Blender + (3ds Imports + Textures) = Arrrhh

[SoulFilcher]

By that screenshot alone I think the sprites could use a few changes. In my opinion they aren't exactly a match in style, maybe you should try a sharpen effect (if you use Photoshop) or maybe stronger contrast. You're doing a great job adding new vehicles so I think it is worth trying some more tinkering with the sprites to find an even better look.

[aajs]

By that screenshot alone I think the sprites could use a few changes. In my opinion they aren't exactly a match in style, maybe you should try a sharpen effect (if you use Photoshop) or maybe stronger contrast. You're doing a great job adding new vehicles so I think it is worth trying some more tinkering with the sprites to find an even better look.

Thanks, I am closing in on the models that I think I want to use, I have quite a few rejects at the moment.

I will then try to get them positioned well, I now see why the tiles used must be square like 3x3 etc otherwise when you turn the vehicle it can cover soldiers and items near by..(you can end up with soldiers standing on car etc). So positioning everything is taking a long time.

Once done I will get back to improving the graphic. I may need to add additional brightness to the light source template as the vehicles seem to come out darker than the vanilla ones.

I may need your help again later, if you don't mind perfecting the final sprites, I can try the contrast idea and the sharpen as I know how to do that at least, however I am definitely a novice at this kind of thing and struggle with some of the more advanced graphical techniques. But hopefully I can end up with some vehicles that are fun to play and are at the same time actually useful.

[SoulFilcher]

As long as you keep them inside the white square in Blender it should be easy to place them inside the 3x3 tiles. You just need to find X and Y positions for the spectre and since all images from Blender are centralized those same positions will work for all frames.

[aajs]

the best way to do it in my opinion is to calculate camera position and tweak X, Y and Z until you get the right angle. Here is a template with additional cameras, N, W, E, S for units and vehicles, plus garage view and top view. Keep in mind that you have to change image resolution before rendering, for garage view and probably top view too, or the images will be too small.

LINK

EDIT: It looks really good, I think you should disable shadows when rendering those, as it looks like vanilla vehicles don't seem to have shadows, only the flat shadow on the floor.

Erm, I might be too dumb to use this... I can see only one camera SE... How do I see the others.

(Sorry complete newbie at this)

[SoulFilcher]

Select the camera from the list on the right. You will see markers in that bottom bar, those are the keyframes for what you have selected. move through the keyframes, each one of them is a different camera angle.

[aajs]

Select the camera from the list on the right. You will see markers in that bottom bar, those are the keyframes for what you have selected. move through the keyframes, each one of them is a different camera angle.

Woooooohooo Very Nice. Thanks so much for this.

[aajs]

Select the camera from the list on the right. You will see markers in that bottom bar, those are the keyframes for what you have selected. move through the keyframes, each one of them is a different camera angle.

Okay hopefully this is the last of my stupid questions.

I can see all the frames now to make the sprites, however I need the top view one, which is easy to do manually but also the garage view which is very very hard. Did you make that angle as well?

If I was trying to do this myself should I be moving the camera or the object?

[drages]

You can handle it with camera as I know. And you need to change render resolution.

[SoulFilcher]

I did the angle for garage view but maybe I didn't save the new template with it. What you need to do is to select the camera as I said before, under that list select "object" (the orange cube) and you will see the details for each keyframe.

When you move to a point where you don't have a keyframe the values in "location" will have a green background, and where you do have a keyframe the background will be yellow. So if you want to create a new keyframe, move to an empty part of the bottom bar, go to the location values on the right, right-click and select create keyframe, adjust the values and right-click again to "replace keyframe".

I don't remember the values I used for the garage view, but it shouldn't be hard to find a good spot.

[aajs]

I did the angle for garage view but maybe I didn't save the new template with it. What you need to do is to select the camera as I said before, under that list select "object" (the orange cube) and you will see the details for each keyframe.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6566[/ATTACH]

When you move to a point where you don't have a keyframe the values in "location" will have a green background, and where you do have a keyframe the background will be yellow. So if you want to create a new keyframe, move to an empty part of the bottom bar, go to the location values on the right, right-click and select create keyframe, adjust the values and right-click again to "replace keyframe".

I don't remember the values I used for the garage view, but it shouldn't be hard to find a good spot.

Thanks, I have been trying to do that for ages, you make it all sound so easy.