Europe In ruins: Model Team/Work

[groundfire]

Hey Guys,

A couple of the players in EIRR have really expressed their interest in supporting the CoH modding community with new models and content.

One obstacle we face with our "in house" modding team is that we lack a dedicated individual to UV map and animate, so to compensate for our lack of talent, we are offering up the model files here for anyone who is interested in finishing the job. If you find it fit's your mod's needs, feel free to use it once it's completed.

If any of the larger mod teams would like to pick up one or two of these models as a project, we'd be most appreciative. Our portfolio isnt large and most of the models are non standard tanks and obscure projects, but we hope someone will find a use for them.

If your interested, please PM me requesting the 3dsmax files or anything that you may need.

Model Team:
Scotzmen
RoyalHantz

Here's our first project:

Canadian Ram MKII: This one is modeled with completed meshes, just a simple conversion of the Kangaroo and a custom turret.

[Khorney]

cool, can't help much but the model looks nice.

implementation wise, probably better off doing it as a mix with just the turret that just goes straight onto the kangaroo body (maybe have the 'cover up bits' as a separate mesh too)

saves having to reanimate the entire body

[groundfire]

I think that's what it is.

Im just in charge of passing along the information. It is just a model mix. :P
The maker said something about meshes and bones all correct, but it just needed animation and a skin.

[eliw00d]

If you have anyone on your team that is highly motivated, I would highly recommend going through Darkblade's excellent tutorials. I had never really worked on models or animation before, but after going through the tutorials and talking to Darkblade, Tankdestroyer and others, I was able to figure it out. To be honest, it's really not as hard as you may think. You will definitely need an animator, but to be completely honest, not having anyone that can UV map or texture are bigger obstacles in my opinion. We have a small community, and so we have very limited resources. But, I wish you guys the best of luck, it's always good to see more modelers.

By the way, why the Ram? I don't think any were used in combat. Not complaining, just curious.

[groundfire]

It was a test first model, an easy enough conversion.

[DMz]

try smoothing please, its hurting my eyes looking at it.

[groundfire]

That should be the final version of the relic roo chassis. I didnt do the model, but surely it doesnt "unsmooth" itself when you import the files into 3dsmax

[eliw00d]

@groundfire
Fair enough, it's a good start. If it's just the turret, you only need to have the turret bone from the Kangaroon, then just make your own barrel bones and you should be good to go.

@DMz
If they're just starting up, maybe they don't know how.

[DMz]

Okay okay,,, The second you import the rgm it screws up the smoothing, All the groups are lost, you will have to resmoothe the entire model. If youve not altered the chasis\hull you wont need to touch it because you can model mix, if you have you will have to resmooth the lot, to do it properly will take you 2 or 3 hours, with a plugin probebly an hour, as i havent seen one smoothing plugin yet that works properly. For now just select everything & goto the modifier list on the right side of max, bring down the modifiers tab and select smooth, it will at least make it look reasonable. After that you will have to smoothe individual parts\groups one at a time. Auto smooth will work to a point, but it tends to screw up curved surfaces and vehicals that have an opaque hull, and even with that you will still have to convert each part to editable mesh, then polygon, then clear all smoothing groups then autosmoothe, after that you can select individual faces on the part and resmooth it manually untill it looks decent.

[Darkbladecr]

and even with that you will still have to convert each part to editable mesh, then polygon, then clear all smoothing groups then autosmoothe, after that you can select individual faces on the part and resmooth it manually untill it looks decent.

This sounds slightly over the top =/ I think that sticking with the editable poly and manually smoothing is good enough with a normal map

[DMz]

Poly or Mesh doesnt matter which, what ever way you do it a whole tank will still take you 2 to 3 hours if you want a good result.

[Scotzmen]

Im not new to the whole 3ds max experince, i am to the COH modeling though. For you who dont recognize my name, and dont ventre into the dawn of war forums, Im also a modeler, coder and animater for the Imperial Gaurd: Brothers in arms mod, Elysian regiment. Obviously DOW moddeling is alot simpler then COH.

Regarding the model, i just imported the whole kang model and added a turret and added a few bones. But leaving the turret in a seperate scene also sounds good. I only actually discoverd you could do this when i messed with the sherman jumbo ABP file and in the OE. Im just curios as to what bones ill need for the turret. Is the bone structure the same on all tanks, so i could technically just copy a bone structure from a tank.

Is there anyway to import animations aswell.

[eliw00d]

Do you happen to have Steam? I am eliw00d on there as well, and could give you some advice if you'd like.

Are you able to UV map at all?

[Scotzmen]

Aye i do, and ill add you now. Im very graetfull for your offered help

Aye i know the basics but thats about it.

[eliw00d]

Were you able to add me? If not, what is your Steam name? I should be available this weekend to help if you need it.