Making new Ships for Nova

I am new at making ships for Nova and I have Mission Computer 3.3.3..........
I was just wondering if anyone could tell me how to create the graphics for the ship and how to get it to appear in the shipyard.

For that you're going to need a 3d graphics program. Here's a few I got from a quick Google search of freeware 3d modeling:

http://sketchup.google.com/#utm_campaign=e...203d%20modeling
http://www.artzend.c...%20Programs.htm

Once you get a hold of a 3d program, you'll have to create the ship model. After that, there's the process of turning your model into the 2d graphics that Nova uses, which you can find tutorials on here under the heading "Graphics Tutorials" (second post).

This post has been edited by Archon : 21 May 2008 - 06:24 PM

blech, google sketchup... or you can use WINGS 3D, thats what i use

This post has been edited by guysullavin : 21 May 2008 - 07:46 PM

or blender.

You should probably go with what they said; I'm completely clueless on the subject.

Blender's a great free tool. I use Lightwave, which is actually pretty cheap for a student licence for non-commercial use.

@guysullavin, on May 21 2008, 06:44 PM, said in Making new Ships for Nova:

blech, google sketchup... or you can use WINGS 3D, thats what i use

And how do i get those graphics into the plugin using mission computer?

In general, you use a tool to convert the sprites from raw image data into an RLE encoded format suitable for Nova. On the PPC Mac platform , I use ResEdit. On other platforms, I'm actually not sure. To be blunt, I've never attempted it.

if you mean, how do you get the graphics from the 3D program, then you need to take screenshots or renders (ALOT for a spin) then export them, then edit them in Photoshop (or MS paint or whatever!) then save them as separate squares, then open those squares in SpinApp, then presto, you have a spin.

You need 36 images, plus another 72 for banking, plus some more for animated parts. (That's optional.)
Each one needs to be rotated 10 more degrees clockwise.

This post has been edited by Timmytiptoe : 23 May 2008 - 11:17 PM

The number of images is pretty much arbitrary, though 36 is standard for small-medium ships. Choose how many frames you want based on how smooth you want the animation to be.

If your render engine is bad enough that it won't save images and you need to take a screenshot, you need a different program. Blender is, indeed, the most capable freeware 3d graphics program there is. The modelling, texturing, scene setup, animation, and compositing features are all far more capable than other freeware programs. It is also highly compatible with a number of file types, and though it appears a little complicated at first, it is plenty suitable for a beginner.

advertising much?

Well, I find Wings 3D capable enough for me, plus I just don't have the time/energy to learn Blender

Yes, Wings3d is also a great modeler. I worked with it originally. I rarely use it anymore, but it was the first 3d program I ran into.

I'm not sure if there's much of an issue in advertising freeware. I like blender a lot, and think it works great for Nova ships.

since i had some free time on my hands, I decided to go and check out Blender, in truth, its not VERY different than Wings 3D, but it has more potential then Wings 3D, and if you were looking for a career in 3D graphic designing, then Blender would look a whole lot better on your resume. Now here i am, making fairly simple Objects, and glad that I tried out Blender, Thanks Crusader Alpha!

No problem. If you need any help with it, and if I'm around (sometimes I don't hang around these boards much, but I often do), send me a message because I'm pretty proficient with it.

@crusader-alpha, on May 25 2008, 05:14 PM, said in Making new Ships for Nova:

No problem. If you need any help with it, and if I'm around (sometimes I don't hang around these boards much, but I often do), send me a message because I'm pretty proficient with it.

Do you have an IM?

I generally use skype, in which I'm Crusader Alpha.

I have always gone with what I could find for free and originally that was Mechanisto but then Bryce 5.5 went freeware, that totally blew my mind and set me back months in my creation of ships as I revisited old ideas with this professional caliber program. If this program is still free I suggest getting it while you can as it is also good for making planets, and planet scenes; Photoshop is also a good tool.

To make a ship sprite render your ship at 45 degrees of top, as it rotates clockwise, make each frame 256*256 pix. 36 is average number of frames but more frames = smoother.

I used to then manually paste each pic file 66 in a large 15361536 file which was really labour intensive and completely unnecessary thanks to programs such as spinapp and Pics 2 Sprits available on the ambrosia homepage.

somehow make a 66 image and a alpha mask for that image, that is a copy of the 66 that in Photoshop you have set the levels so that any colour besides black is now white ( this is the roughest and quickest method to mask making, you can also rerender the ship as an object mask in Bryce and redo the last step for a much better image.

open mission puter, reld, new, import, set the fields for unused numbers within the proper domain as described here http://nevermore.uri...rceidguide.html

Create a ship resource with the same number as the shan resource, define fields.

Blast off.

Photoshop is ideal for making textures for your spaceship hulls and the internet is swarming with Photoshop tutorials.

enjoy.

This post has been edited by Imhotep : 28 May 2008 - 12:12 PM

Bryce is in no way professional level. No one in a real 3D graphics job would ever suffer through Bryce's dreadful placement and rotation tools.