verdite, need your gimp skills.

[Madison Lastrega]

Ain't that the truth about the teams.   I have tried to get my boys interested in game design since they are game nerds, but if Microsoft don't make it they don't want it. This is sad . I have offered to teach them Maya, including how to animate.. Alas they showed no interest . hell I had to wait till they left the house before I started to work again... And my daughter forget that..... She watches me work on Maya and she get bored within seconds.    So now its just team Joe ...... Oh well I will getter done.      :-)    and ben I will be sending the MQO and the texture for that zodiac.... Thanks and hey if you can , send a little text file with a walk through on what you did so I won't have to bug ya again:-)    I can boolean in Maya just fine on models that don't have intersecting verticies.    However even though I use meta for my final x conversion.... I have never learned a lot of the same stuff for meta.... I build in Maya , save as obj. Open in meta to texture and save in x. That's all I use meta for.....  So thanks buddy your a saint... If ever I can help you in ANY WAY..... I'm there you got it my friend :-)        .........ML


PS. John yes that single image was my inspiration for my zodiac...... In my version you start in the central chamber.... Only one door (Aries) will be open... Once you defeat Aries two portals will appear, one to take you the next chamber, or another to take you back to central chamber..... As you progress the main doors will unlock in central chamber, so one can renenter and open doors and chest that need keys from other chambers..... I am only using the comic as a rough, and I do mean rough outline for the story.... My game will look way different fromthe comic and already does.....   With the same story and similar devolpments......  I was going to use some art from the comics, but I got an artist, that is going redo a lot of the panels in comics, as to not have any problems with DC

[Madison Lastrega]

here ya go Ben, my Zodiac model, I was going to remove the non visable ble sides before posting this but it's only 700k so I said nah .... I will remove the non visables once it's cut...... and thanks again I hope cutting in Meta is as easy as it is in Maya.....   PS included is also the texture be sure to drop it in your Meta texture folder :)......................ML

[Verdite]

Okay Joe all done just look for SQS when finding them in the parameter > objects 
Theres an image to help you with the placement.

[HwitVlf]

Hope you don't mind ML, I checked it out too. I really love how it's not perfectly symmetrical. It gives it a subtle but significant natural feel. There was a thread here awhile back where I was "thinking outloud" that making lines slightly askew added a lot of realism without increasing poly-count significantly. I don't know if it was intentional, but your symbol is a perfect example. Cool 

[Madison Lastrega]

Thanks Ben, your the best.....     hope this rids the disappearing act :-)     

Thanks John for the compliment and yes the dimensions are askew as well as the slight differences in the zodiac symbols height... The reason was (1) I did this free hand in maya , and got lazy with my cubes and triangles, and did not use auto alliagment .  (2). I have torches on the columns nearby, and their light gives a more natural  shadow effect when hitting the symbols, sorta accident really , but I liked it so much just decided keep it as is..... The only left to do now that its cut. Is to remove the non visible faces just to reduce file size.... Now I can move on to map 02 sweet .... Thanks for the help friends................ML

[Madison Lastrega]

Ben my friend PERFECT..... how did you do the cut.... perfect.... Maya always messed up the symbols, meta seemed to make a perfect cut..... Nice anywho thanks again looks great and sets up perfectly .............ML

[Verdite]

Actually there was a bit of math involved and some manual alignments because there is a central section of the model that has 8 faces and isnt completely symmetrical, anyway I cut down the Z axis where there was no line to seperate the model, then on the X axis, then moved each section to new object, then took each piece and aligned it in the center with the move to absolute co-ordinate. Finally I made adjustments to the top right and bottom right pieces because they wouldnt align properly, I had to move them by a few 100s to fix them up.

Well you made some bamboo for me so this is my return thanks!

[Madison Lastrega]

You have gotten so good with meta.... I am proud :-)  hey if you need an animation done I can help.... Maya makes great movies .     till next time sir :-)  ........ML

[Verdite]

Hey Joe just wanting to give ya some know on metaseq renders... I noticed that some of your really nice looking models have a haze around them in the render, so look here for info on setting up a material for a good render. :)

Obviously too much specular can really spoil the render, use it sparingly :) if you want specular to 'spread out' better use the ambient option.

[Madison Lastrega]

Ya gotmme there, I do use the specular from time to time to much, I think it is because som can't render reflectives. To compensate on metallic objects I crank the specular up to produce some shine.... I also used it on my zodiac you cut for me to help with the light reflections.... Nice to notice I don't use it much in Maya, but then again Maya does reflective textures.... Hey that would be awesome if Mick could add an extension to allow reflective textures..... Then again to much mirror and you would be a ghost without a avatar to see in the mirror. LOL......:-)  ...........ML