten all the modifiers into a simple editable mesh or editable poly.

Now, there are a ton of questions about allignment, and getting things to fit in morrowind, so I will try to cover this as in-depth as possible.

Scaling, Allignment, and Placement:

First thing you need to do is position the pivot so that the character will hold it correctly. To do this: click the hierarchy tab, the button looks sorta like a little 3 piece flow chart. Using the affect pivot only button, move your pivot so that it resides where the players hand should be. For two handed weapons, I believe it is placed in the center between where the two hands reside.

After you place the pivot, apply an xform modifier, this will allow you to properly scale, rotate and place the mesh.

As for placement, the mesh should be centered at 0,0,0. Since you placed your pivot already, it should place correctly by typing those values in. Using the top view. The head, or top of the weapon should be facing towards the top of your monitor, and the blade should be facing right(if it has a blade)

You will also need to scale your weapon appropriatly. Many a laugh have come from wielding gigantic building sized knifes. A typical morrowind npc is 128 max units tall. So you can judge the size of your weapon based upon that. Use the scale tool on the xform gizmo to properly scale your mesh down to the correct size in max units.

Once you are pleased with the size, collapse the mod stack again for a cleaner export.

A lot of the above relies on trial and error. So be patient when working, and try it a few times if it means it will be better.

Exporting:
You'll need the nif exporter I mentioned back in the texture tut, or the freedom force exporter for this.

Once your mesh is placed and scaled appropriatly, click file, and go down to export. Find the location you want to export to and scroll down in the export as menu to .NIF. Name your file and click save. This brings up the export box. There are lots of little details you can edit here. Some will be important when working with animation, but for most purposes, the default settings will do just fine. Once you've decided on settings click export. This will bring up the exort status window, which , for most normal statics and such, will just say export successful. You can then open the Construction set and set up an object using your mesh.

Special Modelling
Ok, there are a few types of special modelling that should be addressed. The first of these being no collision models.

Say you have a mesh that you want the player to be able to walk through. Maybe a waterfall or something. You have to turn off the collision for that mesh in max.

To do this, you create a box, or plane, I think any object will work, but I always use a box. In max, name that box "NoCollision" sans the quotes. I've heard that the nocol box wont show up, but I always hide mine anyway, just to be safe. When you export, you should see a message that says something like "NoCollision Object found at level 1" or something like that. That is how to make a no collision box.

Now, building on that, say you want to have a mesh that is nocollsion, but you want a piece of it to have collision. Use the above technnique to make the mesh nocollsion then You take the piece that you want to have collision and name it "Collision" sans the quotes. I'm pretty sure you can do this with more than one object in a mesh. You will get a message saying something like "Collsion object found" when you export.

Ok, now for some particle effects. I took this straight from the animation how-to thread. Cos its really good info and there is no use in me trying to explain it.

1. Creating the Material

- use the Blinn Shader
- add a bitmap to the diffuse map
- the bitmap should be:
- 32bit TGA, probably not bigger than 32x32 (even 16x16 is good for particles)
- TGA should have a pregenerated alpha channel
- the alpha channel set up in whatever art program should be black for transparent parts and white for solid parts or grays for translucent parts
- go to the opacity map and click on the button to add a map- but on the side bar switch from 'new' to 'editor' - find your diffuse map and select that. Tell MAX that this is an instance when asked
- if desired click on the checkered cube to tell MAX that you wish to see the texture in the viewport (note that transparencies don't usually show up in your viewport)


2. Creating a particle model

- create a plane, length and width of 1, 1 length and 1 width segments
- check generate mapping coordinates
- convert to a edit poly or edit mesh
- go to polygon subobject selection mod, select the poly, hold shift and rotate 180 degrees, say you are cloning to an element, exit poly mode
- apply the particle texture to your new object

3. Creating the Particle System

- create either a Blizzard or a Superspray particle
- Blizzard creates its particles from a 2 dimensional square
- the particles for Blizzard will 'fall' from a square
- Superspray creates its particles from a 1 dimensional point
- the particles for superspray will originate from your point creating either a 1D stream or by changing options it will spread out from this point in space
- apply the particle texture you made to your new particle system
- under particle type pick 'use instanced geometery', then find the pick object button, then select the particle you made
- under viewport settings (basic settings) for your particle change particles displayed to 100% and change it so it shows meshes in the viewport (this is a good way of keeping your particles toned down - if it really chokes your system then you're probably using too many particles for in-game purposes
- note that many options in MAX particle systems are ignored by the game including spin and rotate settings - particles seem to always face you in MAX and are always squares (the alpha channel transparency is what gives your particle a non square shape)
- settings you probably want to pay attention to:
- particle size. Now that your particle is a copy of that 1x1 plane you made you will have a good idea of how big it will be in Morrowind. A particle of size 1 is a tiny drop, a particle of size 128 would cover a person
- use rate - this determines how many particles are created - avoid numbers higher than 5 or so (but expirement) The amount of particles on screen at once results from this plus how long particles last
- Emit Start/Stop - what frame the particles start and stop at. Morrowind seems to like to play the particles in an infinite loop though, so in MAX you will see particles created for the space of time then disappear. Morrowind will do this over and over
- life - how long a particle lasts for - a value of 1 will cause particles to be huddle around the point of origin, disappearing quickly larger values allow the particles to expand out
- speed - how fast these particles spread out - very slow particles with very long lives create a dense particle field. Higher speeds will spread the particles out faster
- many places have a 'variation' variable - if you set this to like 50% then the values will vary by that much - adds to randomness and realism when used correctly and appropriately

4. Adding MAXProperties to your particle system

- select your particle system
- go to the utilities tab
- click on 'more' find the MAXProperties in the list and select that
- click on 'add' and select 'Zmode10='
- click on 'add' and select 'animated', check the BOOL box
- click on 'add' and select 'follow' check the BOOL box if you want the particles to use 'follow' or leave it unchecked
- particles that follow always stay with the particle system - so if you have a flaming sword it stays clustered around the sword
- particles that don't follow are 'on their own' once they are generated. A sword generating non-following smoke particles would leave a trail of smoke

5. Exporting

- hide your particle model (the little square you made)
- using the latest offical TES Exporter, export will default options...
- add your particle object art file in TES:CK, go into Morrowind and view your creation

6. Misc
- you can have more than one particle system at a time
- don't go too crazy with particles, try and keep the numbers of particles down
- much off the 'special' effect comes from how you design your .TGA
- under your particle material, in material editor - try setting the 'self illumination' value to something other than zero - at 100 the particle will glow at full intensity, at 10 the particle will glow dimly
- expirement a lot!
- using this method you will get a rough idea when you render in MAX how your particle system will look - however it will not be exactly the same in Morrowind!
- TES:CK can show the particles in some cases in the preview window, but they won't animate unless they are part of an animated object


and some corrections that Vilkacis Made:

Material


Use the TES Shader
You can use *.dds files as well
Apply your particle bitmap as Base map
For the fade effect apply a Particle Age map for Particle Color and Opacity in the maps rollout
Check Standard under Transparency Modes
Choose pure white as emmitance color


Particle System

No instanced geometry is needed
Pick Facing under particle type





---ANIMATION----

Staright From Rhedd's site, how to animate heads for morrowind.

ANIMATING FACES:

Animating faces in Morrowind is actually quite easy, all things considered. This little tutorial doesn't cover the complexities of 3DS Max, just the necessary steps to animating a face. I use Max 4.2, but this should work pretty much the same way in any version.

Step 1:
Build your face! It’s not in the scope this tutorial to explain how to do that. Make sure to build a basic inside to the mouth and teeth. Also put enough detail into the eyelids to allow for blinking. The head shouldn't need ears, since these come with the hairpieces. Make sure it’s completely finished and mapped before moving on. Try it out in-game first to make sure you like it.

Note: You’ll have to experiment with the size and shape of your first head, but I can help you out with where the pivotpoint should be. [Affect Pivot Only-Center to Object], then position the model at 0x, 0.715y, 52.122z. This centerpoint has worked fine for me so far. Make sure you [Affect Pivot Only-Align to World].

The same holds true for hair models, by the way. Just position them on your head and set their pivotpoint to the same coordinates.

Step 2:
Make two clones of your COMPLETED head. Name one of them something having to do with blinking. Give the other a name like “talking”. Edit the mesh of each of these models so that one has its eyes closed in a blink and the other has its mouth open as if talking. This is all the modeling that’s necessary. They should look something like this:





Step 3:
Now select your original head and apply a [Morpher] modifier to it. Load the talking head mesh into a morph channel, and the blinking head into another.

Step 4:
Now for the animation. The total animation should be set to 30 frames in length at 15 frames per second. The talk animation is going to run from frame 0 to 20, and the blink from 21 to 30. The eyes will be closed by frame 25 and open again by frame 30.

Adjust the morph sliders so that the talking morph is 0% at frame 0 and 100% at frame 20. Make sure it goes immediately back to 0% at frame 21 and STAYS that way for the rest of the animation.

Using the [Track View], you’ll need to adjust the [in] and [out] settings on each keyframe so that the mouth animation tension is a straight line from frame 0 to 20, then broken leaving frame 20.

Now set the blinking morph slider so that the eyes don’t move until frame 20, then 100% closed at frame 25, and completely open again on frame 30.

To get the blink timing exactly like the Bethesda models, the [in] and [out] settings for the keyframes is a bit more complicated. Just set them up so that the eyes are closed as long as possible. i.e.: frame 20 in=broken, out=fast ramp. Frame 25 in=slow ramp, out=slow ramp. Frame 30 in=fast ramp, out=broken.

It sounds more complicated than it is, and if you don’t understand the whole keyframe tension thing it won’t make a huge difference as long as the mouth opens from frames 0-20, snaps closed on frame 21, and the eyes close from 21-25 and open again from 26-30.

Step 5:
Open up the [Track View] and add a [Note Track] to the animated head model. You’ll need to add the following notes. The note should say exactly what’s in red below:
Frame 0 Talk: Start The mouth should be closed.
Frame 20 Talk: Stop The mouth should be fully open.
Frame 21 Blink: Start The eyes should be open and the mouth CLOSED.
Frame 30 Blink: Sto p The eyes should be open again.

Step 6:
That’s pretty much it! Now just select the animated head and [Export Selected] into Morrowind. Don’t export the two morph target heads, just the fully animated one.

Step 7:
Set up your new head as a body part in the editor and have fun!

A good physique tutorial:
http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/cottages/zedaxis/learn/cstut01.htm


Ok, that's all I have in me for tonight, I will add more as i think of it/come across it. Hope you found your answer. --Drendal.

Some more helpful information from feanturi -

In MAX 5 it's[Assigning Notes] a little different since they changed the way the track view is laid-out. It's been split into two parts, the Curve Editor and the Dope Sheet. So if you have MAX 5, go under "Graph Editors --> Track View - Dope Sheet". In there, locate your object that needs notes. Click on it to select, then in the Dope Sheet menu bar choose Tracks-->Note Track-->Add
A track called Notes should appear under your object's listing. Now on the dope sheet toolbar click the Add Keys button. Left-click in the note track where your animation starts and stops. Now right-click on each of those notes to set their names, and adjust the frames they go on if you clicked a little off-place.

The names have to have to be formatted exactly so:

Groupname: Start
Groupname: Stop

You must have the colon, and the colon must have 1 space before the start/stop. You can also use loopstart and loopstop if you want an animation that needs a bit of lead-in/lead-out and you want to have it just loop in the middle-part. You must use the groupnames there too, eg:
Idle: Loopstart

You can apply more than one note to the same frame. And as far as I can tell, you can put your notes on a given object, and other objects in your scene that have animation will get picked up too. So I think the notes just have to be PRESENT, they don't necessarily need to be tied to a certain object, as long as they are at the root-level of that object.

OK, to make a transparent mesh, such as a peice of glass, you have two options.

If you want complete transparency on some parts, and on other parts, opaque...ness, you can use a transparent teture. To do this, Make your texture in Photoshop (or whatever, I use photoshop) leaving all the areas you want to be transparent untouched. Once you have the opaque areas drawn, go to the channels menu, and find the create new option. in Photoshop 7 it is under the little blue pull-out arrow. The default new channel is alpha, which is what we need, so just use the default settings and click ok.

With alpha channels, everything that is black is transparent, and everyuthing that is white is opaque. So, on the channel menu, go back to the RGB channel, and outline the areas you want to be opaque using the lasso or magic wand tool. Then , select the alpha channel, and fill the selection with white. Then use that texture on your mesh and all will be well.

OR

You can do things the easy way. If you want an easy way to do things, is in the material editor in 3d studio max, there is an opacity option. You can turn this down to make things translucent or transparent. Turn it down to 50 or so to have a mesh that is 50 percent see-through. Easy as pie.


If one scours this thread, most of the info I'm about to present is here already, but kind of scattered. These are my notes so far on special objects that are recognized in the exporter and put to some useful purpose in the game. They are based on both explorations I've made and advice from these great forums. It made sense to put them all in one place as a handy reference, so I hope you enjoy!

---------------------------------
'Bounding Box'

This is of course a box, and you set its name to Bounding Box. I don't think it's case sensitive, but it looks tidier to me that way. Just make a box, it doesn't have to be converted to editable-anything. When a box has this name, it will be used as the root coordinate set in the TES CK so you can move and rotate your object. The Bounding Box is that red/green/blue box around an object that you have selected in the Editor. For statics I usually leave the pivot alone and have the box (and my model) centered on 0,0,0. If you don't make a bounding box in MAX, TES Editor will assign one for you but it may mess with your design in terms of snapability depending on what your meshes are like. Making one yourself avoids other problems too, mentioned below. If you are building things that you intend to stick together, such as pieces of dungeon walls, your bounding box should be made the same size (or a common multiple), for each of the objects, they should always be positioned at 0,0,0 (or again, anywhere as long as it's consistant among all pieces that need to meet) and their dimensions should always be something divisible by a power of 2, like 16, 32, 64, etc.. The MW dev team used 64 I believe. Go no lower than 16 if you can help it, as it's a pain to align things at such small values. This will make sure the pieces can snap together properly in the editor, as it is the Bounding Box (more likely, the BB's pivot point, but I can't confirm that at this time) that specifies where to bring the object into the snap grid. When designing in MAX, you can also use the Bounding Box to make sure things are lining up properly in your concept if you need to do something weird with your structures. It's good to know you wont overlap other pieces in odd ways.

Early exploration (read: I lost a lot of hair) revealed that the lack of a user-assigned Bounding Box can have a curious effect in the editor: If you don't make one, your mesh may suddenly disappear from your view as you enter landscape-edit mode, or if you just click somewhere in the renderer, or try to copy it, or whatever, when that same action didn't cause that a moment before. The mesh wont come back as you keep clicking or going in and out of landscape mode, or whatever you did, but it's still in there. It's actually gone to 0,0,0 of the cell it's in. But here's the thing: Not really. You can save your work, close the editor, re-open it, load your plugin, and the mesh is back where it's supposed to be, for it never truly left. If you had navigated down to 0,0,0 and found your object, selected it (don't move it at all), and hit 'F', it would have popped back to its proper x,y though the z would be out by whatever 'F' gives it. Really weird... Giving it a Bounding Box in MAX prevents this oddity.

Dangleberry from the TES forums said in some thread that the Bounding Box needs to rest on 0 of the Y axis (Left view) for it to work properly. I haven't noticed it to work improperly when it is below that level, or at any arbitrary set of coordinates. The conversation was about weapons, so that's possibly where that note is important. I've been doing other kinds of statics for the most part so that's where my experience lies. For interiors, working from 0,0,0 (centered) keeps things simple, so there generally isn't a need to deviate from that. The only thing I've found about appropriate coordinates for your boxes and objects is to make sure they are consistent among all objects that need to snap. This leaves some leeway for your design needs.

One example is that you may wish to make dungeon pieces that are of different widths but for the same set. Say you have a hallway piece that is 256x256x256, and perhaps most of your pieces are sized that way. And you have your stairs the way you like them, but you'd really like to have a shorter section to transition from the hallway to the stairs, in some but not all situations. You could make a transition piece at 128x256x256, or replace 128 with 64.. You can make your bounding box to the same dimensions, and since it is still divisible by 64 like your others, and still centered at 23,23,23 (silly, but making a point) like your others, and your other objects are likewise centered at 23,23,23 then it should work fine. To further the example, it would be silly and impractical but if you made the bounding box for this object 512x512x1024 it would still work, as long as it was centered on 23,23,23 like the others. It would just be silly.

-----------------

'Collision'

This object can be used to create a combination of colliding objects and non-colliding objects in the same mesh. An object with the word 'Collision' as the first part of its name is designated to be an area the player cannot move through. All other objects in the mesh however, automatically gain the property of NoCollision, so that they may be moved through. The object or plane that you designate with a 'Collision' name will be rendered invisible, so it is not necessary to hide it before export. If an invisible collision surface is not what you want, simply make a copy of the object, put it in the same location, but give it some other name and then texture it. That copy will be collisionless, but since it's occupying the same space as the invisible collision object, it works fine. I actually do it the other way around: design the object first, name it as you like, then make a copy named 'Collision' at the same location. It can be whatever shape you want of course. 'Collision' cannot be used in conjunction with 'NoCollision', as 'NoCollision' will override it.

------------------

'NoCollision'

The exporter shows it being processed at a certain level, depending on certain conditions. I don't yet know what the levels actually mean.

Level 0 - Saw this once but don't remember the circumstances
Level 1 - NoCollision object is not a child (can have a child, but doesn't require one to be put here)
Level 2 - NoCollision is a child
Level 3 - Saw this once too but I don't remember the circumstances

The 'NoCollision' object is culled in the exporter, and so are any of its children. Therefore it is not necessary to hide it before export. It makes ALL objects in the mesh collisionless by its mere presence. It overrides the presence of the 'Collision' object. The use of 'Collision' by itself produces the NoCollision effect also, so that should not be an issue. NoCollision is only to be used when you want the whole mesh to be collisionless, and thus all needs can be covered by prudent use of either, but never both together. As far as I can tell, linking the NoCollision object to/from anything is not useful, I can find no way to contain the effect. But as mentioned, 'Collision' does that job.

-------------------

'EditorMarker'

An object with this name will show up in the TES Editor, but not in the game, nor will the player collide with it. It can be used with particle systems so you have something to grab in the Editor when you're trying to position the object. This is necessary because you can't drag particles in the Editor, you need a textured mesh to drag. Particle system objects that have no other mesh involved are the main reason you would use this object. You would also use this object all by itself with nothing else, except of course the all-important Bounding Box. You would do this to create a custom marker for your world-building needs. The EditorMarker object is not compatible with the NoCollision object, but there should not be a need to use both in the same mesh. Since if you have a visible surface that you're trying to set collisionless, well you have a dragable handle already and don't need to use EditorMarker for it, so use NoCollision by itself in that case. If NoCollision is present in a mesh that has EditorMarker, then EditorMarker will show up in-game, very bad. EditorMarker will at the same time cancel the NoCollision effect. Never use these two together, it is not a useful combo.


--------------------
Daduke assumes certain things are understood namely that he makes requests not demands and what he say is his opinion and that some of the things he says are humorous

-Motoki-
----------
My Website

Edited by Freddo (07/21/03 05:30 PM)

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Daduke
Diviner

Reged: 07/12/02
Posts: 2172
Loc: Canada
Re: Collection of Tutorials - Modeling [Re: Daduke]
      #1597974 - 07/11/03 01:29 AM

Please note that the above works are not created by me but a collection of tutorials found on the forums by various other authors - I unfortunately do not know who wrote these tutorials due to the fact I just saved the information for personal means... When I found out that the thread had been deleted, I search my computer and found the saved document posting it for other to read and hopeful help


Also check Dark Illusion's Modeling Tutorial... very good job on tutorial

http://rpgplanet.com/morrowind/underworld/illusion.htm


--------------------
Daduke assumes certain things are understood namely that he makes requests not demands and what he say is his opinion and that some of the things he says are humorous

-Motoki-
----------
My Website

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Archived User Account

Re: Collection of Tutorials - Modeling [Re: Daduke]
      #1597978 - 07/11/03 01:30 AM

I call for Daduke to become one of the Immortal Ones(but no head taking). This should be Stickied

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
jakethesnake
Curate

Reged: 08/11/02
Posts: 615
Re: Collection of Tutorials - Modeling [Re: ]
      #1600413 - 07/11/03 07:01 PM

hey nice tutorial man

--------------------
- Sharpened Models Pictures and Download -
[url=http://www.rpgplanet.com/morrowind/jakethesnake/
-- Need website hosting? then im me on msn messanger as jakiepoo147@msn.com
*if u had me on msn as stupid147@hotmail.com ,add jakiepoo147@msn.com . thanks.

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Archived User Account

Re: Collection of Tutorials - Modeling [Re: jakethesnake]
      #1601284 - 07/12/03 12:38 AM

I can't model. But reading that made me feel some what cofindent at
giving it a try... but i'll stick to architecture.

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Archived User Account

Re: Collection of Tutorials - Modeling [Re: ]
      #1601446 - 07/12/03 02:00 AM

This is some great information, I don't have 3DS MAX, but i hope to at some point in the near future. I do however have a copy of GMAX. So, me being at about skill level 0, are there any tutorials out there for basic modelling? For instance, I'd like to make a sword.... Any help would be greatly appriciated. Thanks.

Draega

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
_Strider_
Curate

Reged: 05/23/03
Posts: 947
Re: Collection of Tutorials - Modeling [Re: ]
      #1602034 - 07/12/03 10:30 PM

Nice thread Daduke... Lots of useful info here that just might help me become a successful modeler...

Dreaga07, for some basic tutorials check out my pinned thread "Modder's Resources - Where Modders Go To Know". There's a tutorials there to create a really nice-looking knife. And a couple other tutorials as well.

--------------------
______________________________

A Cold Endeavour

Former SoD Test Team Member

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Archived User Account

Re: Collection of Tutorials - Modeling [Re: _Strider_]
      #1615472 - 07/16/03 08:02 PM

can u make a model w/gmax? (its a thing originally made 4 quake or half-life, or something like that... but it expanded to make all kinds of model types). If so, I could make the abomimable snowman (hehehe... would go good w/Bloodmoon if I had it...)

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Drendal
Disciple

Reged: 08/23/02
Posts: 1541
Re: Collection of Tutorials - Modeling [Re: ]
      #1632405 - 07/21/03 05:24 PM

*grumble*

Ya know. I love...LOVE...these forums. And have never had a single thing against the people who run them. I talk with moderators often through IRC and they're great people. But I spent a LOT of time writing a LOT of the information you see above. Archie submitted it to the admins to request it become pinned, and I never heard a single thing. Now I see this...

I am, for lack of a better word, frustrated.

Oh. Thanks to Freddo also. Good guy.

--------------------
_________________
Incorporeal.

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Daduke
Diviner

Reged: 07/12/02
Posts: 2172
Loc: Canada
Re: Collection of Tutorials - Texturing [Re: Daduke]
      #1635696 - 07/22/03 02:35 PM

Here are two more tutorials... this time by Lilia concerning bevel and the 'glowing' effect

http://www3.telus.net/public/sat/bevel_tutorial.html
http://www3.telus.net/public/sat/glow_tutorial.html

tell her thx

oh and let me stress again that i didn't write these tutorials... i just collect them the credit goes to people like Drendal, Lady E, Lilia....

--------------------
Daduke assumes certain things are understood namely that he makes requests not demands and what he say is his opinion and that some of the things he says are humorous

-Motoki-
----------
My Website

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Daduke
Diviner

Reged: 07/12/02
Posts: 2172
Loc: Canada
Re: Collection of Tutorials - Texturing [Re: Daduke]
      #1669729 - 08/02/03 06:09 PM

some more texturing tuts - this time concerning making folds in fabric

a really nice one for photoshop that uses the airbrush technique, Belpheigor found it

http://www.distortion.co.uk/freebies/cloth.html


and the orginal fabric folding by Silaria (found again by Lillia)

http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/mhitchcock/Folds_in_Photoshop_Tutorial.pdf




--------------------
Daduke assumes certain things are understood namely that he makes requests not demands and what he say is his opinion and that some of the things he says are humorous

-Motoki-
----------
My Website

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Silaria
Curate

Reged: 02/26/03
Posts: 538
Re: Collection of Tutorials - Texturing [Re: Daduke]
      #1676509 - 08/04/03 11:02 PM

Here is an updated link to the tutorials:

Folds in Photoshop
http://silariasmods.com/TutorialPage.htm

I have one more addition to the list: Dodging and burning. Take care, it's graphic intensive.

--------------------
----^----<{@
Morrowind Visions
----^----<{@ <- Given to me by Vorwoda_the_Black
Currently working on: Shirts again!

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Archived User Account

bows.... [Re: Silaria]
      #1676965 - 08/05/03 02:25 AM

Could someon please post a link to the model thing that will let us make bows? (I think there was a model released by one of the dev's that had all the bone structure in it, so bows could be made) If someone knows where it is, I'd like to take a crack at making some new weaponry....

~Draega

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Archived User Account

Re: bows.... [Re: ]
      #1701416 - 08/11/03 06:19 PM

A working bow! Provided by a developer.

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Archived User Account

Re: Collection of Tutorials - Modeling [Re: Daduke]
      #1763250 - 09/01/03 06:48 PM

3ds Max Tutorial Links - One big list

Hopefully many of those trying their patience with 3dsMax will find a bit of help in these. I don't take the credit for populating this list in any way. It's all here courtesy of Surreal Utopia. Edited for clarity by Raptre.

- Modeling
- Texturing
- Lighting
- Animation
- Rendering & Effects
- Compositing
- Miscellaneous
- Using Plug-ins

= Modeling =


http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/car/
[Making a concept car. This tutorial is for a bit advanced.]

http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/dmf/
[A very good tutorial about making, texturing and lighting a missile.]

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/viking/main2.asp
[Good for inspiration and gives some ideas.]

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/robot%20tut/owntut1.asp
[A tutorial for total beginners. Useful for those who have just started.]

http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials/colin-barnette/part1.asp
[This one's for total beginners too...]

http://www.cgm3d.com/tutorials/teeth/teeth.php
[Making human teeth. Useful.]

http://www.cgm3d.com/oceantutorial.php
[An ocean scene.]

http://www.phong.com/tutorials/3dmax/text/
[A short tutorial about making text look good.]

http://www.voidix.com/glasscrystal.html
[A glass crystal effect.]

http://www.megaone.com/ribok/multiloft.html
[Here's something about multi-lofting.]

http://interneteye3d.com/Tutorials/2001/June/Max_DispMaps/default.asp
[Explanation how the displacement map works.]

http://www.3dworldmag.com/tutorials/eggcell/
[Eggcell tutorial... What weird look.]

http://www.raz.ro/tutorials/heart/heart.htm
[Making a necklace with two hearts.]

http://www.taffix.com/Tutorials/Surface_Tools_Ear/index.htm
[Modeling an ear... !]

http://gamedesign.4players.de:1026/LS/Tub/Others/Tut2/ReflectionE.htm
[A nice tutorial about making bullets. For beginners.]

http://www.comet-cartoons.com/toons/3ddocs/eyerigging/
[Making an animatable cartoony eye setup.]

http://www.taffix.com/Tutorials/GoldRing/gold_ring.htm
[Even a tutorial for making a ring.]

http://www.suurland.com/tut_ball/tutorial_football.htm
[Making a soccer ball... Simple?.. Not actually.]

http://www.terra.es/personal2/palmiro/tut_jar.htm
[A good tutorial for modeling a jar.]

http://artofgaming.net/tutorialz/mutatutorial.html
[Modeling a sci-fi dragon.]

http://www.voidix.com/coolabstract.html
[Doing abstracts.]

http://members.aol.com/ozoneprod/anim/tutorial/logotut.htm
[Logo animations. I hate them, but it's a good way to earn money.]

http://www.cgm3d.com/tutorials/boxm1/boxm1.php
http://www.cgm3d.com/tutorials/boxm2/boxm2.php
[A two-part box modeling tutorial.]

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/joanofarc/joanmenu.asp
[Hehe... I hate the comp, but the tutorial isn't a bad one.]

http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials/IGI_tut/IGI_tut.asp
[From 3Dtotal as well, but I haven't seen it anywhere else.]

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/geoff/main.asp
[Darn! Another one... I guess I'll copy all tutorials from 3d total =D ]

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/sadmike/sadmike.asp
[Another one... Sorry, but it appears that Tom has only the best tuts.]

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/head_tutorial/head.asp
[You just have to forgive me...]

http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/bolt/
[A bolt and a nut...]

http://www.derelictsands.com/tutorials/t-aloe.htm
[Some stuff to make plants.]

http://www.webreference.com/3d/lesson72/
[NURBS modeling.]

http://www.comet-cartoons.com/toons/3ddocs/hair/index.html
[A tutorial for making hair. Not the greatest, but it gives the basic idea.]

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/3d/tutorials/lespaul/lp.htm
[A bumpy guitar...]

http://mr2k.3dvf.com/tutorials/max/tutorials_polygones.htm
[Modeling that idiot... "Crash Bandicute"... =) Too bad it's in French, but the pics talk for themselves.]

http://www.digitalproducer.com/pages/alokjain.htm
[A VERY interesting way of modeling a face.]

http://www.derelictsands.com/tutorials/t-space.htm
[Making a full space scene... Texturing modeling lighting, etc...]

http://www.derelictsands.com/tutorials/t-mushroom.htm
[Modeling and texturing a mushroom.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/modelaudi/modelaudi.asp
[Patch-modeling a car.]

http://www.terra.es/personal2/palmiro/tut_chair.htm
[Modeling a chair.]

http://www.digitalproducer.com/pages/old_house.htm
[A full scene in an old house... The atmosphere, fogs, lighting, texturing.]

http://www.dlc.fi/%7Eops/tutorial/clothing/clothing.htm
[Making clothes on a character.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/barrel/barrel.asp
[Modeling a barrel... heh.]

http://www.ifrance.com/gregg/Tutorials/tut_eye_gregg/tut_eye_gregg.htm
[NURMS modeling.]

http://www.dlc.fi/~ops/tutorial/human.htm
[Modeling a full human body, by using box-modeling.]

http://solobiking.tripod.com/3d/tut1.html
[Oh joy! A low-poly "hummer"! ]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/valley/valley.asp
[Modeling a valley. Like a practice of the displace modifier.]

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/3d/tutorials/splines/index.html
[How to make Rhino and Max to work together... ie. A Rhino and max tutorial.]

http://www.quake2.com/modeling/tut_03.html
[Making a model for Quake II.]

http://www.digitalproducer.com/pages/rezin_grass.htm
[Ok... This is another tutorial about making grass.]

http://www.reel3d.freewire.co.uk/toots/beginner/terrain/index.htm
[Making simple terrain.]

http://www.comet-cartoons.com/toons/3ddocs/facialmodeling/modeling.html
[Another way of making faces by using spline-modeling.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/modelnurbs/modelnurbs.asp
[NURBS in MaxR2... Might be useful for some. Who knows?..]

http://www.saunalahti.fi/ops/tutorial/treetut/treetut.htm
[Making trees without any plug-ins.]

http://www.webreference.com/3d/lesson102/
[Something more original.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/modeldust/modeldust.asp
[Using CrossSection...]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/book/book.asp
[How to model a book... [It's getting boring.]]

http://www.megaone.com/ribok/shapemerge.html
[A shapemerge tutorial.]

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/car_tutorial/car1.asp
[That's a cool car. :] Quite interesting modeling too...]

http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials/bones%20tut/Bones%20tut.asp
[I'm still trying to apply this one to my dragon...]

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/nose_tutorial/nose.asp
[Lol! The tutorial is good... But what are they modeling?.. lol!]

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/mouth_tutorial/mouth.asp
[Damn... face features again.]

http://www.cglearn.com/tutorials/max3/03_lathe_martini.html
[Another one for beginners.]

http://www.cglearn.com/tutorials/max3/07_boolean.html
[Booleans.]

http://www.cglearn.com/tutorials/max3/02_extrude_logo.html
[For beginners.]

http://www.cglearn.com/tutorials/max3/04_cloning_and_xform_daisy.html
[A few more uses of the XForm modifier.]

= Texturing =

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6648
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7681
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11053
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17631
[A 5 part tutorial about proper texturing. Lot's of tips.]

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/translucency/translucency.htm
[A very in-depth tutorial about translucency.]

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/metal_and_refs/metal_and_refs.htm
[Some useful tips about metal materials.]

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/wet_materials/wet_materials.htm
[Making wet materials...Uhmmm, not making actually - just an explanation of what makes a material look wet.]

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/aniso_ref/aniso_ref.htm
[Anisotropic highlights. A long tutorial for advanced.]

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/sparkling_snow/sparkling_snow.htm
[How to achieve the sparkling snow effect.]

http://www.flay.com/getarticle.cfm?articleid=5
[Making a leather jacket.]

http://www.the3dstudio.com/tutorials.asp?id=31
[How to add animated textures.]

http://interneteye3d.com/Tutorials/2001/June/3DSCMapM/default.asp
[Using the Camera_map modifier.]

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/map_channels/map_channels.htm
[Another good mapping lesson.]

http://www.3dgate.com/techniques/000214/000214hussain.html
[Making skin for characters.]

http://www.cleverlikeamonkey.com/showandtell/tutorials/composite.htm
[Using a composite material.]

http://www.nawyecky.com/tuts/tut-me.htm
[Mixing procedural maps is my favourite way of texturing... =)]

http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/can/
[The poor can...]

http://www.taffix.com/Tutorials/Material/MountainMap/index.htm
[The basic way of texturing a mountain.]

http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/3DSMaxTutorial/mapping_coordinates.html
[Introduction to mapping coordinates.]

http://www.taffix.com/Tutorials/SwimPool/index.htm
[A swimming pool material.]

http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/3DSMaxTutorial/materials_info.html
[Material tips for beginners.]

http://www.taffix.com/Tutorials/Undersea/index.htm
[The making of different underwater effects.]

http://www.rethinkfx.com/tutorials/texture.htm
[Realistic texturing... Nice dream-house =D ]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/alphamaps/alphamaps.asp
[Mapping without using an UVW modifier.]

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/3d/tutorials/mapface/mapface.html
[Head texturing with a photo.]

http://www.3dlinks.com/tutorials/max/max_tutorials.cfm?tutorial=apple
[A photo realistic [Yeah sure... heh] apple by only using procedural textures.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/texturing/texturing.asp
[Texturing landscapes.]

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/3d/tutorials/lespaul/sunburst.htm
[Sunburst guitar texture.]

http://www.megaone.com/ribok/halfwire.html
[Half wireframe rendering with 3DsMax and PS.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/glassmaterial/glassmaterial.asp
[A good glass material.]

http://hjem.get2net.dk/Gollum_Graphix/gollum/advtutwatermat.htm
[Making raytrace water.]

http://www.cglearn.com/tutorials/max3/11_materials_still_life_pt_1.html
[The first steps for making materials.]

http://www.saunalahti.fi/ops/tutorial/landscape/landscape.htm
[Making a simple landscape. Good one.]

http://www.cglearn.com/tutorials/max3/13_mapping_coords_still_life_part_3.html
[Mapping coords.]

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/metal_surfaces/lotsmetal.asp
[A fast tutorial... But useful tips about making metals.]

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/photoshop/worn_metal/metal.asp
[Ughhh... lots of work, but nice results.]

= Lighting =

http://www.geocities.com/pixelmagic2002/Page1.html
[An awesome GI tutorial! Worth checking out even for advanced artists.]

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/projector_lights/projector_lights.htm
[Projection maps for making a forest scene.]

http://www.nawyecky.com/tuts/tut-gi.htm
[Another good GI tutorial.]

http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials/Jenns3pt_tut/3ptlighting.asp
[Three point lighting setup... Or so called "modeling with light".]

http://www.3d-worxx.de/tutorials/lighting.html
[Some basic explanation of lighting.]

http://www.taffix.com/Tutorials/Lighting/light03.htm
[Some explanation about painting with light.]

http://www.taffix.com/Tutorials/Lighting/Light001.htm
[How to light a scene properly... Basics.]

http://www.maxhelp.com/content/tutorials/smoky/smoky.htm
[Some practice with volume lights.]

http://maxfreek2.tripod.com/Tutorials/Tut02.htm
[My desk lamp's symptom...]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/volume/volume.asp
[Some more basic practice with volume lights.]

http://interneteye3d.com/Tutorials/2001/oct/3DSCAL/default.asp
[The usual way of doing area lights in Max.]

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/striplight/striplight.asp
[VERY useful! may be used instead of a softlight, but that's not easy to apply to animations.]

= Animation =

http://www.maxhelp.com/content/tutorials/hiding/hiding.htm
[Hiding objects in an animation... Believe me! That's a puzzle if you don't know how.]

http://www.uni-mainz.de/~kochm002/mindtut.html
["Slider Setup". Don't know how it works - didn't try it yet. But it should be something original.]

http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/carving/
[woodcarving. A very useful trick.]

http://www.angelfire.com/fl5/jcmiller/Acell.htm
[A very quick tutorial about acceleratio9n and deceleration.]

http://www.3dspline.com/boom-box.htm
[Yay! A subwoofer animation! =)]

http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/3DSMaxTutorial/pivots.html
[Pivot points.]

http://www.anticz.com/animatio.htm
[Some very good tips about making good animation.]

http://www.anticz.com/eularqua.htm
[Some kind of gimbal lock and why it occurs.]

http://www.anticz.com/morphy.htm
[Progressive morphing for animations.]

http://www.anticz.com/puppets.htm
[Using puppets for 3D animation.]

http://www.maxhelp.com/content/tutorials/fountain/fountain.htm
[Making a simple fountain.]

http://www.maxhelp.com/content/tutorials/liquid/liquid.htm
[Liquid moving in a glass... A bit of realism in you animations won't mess them up.]

http://interneteye3d.com/Tutorials/2001/August/3DSABPages/default.asp
[Animated book pages. Simple tutorial.]

http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/auto/
[Animating a realistic car motion in turns.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/expeyes/expeyes.asp
[Making expressive eyeballs.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/dragonwing/dragonwing.asp
[I used it for my dragon.]

http://www.cglearn.com/tutorials/max3/01_local_coordinates_teapot.html
[Useful for starting animators.]

http://www.cglearn.com/tutorials/max3/10_robot.html
[Actually I prefer IK.]

http://www.cglearn.com/tutorials/max3/06_function_curves_ball_part_2.html
[Using function curves is a bit easier sometimes.]

http://interneteye3d.com/Tutorials/2001/June/3DSPDGVine/default.asp
[Making a vine grow with PathDeform.]

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/2057/dolphin.html
[SpaceWarps have a lot of uses.]

http://www.webreference.com/3d/lesson97/
[A few helpful tips about IK.]

http://www.webreference.com/3d/lesson98/
[Heh... this guy's chattering about who knows what in all of his tutorials.]

http://www.comet-cartoons.com/toons/3ddocs/lipsync/lipsync.html
[A lipSync tutorial.]

http://www.webreference.com/3d/lesson96/
[A few useful tips, but the rest isn't that good.]

http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/3DSMaxTutorial/keyframing.html
[For the animators.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/expeyes/expeyes.asp
[Useful.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/anchorfeet/anchorfeet.asp
[This one's for CharacterStudio.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/ikblend/ikblend.asp
[Another one for CS.]

http://www.rethinkfx.com/tutorials/ball.htm
[Max script isn't that hard as I thought.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/cattrack/cattrack.asp
[This one's useful sometimes.]

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/grass/grass1.asp
[There's a version of it on 3dluvr too. I love this tutorial, very useful.]

= Rendering & Effects =

http://www.nawyecky.com/tuts/tut-glow.htm
[Adding some specific atmosphere to your rendering with this effect. ] [ Not 3D! ]

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/water_fire_smoke/water_fire_smoke.htm
[Water and smoke effects.]

http://www.lightrays.de/html/tutorials/raytracing/raytrace_tut_eng.htm
[Optimizing raytracing.]

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/greens/greens.htm
[Variety in one color...]

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/faking_bokeh/faking_bokeh.htm
[Faking bokeh. Sounds hard...]

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/specular_bloom/specular_bloom.htm
[Specular glow, to add realism.]

http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/tornado/
[Making a tornado without any fancy plugins... Hard to understand it, but it's good.]

http://www.voidix.com/wireframe.html
[How to make a nice wireframe render.]

http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/flash/
[Electricity...]

http://www.lightrays.de/html/tutorials/caustics/caustics_tut_eng.htm
[Faking caustics with raytrace-shadows... Very nice results.]

http://maxfreek2.tripod.com/Tutorials/Tut04.htm
[Making a galaxy with particle systems.]

http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/smoke/
[A smoke from a cigarette... My favorite! [I don't smoke... I mean the smoke effect.]

http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/hulldamage/
[Hull damage... Boom =] ]

http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/steam/
[Creating simple steam... Not too realistic, but will do when you don't have any other ideas.]

http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/explore2/
[A very nice explosion with particles and combustion.]

http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/explore/
[An explosion in space.]

http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/blast/
[Another way of doing nice explosions with combustion and lens effects.]

http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/fireball/
[Burn whatever you like with this tutorial.]

http://www.maxhelp.com/content/tutorials/campfire/campfire.htm
[Making a campfire... combustion.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/videopost/videopost.asp
[An introduction to videopost.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/trails/trails.asp
[I'll need lots of this if I'm going to' make an animation of VAZ in the future.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/animatedsky/animatedsky.asp
[A quick way of making sky.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/rocketengine/rocketengine.asp
[Creating rocket engine flames, by using particles systems.]

http://www.angelfire.com/la/startfromhere/tutorials11.html
[Making realistic clouds.]

http://www.reel3d.freewire.co.uk/toots/advanced/lighter/lighter.htm
[Easier than I thought]

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/cel_shade_tut/cel_shading_tut_main.asp
[That stupid cartoonish look... =) ]

http://www.webreference.com/3d/lesson94/
[Faking caustics]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/fairydust/fairydust.asp
[Oh joy! It's sparkling! ]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/sparks/sparks.asp
[Even more sparkles! ]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/groundfog/groundfog.asp
[Shows how to use fog.]

= Compositing =

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/cameramatching/cameramatching.asp
[Useful if you want to add 3D to a video.]

http://www.rethinkfx.com/tutorials/compmax.htm
[A simple, but quite long tutorial.]

= Miscellaneous =

http://www.the3dstudio.com/
[Many Good Tutorials Here.]

http://home.nordwest.net/Adger/tips.html
[89 tips'n'tricks.]

http://www.3dgate.com/techniques/2001/010904/0904seeing.html
[Every 3D artist has to have that art of seeing... This tutorial is to develop this skill.]

http://www.3dluvr.com/siggi/tutorials/expressions/expr.html
[MaxScript again. Very useful if you're doing a car animation.]

http://www.discreet.com/support/max/faq/answer.php3?prod=dddstudio&id=465
[Rendering extremely big images... "Error creating bitmap" message shows up - what to do.]

http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/3DSMaxTutorial/concepts.html
[Some concepts of 3D.]

http://www.discreet.com/support/max/faq/answer.php3?prod=dddstudio&id=482
[Network rendering manual...]

http://www.dform.com/inquiry/tutorials/3dsmax/
[How to use (export) VRML in Max.]

http://www.3dluvr.com/siggi/tutorials/expressions2/expr_part2.html
[The 2nd part of the previous tutorial.]

http://kryten.infaze.com.au/%7Eviper/max/maxtutorial.html
[How to set up reference pics in viewports.]

http://3dmax.8k.com/tutorials/Tut1/tutorial.html
[A useful way of speeding-up the viewport updates on slower comps.]

http://www.3dgate.com/techniques/2001/010702/0702viz.html
[Aligning objects by using tools is faster.]

http://www.nawyecky.com/tuts/tut-vvp.htm
[Virtual viewport instead of multiple viewport pans and zooms when aligning objects.]

http://www.artofgaming.net/tutorialz/pretutorial.html
[Unit scenes for isometrical games (like Diablo or Starcraft).]

http://www.3dgate.com/techniques/2001/010625/0625hajba.html
[High pass filter for creating tiling textures.]

http://www.rotten.com
[Oh that's a lot of reference material! :] Like brains, hearts and things like that. ]

http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/3DSMaxTutorial/instancing.html
[Ok... this one's for beginners that don't know what's the difference between an instance, a copy, and a reference.]

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/expressions/expressions.asp
[Some kind of an "expression controller". Nope! Haven't heard of it.]

= Using Plug-Ins =

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/brazil_0_1_3/brazil_0_1_3.htm
[Skylight with Brazil by Neil Blevins... Damn cool]

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/brazil_bumpmaps/brazil_bumpmaps.htm
[Antialiasing bumpmaps with Brazil.]

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/brazil_0_2_21/brazil_0_2_21.htm
[Basic stuff about brazil.]

http://hem.passagen.se/lexcyber/3dsmax/tut1/tut1.htm
[Some kind of water dynamics plug-in... Looks useful.]

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Xanthros
Acolyte

Reged: 02/02/03
Posts: 116
Re: Collection of Tutorials - Modeling [Re: Daduke]
      #1766527 - 09/03/03 01:31 AM

Heres on I made for you all...
Its made so even ground-up newbies can find their way around 3D Max. (It has screenshots of all the buttons you need to click, descriptions of how it works)

Moddelling weapons for morrowind

http://morrowind.phoenixedge.com/phxdagtut.html

--------------------
-----
Member: PhoenixEdge Morrowind Development Team

http://morrowind.phoenixedge.com
http://mdt.phoenixedge.com
irc.beyondirc.net #Morrowind

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Archived User Account

Convert to Editable Poly/Mesh [Re: Daduke]
      #1781497 - 09/09/03 11:17 PM

"If your mesh isnt an editable poly or editable mesh, convert it to one.
"

where and how do I see if it is or not, and how do I transform it... remember, some of us are newbs in the extreme, learning as we go (what a tutorial is for..)


Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Daduke
Diviner

Reged: 07/12/02
Posts: 2172
Loc: Canada
Re: Convert to Editable Poly/Mesh [Re: ]
      #1798502 - 09/17/03 08:33 PM

i think there is an option under the modify menu "convert to editable mesh"

to be an 'editable' mesh you have to be able to click on each individual poly , not just the entire shape...



--------------------
Daduke assumes certain things are understood namely that he makes requests not demands and what he say is his opinion and that some of the things he says are humorous

-Motoki-
----------
My Website

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
DMKW
Diviner

Reged: 08/28/02
Posts: 2210
Loc: Ontario, Canada
Re: Collection of Tutorials - Modeling [Re: Daduke]
      #1810860 - 09/23/03 07:31 PM

This thread is amazing! thanx alot Daduke!

--------------------
Iams Dog Food leading the way in barren caging and painful testing on dogs...but hey...at least YOUR dog has a shiny coat right?
PeTA
My Webpage

Post Extras: Print Post   Remind Me!   Notify Moderator  
Pages: 1 | 2 | (show all)


Extra information
0 registered and 11 anonymous users are browsing this forum.

Moderator:  Pete, Hayt, Freddo, sentinel, Hungry Donner, Attrebus, Miltiades, tegger, Umrahel 

Print Thread

Permissions
      You cannot start new topics
      You cannot reply to topics
      HTML is disabled
      UBBCode is enabled

Rating: ****
Thread views: 17233

Rate this thread
 
Jump to

The Elder Scrolls Homepage

*
UBB.threads™ 6.3

Click for Privacy Statement © 2003 Bethesda Softworks LLC, a ZeniMax Media company. All Rights Reserved.
PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS & CONDITIONS | LEGAL INFORMATION | CONTACT US