Hey there.
What I want to do is just a 3D cutscene for my game. It is supposed to be an hourglass with moving camera angles - nothing too complicated.
However, I don't have the slightest idea what software to use. It has to ave the following features:
1. Simplicity of use. I havent done anything in 3D before, so I guess it'd be best to start with something simple.
2. Rather small file size/around 20MB or so/
3. Ability to change camera angles and save as a mpg or avi.
Thanks for your suggestions in advance.
Corel Bryce 5, you get get is for about $75 from amazon!
Bryce is really good, and i.m.o. easiest to learn.
Though if you don't want to pay anything for it, use Blender! ;)
ps : why not asking someone else with more expierence, and the software, to make it for you?
Would anyone, minimi?
Could you give that link to blender, please?
I think this is it
http://www.blender3d.com/
Thanks timosity.
Dude, thats harder than Organical chemistry!
Truespace might do it... not sure though..
try blender... it's more like other 3d environments than truespace is and learning blender would be a good stepping stone
I don't know, after trying Maya, 3D Studio MAX and Truespace I honestly couldn't figure Blender out. I think I could make a primitive object and zoom in and out with the camera and that's it. And I tried for quite some time. I'm probably just slow at learning but I already knew how to use 3dsmax to some extent, so that would support the claim that the interface isn't quite the same. I really wasn't able to make any sense of it.
My vote goes to Truespace. Mostly because of its ease of use, despite the fact that the interface isn't quite as standard as 3dsmax's or Maya's. But then again, in my opinion, Blender's interface isn't that standard either.
http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=12033;start=msg144442#msg144442
That's just my opinion.
Blender is difficult at first, then progressively easier as you memorize key commands and figure out the interface. If you follow a tutorial, it shouldn't be too hard. It's linked in my sig, along with elYsiun (the blender forums). In the forums if you go to each one and look at the sticky topics you will find tutorials, and you can't beat free. You're not going to find any cheap 3d software worth having besides Blender and Wings3D.
On the other hand, an hourglass isn't that hard, and I could probably do that if I learned how to use the animation side of Blender (I haven't ever animated with it).
If you describe exactly what you want, I could do an anim for you in Cinema4d (if I find some spare time, that is;))
Edit: Just in case he finds Blender too unusuable...
I was also going to offer help but I think he wants to do it on his own
Quote from: MrColossal on Tue 16/03/2004 19:59:47
I was also going to offer help but I think he wants to do it on his own
Oh. Whoops.
(http://img32.photobucket.com/albums/v96/shbazjinkens/hourglass.jpg)
It wasn't that difficult so I made one just now.
Nice, Shbazjinkens! Just one question - how many polygons? Can't tell for sure because of the resolution but do you have multiple segments on the supporting four cylinders?
Just curious, really. :)
Quote from: Pessi on Tue 16/03/2004 20:52:33
Nice, Shbazjinkens! Just one question - how many polygons? Can't tell for sure because of the resolution but do you have multiple segments on the supporting four cylinders?
Just curious, really. :)
Here it is without smoothing and no subsurf (http://img32.photobucket.com/albums/v96/shbazjinkens/hourglass2.jpg)
1072 faces. I made a big circle and four smaller circles which I then melded to the larger circle, and then deleted half of each one to make the base. I extruded that piece up to the top of the base each time making it a bit smaller for the steps. After that I extruded again to the point where the glass starts, where I smoothed the vertices until they formed a circle. That circle was extruded up to form the bottom part of the glass, and then I pulled up the arms through extrusion as well. At that point I duplicated it, flipped the z coords, and welded the copy to the top to form the whole piece. All in around 10 minutes (so if you're familiar with Blender, it isn't so hard).
After this, the next steps would be to texture it with a good reflective wood, texture the glass with a translucent mesh, and fill it with particles (for sand) and then animate the particles falling through the glass to the bottom. Blender has a nice internal raytracer now that is fairly quick, so once the whole image was satisfactory it could end up looking quite nice. Learning to make the hourglass would be nothing, the difficult part comes next with texturing, lighting, and animating.
If you want to do it yourself, I'd still be happy to help you learn. It'd be a learning experience for both of us, since I haven't ever animated, but I think my familiarity with the interface may get you along quicker learning that.
Wow shbaz!
That looks awesome! After giving Bryce a try, I was about to give up and make it in 2d, but then I saw this! Could you like, animate this and add sand? If not, I'd be happy if you just sent me the model.
Quote from: Vel on Wed 17/03/2004 09:45:47
Wow shbaz!
That looks awesome! After giving Bryce a try, I was about to give up and make it in 2d, but then I saw this! Could you like, animate this and add sand? If not, I'd be happy if you just sent me the model.
Didn't you understand Bryce?? :s Try the tutorial I've written...
http://minimi.spijbelaars.com/solidus/tutor0101.html
I did understand the basics, but I couldnt make a hemielipse.
do it the easy way.
http://user.tninet.se/~hbh828t/proglego.htm
lego... IN 3D!! THREE FU<beep>NG DEE!!!!
(http://user.tninet.se/~hbh828t/pict/bcsplashsml.gif)
!!!
Behold the power of Open Source 3D modelling/raytracing software
(http://img32.photobucket.com/albums/v96/shbazjinkens/scene.jpg)
(http://img32.photobucket.com/albums/v96/shbazjinkens/hourglassTEX.jpg)
I just textured it.. fwoo.. that one took about an hour to texture right and get the raytracing time down to a reasonable level.
Ok, so what are you looking for here? How long does the video need to be and how much of the sand is supposed to be on top/bottom when the video starts/ends? Is it all supposed to fall through in this time?
Also, I don't know what kind of graphics your game has and the resolution/quality of the video can be adjusted to match. ... I just looked at your site, and if this is for Indiana Jones then it will probably fit in great, but for the Curse of the Mushmuroc Castle I should probably re-texture with more fitting graphics.
Sounds? Is this for an ominous "you only have this much time left" scene or is it more a leisure thing..
My guess is it's for the Who Wants to Live Forever prequel - an hour glass would make sense, wouldn't it? :)
Bingo, GG. Shbaz, I'll pm you the details.
Who Wants to Live Forever? What's that?
;)
Since you asked for it, it can be found here: http://www.agsforums.com/games.php?action=detail&id=290 . It is more of a movie than a game, with sketchy and unique graphics style and amazing soundtrack by Petteri. Do not hesitate - download today for free!
You asked for it, terran :P
Vel is a nice human being, with good qualities and a great guy overall. No word of it a lie! What do you have to say as a response, Vel?
(lock this thread, btw, it's going way off topic)
Shbaz, very nice modelling! Just like Pessi said, Blender is hard to get a grip on. Also, the button popups look weird on my pc, those buttons get all screwed up and at some points it just crashes!
Quote from: Minimi on Thu 18/03/2004 09:20:11
Shbaz, very nice modelling! Just like Pessi said, Blender is hard to get a grip on. Also, the button popups look weird on my pc, those buttons get all screwed up and at some points it just crashes!
Tried the latest version, maybe? I made that in 2.32, the latest version with raytracing.
Some graphics card can't deal with Blender because of terrible OpenGL support, can't remember which one.
Nice work ;D
I am also dealing with Blender right now, since the software was free I decided to buy at least the official Blender Book ...
Shabzijinkens (difficult name ::) ) the texture is nice too did you just draw on the uv-mapped template in a pixel programme oder do you have any trick for good texturing? :)
Found the texture on a free texture site (google "free 3d wood textures").
There are different ways to UV map.. you can just repeat the texture over the surface of the model or you can unwrap the model and like a puzzle determine which parts of the texture will go where. You do the latter in Face select mode and the "u" button, with another window set to view the UV image. What I did was far simpler, I went to the texture menu and loaded the texture I downloaded, and then I went back to the Object buttons and scaled it to appear correct with the buttons/menus on the far right.
I hope you know the official Blender book won't actually be shipping for about a month or more.. I want to buy it, but I don't know if I should considering my jobless + in college situation. Besides, all of the info is on the web, just difficult to find sometimes. The entire manual for Blender Publisher can be downloaded in PDF form from the old blender site (accessible through blender3d.com).
I got it today... its not for the latest version though, but for understanding the basics of working with it will be fine :)
Hmm.. I'll bet you bought the one you can get online for free. It's probably a lot easier to read though. I hate reading digital books.
I'm drifting way OT, but since you're interested in learning about modelling..
elYsiun is a great place to learn about Blender.. for a while. The professionals there are few and far between amid the clutter of excited newbies finding a free 3d package. However, if you go to CG Talk (http://www.cgtalk.com) you will be around the top professionals in the gaming/CG industry. Just from reading the WIP threads I'm learning tons about game models and texturing. The stuff is all applicable in Blender and the Gimp, you just do it in different ways. My method right now is to learn from CGtalk and obtain help implementing that knowledge with Blender at elYsiun. If you're using the Gimp, go to gimp.org and download the PDF of the instruction book.. read as much of it as you can stomach and try not to skip too much. You'll figure out it's nearly as useful as photoshop, once you learn how to squeeze usefulness out of the interface.
Check out this link for textures and texturing tuts:
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=hreadid=77484
Quote from: shbazjinkens on Fri 19/03/2004 01:44:55
Hmm.. I'll bet you bought the one you can get online for free. It's probably a lot easier to read though. I hate reading digital books.
Yes I know, but I just bought it for the same reason, I prefer to have a real book I can look at.
Thanks a lot for the links and information :) !!!!
Hourglass? Simple indeed. A line with lathe modifier, two boxes, four cylinders.
N00bs of 3D are using something called anim8or,
which is supposed to be very free and very easy.
Maybe this'll help. www.anim8or.com (http://www.anim8or.com), if I'm right.
Well, I'll stick to my good ol' 3ds MAX.
Yeah, 3dMax would be nice, but a little bit out of my budget right now... great you are rich :)
You know, kazaa and such also have 3dsmax. And if it has a trial version you could also cra....modify it.
3ds Max appears to have something called C-Dilla licensing system which causes headache even to legal users/buyers. But yeah, a little bit of *modifying* should get creating strated.
And totoro, yeah, I AM rich. Just as "rich" as these other salty dogs over Carribean with eye patches and few missing limbs few hundred years ago... *ahem*. ;)
But Estonia appears to be a very distant other-universe hellhole for other world so I couldn't buy max even if I wanted to (or had cash for this). Then again, Petteri lives only about 100 or so kilometres away from me and I don't think he has same problems with getting software legally.
I would NEVER get software on a illegal way, I am a good guy, don't you believe me? ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Dude, they sell illegal software in the centre of the capital of Bulgaria and everyone is happy about it ;D
Must go... Sofia... must go to Sofia... must go NOW... must go...
I mean...er... of course NOT because of the software, no way, I mean... because of the touristic stuff and because it has Vel in it, of course ;D
Vel, how about organizing a Mittens next year? I can already imagine fellow AGSers stuck at airplane door because of XXL-sized bags filled with CD's... :D
YOu may be kidding, InCreator, but I've had EXACTLY such experiences - the price of 5 euro per cd/no matter what is on it/ is very attractive to foreigners.
I've heard the place is awesome to visit for tons of reasons, cheap luxury hotel suites, awesome food, and beautiful archetecture and landscapes.. as heard on PBS.. (public broadcasting station - american gov funded educational channel)
One day I'll go there, I think.
As for illegal CD's.. On American military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan bootleg DVD's, games, and music are the norm and usually ~$3 each - sold on base. I don't know how that works because I thought a military base was technically US territory, but who knows.
I'm working on your Hourglass Vel - just a little slow because my grandfather passed away and I didn't have as much time as I thought I would. Now I'm back at school, so I can manage.
Dude, it's nothing that urgent, take your time.
When I went to Greece a few years back, I went on a one-day boattrip into Turkey (which was really close to the Greek island I was staying on). We stopped at a port town called Bodrum. Apart from being a very nice place, with a nice castle, it was absolutely packed with people selling illegal merchandise. From the second you stepped off the boat there were people trying to sell you fake CK underwear, Levi's jeans, and most importantly of all, games and DVDs. They had a sort of sliding scale, where that week/month's release would be say $5, then $3 if it was a little older, or $2 if it was old old. The great thing was that there were police patrolling the streets alongside these illegal-stuff-sellers, and they didn't seem to mind at all...
Yes AGA, Balkans are pirate eden.