Usually that was the case, but sadly, it isn’t for the very first time. - A 2.49 file can open flawlessly (by just skipping the new features) in Blender 1.0
Blender 2.50 has a different, totally rewritten (more modern, faster and better suited for higher polycounts - which all aren’t so needed for this project, though) mesh structure that therefore isn’t backward compatible anymore. It will probably change even further if finally bmesh makes it into the trunk. (That will take a lot of time though.)
Well, you can do it indirectly:
Export as .obj in 2.50 and import it to 2.49
However, I guess with that requirement, it would be better to just stick with 2.49 for this project…
or maybe you find a nice python scripter, who could quickly port the .3ds and the .mesh plugin over to 2.50…
I think I will download it anyway and do the obj export/import method. I had a weird bug in 2.49 where I couldn’t rotate my camera after hitting a few key combinations, so I did that and imported into a new file. I know it’s not too good to fall behind and I want to learn everything eventually so it couldn’t hurt. Thanks for the advice.
And to update my little project, here is a short video of the newest tank remake, the Magrider. It’s a hover tank, so it doesn’t have treads either.
By the way, kram, I sent you a pm on a problem I’m having. You seem to know alot so I figured I’d ask you personally, seeing as how I’m not getting any responses on the threads I posted about it in.
I just realized how nasty these things are gonna be to texture. Any takers? lol
But seriously, that would be awesome if someone with some photoshop skill wanted to do a texture job on these. I’d be more than willing to let them and give full credit along with any links to your other works.
Texturing in Blender should work pretty nice, actually
I’m seriously not quite the best texturer in the world, but Blender’s tools on that are pretty good. (Especially the unwrapping tools, as I heard quite some times by users from other apps as well)
You could photoshop or gimp it together, based on a UV-outline or paint over an AO map and then, inside Blender, get rid of eventual seams by directly painting on the mesh with Texture Paint mode.
Thanks guys. I actually had a bit of help with it from my modeler buddy. I made some changes from the original design, and he tweaked it a bit more and really brought out the ‘coolness’ to it.
Thanks again kram. I am actually quite good at the texturing itself. Up until this point, I’ve been ‘borrowing’ skins from WW2 tanks and applying them to my other temporary testing tanks, and I’ve been pretty good at UV mapping. However, I have exactly zero photoshop skill, so making a custom skin is going to be a long road for me, which is why I have yet again requested the help of my modeling buddy. He is going to take a look and poop out a skin that he thinks I will like, and we will go from there. I will keep you guys updated, but I’m glad you like it.
Ah, I see
Hmm, well then some parts of my post in the other threads might have been unnecessary. However I’m somehow pretty sure, all the links I posted there, will have some use for you
Thanks again kram. I think I might have to put you in the game credits for the amount of help you’ve been
Anyway, here’s a little progress on a mech I’m building. It’s just some undetailed legs so far, but it is my first nice weight-paint bone animation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynv_5Xl81Yc
I actually found out there are much easier ways to animate the frames than what I did, but I’m actually kind of happy with it because the small errors I made here and there give the mech a realistic shake when it walks, kind of like the chicken-walkers from Star Wars The entire mech will be a single mesh using bone weight-paint animation (since the exporter won’t recognize parenting, and merges all separate meshes into one single mesh ><) When it is completed, the mech will probably have close to 10 different animations to keep things flexible for my programmer.
Thanks Glad you noticed the leg movement in detail. Yes they are supposed to go up and down on the body. I wanted a more mechanical movement, but I also needed more clearance over the ground with each leg-lift. It’s still kind of sketchy and non-symmetrical with movement. I think I’m going to redo it later on. Was just an experiment after all.
Well, we’ve decided to use mechs in the game, so my experiment is now a project. Redid the legs with more detail, smoother animation, symmetrical strides, and more moving parts.
First of all let me say that you’re off to a good start The tank looks cool and the mechs seem awesome aswell.
One thing that bothers me (I don’t have much experience with animation, so it’s just an untrained eye that is giving critics :p) about the second animation though is that I get the feeling that the centre point of gravity seems to lay to the back of the mech while it’s feet are at the front, it kinda looks like it can tip over quite easily. I would change either the position of the feet more backwards, or make it higher.
I hope that made sense
Looking forward to see how this develops
Hey thanks for the feedback, Month. I agree with you entirely. I noticed this myself about an hour ago. I am new to Blender too. This will be my 2nd animation (one that matters anyway). I tried to make the joints more obtuse than the last time for better animation (last one it barely looked like the ‘knees’ moved at all). I am thinking it is just the position of the cube that looks like its weight is imbalanced, but when I do build the body, I will be sure to make it visually correct. Thanks for confirming my suspicions
By the way, I checked out your youtube channel. Those are some really cool models, no joke. Seriously, I love the funny expressions on their faces (especially the cow lol)
That new mech is also very nice
I’m just wondering: Is the model still basically work in progress or will the body stay a simple cube?
With matching textures, even a cube could look awesome but still, it looks kind of odd, especially compared to the amount of details in the legs…
If that cube isn’t the final thing, I wouldn’t care that much with the position of it for now. I’d model the total body to it’s (supposedly) final form and then position it so it looks good…
Ok, I see
However, I wouldn’t care that much about animation yet in that case
(Except maybe to debug the legs and get rid of possible animation errors)
(Hmm… which of course is about 70% of the animation job in case of such a mech anyway, lol)
Yes, unfortunately it would probably actually be easier to make something like a human or an animal. Something robotic like a mech WOULD have been simpler IF I could parent to the meshes. Unfortunately, my exporter recognizes the entire model as a single mesh sort of like obj (no matter what), so to counter this, I’ve made the entire model a single mesh and I’m weight-painting it as if it were multiple meshes. It’s pretty out of my way to do compared to the simplicity of parenting, but it works. I just have to be careful about where I remove doubles when I weight paint.
I should have the finished geometry and all animations in a day or two.
It might be that a you could find a nice pyhthon scripter who could update the script to allow those things (if the format allows for that, that is)
Just ask in thePython & Plugin section, maybe give some nice screenshots and such and explain your problem…
If you’re lucky, there is someone willing to help you. Or even willing to add such an exporter to 2.53 so that you can actually work there without loosing anything.
Also nice, and I think that would help a lot of people to switch, would be an importer from blender to blender in order to port the old 2.49 models and such in the best possible way…
Thanks for the kind words robmonty
You do know that it’s possible to select groups of vertices and create vertex groups for them, so you can have them modified and transformed as objects in a object? and since mechs usually dont have much volume changing in them you can also select the vertices you want weightpainted and then assign them a weight (in your case this would be 1 which is full effect of the bone), this would probably be easier than regular weightpainting, although you might be using this
Made quite a few changes from the original concept design. Now I just need some textures…
