Messages

1

Off Topic / Re: Google Chrome is screwed up - help me

« on: June 08, 2011, 04:58:22 PM »

download a program called Malwarbytes. Malwarbytes

boot your machine into safe mode and run malwarbytes.
do the full scan, be patient, it'll take a while.

it will remove any viruses it can find. restart the machine and update your OS.

best of luck!

Note: Don't have more than one anti-virus running on your machine at the same time. this will cause issues. anti-virus programs can occasionally show up as viruses to other AVPs.

2

Faces, Decals, Prints / Re: Xenomorph face

« on: June 08, 2011, 03:54:28 PM »

I really cant do crap and i was using gimp... I'm really quite horrible at decals and faces...
Although I have made some helmet and space suit decals on photoshop that looked pretty good.
Ill get those up soon enough.

try throwing them up into the modification discussion section. that way you can get some feedback from people prior to releasing it. I mean, granted, most of the comments will be really dumb like "inb4flame" or "this is crap GTFO" so you'll need to weed through them to find some good feedback. don't get discouraged and keep trying!

and if you have photoshop, i'd use that over gimp. although it has alot to do with preference, Photoshop is a much more powerful program. if you want to dive a little deeper into Photoshop a great place to look for tutorials is the tuts plus network

(Photoshop Tutorials)

learning how to play nice with the pen tool will give you some very pretty results in the end.

Happy designing.

3

Modification Help / Re: Weapon Colours and Bullet Spread

« on: June 08, 2011, 12:04:06 AM »

Thanks man, +25 respect

I'm guessing I can fix the smooth shading by selecting flat shading again.

no problem at all, glad i could help.

and yep, that will reset the smooth shading.

4

Modification Help / Re: CIs and Icons

« on: June 07, 2011, 09:55:21 AM »

You still have to scale it down to some really tiny size and it has to be a bitmap anyways. So it will be pixelated because its small. It's irrelevant whether you do a vector or just straight ahead pixel art.

this is true, but because you are working on such a small artboard, it's important to be able to zoom in without deterioration. also, some vector programs (both illustrator and inkscape do this) allow you to shift to decimals of pixels, and with anti-aliasing to a soft edge, it will make the graphics much more 'crisp'

this is all opinion of course, I feel it's better to work with vectors for CI's so you can zoom in. if you only have __ < 32 pixels to work with, for example, i feel it's important to see what you are doing up close.

5

Modification Help / Re: How to use the .dts exporter for mac?

« on: June 07, 2011, 05:43:53 AM »

I myself have been fighting the never ending battle between python and .dts exporting on a mac. this is often a really tough thing to trouble shoot. I'll give it a try, but if you could give  alittle more insight on your machine, i may be able to help even more. (I.E. OS version, power-Pc or intel. etc.)

but for starters:
did you install python prior to installing blender? this can sometimes cause issues.

Suggestion 1: Start from scratch

uninstall blender and use a cleaning agent (I recommend CleanMyMac, its a really handy little app.) use a cleaning agent or else all of the mac .plists wil float around and you'll run into the same error. plists are the mac version of registries,

reinstall Python. you can just reinstall it right over the top. the entire python codec will get updated and overwritten.

Reboot your Machine. this will set the python Codec in the place it needs to be. if you don't reboot the whole process may work, but because the python is a script library, sometimes a boot is required to give the file precedence.

reinstall Blender, and then reinstall the .dts Exporter.

Reboot the computer again. i know this is a tad facetious, but this will get blender all squared away and in working order. any time that you apply a plugin to a program you should reboot the machine, this is just to keep everything in order, and to also let blender clean up after itself and remove the installer files.

Fire up blender. and check to see if .dts is available.

I hope that works for you.

happy modeling if it does.

6

Modification Help / Re: CIs and Icons

« on: June 07, 2011, 05:22:01 AM »

Vectors are the way to go.
by personal opinion that is.

Vectors are clean and there isn't any degrading or pixels when you work with it.
you can zoom in, depending on the program, to about 6400x without seeing any pixilation.

inkscape is a great free vector editor, it takes a little practice.
but once you get into it, you'll never look back.
_____

if you are a fan of bitmaps, then i'd recommend you to gimp or photoshop

as for other 'for pay' editors, i'd take a look at pixelmator. pixelmator is a micro-app that is taking the designer world by storm.

Adobe products are still at the top and prolly always will be. they are the industry standard. Illustrator, Fireworks for vectors, and photoshop for bitmaps.

the learning curve for all of these graphics editors is a little rough. if you are struggling, head over the the tuts+ network.

Photoshop Tuts
Vector Tuts

Happy designing

<edit : Added More Resources / More Bitmap editors >

7

Modification Help / Re: Weapon Colours and Bullet Spread

« on: June 07, 2011, 04:59:40 AM »

First, I'm having trouble with colours and shading on the gun model. I've searched through the forums and I haven't figured out how to have colours show up on the model instead of it being plain white. I'm using the Sketchup > Blender method so deel w/ it.

Awesomely, Sketchup models will automatically be flat-shadded when you send it to blender and to blockland. unless you rescale the model inside of blender. if you do that, the entire model wil appear smooth shaded (I'm guessing that this is your shading issue.)

You will have to group your model prior to scaling it down inside sketchup, this is because of how sketchup handles its faces. if a face falls below 1/64" the face will disappear. that is Unless you group it prior to the scaling. the group will hold it together, as if by magic, and as a locked shape, none of the faces will disappear. and that will hold your flatshade together.

* Note = Group the object (ctrl+G) do not make a component, components will break the shape and will create tons of but ugly back faces.

once you export to Blender, you will need to select all the meshes that match in color, and join them. Even if they don't touch.

same color = same mesh = same group.

once the meshes are joined, to color them, you will need to rename the objects according to their colour. so if the mesh is, say, orange, you will need to name it orange.png. you will then need to drop an orange.png into the folder with the final .dts.

Hope that makes sense.
Happy Modeling

Second, unless the quality standard of BL addons plummet down into the negatives, I need to know how to make bullets spread out when being fired from the gun.

No idea on that, sounds more like a scripting thing. Setting a random spread off of the MuzzlePoint has something to do with it im sure though..

8

Modification Help / Re: Can Sketchup export to Tourqe?

« on: June 07, 2011, 04:17:02 AM »

you can export a .dae (Collada 1.4) from sketchup.
that you can import into Blender.

you will want to have the sizing done in sketchup first though,
changing the size of the shape in blender will mess the crap out of the flat shading.

find an .obj of the minifig, and import that into sketchup.
group your model (Group, not component, components will create backfaces)
then scale and ungroup the group.

* Note 1: You need to group prior to scaling down, this is because of how sketchup handles its faces. if a face falls below 1/64" the face will disappear. Unless you group it. the group will hold it together, as a locked shape.

* Note 2: By lining up your model with the minifig's hand, you will actually position it perfectly on the model in game. Delete the minifig and then export it.

* Note 3: once you export to Blender, you will need to select all the meshes that match in color, and join them. Even if they don't touch,
same color = same mesh = same group.

Happy Modeling

9

Faces, Decals, Prints / Re: Xenomorph face

« on: June 07, 2011, 02:58:16 AM »

it's very blurry. i would recommend a couple things.

 first thing you should do is make it a 512px x 512px vector.
Vectors will prevent the nasty blurs. and give you an overal better face.

try inkspace.

if you wanted the blur, then i would blur it less. you're going to get white clipping around the decal itself.
props to the symmetry,  but it still needs some work.

keep it up

10

Faces, Decals, Prints / Re: L4D2 Faces for ZAPT

« on: June 01, 2011, 02:51:31 AM »

no hoody on bl that covers the player's eyes

Challenge Accepted..
lol

11

Faces, Decals, Prints / Re: L4D2 Faces for ZAPT

« on: May 31, 2011, 04:42:29 PM »

well, i made the originals, and these look like an acid trip while trapped in MS paint...
even for zombies, which should look haggard...

To make suggestions i would say go to wikipedia and read about Vectors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics

decals and faces made in vector form are easier to work with anyways.
plus they look nicer in my humble opinion.

then i'd say to download a program called inkspace
http://inkscape.org/

inkscape is to vectors as what gimp is to bitmaps.
its the best freeware vector constructor out there.

learn vectors, and practice. Practice PRACTICE!


Note: If you need a tutorial or a template for vector form PM me i can help you out.

12

Faces, Decals, Prints / Re: L4D2 Faces for ZAPT

« on: May 30, 2011, 01:29:25 AM »

this is insulting.....

13

Faces, Decals, Prints / Re: La Moustache

« on: May 30, 2011, 01:22:45 AM »

no offense.... This is really bad.

no antialiasing, looks like it was copy / pasted in there.
the entire bounding box is pixelated too.

this looks like not a lot of effort was made.
if you wanted to make it better relatively quickly, remake the shape with a vector.
it'll look cleaner in the end

14

Modification Help / Re: ZAPT v2

« on: March 21, 2010, 06:24:13 PM »

Yes please. I tried the hotel, and it was lovesauce. Just needed better survivor bots. I had a few run ins with:

• Smokers pulling me off
• Boomers hiding behind doors
• Hunters pushing me off
• Ai_Survivors not working with the elevator

^

My job is not to develop fake friends for you. Find at least one other person who isn't terrible and you will do just fine.

15

Modification Help / Re: Quick Milkshape Animation Question

« on: February 18, 2010, 01:25:20 PM »

i tried that, it just hid the layer from view, and then didn't appear in the next frame.

thanks for the suggestion, any other ideas? :/