All yall who want scene files just email me and tell me which ones; I won't send em all out at once cause with the shaders (which I imagine you'll want to look at too) they're pretty big files.

I thought about making a tutorial on how to make the ships themselves but I couldn't think what to put in it, exactly. It'd probly be helpful to have another description of what all the various transforms do, but that's not something I want to write. The textures were bad enough: I want to be complete, but there's just so many options I get bogged down in minutć (or whatever that word is). But I'll see what I can do.

Also, there was someone else planning to make some Mechanisto tutorials a few months ago, but I don't remember who it was and I don't know how far the project got. Anyone else have any idea?

Oh yeah, and thanks for the appreciative comments! And yes, Mechanisto is the only 3D ap I know how to use, so that's all Mechanisto.

(alright, it's a start: (url="http://"http://home.earthlink.net/~squibix/ev/")http://home.earthlink.net/~squibix/ev/(/url) -- check out 'ships, an introduction')

(This message has been edited by Squibix (edited 10-19-2001).)

I'm going through your tutorial, and its great so far. I just have one problem:

You say to view it from 6, 7, 8. Is there a way I change change the view from which I edit the scene? I mean, I know how to change the camera view angle, but you cannot edit from the camera view. The 3 views capable of editing that are offered by mechanisto are not that great, because only one of those views can fit the whole image into it. Is there a way to view it from a custom angle?

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--ares
(url="http://"http://www.saberstudios.f2s.com/")Saber Studios(/url)::(url="http://"http://home.cfl.rr.com/aresev/")The Legion(/url)

(This message has been edited by ares1 (edited 10-19-2001).)

I second ares's question.

Also, has anyone else ever tried inserting a .dxf file? I brought home one of about 400k from CAD at school, and when I try to import it, Mechanisto just hangs. I'm fairly certain that my system should be good enough, since the model is only 400k and I have a dual G4 533. Any ideas?

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- Macavenger | e-mail: (url="http://"mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com")mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com(/url)e-gamerguy1@home.com

Quote

Originally posted by ares1:
I just have one problem:

Aha. Yup, actually there are two things you can do. First, you can indeed change the camera angle, that which is represented in the upper-right view. To do this select the camera object and add to it a 'translate' transform (actually there should already be one there automatically). Changing the values on that transform moves the camera about; that's what I meant by my 6, 7, 8: those are the x, y and z coordinates I generally use. Of course, you can also move the camera around as you model to make sure your ship looks good from all angles. Oh wait; I just read your question again; maybe you already know how to do all that. Oh well, I'll leave it in just in case. I'll also add: double-click on the camera object to change what Mechanisto calls the view angle, but which is really the degree of fish-eye-ness in the camera.

You can also adjust the other three views. To do that, select the magnifying glass tool from the toolbar and then click and drag on one of the three views. It's entirely random and arbitrary, but one way you drag will zoom in on your ship and the other will zoom out. The zoom affects all the three axis views together, but not the camera view. That's how you can get your whole ship in the frame no matter how big it is.

I hope some of that helps...

Quote

Originally posted by Macavenger:
Any ideas?

Nope. I never managed to do it myself; like you said, it just sits there and doesn't do anything. Mike Clifton says it takes a while and suggests waiting, but I've waited for over half an hour and it still hasn't worked, and I've given Mechanisto 56 megs of memory (something else I recommend to you all; it makes things go oh so much quicker). All I can say is, apparently there are some DFXs that work and some that don't; we've just never been able to find the kind that do.

Well, that sort of helps. I know how to change the camera view, but that is not what I need to do. The view from the camera is not editable. It would be nice to rotate the view of the editable viewing thingers, but I guess all I can do is zoom. :frown: Woe is me.

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--ares
(url="http://"http://www.saberstudios.f2s.com/")Saber Studios(/url)::(url="http://"http://home.cfl.rr.com/aresev/")The Legion(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by ares1:
The view from the camera is not editable.

Oh... I never actually edit with the mouse, except for moving big things around every once and a while. So I never ran into that problem. But together, the three views that are editable do show every side of the ship...

Quote

Originally posted by Squibix:
Nope. I never managed to do it myself; like you said, it just sits there and doesn't do anything. Mike Clifton says it takes a while and suggests waiting, but I've waited for over half an hour and it still hasn't worked, and I've given Mechanisto 56 megs of memory (something else I recommend to you all; it makes things go oh so much quicker). All I can say is, apparently there are some DFXs that work and some that don't; we've just never been able to find the kind that do.

I suppose I can see where mine might not work, because it's kinda complex. Maybe I'll try to do what limited texturing I can in AutoCAD at school and put it up somewhere, just for fun. It's a nifty little fighter I designed a while back, if not specifically for EV.

Also, could you tell me how to rotate the cylinder 90 degrees on the X-axis with none selected in the transform settings?

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- Macavenger | e-mail: (url="http://"mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com")mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com(/url)e-gamerguy1@home.com

Quote

Originally posted by Macavenger:
Also, could you tell me how to rotate the cylinder 90 degrees on the X-axis with none selected in the transform settings?

Certainly! Take a look at your 'Transform settings' box, which you can get from the 'windows' menubar menu (along with onject settings and info, all of which you should have open at all times, if your monitor is big enough). Up at the top of that Transform Settings bok is a pull-down called 'current transform': select 'none' from that menu to ensure that the next transform you add will be the first applied. If you always apply your 'rotate' transforms first, you don't have to worry about different objects having different axises later. If the weather's bad tomorrow I'll write more about all this on my site; otherwise, you may have to wait for next week. But never fear, it will come! And I hope this is enough info for the moment...

(This message has been edited by Squibix (edited 10-19-2001).)

Alright, I got the rotating thing now. One thing I might suggest for your site is a little more detail about how to do some things, like rotating around different axes or sticking things in groups. Mechanisto is a bit non-intuitive in that regard, at least for someone who learned modeling on a totally different, command line based CAD system. I've been able to figure those out by trial and error, but it took a bit.

Although I have yet to makle sprites, IMHO the easiest thing to do is go and make separate renderings of the ship at each 10° point, then go and piece them all together in Photoshop. then go back to the model, make a duplice of the file, while in the duplicate make all the shaders non-shadow white, then repeat the process and make the masks.

Also, here's some more stuff that Mechanisto can do:

God bless,

UE Patriot

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(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=date&file;=ReignOfTheUEv12.Bin")Reign of the UE(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=date&file;=PersonsOFTheEVOWebboardv2.Bin")Persons of the EVO Webboard(/url)
"From sour-faced saints, O Lord, deliver us."- St. Teresa of Avila

(This message has been edited by UE Patriot (edited 10-19-2001).)

<delete - Never mind, I gave up a bit too easy, figured something out. :)>

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- Macavenger | e-mail: (url="http://"mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com")mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com(/url)e-gamerguy1@home.com

Here is yet another example of what Mechanisto can do:

By the way Squibix, nice tutorial so far.

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You would have to be ignorant, derranged, demented, or dead to turn down the oppurtunity to fly an Azdara.
(url="http://"http://www.saberstudios.f2s.com/") Saber Studios (/url)-Your source for original EV/O/N graphics. the Confederation Graphics Expansion Set: Coming soon

Quote

Originally posted by Lequis MX:
**Where can I get mechanisto? It came in handy a long long time ago, but I use Bryce for all my major graphics now... but its still good for... er... well, I haven't exactly explored all of its functions, bryce is incredibly easy to use.
-Lequis

**

Well, it's availible at (url="http://"http://ftp//www.ambrosiasw.com/pub/ev/utilities/Mechanisto.sit.bin")the AmbrosiaSW EV Site(/url). I could send you all of my shaders, or models, or both, if you want. Go to (url="http://"http://www.Madman80513.vze.com")my website(/url) (currently getting a makeover) and you can download many of my models.

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Visit my (url="http://"http://www.madman80513.vze.com")My Website(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Madman80513:
**Well, it's availible at the AmbrosiaSW EV Site. I could send you all of my shaders, or models, or both, if you want. Go to my website (currently getting a makeover) and you can download many of my models.

**

Hmmm...When I try to download one of your models it says that it can't be found.

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You would have to be ignorant, derranged, demented, or dead to turn down the oppurtunity to fly an Azdara.
(url="http://"http://www.saberstudios.f2s.com/") Saber Studios (/url)-Your source for original EV/O/N graphics. the Confederation Graphics Expansion Set: Coming soon

I've gone through the tutorial about 5 times, and everytime I do it it doesn't look the same as yours. In the very beginning, you say to make a cylinder/hemisphere set, and then duplicate it and apply some transformations to the second. It says scale the second grouping .7 in the y direction. Doing this make the second set, which is behind the first, much smaller. When rendered it looks horrible, and nothing like yours. I tried making it 1.7, and it becomes huge, and looks nothing like yours. I tried making the first set .7, and it looks sort of like yours, but not really. Was I supposed to apply the taper transformations to both groups? I am having a lot of other problems, too. You should try to be more specific.

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--ares
(url="http://"http://www.saberstudios.f2s.com/")Saber Studios(/url)::(url="http://"http://home.cfl.rr.com/aresev/")The Legion(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by ares1:
**I've gone through the tutorial about 5 times, and everytime I do it it doesn't look the same as yours. In the very beginning, you say to make a cylinder/hemisphere set, and then duplicate it and apply some transformations to the second. It says scale the second grouping .7 in the y direction. Doing this make the second set, which is behind the first, much smaller. When rendered it looks horrible, and nothing like yours. I tried making it 1.7, and it becomes huge, and looks nothing like yours. I tried making the first set .7, and it looks sort of like yours, but not really. Was I supposed to apply the taper transformations to both groups? I am having a lot of other problems, too. You should try to be more specific.
**

Did you ever add the third cylinder/hemisphere set? THat would make quite a difference. Mine looked OK, just with somewhat different shaders, and the cockpit section wasn't as far back on the body, but otherwise it looked good. I'm working on an original model now - hopefully I can finish and post it later today.

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- Macavenger | e-mail: (url="http://"mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com")mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com(/url)e-gamerguy1@home.com

Yeah, I made a few mistakes here and there, but that was just becasue I didn't always read everything slowly enough. It turned out fine in the end, though.

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You would have to be ignorant, derranged, demented, or dead to turn down the oppurtunity to fly an Azdara.
(url="http://"http://www.saberstudios.f2s.com/") Saber Studios (/url)-Your source for original EV/O/N graphics. the Confederation Graphics Expansion Set: Coming soon

Here's a preview of the model I've been working on:

It's not complete yet and still has a texturing problem; I'm just using simple, single shaders on each part right now. I'll be dealing with that once I've completed the full model (which is getting fairly close). I'm also looking for a way to make the transition from rotated to straight rounded cubes in the rear smoother, any ideas on that or anything else?
And yes, the rounded cubes as opposed to cylinders/spheres is intentional.

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- Macavenger | e-mail: (url="http://"mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com")mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com(/url)e-gamerguy1@home.com

Nice start, keep up the good work.

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You would have to be ignorant, derranged, demented, or dead to turn down the oppurtunity to fly an Azdara.
(url="http://"http://www.saberstudios.f2s.com/") Saber Studios (/url)-Your source for original EV/O/N graphics. the Confederation Graphics Expansion Set: Coming soon