Kobol Studios Animation WIPs

[Pearse]

Well, I don't download many of other people's models, but usually the textures are already applied, or at least they're UV mapped or something, so it's a simple matter of linking them to the right image files.

[Adalla]

Yeah, well the Will Jasper's Galactica was in 300 pieces. So that was a problem. And Hobbe's Recon Raptor (which I would make my animation a lot better for I could use close up shots of the Raptor, as it is the protagonist of the animation) was converted to LW, but it only has 1 surface, but like over half a dozen textures. And I dont really know which texture goes were.

But yeah, Coxxon's models had only 1 texture and 1 surface usually, so it was easy for me to apply them.

Btw, any more info on your BSG fan film? The link in your sig points to the WIPs for he Hangar and Tube you made. I'd like to hear more about this fan film you are working on

And as for this animation, I think I'm just gonna use low polys for now and spend the effort on the animation itself, and then when I get some time I'll try to replace the models with some high poly ones and make a "A Great Sadness - High Poly" version.

But if I manage to texture Hobbes' Raptor and maybe find a Will Jasper's galactica textured and in one piece, then I'll use that instead

If anyone reading this has a 3DS or LW Galactica or Raptor textured and in one piece that they'd like to feature in "A Great Sadness" just send it over

Originally Posted by Starship

I would like to give my oppinion, but all that I can see are red X for now...

red X? You mean you cant see the images I post?

[Pearse]

That's probably a good idea, actually. Working out the animation with low poly models first will also mean you can do really quick renders along the way to see the results and re-render at any later date with better models. I'm sure there's a simple way for you to apply textures to the models you've downloaded, though. Doesn't seem likely that everyone who downloads them has to re-apply them. Hopefully someone will give some tips.

My fan film is just an excuse for me to show off my skills (which I'll hopefully have honed by the end of the process!). The story is fairly simple, showing what happened to some other Colonial ships when the Cylons first attacked, only without an entirely lucky escape. I have it all storyboarded, so it's just a matter of building the models I'll need and making a start on it.

[today]

When you load a native .lwo into lightwave it should indicate if it can't locate a given texture, when this happens it gives you the option of selecting the texture containing directory manually. All you have to do is point LW towards the correct folder, and it will automatically load the textures for you. Then all you need to do is go to 'Save current object' give it a new name, and it will give you a .lwo file that will remember the correct directory/file extension and then you shouldn't even need to do that again

[today]

Also, the LW version of the Wil Jaspers Galactica is in 3 layers if memory serves, you should be able to parent all the layers to a null object to make it easier to rig.

On the other hand the tan.j version of Galactica(which is in the SfM downloads section, technically it's the Battlestar Ouroboros but it comes with an alternate texture set to make it into Galactica) literally is in 4 or 5 separate .lwo files, and several dozen separate layers. For something like that you'd want to set up several levels of nulls all parented to each other. This sort of configuration gives you much more freedom in rigging the mesh, as you can articulate each part of the object. To select multiple layers just select the one on the top, scroll down however many as you want in the scene editor, and then click on the one on the bottom and you'll have selected every object or layer in between your start and end point. Makes it easy to take a mesh that's in dozens (or even hundreds) of pieces and parent it all to a single null.