It's about time this site started to accept 3-D models!

[E-Man]

While 2-D sprites are always fun to play with and stick in mediocre comics, I've always wonder when this place would start accepting 3-D models for the types who have fancy 3-D software!

Although I currently have trouble downloading the models as of now (stupid rar format), at least I can get started submitting some files of my own! I might not be much of a ripper or a spriter (unlike a certain Koopa), at least I can create excellent 3-D models without pulling my hair out in frustration!

For starters, I'm currently working on custom models for Sora's Gummi Ship from Kingdom Hearts and Gruntilda's Lair. They're not ready yet, but I'll see if I can get them done! Here's some scene-shots to show I'm not lying.









All they need now is just a barrel of elbow grease to be fit for this site! By the way, the program I'm using is Maya, so I'm not really sure how I'm going to export those files in OBJ.

[Shadowth117]

Nice work you've got there for a start. It obviously needs refinement still, but pretty good nonetheless.

If you want to be able to open .Rar's you may want to use this program: http://www.7-zip.org/ I assure, many sites aside from Models Resource use .Rar archives so you'll want a way to open them at some point anyway.

As for exporting from Maya, this should help you out: http://www.octopz.net/octopz_help_v3/ind...m_maya.htm

Google searches work wonders. Honestly though, you may want to try finding out some of some stuff yourself before asking someone else to explain how next time.

[E-Man]

Alright! Thank you for the advice! Anyway, I finally got a program to read RAR files. However, I do have a few gripes about some of the models.

First of all, are all the models supposed to be untextured and forced to use the blinn material after you import them into Maya from OBJ files? Is there a better way to do that, or am I stuck having to retexture the whole thing?

Second of all, must the Banjo-Kazooie models really be that big? Grunty was large enough, but when I tried to work with Clanker's Cavern, I could barely see the floor and part of the walls. I'm guessing that rescaling could work, but I can't seem to find the pivot without getting lost. By any chance can you create versions of the models that are scaled down to a more manageable size, or must I really do that by myself?

By the way, before I forget, I finally put the finishing touches on the Gummy Ship I was working on! Once I use your advice to convert it into an OBJ, I'll submit it to the site! Check out all the renders (I hope you don't mind a bunch of images on the same post)!
















Before I handle the rest, I have to point out that the "black" squares on the sides of the ship are supposed to be orange. However, the default lighting shows them as black, so you have to use different lighting to show them in their original color.

[Shadowth117]

First of all, are all the models supposed to be untextured and forced to use the blinn material after you import them into Maya from OBJ files? Is there a better way to do that, or am I stuck having to retexture the whole thing?

Second of all, must the Banjo-Kazooie models really be that big? Grunty was large enough, but when I tried to work with Clanker's Cavern, I could barely see the floor and part of the walls. I'm guessing that rescaling could work, but I can't seem to find the pivot without getting lost. By any chance can you create versions of the models that are scaled down to a more manageable size, or must I really do that by myself?

By the way, before I forget, I finally put the finishing touches on the Gummy Ship I was working on! Once I use your advice to convert it into an OBJ, I'll submit it to the site! Check out all the renders (I hope you don't mind a bunch of images on the same post)!
*Lotsa Big Images*
Before I handle the rest, I have to point out that the "black" squares on the sides of the ship are supposed to be orange. However, the default lighting shows them as black, so you have to use different lighting to show them in their original color.

More than likely you'll have to reapply the textures. The materials will probably still be in the scene but you'll have to get them into your material editor to use them. I haven't actually used Maya so I don't know how to do this in it.

For your second question, often when you rip things the scale can come out rather odd due to the different types of scales different games use for things. Just scale them down to a more usable size yourself and they should be fine. Just select all the objects in the scene and scale them all down at once.

Your Gummy Ship looks real good as well. The only thing is like you said the orange cubes. You may want to check the normals on those to make sure they're facing the right way.

[E-Man]

Hmmm... You're really smart when it comes to these sort of things! However, since I have no idea how textures work and how I can actually use these models, I'm better off just studying them and creating replicas of those models.

Say, do you happen to know why most video game models are usually not in one piece and why they tend to use triangle meshes instead of square meshes since those are two of the factors to why I'm having trouble using them?

As for my Gummi Ship, I tried to see if I can correct its normals, but I didn't really knew how to do it. I tried to do a Google search, but I couldn't actually find the answer. I was going to ask you for help, but you probable wouldn't help since you never actually use Maya and you'll probably say that I should Google search it or something. Instead of wasting time on that, I decided to just create new cubes altogether with more favorable results.









I may not be truly good at this normal business and not very good at texturing, but it's safe to say that my modeling skills are pretty neat!

[Shadowth117]

Hmmm... You're really smart when it comes to these sort of things! However, since I have no idea how textures work and how I can actually use these models, I'm better off just studying them and creating replicas of those models.

Say, do you happen to know why most video game models are usually not in one piece and why they tend to use triangle meshes instead of square meshes since those are two of the factors to why I'm having trouble using them?

As for my Gummi Ship, I tried to see if I can correct its normals, but I didn't really knew how to do it. I tried to do a Google search, but I couldn't actually find the answer. I was going to ask you for help, but you probable wouldn't help since you never actually use Maya and you'll probably say that I should Google search it or something. Instead of wasting time on that, I decided to just create new cubes altogether with more favorable results.
*Images*
I may not be truly good at this normal business and not very good at texturing, but it's safe to say that my modeling skills are pretty neat!

Actually some consoles DO use quads like Sega's Model2B arcade system as you can see from this game

which is rendered in such a way that you can actually see it. It just depends on different factors as to why you would use either tris or quads for your polygons with the main one being performance related things for real time rendering like in video games.

To answer your second question, N64 models were made like that probably (and I'm assuming here) because the system rendered many smaller parts faster than few big parts. For modern models though, they are often in pieces because only material could be assigned to a particular object. This can also occur with large models such as level models so the game doesn't have to constantly render a bunch of polygons that aren't even in view.

As for your Gummy ship I can see that you've fixed the problem, but you may want to try looking into taking some classes if you'd like to learn more about this stuff. Making a character model for example is far more complicated then what you have there and you'll have to deal with things much harder to understand then normals to do it. Speaking of which normals, are basically the direction a surface is facing in 3d.

It seems that you've still got a lot to learn, but everyone starts somewhere. I myself am currently trying to take classes in school for this type of stuff and I'll tell you right now that if I tried to make anything terribly organic looking in 3d it would probably look like crap.

[E-Man]

Well! That certainly clears a lot of things up! It's good to see that SEGA bothers to use quads!

Anyway, while my Gummi Ship is as good as complete, I seem to run into trouble exporting it. I could use a DAE format, but that messes up my model by turning it into tris and messing up the end of the cannon! I took a look that that one link you showed me on how export OBJs, but I was unable to download the necessary files (I own a Mac and EXE files don't work)!

Luckily, I decided to find the answer on Google, and it was just as simple as checking the right boxes! I'll give you an OBJ file shortly!