Author Topic: Blender to Q2 MD2 tutorial (Read 9086 times)

The Happy Friar · « **on:** October 23, 2009, 08:25:01 AM »

is there one out there? I can find tutorials on making md2's for cube but there must be something for Q2 I'm doing wrong. I always get "error: bad model type" when I try to load my custom model.

The Happy Friar · « **Reply #1 on:** October 23, 2009, 10:34:01 AM »

apparently my model was to high poly (~400 poly's). Bringing it down to 250 solved the issue. Now I just need to use the right pallet.

peewee_RotA · « **Reply #2 on:** October 23, 2009, 11:24:14 AM »

Quote from: The Happy Friar on October 23, 2009, 10:34:01 AM

apparently my model was to high poly (~400 poly's). Bringing it down to 250 solved the issue. Now I just need to use the right pallet.

My rush model in megaq2 was roughly 700 poly (oops) but it loaded just fine. However it was made entirely in q2mdl

The Happy Friar · « **Reply #3 on:** October 23, 2009, 11:43:30 AM »

only thing I did was reduce it more & it worked. But if I don't get the pallet thing worked out it won't matter.

live mutton isn't exactly a brow & grey color scheme: http://www.moddb.com/members/thehappyfriar

AURON · « **Reply #4 on:** October 23, 2009, 11:36:56 PM »

You know, I have no clue if there is a tutorial out there. This is a good question.

The Happy Friar · « **Reply #5 on:** October 24, 2009, 05:58:14 AM »

Well, I got the texture to show up "fine" now, but the palette is still way off:

I forget exactly how palette's work so I'm currently looking that stuff up... BUT IT WAS ALL HOSTED ON PLANETQUAKE!!!!! AAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!!!!

The Happy Friar · « **Reply #6 on:** October 24, 2009, 03:01:48 PM »

looks like I got it working:

In Gimp I had to make a new color set for Q2's palette, then when I converted my skin over to pcx I used that palatte & it converted the colors for me.
I've got standing & running animations done.

PANTONE 7717C · « **Reply #7 on:** October 24, 2009, 07:05:26 PM »

Haha nice work! Yes, textureing q2 skins is no fun with 256 colors and with Opengl lighting even most shades of grey will look white. From the looks of it the skin (fleece) could use darker areas and definitely some mud and dirt on the rear

Maybe some bloody stains too. I guess it won't be easy to animate such a short legged thing but it would be funny if you can make a death animation with the sheep collapsing, head and front feet first. Btw, have you been able to 'rig' it yet? I mean does it have a skeleton for animating? If not then you're probably messing with groups of vertices and copying them over to the next frames which is tedious work.

As for the walk cycle, if you can try to make the body gallop, something like this:
http://www.anniemation.com/poser-stuff/animations/tumbleweed-gallop-side.gif
http://www.anniemation.com/poser-stuff/animations/cat-gallop.gif
http://i43.tinypic.com/2zjme7r.gif
http://www14.addr.com/~oricom//projects/gallop2.gif

The Happy Friar · « **Reply #8 on:** October 25, 2009, 04:30:58 AM »

the sheep is darker but the ogl is making it pretty bright. Never had that problem in doom 3.

it would be a lot easier to animate if I increase the poly count in the legs/thighs so I can add more bones (yes, it's rigged). Then I could have him more flexible where he needs to be.

I found out last night too that q2modeler can be used to change the # of frames per animation which will make things much easier. The standing animation is 40 frames & the running is 6, very aggravating.

Not exactly sure how I'm going to have the animations either. I might might then goofy animations, might make them more realistic. Gotta say though, I think I'm liking the vertex animation of Q2 more then bone animation in Doom 3. I can modify whatever I want in blender & it's animated in Q2. In D3 (and others), if it's not animated by a bone it doesn't work, so if you want something to morph/flap/etc. you need a lot of bones or don't do it.

EDIT:
sheep walking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v2DeIGKvis

A sheep's legs are so short that when they run it's a faster walk.

PANTONE 7717C · « **Reply #9 on:** October 25, 2009, 07:41:55 AM »

I'm not sure if you can just change the number of frames per animation without making the model crash the game. I don't know but it could be coded into the game that it will only play 6 run frames even if you've made 20 frames.
When I looked at q2's stock models in a modeler I've always wondered how they did the animations without bones. But according to Paul Steed they had used 3dmax and character studio for creating the animations which where then baked in the md2. Though I bet they also did some fine tuning with vertex manipulation.
I do like vertex editing for creating a basic model but not when it comes to animating the 197 frames. I've once combined the male model with the ponytail from the female model to make some sort of a 'samurai' character, I thought it was a nice idea because I had never seen a long haired grunt before. I had to manually edit each and every frame to make it look like the hair followed the head and it was way too much work for such a small effect. I never really finished he model but I did make all frames, see attachment:)
Anyway good luck with your ~~fragmeat~~ sheep, I'll be happy to make it splatter all over the maps when it's ready.

The Happy Friar · « **Reply #10 on:** October 25, 2009, 09:29:37 AM »

with most animation programs (including maya which came out ~when Q3A did) you can keyframe the vertex's. That makes it pretty much as easy as bones.

peewee_RotA · « **Reply #11 on:** October 25, 2009, 11:56:10 AM »

Friar, I do have to say that I never knew you were a talented modeler

The Happy Friar · « **Reply #12 on:** October 25, 2009, 01:02:17 PM »

...I'm not. You're looking at my "crowning achievement" right there.

peewee_RotA · « **Reply #13 on:** October 25, 2009, 04:14:48 PM »

Quote from: The Happy Friar on October 25, 2009, 01:02:17 PM

...I'm not. You're looking at my "crowning achievement" right there.

Well you'll compare it with my single color, unshaded, cubist models tonight on megaman

I think the sheep's pretty good

The Happy Friar · « **Reply #14 on:** October 26, 2009, 06:34:17 AM »

ends up I don't need to use q2modeler, the blender exporter works just fine.

Author Topic: Blender to Q2 MD2 tutorial (Read 9086 times)

El Box de Shoutamente