First of all Download Maya 2008
this guide assumes your skilled enough to find it and crack it yourself.
also download the guideprojects i packed here
ok to start with some comments :
this guide is based on the animationframes i created
so i will not explain how to create the animation nor will i explain how to create a weapon from scratch
(for help on how to create a weapon from scratch goto this guide written by Thanatos)
if you wish to know how to create your own models from scratch you will be better of searching for tutorials on that part
all this guide shows is how to attach a fresh model to the current animation
and render all the needed images and ready the images for import
so this will be usefull also when you create something from scratch
*i recommend watching all the learning movies that come with maya itself it just take a few min*
*if you have created a custom model then make sure you select and export the model before you continue!!!
ok to start the guide :
in the ExampleScene you will see the owsword i released earlyer with animation keys , customcamera and a controlcurve
from now on there will not be much explained , we wil just start with the work
its important you dont change anything in the scene only when i say so or when you know what your doing.
enough talk lets work
start with opening the ExampleScene located in the Examples folder.
goto File and select Import... then import the CavernsOBJ file located in the Examples folder
the sword is now imported in the scene.
it should be at the center of the grid
when you select it you will see that it exists of 2 parts
make sure both parts are selected
(you can Shift-click to add to selection and ctrl-click to withdraw from selected)
when you selected both parts press "e" on the keyboard
(all shortcuts are case sensitive!!)
now make sure the channelbox is open and set RotateY to 90
now with both parts still selected press "w" on the keyboard
now hold spacebar and without moving your mouse hold the rmousebutton now drag and select Top View then release.
now press "4" on the keyboard to get wireframe now hold and drag the red manipulatorarrow it will colour yellow
now drag and move the both selected parts and try to match the center of the example weapon.
if you look at the image you can see what my TranslateX values are
now hold spacebar and rmouse then go to sideview just like we did with topview
now with the 2 parts still selected and the translationtool still selected , hold the green manipulatorarrow
and try to match up the center of the exampleweapon again
now hold spacebar and rmouse to go to perspectiveview
now with the 2 parts still selected press "r" on the keyboard
you will see 4 colored boxes as manipulators hold the yellow one and drag to the right to enlarge the sword
and match it up with the example weapon roughly
now press "w" on the keyboard and hold and drag the blue manipulator to match up the sword better
you can always resize abit more to get the result you like personaly
now press "6" on the keyboard to see the textures
goto window/Outliner select both caverns parts in the outliner
now in the dropdownbox at the topleft set it to Polygons you will see you have differant options now
now with the 2 parts selected goto Mesh/Combine now hold Alt-shift and press "D" this will delete the history
in the outliner dblclick the polySurface1 now created and rename it to CavernSword and press enter
now goto Modif/Center Pivot
ok now to give it some texture with the cavernsword selected hold rmousebtn and goto MaterialAttributes...
you see a box open at the left side put the Transparency slider at the way left now click the checker button
at the right side of the Color Slider a box will popup in there select File then click the folder button at ImageName
navigate to the Textures folder located in the Examples folder and open the CavernsTexture image
now we most likely need to fix the texture placement, select the example weapon and open your channelbox
now set the Visibility Attribute to 0 this will hide it so we can work on our sword
now we can easily see that our texture is not correct to fix this goto Window/UV Texture Editor
*if you dont see the textureimage in the editor goto Image/Displayimage*
if you look at the lines in that window you should notice it represents the swords curves
if you compare those lines with the textureimage you should notice that its upsidedown
hold rmouse button on these lines and select UV now select all those lines by draggin a box around them
now press the button like the image below , this should flip the lines and now the texture should be correct
hold rmousebtn on the sword and select objectmode to clear your selection
ok we resized it to the correct size , we gave it a texture now lets attach it to the examplesword and make it move:P
in the outliner collapse the testgrp and select the OWsword, open the channelbox and set Visibility to 1
now make sure the current frame is 1 in the timeline below before we attach the sword
now set the dropdownbox at the topleft to Animation
now select the example sword and then shift-select the cavernsword (its important that our sword is selected last)
now goto Constrain/Parent this will attach our sword to the example sword that means our sword now has the same animation
Congratulations you'v just prepared the sword for imageoutput
uhh not yet realy :P
this guide assumes your skilled enough to find it and crack it yourself.
also download the guideprojects i packed here
ok to start with some comments :
this guide is based on the animationframes i created
so i will not explain how to create the animation nor will i explain how to create a weapon from scratch
(for help on how to create a weapon from scratch goto this guide written by Thanatos)
if you wish to know how to create your own models from scratch you will be better of searching for tutorials on that part
all this guide shows is how to attach a fresh model to the current animation
and render all the needed images and ready the images for import
so this will be usefull also when you create something from scratch
*i recommend watching all the learning movies that come with maya itself it just take a few min*
*if you have created a custom model then make sure you select and export the model before you continue!!!
ok to start the guide :
in the ExampleScene you will see the owsword i released earlyer with animation keys , customcamera and a controlcurve
from now on there will not be much explained , we wil just start with the work
its important you dont change anything in the scene only when i say so or when you know what your doing.
enough talk lets work
start with opening the ExampleScene located in the Examples folder.
goto File and select Import... then import the CavernsOBJ file located in the Examples folder
the sword is now imported in the scene.
it should be at the center of the grid
when you select it you will see that it exists of 2 parts
make sure both parts are selected
(you can Shift-click to add to selection and ctrl-click to withdraw from selected)
when you selected both parts press "e" on the keyboard
(all shortcuts are case sensitive!!)
now make sure the channelbox is open and set RotateY to 90
now with both parts still selected press "w" on the keyboard
now hold spacebar and without moving your mouse hold the rmousebutton now drag and select Top View then release.
now press "4" on the keyboard to get wireframe now hold and drag the red manipulatorarrow it will colour yellow
now drag and move the both selected parts and try to match the center of the example weapon.
if you look at the image you can see what my TranslateX values are
now hold spacebar and rmouse then go to sideview just like we did with topview
now with the 2 parts still selected and the translationtool still selected , hold the green manipulatorarrow
and try to match up the center of the exampleweapon again
now hold spacebar and rmouse to go to perspectiveview
now with the 2 parts still selected press "r" on the keyboard
you will see 4 colored boxes as manipulators hold the yellow one and drag to the right to enlarge the sword
and match it up with the example weapon roughly
now press "w" on the keyboard and hold and drag the blue manipulator to match up the sword better
you can always resize abit more to get the result you like personaly
now press "6" on the keyboard to see the textures
goto window/Outliner select both caverns parts in the outliner
now in the dropdownbox at the topleft set it to Polygons you will see you have differant options now
now with the 2 parts selected goto Mesh/Combine now hold Alt-shift and press "D" this will delete the history
in the outliner dblclick the polySurface1 now created and rename it to CavernSword and press enter
now goto Modif/Center Pivot
ok now to give it some texture with the cavernsword selected hold rmousebtn and goto MaterialAttributes...
you see a box open at the left side put the Transparency slider at the way left now click the checker button
at the right side of the Color Slider a box will popup in there select File then click the folder button at ImageName
navigate to the Textures folder located in the Examples folder and open the CavernsTexture image
now we most likely need to fix the texture placement, select the example weapon and open your channelbox
now set the Visibility Attribute to 0 this will hide it so we can work on our sword
now we can easily see that our texture is not correct to fix this goto Window/UV Texture Editor
*if you dont see the textureimage in the editor goto Image/Displayimage*
if you look at the lines in that window you should notice it represents the swords curves
if you compare those lines with the textureimage you should notice that its upsidedown
hold rmouse button on these lines and select UV now select all those lines by draggin a box around them
now press the button like the image below , this should flip the lines and now the texture should be correct
hold rmousebtn on the sword and select objectmode to clear your selection
ok we resized it to the correct size , we gave it a texture now lets attach it to the examplesword and make it move:P
in the outliner collapse the testgrp and select the OWsword, open the channelbox and set Visibility to 1
now make sure the current frame is 1 in the timeline below before we attach the sword
now set the dropdownbox at the topleft to Animation
now select the example sword and then shift-select the cavernsword (its important that our sword is selected last)
now goto Constrain/Parent this will attach our sword to the example sword that means our sword now has the same animation
Congratulations you'v just prepared the sword for imageoutput
uhh not yet realy :P
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