Blender 3D modelling walktrough

[Brandished]

Just a heads up, I put together a basic guide on the VDC for creating basic models with Blender. It covers a very basic introduction to modeling with Blender and the procidure for getting a Blender model into the Source Engine.

It still needs some touching up, but should be a good starting point for those who don't know the basics.

Link here: Blender Modelling Walkthrough

 

[JoshuaC]

Thanks! I've been meaning to start learning blender but after being burned with XSI I haven't been in the mood to try and learn anything else.

 

[YM]

Excelent.. but who in their right mind starts with an unwrapped texture :/

 

[Brandished]

Excelent.. but who in their right mind starts with an unwrapped texture :/

Um, not quite sure what you're saying is wrong here. Mind going into some more detail? What would you do differently?

 

[Garner]

Thanks for this, after bad times with XSI this looks the way forward

 

[AntonJ3000]

Wohoo, got it working almost.
Can't get material to work though D:

I compiled with the TF2-Settings in the Wiki, and I saved the soda-png as a .vtf through photoshop (DXT1)

I have both BlenderSoda.vtf and BlenderSoda.vmt in \team fortress 2\tf\materials\models
And BlenderSoda.mdl + others in \team fortress 2\tf\models

 

[YM]

Um, not quite sure what you're saying is wrong here. Mind going into some more detail? What would you do differently?

Generally my blender process is:

-Make model's mesh
-Unwrap
-Bake ambient occlusion
-Save image
-Export model and import into source
-Make texture in photoshop
-Save vmf and make vmt and refresh the model viewer to see what it looks like.
-Create LOD models as needed
-Create collision mesh (usually happens last)
-Tweak mesh, texture, qc or whatever itteratively until it's finished


As you can see, I don't start with a texture then unwrap it to match, i texture it to match the UV map.
I know that you're just putting the texture in as a reference for the tutorial but it seems like you're suggesting you make the texture first then UV map the model to fit it. which is a crazy way to do it for anything other than a simple cylinder!

 

[Brandished]

Wohoo, got it working almost.
Can't get material to work though D:

I compiled with the TF2-Settings in the Wiki, and I saved the soda-png as a .vtf through photoshop (DXT1)

I have both BlenderSoda.vtf and BlenderSoda.vmt in \team fortress 2\tf\materials\models
And BlenderSoda.mdl + others in \team fortress 2\tf\models

Do you have the right values assigned in the VMT (VertexLitGeneric, etc)? That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Generally my blender process is:

-Make model's mesh
-Unwrap
-Bake ambient occlusion
-Save image
-Export model and import into source
-Make texture in photoshop
-Save vmf and make vmt and refresh the model viewer to see what it looks like.
-Create LOD models as needed
-Create collision mesh (usually happens last)
-Tweak mesh, texture, qc or whatever itteratively until it's finished


As you can see, I don't start with a texture then unwrap it to match, i texture it to match the UV map.
I know that you're just putting the texture in as a reference for the tutorial but it seems like you're suggesting you make the texture first then UV map the model to fit it. which is a crazy way to do it for anything other than a simple cylinder!

Now I see what you're getting at. To go into some details here, this is the third or fourth iteration of the tutorial I've gone through. The other Blender tutorial on the VDC assumed a fairly advanced working knowledge of the program (and modeling overall), but was not really usable for someone new to the program. What I wanted something someone new to Blender (possibly even modeling in general) could sit down with and in within 1 ~ 3 hours have something usable.

The first two versions I tried did cover more advanced techniques, but when I tried to break them down into basic steps, they just weren't sensibly meeting the requirements I had in mind.

I was thinking about doing a basic texture with something simple like MSPaint, but honestly texture creation just isn't practical without layering tools and that is easily a whole other tutorial in and of itself. I also tried to do a texture creation section using Blender's material tools to bake the texture, but ran into the same problem. Using Blender's materiel tools can become very frustrating very quickly unless you know exactly what you're doing.

 

[AntonJ3000]

Do you have the right values assigned in the VMT (VertexLitGeneric, etc)? That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

VertexLitGeneric
{
"$basetexture" "models/BlenderSoda"
}

Just wanna get this tutorial-thing to work before I make own stuff

 

[Brandished]

Just wanna get this tutorial-thing to work before I make own stuff

Hmm...

Well, I just went back through my the tutorial and I did notice one thing when trying to compile the model for TF2: I had to manually create most (if not all) of the folders used in the compiling stage (materialsrc, modelsrc, models, materials, materials\models) before everything would compile correctly. My "sourcesdk_content\tf\" and "team fortress 2\tf" folders did not have any of those subfolders in them by default and the compiler tools would not create them for me either. Instead, the tools just spit out a bunch of errors when I tried to compile and failed to produce anything until I went through and created the folders myself.

Another thing I would suggest is opening your SMD file (the one you exported your model to using Blender) with a text editor. It should have something like this in it:

version 1
nodes
0 "joint0" -1
end
skeleton
time 0
0 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
end
triangles
BlenderSoda
0 0.000000 0.000 (Bunch of numbers)
BlenderSoda
0 0.000000 0.000000 (another bunch of numbers)
BlenderSoda

If the correct texture name (BlenderSoda) isn't listed in the SMD, one of the previous steps leading up to the export is either being overlooked, or is not going as planned.

 

[JoshuaC]

Do you happen to know the size differences between Hammer's grid and Blender's?

 

[Brandished]

Do you happen to know the size differences between Hammer's grid and Blender's?

Late reply here. There is no size difference as far as I know.
1 Blender unit = 1 Hammer unit

I wouldn't advise modeling something in Blender using the same units you would in Hammer though (eg: model a truck 100 or so units in overall length). Blender can get a bit unwieldy when you get to hundreds or thousands of units as it stores coordinates in thousandths of units (eg: "1,1,1" would be stored as "1.000,1.000,1.000"). I'd recommend making a highly detailed model no more then 10~20 Blender units in any dimension, you can always correct the scale when you export. This is using the default Blender setup anyways.

Disclaimer: I don't have a ton of experience working in Blender, there may be a setting or workaround I'm not aware of that would allow you to model on a 1 to 1 scale (where 1 Blender unit = 1 Hammer unit).

 

[Dr. ROCKZO]

Wrong thread really, but does anyone know if the same thing (what Brandishead said) applies to 3DSMax?