Welcome to this
model tutorial. In the following tutorials I will
be using the MilkShape modeling program version
1.3.2). If you don't have this you can get it at http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft.
In this first
tutorial we will be learning about MilkShape(MS)
itself. Fire it up if you haven't already. Your
view should look something like this.
There could be
small differences. If you can't see the white
textfields with the numbers in them go to the
Windows menu where you check Show Viewport
Captions. It should now display the textfields.
Make sure that the views are the same as in the
sho t(front, left and top).
We start by selecting the box option in the menu
on the left and draw a box in one of the 2d
screens. Click and hold the leftmousebutton in the
3d view to rotate the box. Now choose Select(F1)
and then click anywhere in the 2view to deselect
the box.
You can zoom and pan the view in both 2d and 3d by
using SHIFT and CTRL. Hold Shift and drag the
mouse to zoom in and out. Hold Ctrl to pan the
view in all directions. You might have noticed
that zooming won't work. That's because you're in
the Select mode which uses shift for multiple
selections instead of zooming. Press the Move(F2)
and then try the zooming again. It should work
now. Zooming only does not work in Select.
Now for some basic
brush manipulation. Press Select. And in the
Select options click the button which says Vertex.
Make sure Ignore Backfaces is unchecked. Now click
and drag a box around the top points of your box
in the front view. It now should look like this.
Now select Move
again. Click and drag a bit in the 2dviews. You
can see that when you drag and release the
vertices the other views change too. There is a
undo option available. But it's number of undo is
limited. So don't rely on this. Revert the model
to it's original status again. Select the Select
button and deselect the vertices. Then check the
Ignore Backfaces. Now we will again click and drag
around the top vertices in the top view.
Although it appears
to be the same you can see in the other views that
it's not the same. When you move the vertices you
can see that only one edge is moved instead of the
entire top. Ignore backfaces ignores all the
vertices that are behind the ones in front. Which
vertices are in front depends of course in which
view you are selecting. Get the box back to normal
and deselect it again.
Now we press faces
in the Select options. Click and drag again. As
you can see it now selects the faces which make up
a side of the box. Moving this around has the same
effect as selecting all the vertices on the
corners of the side and then moving around.
Go to Move. As you can see there are move options
which contains three textfields. If you enter a
number in one of these textfields and then press
the move button next to it, the selected part of
your model will move over the distance and
direction you specified. Let try this. Replace the
0.0 in the X field with 10. And then press move.
Now your view should be like this.
When you are
altering numbers in these textfields don't press
Delete. You will delete your selection instead. If
you did this just press CTRL+Z to undo it.
As you may have
noticed the X,Y and Z are buttons too. Press the
move button again. The side will move another 10
spaces. Now press the X button so that's it
deselected and then move again. Nothing happens.
When you try to move the side in the 2views you
will notice that you can move along the Y and Z
axis but not he X. That's what these buttons do.
When you deselect these you can't move the
selection over these axes.
Now the Rotate(F3)
button. This is basicly the same as the Move
button. Only instead of moving you now can rotate
your selection. Experiment a bit with this if you
like.
Last we have the
Scale(F4) button. If you hideously deformed you
box in your last actions make a new one. Select on
side of it by either selecting the two faces or
the four cornervertices (remember to make sure that
Ignore Backfaces is checked or you will also
select the side behind the one you want). If you
click and drag in the 2dview now you can see that
you are resizing your selection. Make the side
smaller so that you will get a somewhat smaller
side then the other sides. This could look like
this.
The numbers in the
X,Y and Z textfields mean something different here
then in the Move and Rotate. Instead of a number
which depicts the distance you move something this
is more of a percentual number.
If you fill in 2.0 in all field the selection will
become 2 times as big. If you fill in 0.5 in all
fields it will become two times as small.
Experiment with this.
The next two
buttons are Vertex(F5) and Face(F6). These aren't
responsible for the manipulation of models but the
construction of them. Delete all the objects you
had and press Vertex.
Now set 5 vertices in the front view. Also select
Show Message Window in the Windows menu. Now we
will select Face. Press on one of the vertices.
The message window will now say something as,
Create
Face: vertex 3 selected (1. vertex in face)
Then select another vertice, the view will show
a red line and the message window says
Create
Face: vertex 2 selected (2. vertex in face)
Now select a third vertice thus completing the
triangle. Congratulations, you just made your
first polygon =) .Message window says,
Create
Face: vertex 4 selected (3. vertex in face)
No you have something that could look like
this,
If you turn the 3d view a bit you can see that
one side of the triangle is grey and affected by
shadow while the other side is black. The black
side is the backface of the triangle. This face is
not drawn in a game. MilkShape just shows this for
easier editing. Press with the right mouse button
and uncheck Draw Backfaces. As you can see in the
3dview the black side has become transparent. When
creating faces in this way you must take care to
form the triangles counter-clockwise. This makes
sure that the good side is in front. When you
create them clockwise the backface is in front. So
always counter-clockwise. Now connect the
remaining points. Make sure that the triangles do
not overlap each other. Check with Draw Backfaces
if all faces are facing the same way. If they are
not just read on.
When you have done this select a single face
(by pressing Select(F1) and
choosing face in the options) And then go to the Face menu
and select Reverse vertex order. With draw backfaces off
you will see something like this.
As you can see the face is now facing the wrong way.
Select Reverse vertex order again to get it right again.
The following buttons like Sphere and
Cylinder are just
basic shapes. The only thing you need to know about them
for now is the following.
Select Cylinder. As you can see in the Cylinder Options a
cylinder has stacks and slices. Slices is the number of
sides a cylinder has. The more slices the rounder the
cylinder is. Stacks is a way to get vertices in set places
in the cylinder. Fill in 6 in both fields and draw a
cylinder. This might look like this.
As you can see the cylinder has 6 sides and six stacks.
More stacks means more ways to deform and shape your
cylinder. But it also means more polygons. The same goes
for the slices. More slices looks better but also means
more polygons.
These were the basics of MilkShape editing. In the next
tutorial we will be making a simple weapon.
AshRain
