sorry guys. I was too busy lately. It looks like a lot of work actually. I am quite nervous while recordering which leads to record twice same things. Anyway, I am on the actual painting part which is the last part. Then I will edit and record sound and I hope to release it this week.
Don't worry about being nervous, we're artists, not public speakers. I hate listening to my own voice even -_-. Looking forward to your tutorial. Hope you still go through with it!
sorry guys. I was too busy lately. It looks like a lot of work actually. I am quite nervous while recordering which leads to record twice same things. Anyway, I am on the actual painting part which is the last part. Then I will edit and record sound and I hope to release it this week.
I'm really interested in seeing this tutorial. Your work looks great and I'm hoping that I will be able to replicate it :D
Alright, here's the Max 2011 file which would probably be best viewed in Max 2011 with Startools installed. I've also included a text document that tells you the frame range for each individual animation (those that I would use in Starcraft with a Starcraft appropriate name). I did all the textures using Starcraft Materials though...so I'm not sure how well this will translate into a newer version of Max though or if they'll even show without Startools installed. I have included them though and they aren't that difficult to figure out which one goes where.
Also, it's not a problem. I've been meaning to start working on transferring some undead models to Starcraft anyway. That and I had a fellow student in my class who would try to pass off other peoples work as his own and it pissed me off too. Same kid used our group project from a previous class in a later class even though he only did about 5% of the work to my 95%. I took it as a compliment though.
Blizzard repackaged a lot of their files with the release of Reaper of Souls so the older ones don't work anymore. Try using Taylor Mouses. It worked the last time I used it. Plus it is better than an OBJ convertor.
The ghosts stick is shown and hidden through the animation itself. It appears on a certain key frame and hides on another.
I assume this is a problem with one of the WoW models you were making based off my post a few months ago?
How are you hiding/showing your meshes? Are you triggering meshes as "on/off" by giving the unit a behavior and then doing a texture swap?
I haven't had enough time to work on the models in a long time because of school. But if I get time I'll remember this and check it out. It seems like your cloak behavior might be triggering the others ones to turn on/off.
So you want to add team colors to a model? Well, you're in a luck because I've updated my old method to a newer and better one.
The first step to any of this is finding the diffuse texture for the model you want to add team colors to. I'm going to be doing the sail from a world of warcraft battle ship. Once you find this texture go ahead and open it up in Photoshop.
Step 1 - Set to Diffuse
Go to the drop down window for "Filter" browse down until you find "Stylize", hover over "Stylize and select "Diffuse".
This will bring up a new window. We will set the mode to Anisotropic. You can view the change in your main window by turning preview to On/Off.
Hit OK.
Step 2 - Duplicate your Layer
We do this by right clicking on our current laying and selecting "Duplicate Layer" from the window.
Step 3 - Select team color Areas
Select our new layer, and use whatever method you prefer to create a selection of the area you want to add team colors to. I prefer a mixture of the magic wand tool with varying tolerances and the lasso tool.
I have selected virtually all of the Blue on my texture.
Step 4 - Invert Selection
We can do this by going to the "Image" drop down window, browse to "Adjustments", and then selecting "Invert". We can also use the hotkey Control+i.
Step 5 - Copy the Invert
Copy the inverted area by hitting control+c, if you lost your selection do not worry you can regain it by going to Select -> Reselect.
Step 6 - Paste the Invert
Go to the "Channels" Tab next to your layers tab and select the "Alpha 1" channel, if it does not exist, simply hit the "Create new channel" button on the bottom of that tab.
Paste the inverted selection into the "Alpha 1" channel.
Step 7 - Remove non-team color areas
To do this we will now invert our selection. You can do this by going to Select -> Inverse or by hitting Shift+Control+i
Select the Brush (hotkey B), make sure your brush mode is set to "Normal".
With the alpha channel selected your colors should now by in %'s. Set it to 0%, this will make it white.
Color in the inverted selection with a 0% brush.
Step 8 - Invert your selection back
Shift+Control+i, then select the RGB channel.
Step 9 - Duplicate your background layer, again
Step 10 - Desaturate
With your new duplicated layer go to Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate
This will make your selected area range from white to black.
Step 11 - Copy Selection to new layer
Copy your selected area and paste it into a new layer. On some systems you made need to use "Paste in Place" instead of paste to keep it correctly aligned.
Step 12 - Set new layer mode
Set the new layer you just pasted to "Multiply", there is a drop down window right above the layers where you can do this.
Depending on the shade of the selection you can alter the opacity to increase the brightness. I like a dark grey. So I set the opacity of mine to 80%
Step 13 - Reselect
We will need to reselect our team color area after pasting. Select -> Reselect, or Shift + Control + D
Step 14 - Back to the alpha channel
Go back to the channels tab and select the alpha channel.
Step 15 - Adjusting the brightness of the team color
The way team colors works is based on the % of alpha. The closer to 0 it is the darker it will become, with 0 being no alpha. The closer to 100, the brighter it will be.
I adjust this by selecting the brush tool with the mode set to "overlay". I adjust the opacity based on what I want.
For this one I will use an opacity of 100% and and alpha value of 100%. I then color in the selected area. This will increase the brightness of the team color.
After this, I like to check the value of the alpha by holding down alt and selecting different areas to see what % the alpha is at. I like a value around 66-75% for the main area and a lower percentage for the areas that should be darker.
Step 16 - Blur the edges
Deselect everything by hitting Shift + D (don't worry we can still reselect if you want)
To make the edges less noticeable we are going to blur the alpha channel a bit.
Go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur
In this window set the radius to reduce the amount of sharpness on the edges. I used 1.5 pixels for mine.
Step 17 - Save
Save as a .dds
I save as a DXT5, ARGB 8 bpp | interpolated alpha.
Step 18 - Test in 3DS Max and Startools, adjust alpha % if you don't like the color.
Just a heads up on your MakeNormal2 action set you have the save set to the wrong type of .DDS texture. So it will save the normals as a grey color. I'm not sure if this has any affect on things but I made a new action set to save it as the one I've always used.
Blizzard guys told us awhile back that when they did it they used the rescale world units utility.
Go to utilities, hit the "more" button, and find rescale world units. Click the "rescale..." button, and type in the factor you want to rescale it by. If I remember correctly that would keep those giant boxes from showing up.
I'm going to be doing the different stages of the Blacksmith, Jewelcrafter, and Enchanter. Most are missing some sides so I add them back on and re map them.
Here's the first 2 stages of the Blacksmith so far.
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Don't worry about being nervous, we're artists, not public speakers. I hate listening to my own voice even -_-. Looking forward to your tutorial. Hope you still go through with it!
0
I'm really interested in seeing this tutorial. Your work looks great and I'm hoping that I will be able to replicate it :D
0
@TaylorMouse: Go
It was really fun to play T.
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@BlightedOne2000: Go
Alright, here's the Max 2011 file which would probably be best viewed in Max 2011 with Startools installed. I've also included a text document that tells you the frame range for each individual animation (those that I would use in Starcraft with a Starcraft appropriate name). I did all the textures using Starcraft Materials though...so I'm not sure how well this will translate into a newer version of Max though or if they'll even show without Startools installed. I have included them though and they aren't that difficult to figure out which one goes where.
Also, it's not a problem. I've been meaning to start working on transferring some undead models to Starcraft anyway. That and I had a fellow student in my class who would try to pass off other peoples work as his own and it pissed me off too. Same kid used our group project from a previous class in a later class even though he only did about 5% of the work to my 95%. I took it as a compliment though.
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@BlightedOne2000: Go
I think someone has it available in an m3 format. If not I could do one in a few minutes.
Edit: Also was it already animated and skinned? Or is it just in the base pose?
Edit 2: Oh, and would you want to view it in Maya or 3DS max?
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@imogen_t: Go
Blizzard repackaged a lot of their files with the release of Reaper of Souls so the older ones don't work anymore. Try using Taylor Mouses. It worked the last time I used it. Plus it is better than an OBJ convertor.
0
@Kabelkorven: Go
Very likely part of its animation. Probably no way to get around that aside from redoing the animations.
0
The ghosts stick is shown and hidden through the animation itself. It appears on a certain key frame and hides on another.
I assume this is a problem with one of the WoW models you were making based off my post a few months ago?
How are you hiding/showing your meshes? Are you triggering meshes as "on/off" by giving the unit a behavior and then doing a texture swap?
I haven't had enough time to work on the models in a long time because of school. But if I get time I'll remember this and check it out. It seems like your cloak behavior might be triggering the others ones to turn on/off.
0
So you want to add team colors to a model? Well, you're in a luck because I've updated my old method to a newer and better one.
The first step to any of this is finding the diffuse texture for the model you want to add team colors to. I'm going to be doing the sail from a world of warcraft battle ship. Once you find this texture go ahead and open it up in Photoshop.
Step 1 - Set to Diffuse
Go to the drop down window for "Filter" browse down until you find "Stylize", hover over "Stylize and select "Diffuse".
This will bring up a new window. We will set the mode to Anisotropic. You can view the change in your main window by turning preview to On/Off.
Hit OK.
Step 2 - Duplicate your Layer
We do this by right clicking on our current laying and selecting "Duplicate Layer" from the window.
Step 3 - Select team color Areas
Select our new layer, and use whatever method you prefer to create a selection of the area you want to add team colors to. I prefer a mixture of the magic wand tool with varying tolerances and the lasso tool.
I have selected virtually all of the Blue on my texture.
Step 4 - Invert Selection
We can do this by going to the "Image" drop down window, browse to "Adjustments", and then selecting "Invert". We can also use the hotkey Control+i.
Step 5 - Copy the Invert
Copy the inverted area by hitting control+c, if you lost your selection do not worry you can regain it by going to Select -> Reselect.
Step 6 - Paste the Invert
Go to the "Channels" Tab next to your layers tab and select the "Alpha 1" channel, if it does not exist, simply hit the "Create new channel" button on the bottom of that tab.
Paste the inverted selection into the "Alpha 1" channel.
Step 7 - Remove non-team color areas
To do this we will now invert our selection. You can do this by going to Select -> Inverse or by hitting Shift+Control+i
Select the Brush (hotkey B), make sure your brush mode is set to "Normal".
With the alpha channel selected your colors should now by in %'s. Set it to 0%, this will make it white.
Color in the inverted selection with a 0% brush.
Step 8 - Invert your selection back
Shift+Control+i, then select the RGB channel.
Step 9 - Duplicate your background layer, again
Step 10 - Desaturate
With your new duplicated layer go to Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate
This will make your selected area range from white to black.
Step 11 - Copy Selection to new layer
Copy your selected area and paste it into a new layer. On some systems you made need to use "Paste in Place" instead of paste to keep it correctly aligned.
Step 12 - Set new layer mode
Set the new layer you just pasted to "Multiply", there is a drop down window right above the layers where you can do this.
Depending on the shade of the selection you can alter the opacity to increase the brightness. I like a dark grey. So I set the opacity of mine to 80%
Step 13 - Reselect
We will need to reselect our team color area after pasting. Select -> Reselect, or Shift + Control + D
Step 14 - Back to the alpha channel
Go back to the channels tab and select the alpha channel.
Step 15 - Adjusting the brightness of the team color
The way team colors works is based on the % of alpha. The closer to 0 it is the darker it will become, with 0 being no alpha. The closer to 100, the brighter it will be.
I adjust this by selecting the brush tool with the mode set to "overlay". I adjust the opacity based on what I want.
For this one I will use an opacity of 100% and and alpha value of 100%. I then color in the selected area. This will increase the brightness of the team color.
After this, I like to check the value of the alpha by holding down alt and selecting different areas to see what % the alpha is at. I like a value around 66-75% for the main area and a lower percentage for the areas that should be darker.
Step 16 - Blur the edges
Deselect everything by hitting Shift + D (don't worry we can still reselect if you want)
To make the edges less noticeable we are going to blur the alpha channel a bit.
Go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur
In this window set the radius to reduce the amount of sharpness on the edges. I used 1.5 pixels for mine.
Step 17 - Save
Save as a .dds
I save as a DXT5, ARGB 8 bpp | interpolated alpha.
Step 18 - Test in 3DS Max and Startools, adjust alpha % if you don't like the color.
0
Just a heads up on your MakeNormal2 action set you have the save set to the wrong type of .DDS texture. So it will save the normals as a grey color. I'm not sure if this has any affect on things but I made a new action set to save it as the one I've always used.
0
Are you following my tutorial for Team Colors by chance?
If so I need to update it to show a better method.
0
@ZeShmoutt: Go
Blizzard guys told us awhile back that when they did it they used the rescale world units utility.
Go to utilities, hit the "more" button, and find rescale world units. Click the "rescale..." button, and type in the factor you want to rescale it by. If I remember correctly that would keep those giant boxes from showing up.
0
@IskatuMesk: Go
Don't export the "NoSheathe" animations. I believe they are the ones that cause this. I think there are 6 of them for character models.
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@TaylorMouse: Go
Er, I didn't mean that they were "missing" but rather that Blizzard removed them lol.
0
I'm going to be doing the different stages of the Blacksmith, Jewelcrafter, and Enchanter. Most are missing some sides so I add them back on and re map them.
Here's the first 2 stages of the Blacksmith so far.