Hello everyone! I just noticed i have not put together a thread for the Hlaalu interiors! I will try update this regularly :)
First off, the textures are made by Robbinsmoth, Tedesignz and Ravanna, so thanks guys for the awesome stuff!
I'm going to try make these posts informative and detailed so that people may learn some of my workflow for modeling and texturing the large amount of assets that i have to make. So this First post will be on referencing and how i am going about speeding up the texturing process.
Referencing is a term used in maya for having a mesh 'Linked' to an external scene, This is normally used by animators to keep rigs out of scene files so they do no accidentally break things, And also so that the artists working on the rigs can easily update it without making the animators wait for a long time to start animating.
Im not using it this way, I will be using it to speed up the texturing process, Since textures and UVs are things that are bound to change over time, going through an entire scene of 48 seperate meshes that are largely the same just to change one thing would be a huge hassle. So to make this go faster I am modeling each piece individually, Then using a process called 'Kitbashing' to put together the halls of Hlaalu.
The Kit so far
My folder of assets
Once i create the piece i need, i will export it, then re-import it into my master scene using Mayas 'Refrence editor' This allows me to reload the asset from the file it originated from, So one handy thing i can do is have multiple instances of Maya open, Allowing me to easily spot problems and update them on the fly.
Reference Editor
Crazy mess of screens
Once i have the reference in the maya scene, i like to use a handy function called 'Duplicate special' This creates an instance of that particular mesh, This means that whenever i reload a reference, the instanced mesh also updates. Thus updating my entire scene!
There is a lot to Hlaalu
All of my pieces have the transform points (The origin of movement) in the bottom left corner, This allows me to snap everything to one point on the mesh, making the process a reliable way of keeping everything matching so that it will tile correctly.
Another challange that this has is to keep it looking 'Hlaalu' without messing with it too much, There are still heaps of small details to add, but Most of the base work is done.
Transform Point
That's about it for this post, If anyone has any questions then please ask away! Workflows are one of my favorite things to learn about.
[edit] I just realized that this would make an excellent blog post.
As a side note to all 3ds users.
From what i have found, you can use a method called 'FBX Linking' and then use one of these methods to instance the mesh. http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/...
A Few progress shots
Also when i drag stuff into 3ds Max it tends to not like my vertex color data. and it deals to it by inverting the colors.. Anyone got suggestions as to why this is?
Apart from the vertex colours acting up its looks good though
Why not just do your vertex painting after you've imported it into max?
Those stairs looking really appealing for some reason, though you might want to move the UV map around on one or two of the top four so the red tile isn't in the same place every time.
Have you tried running your files though the Autodesk's FBX Converter? Old versions of the format (2006 I think) are apparently better for transferring the vertex colors.
Thats because those stairs have way too many extra polys to give the tiles depth and the wood a bit of rounding, which also allows more attention to the vertex colors
Also I have reached this point, but i cannot figure out how to import textures. What am I doing wrong?
In order for the textures to work, you need to make sure that they are in the same location as the NIF when you saved it from NifSkope. For example, if your textures are shown as being in Skyrim\Data\Textures\Hlaalu in NifSkope, and they are in the same directory when you import the model into the Creation Kit, they should appear. However, if the path is not the same, they will not show up. I'm also pretty sure that the textures have to be somewhere in the Data\Textures folder regardless.
Aaaah, ok that makes sense. and .dds as the format right?
Yeah, nothing else works. Also, make sure the normal map is saved with a dds compression variant that supports alpha channels, or it'll mess up your specular map.
Update for the Hlaalu interiors
1x1 pieces done, Need to make the doorways and other small props
All 1x1 hlaalu tiles complete, Moving onto 2x2 tomorrow morning, hoping to spend the weekend getting this all together and nice
You're a machine Erik! Keep up the great work.
Ashking Wulfharth wrote:
Thanks!
Just remade the staircases, the steps were too large for our poor man to climb up
And what do you know, the 2x2 pieces are coming together!
Ignore the seams, oddly long hallway and strange lighting. What I want is critique on the top posts and how I have made a wooden truss, that wooden truss is the kind of part that would only be seen in the more upperclass buildings. same with the patterned clay on the upper walls.
Well this crap is complicated, however i have it nailed down now.
good to finally get started on these larger parts.
new screenshot, this time of a doorway piece and wireframe so you get an idea of how crazy complex this crap is
it looks like there are a bunch of seams in the textures, but that is just vertex colors being annoying, a lot of UV stuff needs to be shifted around too.
Those models look very impressive, especially those in the last shots.
Lost my jaw under the table. Impressive!
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1244197/HlaaluBuild/Hlaa...
its missing butt loads of collisions, and will be updated later tonight, and unity messed up the snapping so thats annoying :/
ErikChristensen wrote:
Looks really good Erik! Atleast it was until I feel through the stairs.
Bumpity Bump, Updated the main post with a link to a new Unity3d walk around with a creepy AI for y'all to have fun chasing
Hmm, I spotted two missing details. One, the low-ceiling T-intersection piece (bottom of the ramp on the bottom floor) has a transparent wood beam on one side. If your back is to the wall, it's the one on the left. Two: the low ceiling, no walls piece (mostly found on the bottom floor) is supposed to have a cross-thatch support beam pattern on the ceiling that looks sort of like :||: (except with 3 beams), but instead it's missing the short ends on one side, looking more like :|| That results in beams that end abruptly where the tiles meet, and from the right angle it's possible to look into their hollow interiors.
Great asset. Btw, that s possible to make jump to neverland thru ceiling.