Complete Modeling Tutorial for TF2

[maxint33]

I love you KRosen.
Your suggestion fixed my problem, now I can see my model in game WITH its texture.
Thank you so much!

[maxint33]

Alright this is my final question and then I'm gone.
How do I make certain parts of my model shiny? In other posts on the forum I saw that you need to use a phong texture but I'm not sure how to use it

[snabbers]

"How does one make a model that so when its equipped it removes the vertexes from the base model that the custom model is replacing for example, pyro's tank backpack, if I was to make a custom model for that, how would I remove the default tank so the new model doesn't clip through it?"

Figured it out, never mind.

However I've noticed there's no body group for the scout's backpack, yet I've noticed there are workshop items (example) where the backpack appears to be removed. How is this possible?

[KRosen]

Originally Posted by maxint33

Alright this is my final question and then I'm gone.
How do I make certain parts of my model shiny? In other posts on the forum I saw that you need to use a phong texture but I'm not sure how to use it

phong is indeed the shader used in this game (excluding reflect maps, which dont count and suck in this game)

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/VMT_Parameters

$phong is what you will be looking for
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$phong

and good examples
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/...hong_materials

[KRosen]

Originally Posted by snabbers

"How does one make a model that so when its equipped it removes the vertexes from the base model that the custom model is replacing for example, pyro's tank backpack, if I was to make a custom model for that, how would I remove the default tank so the new model doesn't clip through it?"

Figured it out, never mind.

However I've noticed there's no body group for the scout's backpack, yet I've noticed there are workshop items (example) where the backpack appears to be removed. How is this possible?

the answer is just a page or two behind this one, please search next time for the answer.

The only way to make items like this work is to replace an already in game item that already removes that body group. Itemtest does not list all the body groups for testing, and thus for some items, the only way you can make it look decent enough for screenshots is by making it a replacement item.

if there is another way to do this, i dont know of it.

[FrameLight]

Hi all.

Can someone help me with this?
I cant assign some bones correctly, it always looks like this
http://img.by/i/HlZau.jpg
http://img.by/i/dZij.jpg

although it looks good in blender,
http://img.by/i/9wxX.jpg
and somehow done in halloween heavy boots (which i use as a manual)
http://img.by/i/DNysW.jpg
http://img.by/i/mHXpx.jpg

looks like problem here
http://img.by/i/z8SO1.jpg
and i just need to correctly align this bones, but i dunno how

help pls

[KRosen]

Originally Posted by FrameLight

Hi all.

Can someone help me with this?
I cant assign some bones correctly, it always looks like this
http://img.by/i/HlZau.jpg
http://img.by/i/dZij.jpg

although it looks good in blender,
http://img.by/i/9wxX.jpg
and somehow done in halloween heavy boots (which i use as a manual)
http://img.by/i/DNysW.jpg
http://img.by/i/mHXpx.jpg

looks like problem here
http://img.by/i/z8SO1.jpg
and i just need to correctly align this bones, but i dunno how

help pls

its because the game uses newer bones down there than the sdk versions do - you will have to use gcfscape to extract the latest character models and skin with that.

for most items, the old sdk bones work fine, but for the legs especially, you MUST use the latest ones possible.

[ReznorsRage]

Hey SPUF long time no write... and I wish it were under better circumstances but I'm having a problem with my new mod. Two actually.

First thing, I've made a new melee for the demo and have been able to get it to replace the Paintrain in Workshop itemtest, but whenever I load into a real game all I get is the Paintrain again.

Second thing is when in itemtest the model looks perfect in third person but when in first person it vertically rotates 45 degrees. What kind of madness am I running into? I've been successfully trouble shooting other prob's I've had up until now but now I am in a time crunch for pre-releasing it for St. Patties.

[KRosen]

Originally Posted by ReznorsRage

Hey SPUF long time no write... and I wish it were under better circumstances but I'm having a problem with my new mod. Two actually.

First thing, I've made a new melee for the demo and have been able to get it to replace the Paintrain in Workshop itemtest, but whenever I load into a real game all I get is the Paintrain again.

Second thing is when in itemtest the model looks perfect in third person but when in first person it vertically rotates 45 degrees. What kind of madness am I running into? I've been successfully trouble shooting other prob's I've had up until now but now I am in a time crunch for pre-releasing it for St. Patties.

1.) normal servers will force you to read from the gcf, you have to go into a server that does not enforce purity. aka, sv_pure 0, or sv_pure 1 with a decent whitelist/blacklist.

2.) im not sure what you mean, a picutre would help, most likely an issue with skinning.

[ReznorsRage]

Hey KRosen, its been a busy day so I had troubles getting those screen shots back to ya. I just sent you a PM with a few shots and a reiteration of whats going on.

Thank you

[KRosen]

Originally Posted by ReznorsRage

Hey KRosen, its been a busy day so I had troubles getting those screen shots back to ya. I just sent you a PM with a few shots and a reiteration of whats going on.

Thank you

alright, i think i know your problem.

so heres the deal. way back when, and if you program you can understand, there used to be multiple sets of models.

you would have the world view, which is what was on the ground, youd have the 3rd person view, which is what you see other people running around with, and you have the first person view, which is optimized and made just for the player holding it.

the right way to make a model at the LEAST is to have separate 3rd and 1st person views - HOWEVER, you can't actually do that anymore.

you get optimizations and can do neat tweaks on first person, but as far as i know, you can't do that anymore, atleast not using valve's itemtest system (you probably still can hack it if you know what you are doing)

The obvious issue this gets to, is that even though you ALWAYS make a combination 3rd/1st person model (which i dont necessarily disagree with, since by default your 3rd person will get more detail than it used to), the reality is, the models for the players first person and 3rd person are still separate.

The reason this is relevant is because while they use the same "bones" as in, the software still clicks the weapons together correctly, the relationship between the bones on the skeleton are different between the two models (that is, the 1st person hands and the 3rd person model)*[see: my note at the bottom]

to demonstrate, here is a picture.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=128792194

Take note - the player (THAT'S ME!) holding a pain train, the nail/rail spike is facing to the players left.

Now take note at which direction the other soldier is holding his - it is facing to the soldiers right.

to further demonstrate this, look at this same screenshot with sv_cheats 1; third_person 1 enabled.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=128792561

the point here is that this isn't something that is broken. this is how it was intended.


*[note]: the bones they use MIGHT actually be the same, however the idle animation stance that the 3rd person uses has his arms raised almost like a crazy gorilla, where the arm is turned, whereas in first person, the player holds it in FRONT of him, so the player can see his weapons. if the player had the same stance in first person as he did in 3rd, you wouldn't see the weapon at all since it would be off tot he side.

tl;dr, you can't fix this or change this. or rather, you CAN if you REALLY want to mess with the old school way of making models and learning how to make separate first and third person models, but i would STRONGLY recommend you not bother. i've seen your screenshots, and it looks fine to me. though i would add a tincy bit of emphasis on the wood where the darker bark part is cut away and underneath is revealed - just tracing the edge with a litle bit of a dark gradient would give a nice effect i think. did you add any ambient occlusion? that might also help.

[pyronaut]

Hi I'm new, I've been following the tutorial and got stuck at the end when GUIStudioMDL gives me an error. HellJumper says it's common to have errors on your first hat, but doesn't say what to do if it happens. So I decide to start over again, be more meticulous with the steps and if the same error reoccurred, I'll post it here. However, I now can't unwrap properly, and I'm really confused because I was able to do this the first time around.

I marked the seams like so: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6083795/Scr...20%2821%29.png

But they unwrap like this: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6083795/Scr...20%2820%29.png

Could anyone help me?

[KRosen]

Originally Posted by pyronaut

Hi I'm new, I've been following the tutorial and got stuck at the end when GUIStudioMDL gives me an error. HellJumper says it's common to have errors on your first hat, but doesn't say what to do if it happens. So I decide to start over again, be more meticulous with the steps and if the same error reoccurred, I'll post it here. However, I now can't unwrap properly, and I'm really confused because I was able to do this the first time around.

I marked the seams like so: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6083795/Scr...20%2821%29.png

But they unwrap like this: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6083795/Scr...20%2820%29.png

Could anyone help me?

what error did guistudiomdl give you? we can't actually help unless you tell us what is wrong.

[pyronaut]

Originally Posted by KRosen

what error did guistudiomdl give you? we can't actually help unless you tell us what is wrong.

The error was this:

qdir:    "c:\users\fox\documents\blender\output\"
gamedir: "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\bergotte\team fortress 2\tf\"
g_path:  "C:\Users\Fox\Documents\Blender\output\pyroblender.qc"
Building binary model files...
Working on "pyroblender.qc"
ERROR: c:\users\fox\documents\blender\output\pyroblender.qc(3): - could not load file 'C:\Users\Fox\Documents\Blender\output/pyroblender.smd'
ERROR: Aborted Processing on 'player/items/pyro/hat_first.mdl'
WARNING: Leaking 1 element

And then I asked on Reddit, tried the compiling thing again and got this:

qdir: "c:\users\fox\documents\blender\output\"

gamedir: "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\bergotte\team

fortress 2\tf\"

g_path: "C:\Users\Fox\Documents\Blender\output\hatBlendTexture.qc"

Building binary model files...

Working on "hatBlendTexture.qc"

SMD MODEL C:\Users\Fox\Documents\Blender \output/hatBlendTexture.smd

SMD MODEL C:\Users\Fox\Documents\Blender\output/idle.smd

ERROR: cannot find bone handle for bbox

ERROR: Aborted Processing on 'player\items\pyro\pyro_plunger.mdl'

If it helps, here's all the files: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6083795/Blender.zip


But regardless of what I did wrong the last time, I'd also like to know why the seams aren't unwrapping as they should.

[ReznorsRage]

Thank you much for the help on that one that makes complete sense seeing it broke down like that. It was driving my brain a bit crazy so again, thank you. I asked another moder their experience and they basically came up with the same thought. I also tried a different weapon (scottish handshake) to see if it was the same and it seems to be across models. I'm sure if picked Valve would find a way to have the correct rotation. I'll be posting soon so keep your eyes out!

Originally Posted by KRosen

alright, i think i know your problem.

so heres the deal. way back when, and if you program you can understand, there used to be multiple sets of models.

you would have the world view, which is what was on the ground, youd have the 3rd person view, which is what you see other people running around with, and you have the first person view, which is optimized and made just for the player holding it.

the right way to make a model at the LEAST is to have separate 3rd and 1st person views - HOWEVER, you can't actually do that anymore.

you get optimizations and can do neat tweaks on first person, but as far as i know, you can't do that anymore, atleast not using valve's itemtest system (you probably still can hack it if you know what you are doing)

The obvious issue this gets to, is that even though you ALWAYS make a combination 3rd/1st person model (which i dont necessarily disagree with, since by default your 3rd person will get more detail than it used to), the reality is, the models for the players first person and 3rd person are still separate.

The reason this is relevant is because while they use the same "bones" as in, the software still clicks the weapons together correctly, the relationship between the bones on the skeleton are different between the two models (that is, the 1st person hands and the 3rd person model)*[see: my note at the bottom]

to demonstrate, here is a picture.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=128792194

Take note - the player (THAT'S ME!) holding a pain train, the nail/rail spike is facing to the players left.

Now take note at which direction the other soldier is holding his - it is facing to the soldiers right.

to further demonstrate this, look at this same screenshot with sv_cheats 1; third_person 1 enabled.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=128792561

the point here is that this isn't something that is broken. this is how it was intended.


*[note]: the bones they use MIGHT actually be the same, however the idle animation stance that the 3rd person uses has his arms raised almost like a crazy gorilla, where the arm is turned, whereas in first person, the player holds it in FRONT of him, so the player can see his weapons. if the player had the same stance in first person as he did in 3rd, you wouldn't see the weapon at all since it would be off tot he side.

tl;dr, you can't fix this or change this. or rather, you CAN if you REALLY want to mess with the old school way of making models and learning how to make separate first and third person models, but i would STRONGLY recommend you not bother. i've seen your screenshots, and it looks fine to me. though i would add a tincy bit of emphasis on the wood where the darker bark part is cut away and underneath is revealed - just tracing the edge with a litle bit of a dark gradient would give a nice effect i think. did you add any ambient occlusion? that might also help.