New armor mod in the making

[Egypt9]

Hey! Someone suggested that I start dinking around with Blender and some other level editing programs, so I did! I'm annoyed that my asassins shield is so big and bulky so I'm attempting to do one up thats slightly smaller and a bit more form fitting. The sheild has lenght where it counts, though. Anyhow, I'm not sure if i'm modling the mesh correctly, i started with cubes and then worked from there. I would also really like to make back of the shield slightly indented so that is less of a flat board. maybe curve the mesh slightly? I kind of read the tutorials and since i've had some expereince with level editing software, decided to hack away at it, thats how I learn. Anyway, here is the file...please tell me if i'm on the right track

 

http://www.mediamax.com/prince_egypt9/Hosted/test3.blend

[Egypt9]

The new version of my testing is: http://www.mediamax.com/prince_egypt9/Hosted/test6.blend

 

 

 

I did some vertex duplication reduction, a vertext smooth, I have thinned the shield slightly and made an

indentation for the handle. I have made a duplication of the handle so i can test it out, i haven't moved the original one. Does anyone know if i can atleast move the vertecies to streach out and meet my sheild? its about 1/2 an inch too sort on the one side.

[SickleYield]

No, that should work fine. It's changing its position in space that you want to avoid, since it might affect how it fits into the player's hand. Shields are a good starter item, since you can learn the basics of meshing, import and export without worrying about weight painting.

 

I can't see the picture or whatever that is. I'm not sure if it's my machine or a host problem.

[Egypt9]

No, that should work fine. It's changing its position in space that you want to avoid, since it might affect how it fits into the player's hand. Shields are a good starter item, since you can learn the basics of meshing, import and export without worrying about weight painting.

 

I can't see the picture or whatever that is. I'm not sure if it's my machine or a host problem.

 

 

First of all, I want to say THANK YOU for replying to my post!! I have been so excited about working with Blender. I've been just about bursting with wanting to talk to someone about editing. So I have a couple of questions if you dont mind my asking! ^_^

 

 

I've been reading a lot about Vertext Merging. Now, from previous experience, I've heard people say that it is better to break serfaces into triangles because the computer can load them faster. I told Blender to break all quadralaterals in to triangles, is this helpful? and If i do Merge some of my verticies, what pattern should I be going for? I tried to go for the whole serface looking like diamonds, but at some point, merging just seems to bring too many triangles together.

 

 

Second, I have been messing with subdivide and vertex smooth in order to lessen the rigidness of certain areas of my shield. If a mesh is too rigid in an area, how would you suggest dealing with it?

 

 

I applied a texture, but it appears as though the texture is applied to the Seam line in Blender, its like i can see the texture applied on a 2d plane inside my mesh...im really confused!

 

Last, On my shield, i made some sharp curves, i did it by hand and it was really difficult, is there a way to easily make curves? I'm afraid I may have neglected to find a tutorial on this, i got a little excited and just went at it.

 

 

Oh and btw, the link I posted is actually a blender file, so you can download my work and look at it first hand. If you could take time to evaluate my work, maybe post some tips on what I could do to improve or point out any difficulties, that'd be great. Basicly, once i learned the commands, I found modeling a time-consuming, but ultimately easy process. It's becoming more second nature the more i work with it.

 

 

 

 

Thanks again!!

[SickleYield]

I'd be happy to evaluate and help you however I can, but I still get a Page Not Found error for that link. If you like you can email me the .blend at sickle_yield AT hotmail DOT com.

 

The other things:

 

My experience has been that poly count matters more than triangles vs. quads when it comes to Oblivion. Most of Oblivion's non-clothing items are in quads (nitristrips in NifSkope) and the clothes/armor in triangles (nitrishape).

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "too rigid." Is it too angular or boxlike? Too flat? Making an area smoother can be accomplished using Smooth in Blender's sculpt mode, although you might have to increase the poly count more with subdivision to get just the right effect. Make SURE you have "Set smooth" turned on in Object mode so you get the smoothest look to the mesh.

 

As for the texture: Did you UV map the mesh? This is one of the harder parts of modeling, but you can't do any texturing without it. If you google the CS Wiki, I have a "make a new shield in Blender" tutorial there that will link you to a way to do that, or you can look up the various UV mapping resources for Blender that have more tips and tricks (the tuturial is bare bones and people still complain it's too complicated).

 

There are different ways of making a curvier mesh, but none of them are very easy. That just comes with the territory. You can add more polys (subdivide) and sculpt up to a point, but very high poly count is bad ingame. You can use Blender's bezier/Nurbs curves and make them into a mesh, but I never really mastered that method so you'd have to look it up yourself to learn more.

 

Hope that helps.