Assignment Frenzy #3: Models

[Ravidge]

It's time for the first assignment(s) that take place outside of hammer! Nowadays, as a level designer it's more important than ever to have modeling skills, even if just for creating placeholder meshes or simple details. Learning the ability to make a model and putting it in your map is very worthwhile, if you already know how to make models, use this opportunity to practice working against a deadline!

To participate in this assignment, all you need to do is create a prop for TF2 (or more, up to a maximum of 5 meshes). I hope a lot of people who have previously put off the idea of modeling to take a stab at this assignment, submitting only 1 working model is completely acceptable and it will be a great time to learn together with everyone else.
All your submitted models should all be compiled, textured and fully functional.
At the end of this assignment, all the submitted props will be available for public download.

Ask questions, both in our steamchat and on the forums if you need help! I'm sure people have tips and tricks to share too.

Rules:

• A week to complete the task. 168 hours to be exact[Link to countdown clock] [List of local times that correspond to 21:00pm UTC]
  
  UTC: 21:00 pm (Saturday 6th)
  BST/UK: 22:00 pm (Saturday 6th)
  CEST: 23:00 pm (Saturday 6th)
  EST: 17:00 pm (Saturday 6th)
  Central: 16:00 pm (Saturday 6th)
  PST: 14:00 pm (Saturday 6th)​
• No collaborations
• Maximum of 5 props.
• Polycount is unlimited.
• Mesh size is limited:
  
  Maximum of 2048x2048x2048 hammer units.​
  There is no minimum, but I will destroy submissions that are purposefully shrunk down or otherwise just created to annoy me. However, small props are allowed and a example that would be accepted is the "models/props_2fort/nail001.mdl" prop. A tiny 4 polygon pebble would not be.​
• Texture size is limited to a maximum of 2048x2048 pixels. (Keep your texture size reasonable, these props will be up for public download, don't go for the highest resolution just because).
• Each prop in your pack may have it's own individual theme. Likewise you can have all the props in your pack be of the same theme if you so please.
• Compile your props to any folder beginning it's name with "props_"
  
  Use the already existing folders provided by VALVe where possible (ex. props_farm, props_trainyard). If you have very unique props, place them in custom folder with a descriptive name (ex. props_space, props_aztec).​
  If you are still at a loss for what to do, compile your props to a folder named props_custom​
  Your material files need to be placed in a folder with the same name as the one you compiled the model files to.​
  This may be confusing, but here is an example:
  

  If you compiled with the following in your qc:
  $modelname "[COLOR="Orange"]props_farm[/COLOR]/example001.mdl"
  
  You must have your materials in
  $cdmaterials "\models\[COLOR="Orange"]props_farm[/COLOR]\"

• Don't forget Collision meshes and LoD models where they are needed.
• You may create props that re-use stock/VALVe materials. All meshes must be made by yourself though (you may not import meshes).

How to submit your work:

1. Compile your models according to the rules. Package up both models and materials in a archive (zip, rar, 7z).
2. No screenshot is required, I will handle this myself.
3. Send me (Ravidge) a forum PM with a link to your archive. If you feel like it, put "AF #3 submission" in the PM title, would make it much easier for me.

A voting thread will be opened once I've gone through the entries.

 

[Tyker]

Cool, time to find loopholes and make you sweat to make new rules!

Nah, just kidding (or am I?)

[EDIT]
Are there any texture rules to this?

 

[Ravidge]

Added a line about textures. Limited to 2048x2048.
I want to stress that that kind of size is generally not needed unless your prop is massive with extreme amount details.

Look at the stock props and what sizes their textures are for reference. In most cases you'll find that VALVe made the decision to have low res textures to save on disk space.
512x512 is the most commonly used I believe.

 

[HellJumper]

Perhaps a list that links to some resources would be nice for this one since this does take place outside of hammer...

 

[Gerbil]

Thank GOD something I can finally do.

 

[Harribo]

could be pretty useful for this assignment

 

[grazr]

Oh man, i was really looking forward to these assignments, unfortunately i can't realisticly enter either of them. I would enter AF4 but the VTF plugin for PS doesn't work on 64bit OS (which i have) and VTFEdit isn't actually used for texture creation; so i physically can't enter AF4. Then what's my alternative? Even if i did spend 4-5 days reading about Blender and getting used to the interface; fat chance i'll actually enter something i worked on for a day in software i can't use when competing against people who are probably already working on quality products before i even read this thread.

See you guys in a week

i know it's pretty shitty to say i wont bother with something so challenging, but i have no issue competing with people better in hammer as i can still use it from the start as well, i just don't like the idea of competing with 0, zilch, nudda experience against others with years of it.

God damn Windows 64bit and it's lack of third party image editing software support.

 

[DaBeatzProject]

grazr i don't know 100% certain but I think you can turn .tga's (which you create in PS) into .vtf's in VTFEdit?

 

[Freyja]

Photoshop installs a 32bit version of itself when you install it on a 64bit OS. It works on your OS, and you install the plugin into that one. At least, that's what I do.

 

[tyler]

grazr i don't know 100% certain but I think you can turn .tga's (which you create in PS) into .vtf's in VTFEdit?

you can import tga and png files from photoshop

i've never used the vtf plugin for photoshop

 

[grazr]

Photoshop installs a 32bit version of itself when you install it on a 64bit OS. It works on your OS, and you install the plugin into that one. At least, that's what I do.

That only works on Mac. The adobe site has copy pasta from the Mac process about running 32-bit mode on Windows which doesn't convert properly between the OS's. I've tried it multiple times and emailed several people about it who either didn't respond or said they had the same problem.

I'll look into converting png's to VTF but so far my success with format conversions in VTFEdit has been terrible. Base colour alterations that create RGB colour tinges, bit-rate reductions, transparency failures...

 

[tyler]

I've never had such issues except when I forgot to create an alpha channel. You can do it.

 

[Freyja]

Grazr. I have a 32 bit version of photoshop installed on my windows with the VTF plugin running in it. Right now, on this very computer. it's a seperate executable.

Located in this folder. The 64 bit version is directly below it.

 

[Ravidge]

I can totally understand why some people would think it's daunting to learn a whole new program/editor.
But for people who can see themselves having some use for a skill such as modeling in the future, it's a HUGE step to get your first model (a box or a sphere, something simple) from the modeling software into the mapping editor (hammer in this case).

If you've done it once, and kept things organized, you can easily do it again. And as long as you continue to produce, you get better. Both assignment #3 and #4 are for developing or refining a skill that ties in with level design, entirely for personal benefit.

I really do want to encourage new people to try their best. No one becomes a modeler instantly, but all the people you see making tf2 weapons or props today have all gone through their "first week of learning" without giving up and stuck with it, grinding through that first week is definitely the hardest part of 3d modeling, and I'm providing a platform where you can try it out alongside other members.

 

[Ritz]

I save textures as .TIFF and import & save them with VTFEdit. It's the only way I've been able to get the alpha channel to save correctly.

Also, you can learn the basics of 3d modelling pretty quickly and it's well worth doing.

 

[grazr]

Oh i'm quite sure i'll stick through a week of learning through a modelling program at some point. I just wouldn't enter any result into a competition after my first week. Most people around here realise/understand they wouldn't release their first TF2 map because it would be of such low quality; let alone arragantly enter it into a contest. I understand the same to be true for modelling. I'll probably create a model at some point in the near future but not here and now. When i have more time and experience perhaps.

As for this fabled 32-bit install, i have no idea what you're talking about:

This directory is my 64-bit install.

This is the problem... a lot of the time directories simply don't match up.

 

[The_Ulf]

Ooh! This should be interesting.

 

[A Boojum Snark]

This directory is my 64-bit install.

This is the problem... a lot of the time directories simply don't match up.

Unless you manually changed the default install location, that is actually the 32 bit one. 64 bit applications are installed to the "plain" program files directory. 32 bit ones go to the one marked as x86.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/98931/pics/psbits.JPG

edit: I see Aly's is different too though. Maybe Adobe has been messing with the installer.

 

[Tom Hoen]

Does anyone know if I can model with Rhinoceros 4.0 or SolidWorks and then export to 3D StudioMax? I can export from 3DMax to rhinoceros but if I do it other way around does it screw my work. Should I simply try and start with 3DMax only? There might be problems as these two programs work with nurbs and rhinoceros makes models hollow and solidworks make them solid. Although in rhinoceros I can choose to work with polygons. Does it matter if the model is solid or hollow? And by hollow I mean it might have leaks similar to hammer maps.

I simply ask this becouse these are the programs I use in school and I have familiar with these.

 

[Freyja]

I believe I changed mine from the default onto my second hard drive, but my point still stands. it installs both.