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Old 17th February 2008, 06:15 PM   #31
lisa
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Default Re: Hello & Questions

You're most welcome!

Yes, Bryce is a good choice. Lots of folks here use it and like it a lot.

If you feel like experimenting, here is a list of other external renderers:
http://www.independentdeveloper.com/...rendering_soft

EDIT: for the curious, when I'm not writing my own shaders, I do most of my renders with POV-Ray or occassionally Poser

Quote:
Originally Posted by JumpDog View Post
Well I figure you make all these maps just as you would a diffuse map, in basically any photo/paint program, so my only remaining question left I suppose... can I apply these maps to an object in AC3D or do I need to use another program like a renderer?
You apply the texture coordinates--how the map sticks to the object--in AC3D. You'll find the Texture Coordinate Editor on the tools menu. This lets you change the texture (UV) coordinates.

The maps themselves are applied in your renderer.

You can apply a diffuse map in AC3D from the Object > Texture menu. This is a good idea even if you plan to apply all your maps in your renderer, just to make sure the texture coordinates look right. Also, some of the file exporters won't export the texture coordinates unless you have a texture applied in AC3D.

You're right, most of the maps you make in a paint program. A few of them, like normal maps, can be tricky to make by hand. These are usually made by taking a high-resolution model, writing the normals to a texture map, then apply the normal map to a lower-resolution version of the same model. Those tools luuckyy mentioned--Nvidia Melody and ATI NormalMapper--can be used for this task. You'll find a plug-in to export AC3D files to the NormalMapper utility here: http://www.independentdeveloper.com/...l-map-exporter

Oh, and thanks luuckyy for the link to crazybump! Never seen it before but it looks like a really useful tool; I'm download it as we speak.

Last edited by lisa; 17th February 2008 at 06:48 PM.
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Old 17th February 2008, 06:21 PM   #32
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Default Re: Hello & Questions

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Originally Posted by lisa View Post
Oh, and thanks luuckyy for the link to crazybump!
My pleasure
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Old 17th February 2008, 11:27 PM   #33
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Default Re: Hello & Questions

Yea that CrazyBump does look powerful. Also, yes I've had some experience using the TCE in AC3D lisa, so I entirely understand diffuse maps at this point My first post I included 2 simple objects I made & textured with the TCE.

I'm currently working on a pistol based on the shape/design of a Walther P22, putting a good amount of time into this while I still figure out how to get everything working right in AC3D, hope to make this my first good model heh, so I'll definitely be playing with the different maps on this one!
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Old 18th February 2008, 04:44 AM   #34
lisa
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Default Re: Hello & Questions

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Originally Posted by JumpDog View Post
YAlso, yes I've had some experience using the TCE in AC3D lisa, so I entirely understand diffuse maps at this point My first post I included 2 simple objects I made & textured with the TCE.
Sorry, I hope I didn't offend... I always try to make sure I don't leave anything out, and I apologize if I was explaining the obvious.
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Old 19th February 2008, 06:13 PM   #35
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Default Re: Hello & Questions

So I'm starting to mess around with texture stuff now, playing around in Bryce experimenting with all the different blend methods and altering values. Gonna try out POV-ray soon, see how that is. Bryce has a sort of weird UI, too graphical/game-like for my taste

I downloaded this OpenFX thing too, haven't played with it to much, but I already dislike the control scheme haha. Seems interesting and has a lot of features and very mod'able, but somethin bout the UI that throws me off. If anyone wants to check it out though it's at http://www.openfx.org/ .

Question:
1) Is there any way to stop it from triangulating all my surfaces upon being imported to Bryce? It's increasing the poly count on my gun like fourfold lol.

EDIT: ok figured out how to import images, guess you just cant do it for procedural textures.this is challenging though haha gonna have to find a tutorial, especially since Bryce doesn't seem to have a handy-dandy TCE like in AC3D. Jeez... isn't there any "simple" program that I can just say "apply this as a diffuse map, this as bump, this as specular..."

Last edited by JumpDog; 19th February 2008 at 07:38 PM.
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Old 20th February 2008, 07:52 PM   #36
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Default Re: Hello & Questions

If you're using Bryce now, it may take a bit to get used to POVRay, since it's not really interactive, you have to code everything. If you're going to start using POVRay, I'd recommend you get PoseRay, which is another freeware program that allows you to interact with your models and create the scene without having to code before you render.

Also, I'd be really interested to find a way to keep an external renderer from triangulating every surface in models as well. Some of my models have hundreds of thousands of surfaces, and the renderers make some of them go to over a million!
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Old 23rd August 2011, 10:22 AM   #37
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Lisa's post (starting at the bottom on page one) of this thread should be made a permanent sticky as it is a very good learning tool. Thanks Lisa.
Seems like Lisa no longer visits these forums ............. that's a shame ......... we miss you Lisa and your helpfulness.
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