I have a few questions about general things that have probably come up before, But if they have, I can't find them.

-at what angle do you render ships for EV nova? is it 36 degrees? (I am just making sure.)

- how much do you rotate it for the next picture (I think it's 10, but again, I'm just making sure.) also, what is the fastest and easiest way of doing this?

-is there a way reset the preset camera angle in wings 3D so it is at the above said angle?

-Is it possible to import wings files into blender? if so, how? (at the download, is said something about extra scripts...?)

-how does the writing option work on wings? the button is there, but when I click on it, is says "No such file or directory
exists."

-can you export Terragen terrain as a wings file? (Is there something I can download that will let me do this?) or import wings objects into Terragen?

-How do you create custom textures in Photoshop elements? I tried, and it crashed, so I figure I might be doing something wrong.

-how do you make engine glows and running light? (program...?)

-This is the first planet I have ever made without lunarcell. (Some say lunarcell is cheating <_< ) What can I do to make it better? (more planet like.). first_planet.jpg (47.78K)
Number of downloads: 30

Nice. I'm noticing stock textures and spherize (I think). Lunarcell is cheating? Hmmm... who says that? I make all my planets from scratch, and I never say that. Maybe they won't look as good as mine or Crusader Alpha's, but they're planets. It's not the method, it's the end result.

To get a wings file into Blender, export it from wings as a .obj. Then open Blender and do File>Import>Wavefront (.obj). Navigate to the file you exported and open it.

Your questions about render angles are answered in the User-Made FAQ sticky.

If you use stock PS textures, I suggest filling an image with the base pattern and then setting the brush tool to have a texture and a very low flow (15-25). Very lightly (if you have a Wacom pen) paint in small spots. I like the Metal Landscape texture for this part. Then, use the clone stamp tool liberally to remove all traces of a pattern. Sphereize the image and paste it into a new document and make the planet around it.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, Sphereize the texture twice at 100% to make it look truly sphereical and not just rounded.

This post has been edited by Cosmic_Nusiance : 08 September 2007 - 10:47 PM

You can rotate the frame at whatever angle you want really, as long as it fits evenly into 360. 10 is typical for small ships and will give 36 frames but it all depends on how smooth you want the rotation. Also, keep in mind that forward firing beams can only fire at the angles your ship can face so longer beams don't work so well on ships with a low number of frames.

@guy, on Sep 9 2007, 12:32 AM, said in General questions about development:

You can rotate the frame at whatever angle you want really, as long as it fits evenly into 360. 10 is typical for small ships and will give 36 frames but it all depends on how smooth you want the rotation. Also, keep in mind that forward firing beams can only fire at the angles your ship can face so longer beams don't work so well on ships with a low number of frames.

Another important factor is how fast the ship turns. If it turns quickly, 10° might be sufficient. If it turns slowly, the animation will be more noticibly jerky. So fighter-like ships, which are small and quick turning need few frames, but big, slow suckers like a Leviathan do well with more.

@yamfries, on Sep 9 2007, 12:30 AM, said in General questions about development:

- how much do you rotate it for the next picture (I think it's 10, but again, I'm just making sure.) also, what is the fastest and easiest way of doing this?

I haven't tried to make a spďn in years, but the way I would do it (I use Maya) is to animate your ship to rotate about its y axis (yaw) by 360° in one second. Then adjust your framerate to 36 frames per second, or 72 or 144 or however many sprites you want, and batch render the animation.

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-Is it possible to import wings files into blender? if so, how? (at the download, is said something about extra scripts...?)

I'll bet there is, if you do some searching for it. Blender scripts are written in Python and go in a folder with all the other Python scripts you already have.

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-can you export Terragen terrain as a wings file? (Is there something I can download that will let me do this?) or import wings objects into Terragen?

Hmm, It doesn't look like Terragen will export to other formats (at least with the Terragen 2 beta I'm using). Your only chance would be a plugin it seems.

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-How do you create custom textures in Photoshop elements? I tried, and it crashed, so I figure I might be doing something wrong.

There's nothing special about textures; they're images like any other image. There may be restrictions like Wings might only understand JPG files whose dimensions are powers of two, but you make a texture the same way you'd make anything in your drawing program. I highly recommend saving a native psd version, and then exporting to jpg or png or whatever Wings will understand. Some programs will even understand the native psd file.

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-This is the first planet I have ever made without lunarcell. (Some say lunarcell is cheating <_< ) What can I do to make it better? (more planet like.).

If this planet is the same size it will appear in the game, then you need to use higher resolution source images. This image is blurry because there aren't enough pixels, so they've been blown up. There seem to be clouds, but they have a grain to them that goes from the north pole to the south pole. Clouds should move from west to east; in other words streaks of clouds should be horizontal, not vertical (assuming your planet's poles are up and down). Next, the ground layer of your planet is green, but it still looks barren, like the Moon but without any craters. Since it has clouds there wouldn't be many craters, however I think there should be more color variation, especially if this planet is inhabited. Add some beiges and browns to the mix, and graduate between them smoothly. Finally, some of the clouds are visible on the dark side of the planet, which looks wrong to me. Perhaps they're actually snowy mountaintops, but if this is a full-sized planet, the effect of the sun hitting the tops of the mountains but not the bottoms only applies in the range of 100 miles or less (much less on Earth), so it's overdone.

@yamfries, on Sep 9 2007, 12:30 AM, said in General questions about development:

-This is the first planet I have ever made without lunarcell. (Some say lunarcell is cheating <_< ) What can I do to make it better?

Read this: http://www.justalyn....lanet/index.htm

Its long, its complex, but its exactly what you're looking for.

Also, who says lunarcell is cheating? Because it's easy to use?

By the same logic one could say macs are cheating, because they are easier to use.

--BP

Not really; macs are also better.

I agree. Macs are better. Sony is also better, because they have the PS3. But that's an argument for another day.

Blueplanet, that tutorial looks good. I think I'll use that to upgrade my planet graphics before my teaser release the thursday after next.

@shlimazel, on Sep 9 2007, 04:59 PM, said in General questions about development:

Sony is also better, because they have the PS3.

LIES!!!!!

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LIES!!!!!

No, they really do have the PS3. That's no lie

But, seriously, that's an argument for another day. I'm not going to get involved in a cross-platform flame-fest.

You can make engine glows by making the inside of the engine emissive and turning off the lights. That way, the engines emit light on the inside. Of course, you want to take off the emissive texture when you render the ship sprites. That should work.

This post has been edited by Shlimazel : 09 September 2007 - 01:08 PM

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-how do you make engine glows and running light? (program...?)

Much in the same way you make a ship. You need to make new RLEs, preferable of the same size as the ship owning the engines/light bulbs. You have to spin them all the same. Preferably, you'll want the little effect to be alone in those RLEs, unless you want to produce some weird other effect. Then you add them in the ship's shan in the engine glow field/running lights and voilŕ.

@captain-bob, on Sep 9 2007, 04:06 AM, said in General questions about development:

(I use Maya)

You use Maya? I'm getting the student version soon. What's the best way to export? Can you export as a sprite?

Erm, well...like in any 3D program, when you make something you're happy with, you render it out as a 2D image or animation. I guess you could call rendering "exporting as a sprite". Maya will export rendered images to just about any format you want, and you can adjust the render settings to render the alpha channel or not. Like I said about textures, sprites too are just images.