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3D artwork creation websites -- your views

For questions and discussion about UnrealEd, UnrealScript, and other aspects of Unreal Engine design.

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User avatar Taz
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Subject: 3D artwork creation websites -- your views

Post Posted: 21 Jul 2008, 19:19

Have to say I've always wanted to create certain types of decoration actors for placing in Unreal and UT maps, such as statues of Nali sitting cross-legged. Only trouble is that you can't really make good human(oid) figures without POSER, besides which I have very limited experience with any 3D art sortware. In this respect I'm thinking of hiring the services of 3D artwork creation websites, such as this one.

Have you had any experience with such online services, or do you think they're reliable and worth your money? Please tell me what you know, thanks!

User avatar Darkon
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Post Posted: 21 Jul 2008, 20:50

..... now why would you want to do that? As far as I know you can use any mesh as a statue.. I mean.. there are mappacks (like illhaven) that have statues like that. So why pay?
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User avatar zYnthetic
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Post Posted: 21 Jul 2008, 21:00

It wouldn't fly in the unreal mod community. I've seen freelancers sell assests, very high caliber work, to developers working on retail games.
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User avatar Feralidragon
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Post Posted: 21 Jul 2008, 21:35

Well... That's a :tdown: ideia. So, everytime you want a mesh, or modifying one from Unreal/UT, you just pay. Very Bad Ideia.

I will tell you why: I have only 2 months of 3rd Parties 3D software, so I don't know how to use Blender or 3D Studio at all, but I know handle MilkShape 3D and Ued.

1) - So, you want a seated cross legged nali?
UTPT on the way, just extract the Nali mesh you want from Unreal/UT;
Import into Milkshape;
Build a bone to it;
Animate him to whatever the position you want;
Export to Unreal 3d format;
Import into UT.

2) - You want to build deco from Ued brushes?
Build it;
Intersect it or Poly to Brush;
Export brush;
MeshMaker on the way (convert it to a mesh);
Open it with UT.

3) - Do you want to get experienced with 3D software to make some deco or other stuff to Unreal/UT?
Milkshape, do some experiences, tweak here and there, and you will see that this program is very easy to handle, it just doesn't have the features that major 3D software have, it has only the basic.

To skin the meshes just use LithUnwrap (it optimizes the models very good too).

Of all programs I mencioned, only Milkshape is paid, but it is very cheap and the fact is that only pay once to do all the meshes you want.

Just don't be lazy and get to learn and work with it, or if you have already any good experience on scripting or mapping, just call someone to your team that knows how to make good meshes, otherwise you have to learn all the stuff on your own, like I did and I am still doing.

Paying models just don't worth the money, at least for Unreal/UT. :wink:

User avatar Taz
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Post Posted: 22 Jul 2008, 02:52

Thanks for all the suggestions, Ferali. :) Not sure about Milkshape but will check it out. I've actually already got some experience creating nice decorative brushes in Unreal/UT maps, but when it comes to things like statues, I've always felt that if you want to do a really good-looking human or humanoid figure with all the right proportions etc, you'll need a piece of software like POSER which does almost nothing else but such things.

BTW, I'm just thinking of doing by myself a couple of exotic, Oriental-flavored maps in Unreal/UT to please myself, not an entire mod. So I haven't got a team with me. :D

It wouldn't fly in the unreal mod community.


Not that I want it to. I'm just doing it to please myself. And maybe place my new maps on the web for free distribution. :)

..... now why would you want to do that? As far as I know you can use any mesh as a statue.. I mean.. there are mappacks (like illhaven) that have statues like that. So why pay?


'Cos I thought I could then be more specific about the details I'd like to have in my meshes. Though I guess Ferali said it all: I ought instead to check out some of the available software around for creating meshes and get my feet wet in them!

User avatar GTD-Carthage
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Post Posted: 22 Jul 2008, 03:28

About that cross-legged Nali. I believe the Nali have that "meditating" animation in the game. Instead of doing all that, you could just add any decoration (a box, a rock, the golden letter U, it doesn't matter) and then set the mesh to that of a Nali, adjust his animation settings under the Display properties (you can browse for in-game meshes and animations in the Mesh Browser) and then give him a stony texture.

All done in-Editor without the use of any external program. And, no, there is NO way to import Unreal meshes into Poser because they don't have animation skeletons. (a few custom models benefit from having a modded skeletal animation system but I doubt you'll need that)

And finally, I honestly believe and will say that Poser is a lousy and lazy way to do make models. :P I find a lot of people posting their own results from Poser in places like DeviantART claiming that they modelled their own characters but in truth, most content in Poser was built by other artists through other programs. It's almost just the same as posing people in GMod and telling others they made it because changing a model's outfit or pose with predefined content is barely modelling.

I don't know how good it is because I've never tried but a lot of people use ZBrush for modelling characters and creatures.

User avatar Taz
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Post Posted: 22 Jul 2008, 04:54

And, no, there is NO way to import Unreal meshes into Poser because they don't have animation skeletons.


Okay, but can you export from Poser into Unreal/UT? That's what I'm interested in. (I understand it must be in .3ds format first to be brought into Unreal/UT, right?)

And finally, I honestly believe and will say that Poser is a lousy and lazy way to do make models.


Perhaps the word is 'convenient'. :)

User avatar Feralidragon
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Post Posted: 22 Jul 2008, 10:17

Taz wrote:Okay, but can you export from Poser into Unreal/UT? That's what I'm interested in. (I understand it must be in .3ds format first to be brought into Unreal/UT, right?)


Idk nothing about Poser, never heard of it, but with MilkShape you don't need to save it to .3ds, because the good thing in MilkShape is that it imports a lot of 3d formats (including the Unreal ones), and exports them as well (including the Unreal ones too).

I just found 2 inconvinients in MilkShape:
- Pay
- A little buggy in some format exports

Btw, which are the best and easiest programs to model to Unreal, so far the easiest one to me was MilkShape (as you can export psa and psk), but I always heard about 3d studio, but it's too expensive. Heard on Blender (open source), but I don't know if it is really good.
Maybe Taz wants to know which program is best to use too.

User avatar Taz
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Subject:

Post Posted: 22 Jul 2008, 10:25

Carrara sounds like a great 3D graphics program. (Heard of it?) It seems to me to be able to do a lot of the things 3D Studio Max can do, but is much cheaper. You might like to find out more about it. :wink:


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