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i use infini-d to make graphics, but i don't know how to spin them.. i'd like to get the shadows right and everything, but all i've been able to do is export the graphic and use makespin. could someone help me with this?
Divals
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First, group all the objects under an object that doesn't cast or catch any shadows, and isn't visible. Then, in the timeline bar, select 1 second in and rotate it 10 degrees. Next, select 2 seconds and rotate 10 degrees again..repeating until you have reached 35 seconds. Then, render the animation from the first event to the last event, rendering a frame every second. Then you can use m2s to change the movie into 36 sprites.
Open up your 2D graphics programme of choice. Find the dimensions of your single sprite, multiply it by six. This is the length of the sides of the full sprite image. Your sprite dimensions must be a mulitple of eight (ie. 16 x 16, 64 x 64 etc etc). Then paste your single sprites into the same format as they are in the EV/O graphics file.
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(This message has been edited by the Necromicon (edited 12-03-2001).)
i don't get it... an object that's invisible and doesn't cast shadows? you mean like a cube made of glass? also, what am i rotating, the camera, the glass cube, or all the objects in the thingy? other than that, it's as clear as glass...
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Originally posted by Divals the Conqueror: i don't get it... an object that's invisible and doesn't cast shadows? you mean like a cube made of glass? also, what am i rotating, the camera, the glass cube, or all the objects in the thingy? other than that, it's as clear as glass...
there are checkboxes for "visible" and "casts shadows" in infini-d, so you can do it that way, but i usually just link everthing to an object near the center of the ship (or whatever is to be rotated). if you have an object about which you want your ship to rotate, just link everything to it and then rotate that object. alternately, if the ship (or whatever) is going to be too small to notice shadows (or if it doesn't have anything which casts shadows), i find it easier to just put the camera at the top and rotate it
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Here's how I do it: Take a box and place it directly in the center of your scene (make sure you check the "visable" box, and re-name it as "spinner" for verification). Now, if you preview your ship in phong mode or whatever, that same box should not be visable. Now, go to the sequencer and link every object of your ship to the spinner object. Once this has been done, your entire ship should move whenever you re-locate the spinner object. Now, make sure your ship is completely centered. Play around with the camera angles, and find whatever angle you prefer (I usually make either top-down views or 2/3 and on a rare case, 1/2) Now, your ship's front should be pointing directly upwards. Take a snapshot, and begin spinning your ship at 10 degrees, taking screenshots before you add every extra 10 degrees. By the time you're through, you should have 36 snapshots. Preview your animation, and make sure you've made no mistakes during the spinning process (I often make the annoying mistake of leaving out snapshots). Render your animation at the desired pixel size. Once the rendering process is complete, drag your frames one by one into Graphics Converter or Photoshop, and piece them together. Also remember that all your frames should be a multiple of 8 in pixel size to function with the EV or EVO engine.
As for creating the mask, apply a basic color (white) to your entire ship, and turn glow on full. There should be no shadows visable on your ship. If this doesn't get rid of all of them, apply your lighting from directly above your ship. Now, render your animation exactly like you did your sprite. Copy the frames into whatever application you're using for sprites and masks. If there are still a few spots on your mask frames where shadows are visable, mess around with the brightness and contrast. That usually fixes the problem.
/Out of breath. Hope that helps you out.
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ok, i get it now except for one thing... how do i link things??? i've tried it so many times and it doesn't work... arrrghhhhhhhh......
Divals, j0
I find the easiest way to link things is to use the sequencer (command-4). You'll see a list of the objects in the scene and their eventmarks (key position/rotation/etc. points in time), but all you have to deal with is their names. Drag the name of one object onto another, and the object you just dragged will become the child object, and the other the parent. The child object is linked to the parent.
While the following info isn't needed just to spin a ship, it's useful: the linking can go on for multiple levels, called a hierarchy. An object can be child to another, and also parent to other objects. This is useful if you, say, make a gun, and then want to link the gun together so you can easily position it on a ship.
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great! thanks a lot, guys!!
'nother question... what format should i save the sprites as?
divals
PICT, I believe. If you have the option of saving to a PICT resource (older version of Photoshop let you do that), do that, it'll make it easier on opening in ResEdit (I think).
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If you save as PICS ( not PICTs), you can use the "official" tool (pics2Sprites) for turning the file into a spďn-worthy image, but that program has limitations, such as not being able to handle especially large spins. I've topped it out at somewhere around 192x192 per frame...that's why sometimes I have to assemble the frames by hand, copying them out of a PICS using GraphicConverter and pasting them into Photoshop. A pain, but it works.
The p2s or q2s tools made by Ralph (Roger? one of those two, I can never keep their names straight :p) supposedly work with larger frames (up to 400x400, I've heard) but I've not had much luck using them myself.
another question... how do i get the window size to change, and the graphic to stay the SAME size? the window's too small for the graphic, but the graphic enlarges too. and the zoom thingie messes it up...