Help with pre-rendered 3d

Kilgore__Trout

Hello,

I'm having a lot of trouble finding a reliable artist within budget for a game I'm working on. I'm considering having a go at making sprite sheets from 3d models. Anyone have any experience of this?

Some more specific info:

What are the stages involved?

Is there free, reliable software available to take me from start to finish?

How difficult is it to do?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

oisincar

Hey,

I messed around with this a while ago, just some very basic stuff. There probally is a better way to do it, but maebe i can point you in the right direction.

Kilgore__Trout wrote: »

What are the stages involved?

Modeling, material (colours and textures, and also things like reflectivity), rigging (don't underestimate this step. It can be quite tedious.) animation, lighting, and finaly rendering.

Depending on how much time you have, or how common what you want to make is you might want to look at blendswap or turbosquid for ready made models. Most are Creative commons, and some are even Public domain.

Kilgore__Trout wrote: »

Is there free, reliable software available to take me from start to finish?

I used blender (free) for all the steps above, and then texture packer (15$) to turn all the individual images into one spritesheet.

I also used a script which is included in the file here:
http://opengameart.org/content/zombie-0
to render the animation from all angles really quickly.

Kilgore__Trout wrote: »

How difficult is it to do?

The actual steps aren't too difficult, but if you haven't done any 3d modeling before, you'll have to learn that first.
Have a look here:
http://cgcookie.com/blender/

Also if you want to do animations, spend a while learning to animate. That was what ruined mine.

I know I've made it sound very complicated... But it's really not too bad. Because the finished product'll be so small the model doesn't have to be detailed.

Hope this helps
Oisin

Kilgore__Trout

Thanks Oisin, very helpful.

I did a little more looking into this. One problem I encountered is not being able to import .fbx (which seems by a long shot the most dominant format) into blender. I think there's some app that can convert .fbx into an intermediate file type, which can be imported, but apparently this loses the animations.

I'd probably just buy stock models or work with PD ones. A friend has the basics of 3d modelling and animation, so I could likely get some help on that front.

I'm still negotiating with a few artists, so hopefully I'll be able to get someone to do the work. All the same, this sounds like an interesting way to go about asset creation.

oisincar

If you go to file>user preferences. And then go to the addons tab. You should be able to search for fbx and an addon called something like import-export autodexk fbx will come up. Just check the box and the option to import .fbx into blender will come up through file>import.

Glad i was able to help...
Oisin

Torakx

There might also be a quick dirty option, I havent tested it yet.
If you model your character..say, in Blender.Uv map the textures and set the angle of the viewport cam to the side of your character model, then hit Prt Scr(print screen) and paste it into a program like Gimp and save it as a png.
Then go back to your model in blender and (having the main joints rigged) move the model into place for the next animation frame and print screen etc...rinse repeat.
I can't think of any reason why that wouldnt work for animating a character sprite.
It might not be that slow once you get into a routine with switching programs etc.
Of course you might have to clean the bakcground color off them after so the alpha layer is clear.
But I saw a tutorial for gamemaker using a similar method, where he had the background colour a bright green and set gamemaker to exclude that colour.

When I next go to do some 2D sprites, this is probably how I will start out.

Kilgore__Trout

Thanks Torakx. Between you and Oisin, I've got a decent idea of how to go about this now. Not sure I'll end up using it, as the negotiations appear to be going okay.

It's surprising how much time it takes to write up requirements, find reference images, advertise and communicate with potential allies. Although it might be difficult to sort all your requirements this way, it would certainly be a start, and great if you get a kick out of doing stuff yourself. I'm guess that it would also be quite a bit cheaper too.

Appreciate the help!