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Ship editing/building

bassman7

bassman7

Landlubber
What programs are you guys using to create ships?

reason i ask is cause i'd like to take the mefesto or whatever they call it, and modify it making a new ship so to speak. Mainly i just want to and another deck of guns and give her a better texture and sails.
 
Modifying ships remains a bit troublesome. It can be done using Inez Dias' tool (available from my website) in combination with a program that can modify VRML files (such as 3D Studio MAX). Unfortunately this process does mirror the lighting, so if it's dark and the moon is on one side, the light of the moon reflects of the ship on the <i>other</i> side. The original game developers used Maya, which can be found on the PotC Files FTP along with the required plug-in for exporting to GM. If you can figure out how to use this program, you can use it to make ships just as perfect as the ones currently in the game. Unfortunately nobody here really knows how to use it. You might want to PM Kazeite. He is THE authority on ship building and modifying at the moment. He made the new Black Pearl in 3D Studio MAX.
 
<!--quoteo(post=215760:date=Sep 28 2007, 08:46 PM:name=Pieter Boelen)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pieter Boelen @ Sep 28 2007, 08:46 PM) [snapback]215760[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->You might want to PM Kazeite. He is THE authority on ship building and modifying at the moment. He made the new Black Pearl in 3D Studio MAX.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Well he's Black Pearl is one of the ships with the wrong lighting thing..
but i dont know about he's movie-wise Black Pearl, when does he release he's movie based Black Pearl?
 
The Black Pearl has the reversed lighting bug, yes. Nobody has as of yet been able to fix that. Kazeite, Merciless Mark and me all three tried to do our best to fix it on the Black Pearl and the HMS Surprise, but no luck. It is caused by the Tool somehow, but it's the only way we have of modifying those ships. Maya should work in theory, but it won't work if nobody knows how to use it. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wacko.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":wacko:" border="0" alt="wacko.gif" />
 
Well ..i really hope that someone comes and help you guys with maya. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sailr.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":sail" border="0" alt="sailr.gif" />
 
how do you import exsisting ships. i've been trying but it says that it is an unrecognized file type. I'm using maya by the way, and i'm importing the frigate_sat.gm file
 
I have NO idea. I do know Maya needs a plugin for exporting to GM, which can be found on the PA Files FTP. Perhaps Maya can also import VRML or OBJ files? The GM Viewer can export GM files to OBJ and Inez Dias' Tool can export to VRML. Perhaps Maya can open those?
 
Well... <a href="http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=5659302&siteID=123112" target="_blank">3D Max official page</a>.

(Somewhat amusingly, Autodesk (creators of the 3DMax) has bought Alias (creator of the Maya) in 2006, so it now is releasing both 3DMax and Maya <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> )

Anyway, to play with .gm files, you need to convert them into format Maya or 3DMax can recognize. GmViewer can convert .gm files into obj. files. TOOL can convert .gm files into .vrml format. Both Maya and Max can read those two formats.
 
alright, i've got the ship i want to mod in maya now, and i've even deleted or removed the polygons/grams that i wanted to... my question is how do i add new ones?

other then this problem, the program i find, is pretty user friendly, it reminds me of autocad and some other drafting programs i used for my highschool mechanical drawing/drafting class last year.

also does anyone know of any tutorials or anything other than the help options displayed in the programs for both maya and inez tool for making ships? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/keith.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":keith" border="0" alt="keith.gif" />
 
believe it of not i'm actually getting somewhere with it. i've got to make the cannons in like three parts but so far so good. i haven't really figured out how to extend the ship making the cabin higher and othre parts of the ship but so far ( knock on wood) it reminds me of solid works which is a drafting program.

my future problem is the animation of it though. especially for the cannons cause i'm making them in three parts and i'm not certain how that is gonna fit together...

it is a very interesting and useful program potentially though. if i or anyone else can every completely figure out how ot work it.

i'm reading up on it and programs like it in between my midterms right now so.... it will be a while before i figure it out.
 
EXELLENT! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/me.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":onya" border="0" alt="me.gif" />
Finally someone. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/buds.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":drunk" border="0" alt="buds.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
What do you mean by "animation"? The cannons aren't animated. The cannon firing animation is done through locators placed on the ends of the cannon barrels. Although nobody knows how to add locators in Maya, it should in theory be possible.
 
I mean coloring the frigate and making sure there arn't any holes in the ship. making objects is easy in maya... getting them to fit together and scaled properly is the hard part. as for locaters ive found the tool in the program to add them but i'm not familiar with locators and how they work. plus i'm still trying to get everything to fit together. deleting polygons or grams to add another floor is easy, the problem is then adding to that floor. like i plan on making the mefisto a 56 gun ship with four bow chasers, along with the four in the back of the ship and 24 guns on each side. to make the sides hold 24 cannons i want to make the front of the deck higher and then raise the back decks as well. Kind of set up like the pearl just more cannons. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/boom.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":boom" border="0" alt="boom.gif" />

in addition, i'm trying to figure out if there's a way to jack up the top deck of guns so i can just add another row of guns inbetween the two that are already there. whis way i don't have to mess with the sails, rigging and masts. cause i've heard they can be a pain.

hopefully this post doesn't sound confussing. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/buds.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":drunk" border="0" alt="buds.gif" />
 
personally, i think your language is the 'confussing' part. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" /> well, i hope this works out. new ships are always cool! how about posting screens of your progress?
 
i would post screen shots, but i don't know how, and between learning to use the program and college midterms i don't have alot of time. so it will be awhile before any significant progress is shown. another reason progress is slow is because i'm trying to re-model the ship several differnet ways and as of right now i'm not sticking with one specific way.

the first way i was gonna do it was to get rid of everything on the top deck of the ship and just build off of that. however by doing so, i'll have to change the sails and rigging and i'm not certain how to do all that yet with this program.

the second way that i'm trying to re-model the ship is by jacking the top floor or deck of guns up and putting another row of guns in. problem with this is that i'm still trying to figure out how to lift the deck up.

i tried a couple other ways to add another floor but so far nothing has come of it.

the first way of remodeling seems to have the most progress, but like i stated in my earlier post piecing everything together can be tricky and i don't know how fitting sails into the picture is going to work.
 
ok, i'll do that , while we're on the topic of screenshots does anyone know of a free program that can cut scenes out of a movie to add to a presentation? reason i ask is cuz i have to cut some scenes out of freinhiet 911 for a sociology presentation and i'd like to show some clips and not the whole movie.
 
i'm not sure, but i think you'd be able to use fraps for that as well. you CAN make movies with it, at least, although short ones.
 
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