My Blender Journey :P

• #15 Reply
  Posted by Kva3imoda on 25 Dec, 2016 21:21
• https://yadi.sk/d/u4HifL6y34yVih
  
  Put these files in your folder. I corrected model and renamed it (homunculus.mesh). Now all should be all right if you import this mesh.
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• #16 Reply
  Posted by Phanjam on 25 Dec, 2016 21:57
• Ahahahaha!
  

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  Thank you Kva!!!
  
  

  
  Thank u very very much Kva!  I didn't try others right away because I was lazy to connect my external hard drive where all my TL1 MEDIA files are Thanks so much for this!
  
  But I will try other sets during this holiday break and let you know how it goes
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• #17 Reply
  Posted by Phanjam on 27 Dec, 2016 04:35
• Hi @Kva3imoda can I ask your opinion pls?
  
  I have positioned the various Homunculus pieces over the HUM_M model...
  

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  But I got excited and did all the positioning first , so I wanted to check before proceeding...
  
  1. It says I'm supposed to join the meshes, but I'm not sure which to join together.  SixShot's tutorial seems to say to join the new mesh with the whole HUM_M mesh ("In object mode, select both meshes, making sure vanquisherM is active and join them (ctrl + J)"). 
  
  2. Since I'm working with a bare HUM_M model (no armor) I'm thinking I shouldn't join anything.  Instead shouldn't I only assign the meshes to bones?
  
  3. I did join together some of the new mesh pieces.  Like, I joined the left and right boot together.  Is this right?
  
  4. I used some new names in the OUTLINER, like Homunculus/Boots, etc. Will these become the SUBMESH names?  Is every line in the OUTLINER a submesh?
  
  5. I noticed there are 2 "bone structures"...
  

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  Will I be deleting the structure from the added Homunculus model, leaving only the HUM_M structure?
  
  6. A related / reverse question - will I be deleting the model mesh of HUM_M, leaving just the Homunculus model mesh (like a "shell" over the bone structure)?
  
  Sorry for all these dumb questions! But I am very excited by all this!
  
  Oh and yes, the other meshes seem to import fine...
  

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• #18 Reply
  Posted by Kva3imoda on 27 Dec, 2016 05:28
• Quote from: Phanjam on 27 Dec, 2016 04:35

  Hi @Kva3imoda can I ask your opinion pls?
  

  Well, you try to grasp the immensity now. 
  
  In the beginning try to do something simple. I suggest starting with a helmet and shoulder pads because these parts are attached to only one relevant bone. You must understand how it all works and you need more experience to do more serious things.
  
  Try to do my guide for beginners. 
  
  

  Quote from: Phanjam on 27 Dec, 2016 04:35

  I have positioned the various Homunculus pieces over the HUM_M model...
  

  You did this in Object mode or Edit mode?
  
  P.S. And I'm impressed, your first steps are encouraging. 
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• #19 Reply
  Posted by Phanjam on 27 Dec, 2016 07:33
• Thanks v much Kva for reminding me of your tutorial Yes i will use it AND i will start with fewer pieces as you suggest. If i have questions i will ask for your guidance, i hope u won't mind!
  
  Yes i positioned all the pieces in edit mode. Their "origins" are all the same as the HUM_M mesh. I made copies of the Homunculus mesh, removed the parts (vertices?) which i would not re-position and positioned/scaled/rotated what was left. So in the outliner, each "Homunculus/..." is an edited copy of the original import.
  
  Thanks for your kind words and encouragement! It means a lot to me coming from u!
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• #20 Reply
  Posted by Kva3imoda on 27 Dec, 2016 14:36
• Some tips for you PJ.
  
  Firstly always (almost always) for imported models(parts, meshes) use this sequence:
  In Edit mode
  1. A - Choose all
  2. W and select in the menu Remove doubles
  
  This will make your Mesh a "single whole object". When the model is imported, for some reason, the object is divided into separate pieces.
  
  After this operation, you can select objects/meshes fully: Mouse pointer then L
  
  note: Some thin objects such as a fabric, ribbons, stripes etc may be corrupted, here you need to see it and find a solution how to avoid it.
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• #21 Reply
  Posted by Phanjam on 28 Dec, 2016 07:05
• Thanks again Kva! Today i just kept reading through your rigging tutorial, because i couldn't actually open Blender at work
  
  I will find the time to work up to my first export attempt tomorrow. I expect it to not work, but i'll make sure i learn along the way
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• #22 Reply
  Posted by Anarch16sync on 29 Dec, 2016 07:47
• Quote from: Kva3imoda on 27 Dec, 2016 14:36

  Some tips for you PJ.
  
  Firstly always (almost always) for imported models(parts, meshes) use this sequence:
  In Edit mode
  1. A - Choose all
  2. W and select in the menu Remove doubles
  
  This will make your Mesh a "single whole object". When the model is imported, for some reason, the object is divided into separate pieces.
  
  After this operation, you can select objects/meshes fully: Mouse pointer then L
  
  note: Some thin objects such as a fabric, ribbons, stripes etc may be corrupted, here you need to see it and find a solution how to avoid it.
  

  
  I would be careful removing all doubles, most of the hard edges for armor and other models is made using double vertices, so if you merge does the hard edge becomes a soft edge, on the model this doesn't show, but you notice the difference with the lighting.
  
  Also, Phan remember that you have to use the TL2 naming convention for the materials, the meshes objects can have any name in blender since the mesh name is not exported, but the materials need to follow the naming structure of head, pauldron, arm, mid_arm, etc.
  
  And good luck on your Journey  I'll be lurking around and post if I see I can help you.
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• #23 Reply
  Posted by Phanjam on 01 Jan, 2017 02:15
• Thanks so much @Kva3imoda and @Anarch16sync for the tips! I see @Vkoslak is back around too  hope you guys don't mind if I ask so many questions
  
  As suggested by Kva, I am working on exporting ONLY the TL1 Destro Heavy Plate helmet to TL2...
  
  

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  Based on the ENVATO tut linked by Kva, I tried making the Mesh a child of the Armature, using the "with automatic weights" option.  But the helmet Mesh vertices would not "stick together" during posing, I guess because different parts of the helmet Mesh were reacting to different bones (based on proximity?)
  
  I also saw tuts which said to join (ctrl + J) the new Mesh part with the base model Mesh.  But instead I tried just joining the helmt Mesh to the Hum_M/Scalp Mesh of the base model.  To my surprise, the result was very satisfactory.
  
  
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• #24 Reply
  Posted by Phanjam on 01 Jan, 2017 02:40
• Hmm, seems I cannot export to TL Mesh. I selected all parts (Meshes and Armature) of the model with shift + LMB in the Outliner...
  
  

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  and attempted to export, but I get this error message...
  
  

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  saving...
  C:\Blender\destroheavyplate001\HuM_DHPlate.mesh
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.65\scripts\addons\io_mesh_TL\__init__.py", line 195, in execute
      return TLExport.save(self, context, **keywords)
    File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.65\scripts\addons\io_mesh_TL\TLExport.py", line 977, in save
      bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
    File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.65\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py", line 188, in __call__
      ret = op_call(self.idname_py(), None, kw)
  RuntimeError: Operator bpy.ops.object.mode_set.poll() failed, context is incorrect
  

  
  Sorry but what might I be doing wrong?
  
  EDIT:
  
  Tried again. It gave me the .MATERIAL file, but no .MESH file
  Also it did not pop-up an error inside Blender, but the console still said 'file not found'...
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• #25 Reply
  Posted by Kva3imoda on 01 Jan, 2017 04:28
• Quote from: Phanjam on 01 Jan, 2017 02:40

  Sorry but what might I be doing wrong?
  

  Try to export only one part/mesh - hand or foot.
  
  I'm not sure if this will help, but never select a skeleton.
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• #26 Reply
  Posted by Phanjam on 01 Jan, 2017 07:11
• Thanks Kva but it was because of a simple error on my part!
  
  Remember I mentioned I had to do manual conversion to .XML of the .MESH and .SKELETON files first and leave them in the work folder, otherwise Blender would not import the model?  So I re-checked my __init__.py file and OF COURSE I TYPED THE WRONG OGRETOOLS PATH  
  
  I fixed the path and it now exported 
  
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• #27 Reply
  Posted by Phanjam on 01 Jan, 2017 07:35
• Now the issue seems to be the Submesh Materials...
  
  In Blender the Submeshes are like this...
  
  
  
  So in the .MATERIAL file, the Submeshes and Materials for both HuM_DHPlate/Scalp and HuM_DHPlate/Helmet are in there...
  
  

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  material HuM_DHPlate/Scalp
  {
          technique
          {
                  pass
                  {
                          ambient 0.588000 0.588000 0.588000
                          diffuse 0.588000 0.588000 0.588000
                          specular 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0
                          emissive 0.400000 0.400000 0.400000
                          texture_unit
                          {
                                  texture Face1.dds
                          }
                  }
          }
  }
  material HuM_DHPlate/Helmet
  {
          technique
          {
                  pass
                  {
                          ambient 0.745098 0.745098 0.745098
                          diffuse 0.745098 0.631373 0.529412
                          specular 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0
                          emissive 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
                          texture_unit
                          {
                                  texture Destroyer_HeavyPlate_Helm.dds
                          }
                  }
          }
  }
  

  
  If I leave both Submesh/Material blocks in the file, it is textured like this...
  
  

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  But if I remove the material HuM_DHPlate/Scalp block, it is textured like this...
  
  

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  I already tried making the old TL1 texture file Destroyer_HeavyPlate_Helm.dds into a DXT3 compression .DDS file (it was DXT1), but this did not help.
  
  I'm thinking I should I remove HuM_DHPlate/Scalp from the Mesh itself inside Blender...
  
  Any ideas would be very appreciated
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• #28 Reply
  Posted by Kva3imoda on 01 Jan, 2017 07:57
• Quote from: Phanjam on 01 Jan, 2017 07:35

  Now the issue seems to be the Submesh Materials...
  

  Well, for your submesh HuM_DHPlate/Helmet you need one material HuM_DHPlate/Helmet
  But you bear in mind that Dusho`s Mesh Viewer not correctly show some submeshes and textures(in wardrobe 3d models).
  
  

  Quote from: Phanjam on 01 Jan, 2017 07:35

  I'm thinking I should I remove HuM_DHPlate/Scalp from the Mesh itself inside Blender...
  

  This does not necessarily. This material does not affect the exported model.
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• #29 Reply
  Posted by Anarch16sync on 01 Jan, 2017 07:58
• That's because you have two materials in the HUM_DHPlate/helmet mesh, the dusho exporter won't export multiple materials for one mesh, and will only work with the first one, also, you don't need to export all the hum_m base model with your helmet, if you only export the helmet and the skeleton It will work and you are going to have a smaller file.
  
  You should remove the HUM_DHPlate/scalp material from the helmet mesh, and that should do it.
  
  Also if someone knows something about scripting it would be awesome to modify the dusho script so it can export multiple materials per mesh.
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