My modeling quest begins

[W!†A_cRaft]

Can somone help me, I want to make models, and I never made them before, is there some sort of tutorial that explains how should I do it or no????
And what programs do i need to do so Art Tools???

Where can i get those programs???

 

[Kimbo]

1. dont bother gettin Art tools and max5 unless you at least know these words:
.mdx
.mdl
poly
face
rigging
uvwrap
mesh
vertex
topology(eeek, i think i spelt that wrong :/)
extrude

you dont know those well at all, then you in..alot of trouble..

but im just saying, learn the basics first... i suggest you look at this site for the tutorial section and/or the tutorial section on models and mdl data at wc3c www.wc3campaigns.net , i think its far to early to suggest programs to you since i think youd have no idea what the heck they are or for.

and ..that ..avatar...grrr..

EDIT: the tuts should have a list of programs for you to use, i think they also explain what the tools are for and how they apply those progs in the tutorial so its better you read the tuts first. and sorry i didnt give you a link to the tuts here, i dont know where they are either since the site got moved around abit.

 

[W!†A_cRaft]

Ok thanks, il try to find something


poly
face
rigging
uvwrap
mesh
vertex
topology(eeek, i think i spelt that wrong :/)
extrude

ok I dont know these mean.

 

[Kimbo]

poly=The amount of triangle faces which are 3 sided(or polygon faces which are 4 sided i think..., people get poly and tris mixed up alot But tris as in triangles are the ones for wc3 and pretty much everything i know)

face=A face is the flat panels you see which make up a model, they are formed depending on how you create a model.

rigging=Setting up a model for animation, which means adding bones to a model attaching them to the faces or vertex's of a model. But i havnt done much IK(as in..havnt done it for like...4 years..sucks..) but i think that also counts if your setting up its bending lengths and limits.

uvwrap=hmm..hard to explain.. but its when you apply the faces of a model onto a flat plane which is basicly a map for when an image is applied to the model and the faces then map with the texture which then transfer the texute upon the model.. hard to explain this.. i could possibly be wrong ..

mesh=Referred in something else but it is also the form of the faces which create a shape, basicly a mesh is like a Sac or a bag or the shape of a creature..

vertex: these are the points which create a face.

topology(eeek, i think i spelt that wrong :/): havnt done much work on knowing this but i think its basically the flow of how you place the faces of a model, and a good topology is needed, specially when animating or your going to get faces sticking out in places the shouldnt.
Abit like like if the muscles of a creature dont flow, and when it moves its not going to be pretty.
extrude: umm... you dont know? its like as in.. to pull out..but not disturb the shape of which if havnt selected.

anyway, sozz im rushing this and im very sure people will pick out the probs in my definitions (and spelling). anyway..just google and wiki the rest.

 

[Mechanical Man]

What actually is IK (inverse kinematics) and what is used for?

 

[W!†A_cRaft]

I have no idea, Im still a biginer at modeling better to say a BIG NOOB coz I still havent done not 1 model I will do it as soon as i get a registry for my wc3.

But i seem to have a problem:

I cant open the program called Yobgul's File Converter, so i cant convert .mdx files into .mdl files and cant do anything

Does anyone maybe know why it gives me a message that sais

The application was unable to start because mss32.dll was not found. Re-instaling the application may fix the problem.

Now my problem is I never instaled this so what to hell is wrong??? I didnt Copy the files mss32.dll and the other one to warcraft III folder coz when i downloaded it they werent in the zip archive.

 

[Mechanical Man]

Use magos modelling editor for converting formats instead.

 

[Xlightscreen]

Ik Invers kenetics is acutly quiet fun to mess around with although you can't really use it in Warcraft 3. basicly what it is is you link the thigh bone and the shin bone to where you kinda have a string attached to them that can't break so for instance if you lift the string on the thigh bone to get more slack its going to force the thigh bone to bend upwards. or if you move the thigh bone strait up its going to force the thigh bone to bend up as well..... Not sure if anybody understanded that lol

 

[Kimbo]

yes, IK is very fun, i remember playing around with some dodgy little dinosaurs i made with IK years ago. Fun to pose in and animating in IK i hears is far more easier and quicker than FK.


IK . um..well from what i hear in some programs you can anchor the feet. While in FK the bones only move by thier heirarchy, while IK um..well its like a puppet, you pull its hand up and down the elbow will bend and slow with the bones, but with FK you can only rotate the bones and if their is any bones attached as childs to those, they rotate with the parent bone.

and dont bother asking me about FK... iv forgotten what it means(as in name) but i know Milkshape and alot of the primitive animation programs use it.

yes..hard to explain..and im not the technical sort of person (thus i find it hard to use Tuts and make tuts...thus...is why i still cant figure out how to animate in max =_=)

anyway..just compare one of those plastic super hero toys to a stringed puppet and you might get the idea.

and ill just delete my defintions since they are horrible, ill find you some wiki and def links instead.

Xlightscreen@ you can, well if you use max(might work with gmax) 3dmaxy(i think..) made a plugin which can transfer ik to fk so they can be used in wc3, thats what jigreal has been doing lately.

and for converters, well there is magos and then their is guesst's one.

I cant find magos's since wc3sear tool area is temp dead so ill give you a link to guesst's:
http://wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=84979

 

[Argo]

Xlightscreen@ you can, well if you use max(might work with gmax) 3dmaxy(i think..) made a plugin which can transfer ik to fk so they can be used in wc3, thats what jigreal has been doing lately.

3dmaxhy's IK tools: http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=82515

 

[W!†A_cRaft]

Use magos modelling editor for converting formats instead.

Can u make me a link where to find it????

 

[Argo]

Can u make me a link where to find it????

http://magos.thejefffiles.com/War3ModelEditor/

 

[W!†A_cRaft]

Ok I got it but now i have another bigger problem. Since i havent instaled WC3 but copied it from my other hard disk that is now long gone i dont have registry

 

[Argo]

Ok I got it but now i have another bigger problem. Since i havent instaled WC3 but copied it from my other hard disk that is now long gone i dont have registry

What do you mean by Registry?

 

[Kimbo]

Then install it, but if you cant, then dl and use the keys from the original wc3 you brought, also Magos can only be used if you have the latest DirectX and wc3 patch installed.

and Agro. ty, i needed that magos too

EDIT: it means he has copied the files, but not the registery(attaches to windows..etc...), meaning he has the shell a turtle, but no turtle meat...

 

[W!†A_cRaft]

Now the only problem is I no longer have original WC3 CD with me coz I left it at my grany's when I was there but il find a way to get over this problem.

BTW. U said I need the latest Direct X and the latest Patch.
I have 1.20c patch and i think it isn't the latest one
and Direct X v9.0c

 

[Kimbo]

Well its always best you have the latest, but it might work..but it might not if you have no registery files for wc3.

 

[W!†A_cRaft]

It doesnt work without registry i tryed, but il get the registtry it isnt such a big problem i mean anyone can give me a registry. About am i serious yes I am a guy told me to shade my ritualist model I jsut couldnt do it didnt know what to do whn i poened it. It would be best if you know how to shade can u shadeit so i can see what am i suppoes to do????