Modeling Class - Day 2 Interface

[johnybgood18]

By the way Rich, will you be organizing "a self-teaching group" (love the idea) on "how to skin gorgeous buildings like the ones you make" after this? ;-)

Great skin job on those buildings Rich, keep it up!

Christian

[rgarber]

By the way Rich, will you be organizing "a self-teaching group" (love the idea) on "how to skin gorgeous buildings like the ones you make" after this? ;-)

Great skin job on those buildings Rich, keep it up!

Christian

That's a good question Chris, I personally haven't made plans for such with my plate pretty full between building another route for Railworks, guiding this class and picking fights over at the Railwork's Steam forum. It might not be a bad idea what you have in mind and to see it started sooner rather than later. Modeling is for a special type of person who sees developing as an extension to his/her railroading hobby. It's not for everybody. But we need freeware to grow as there is a vast perception that Railworks is only about making money. That's not it at all. What people don't realize is starting in 2004 our developing corp for MSTS was decimated for a variety of reasons. True there are many who won't crossover to Railworks but there not the people I'm concerned about anyway. What's disconcerting is few are coming into developing from Railwork's own ranks. So this class idea is my idea to help solve the problem. The problem is I'm already pretty busy creating a route. The other problem is other potential "teachers" are watching this class to see how it goes. If it doesn't work out then they won't do their own. You may be onto something that if we could convince them to start now, then how this class performs won't be as critical. Modeling is one of those things where it isn't hard, but it just doesn't happen either with a snap of the fingers. And 3D Canvas like most programs have it's colorful nuances inducing colorful metaphors from one's vocabulary. So if you're someone who would also like to learn texturing, voice your support to Chris's idea and maybe somebody will volunteer, send a PM, voice themselves that they'd like to do this.

But just so you know Chris, my textures are actually pretty simple. To keep the texturing simple I up the ante of the model so it does much of the work my textures don't. You'll see that in time but we got to get through the interface stuff first - so folks, come on, let's get this class assignment moving!

Rich

[Derek]

great stuff Rich.

regards

Derek

[johnybgood18]

[/quote]

That's a good question Chris, I personally haven't made plans for such with my plate pretty full between building another route for Railworks, guiding this class and picking fights over at the Railwork's Steam forum. It might not be a bad idea what you have in mind and to see it started sooner rather than later. Modeling is for a special type of person who sees developing as an extension to his/her railroading hobby. It's not for everybody. But we need freeware to grow as there is a vast perception that Railworks is only about making money. That's not it at all. What people don't realize is starting in 2004 our developing corp for MSTS was decimated for a variety of reasons. True there are many who won't crossover to Railworks but there not the people I'm concerned about anyway. What's disconcerting is few are coming into developing from Railwork's own ranks. So this class idea is my idea to help solve the problem. The problem is I'm already pretty busy creating a route. The other problem is other potential "teachers" are watching this class to see how it goes. If it doesn't work out then they won't do their own. You may be onto something that if we could convince them to start now, then how this class performs won't be as critical. Modeling is one of those things where it isn't hard, but it just doesn't happen either with a snap of the fingers. And 3D Canvas like most programs have it's colorful nuances inducing colorful metaphors from one's vocabulary. So if you're someone who would also like to learn texturing, voice your support to Chris's idea and maybe somebody will volunteer, send a PM, voice themselves that they'd like to do this.

But just so you know Chris, my textures are actually pretty simple. To keep the texturing simple I up the ante of the model so it does much of the work my textures don't. You'll see that in time but we got to get through the interface stuff first - so folks, come on, let's get this class assignment moving!

Rich[/quote]

You know Rich, I'm happy that you sort of think the way I do. I too think that not enough is done by the community for RW (not complaining here or trying to put blame on anyone, it took me forever to finally decide to take the step in this direction). Of course, I'm comparing with other rail simulator and when I look at MSTS or Trainz, they both have been around for ages and lots of people got involved, because, well, they were the first ones. Now, we have RW and I do wish that people will pick it up and say "Well, why not do that "insert your item here", it would look amazing in RW!" I know, for one, that it's where I'd like to be heading for.

We do have great people working on other aspect of the sim, and frankly, I can't thank these guys enough! I also like the fact that the guys at RS.com are willing to listen and gather feedback from the community and to me, this is a step in the right direction for RW, even tho it's not happening fast enough for some but for me, patience is key!

I'm working on 2 routes at the moment (1 bigger than the other), so we can have more route/items to make our routes from... and it's the main reason why I want to learn 3DC, so I can make whatever I need for my routes!

I would really like to talk about your "pretty simple" texture! :-) They sure don't look simple to me!

Christian

[johnybgood18]

All right, if no one has any objection, I'll continue this thread with "E" (I want to get to day 3 asap, can't you tell? )

3DC-LightPanel.jpg

As you can see, this is the light panel. There is different kind of light to give you different effects. Not too sure how this can help us build our models, but I suspect that Rich knows why or it's simply to give us a more "3D" feel to our models. Mu guess is that if you use different materials, you will get different "shine" in your object.

3DC-Light-Point.jpg

3DC-Light-Spot.jpg

3DC-Light-Area.jpg

3DC-Light-Directional.jpg

You can grab a light and drag it in your scene to give you different lighting effects and you can even mov it around by clicking on it and holding your left mouse button.

3DC-Light-Area-example.jpg

3DC-Light-Spot-example.jpg

I almost forgot, you can turn the panel "on/off" by clicking on the bulb icon and it will remove itself from the left interface, in case you don't need it for some time.

Christian

[artimrj]

OK I will do another one, except it is mostly screenshots. E is the Construction Panel. It has 9 icons in it. They are divided into 3 groups. You can see the divider in the screenshot.

constructionpanel01.jpg

The first group has Material items in it. Thats the color patterns and texture you have. You have Material Palette and Material Library. WHen you click on them it opens a new panel below the icon bar. These are the Material tools.

conpanel02.jpg

The middle group contains Primitives, Shape Building Tools, Bones, Lights and the Component Library. You can click all of them to open their panels.

conpanel03.jpg

The right group is Shape related. Shape Operations and Shape Layer panels are opened with these two.

conpanel04.jpg

Then if you undock the window, you can resize it, turn on all your tools and see them all at once. If you are fortunate to have a second monitor, you can move the whole window to the other monitor.

conpanel05.jpg

So basically it is a navigation tool for your tools.

[qrfan3]

My work and roster commitments will have me dragging the chain about every 4 days or so....no biggie, I'll tag along and being a fresh new starter to this type of modeling ( never used ) of 3DC I will absorb as much as I can, so I will not rush into it.
Following up with Christian I've selected A....might as well commence with the first letter.
A part of a very important section of 3DC I believe..... which is the the Hierarchy.
From the start of a new scene before any primitives are added a default Hierarchy is set up with regards to:
Annimation Camera
Point Light
Ambient Light
Directional Light #1
Directional Light #2

A is directional Light #2, an infinite light source ( far away ) which cannot be moved but re-adjusted to give the types of effect you want.

In 8.2 Pro, the Hierarchy Structure Tab can be found in the Properties and Information Panel. By highlighting Directional #2 it will bring up the light axis controls as shown by the circle. This light can be adjusted along the X & Y axis or Z & Y axis by holding left click in the little grey triangles between either axis and moving to give your affect.
Results are shown by the before...after shots.
If required you can add additional directional lights by dragging the Add selection I have shown into your scene.

Edit: You can remove ( hide ) this light source ( circle ) by left clicking anywhere on your scene page


Best I can do for a newbie...

Gordon.

3d_exam.jpg

[artimrj]

Oh no. We were doing the same thing at the same time. We both did E. I thought I started out on page 2 and ended up on page 3.

Sorry about that. Gee and I thought I was going to get extra credit.

[qrfan3]

Hahahaha.....
I wondered what happened to my post....but I did A, unless you are referring to Christian who shoved us both onto page 3.....

[artimrj]

Gordon: I was talking about Christian's post. His wasn't there when I started. He also did E.

As for your post, that was something strange. I went to make my apology post and got a message that "the post has allready been replied to" and it was actually letting me append or edit your post before you even submitted it. I think I found a bug in phpBB.

[qrfan3]

Yep...you are correct there Bob...... I thought I had to do it all over again as it disappeared all together and then reappeared...
Don't know where my first uploaded attachment went.......

[Hawk]

As for your post, that was something strange. I went to make my apology post and got a message that "the post has allready been replied to" and it was actually letting me append or edit your post before you even submitted it. I think I found a bug in phpBB.

When you make a post and click on the Submit button, and someone else has made a new post while you were typing yours, it will show the other persons post but I don't think you can actually edit the other persons post. It does give you the opportunity to edit yours according to what the other persons posts had to say.

[artimrj]

OK Hawk, I beleive your correct there. I didnt try to edit and as I think that is sorta what the message from the forum was trying to tell me. I didn't know what to do so I just exited IE. I never saw that happen before.

[johnybgood18]

@ artimrj
We might have done it at the same time, but I goofed! I thought Rich was refering to that single lightbulb icon!

You gave all the explanation I left out! Thanks for all the info, it has been a great reading! I just love this thing... next time, when I do one, I'll rty and do it right!

[rgarber]

Cool! Awesome! Great to see you're all making an effort.... is this right? You all did the same letter?? Okay, well... that'll work... I guess. Might take a little longer to get through this class than I thought...

*flipping through papers to be graded*

Okay. Christian asked about if the lighting effects the exported model. I don't think so. But I'm no expert on 3D Canvas but I think to get that kind of effect you'd need what 3d studio max does, and it burns the lighting effect into the textures, I think.

*flipping through more papers to be graded*

Mostly I was in my music studio this afternoon so I'm playing catch-up here. Gordon, what is "dragging the chain?"

*flipping through even more papers to be graded*

Derek was here? Did I read that right? That's good, I didn't think they knew anything of this class.

*looks over at kid squishing his nose up against the monitor glass... say what the heck??? kids!*

Very good coverage of the lighting guys. I've didn't do a good job of learning the lighting effects and you can see in my building pics from 3d Canvas mine usually turn out pretty dark because of it. Better to add more lighting so you don't go blind working on the models.

*still flipping through papers grading as we go along*

And last, (I'm working backwards through the posting btw) at Christian again. What I mean that my textures are pretty simple, you typically won't see my textures including windows and doors and little things like that. For one thing I am very poorly organized. And because of that I use more textures for a model than I should. I pretty much make-it-up as I go along but if I had planned my models out better (or at all... ), I could reduce the number of textures in the model. It's kind of important because for each texture used the game draws that model that many times over. That can be a problem for fps on slower computers.

Christian, I think what your refering to is you like the look of the textures. That part really isn't hard at all. That's something I could show you in a couple of minutes. You just make use of layers and use lighting variances to blend the different layers together. I use soft light a lot. Even a little experimenting will yield great results. Remind me about this sometime and I'll show you guys what I mean. The difference is like the difference between painting with a paint brush and painting with an air brush. So easy too.

*puts papers down* Whew!

I think I'm caught up now but could you guys get started on F? Great job so far!

Rich