Both these picture look way better in motion. The stuff kind of blends together in stills.
Ever since classes ended I’ve actually had time to work on my animation. I got so much done its unbelievable. I’m currently at ~1:45 of footage, making this the longest video I’ve made since that snowy thing I did in high school. After that big rush of getting stuff done, I’ve taken a break from the hardcore, “schedule your sleep around it,” animating that I was doing last week, so I’ll get back to working on it soon.
I found a new toy that allows me to export EVE’s models. I’ve always been of the opinion that stuff in EVE is built stupidly large. So naturally the first thing to do is find out just how big EVE’s models are compared to something I’m more familiar with.
From left to right:
EVE Drone
Freelancer Fighter
EVE Fighter
Freelancer Freighter
EVE Frigate
Freelancer Cruiser
EVE Cruiser
Freelancer Battleship
Freelancer Battleship
EVE Battleship
I had been meaning to put this up for some time now. A while ago, after I had made the Freelancer Still Alive video I received a private message from a fellow Freelancer player about how I managed to accomplish the different effects and camera angles. I wrote back with everything he needed to know to create his own trailer in the same style, and he ran with it.
Fast forward some time, and he put out a trailer for the latest Discovery mod release.
This was not the only trailer that was done in the same style as my original Still Alive video. Since then, it seems like the majority of promotional videos for Freelancer mods have seen a huge increase in quality. What used to consist of simply gameplay footage with music in the background now became cinematic trailers similar to movie trailers. Needless to say I am pretty proud. One of the goals when I made that trailer was to raise the bar for player produced Freelancer videos, and while it is admittedly egotistical to say that I totally succeeded, I believe it.
Some time afterwards, I got another letter from the person who originally asked me for help. He asked me a series of questions and I enjoyed reading and answering them. With his permission here is the entire message. Some of it specifically pertains to Freelancer, but the rest is general tips on 3D animation in general.
How did you get the models in such high detail? Did you use the standard textures for Freelancer?
Those are all the vanilla models and textures. I haven’t changed anything at all from the game models. Granted I’m doing some fancy shading like bump maps and radiosity, but the models and textures themselves are nonetheless unaltered.
Did you import the model into Lightwave 3D or did you re-model it. (I know you added the missiles later)
Direct from the game. I imported them in Milkshape, and from there exported to Lightwave 3D. I didn’t remodel anything. The missiles are modified versions of the missile models ingame. If you read my blog, (This post in particular ) I make note that Freelancer actually includes many different missile models. In game, only one is used, and its tiny. All my missiles are various missile models scaled up and modified to look more conventional. Some of the designs were really wacky. The fuel tank is the only “original” model, and even then its just a hacked up torpedo.
Could you do a similar thing in Autodesk Maya. (This is what I use?)
Assuming you could get the models imported correctly, of course. Maya is (supposedly) a more powerful animation package, and many big name animation studios use it. Don’t ask me for help in it though, I’ve never used it.
Do you have any official 3D modeling/animation training? And did this take long to learn?
I have one year of formal education in Lightwave 3D that I had during my senior year of high school. However I have been messing with 3d animation packages in one way or another since middle school. (I’m not sure what meaning that has in your school system. I would say about 10-12 years old, I cannot remember to be honest.)
3D animation is something that takes a long time to become fluent in. It doesn’t help that it really is actually multiple disciplines in one. The modeling process in itself is a whole world, and the animation portion combines many aspects of cinematography. For your purposes, I imagine the modeling process is largely irrelevant. I personally find modelling to be the harder of the two. You have to be creative as well. You will often have to find clever solutions to problems that you run into when animating something.
If you plan on doing only the animation, the best advice I can give you is this: You must have an eye for detail.
When I watch movies, at the back of my mind I am always taking notes about scenes I liked, and why I liked them. Pay attention to the camera position and angles. Lighting in particular is key to making something look believable. When animating specific things (airplanes in my case) have watched references and taken note on all the little details of how an object is supposed to move and behave in its environment. It’s very easy to make something move oddly. No matter how realistic the model or environment may be, if it looks strange when it moves nobody will buy it.
Solo Wing Pixy skin for the Dagger. Spur of the moment project with no real goal or purpose.
Solo Wing Pixy is a pilot from Ace Combat Zero. “Well known for once having completed a mission and landing safely while his F-15’s wing was blown off.”
Even though I am on the Freeworlds: Tides of War team, I haven’t really done all that much since the initial combat prototypes. I heard that Sovereign fixed the Nebulon-B model that we had. I had always wanted to render it out, but the textures were mapped incorrectly. With the model fixed I finally rendered it out. While I was at it, I also imported the absurdly detailed, 150k polygon Star Destroyer.
And here is a bonus picture. I always had a gut feeling that the ships in Freeworlds were smaller than the vanilla ships even though the Freeworlds ships were scaled 1:1. Turns out there was some truth in it. It doesn’t really mean a whole lot, as there is nothing from vanilla Freelancer that is used in FW:TOW. Still some interesting trivia though.
I have been meaning to release the backlog of effects for a very long time. Here is a HUGE file with all the effects I have created since I stopped posting in the Effects Showroom. It also contains a ton of documentation, so everything is self-explanatory. I put a lot of time into the documentation.
Each folder contains the files in the effects pack, as well as documentation describing the effect itself and other nots such as its implementation.
This pack contains:
4 New missile sounds
2 New explosion sounds Associated code for said sounds
5 Resized missile models, including Torpedo
A new dummy model for use as a gun, munition, or debris
17 Missile and torpedo effects Each missile has its explosion slightly tweaked
Torpedo explosions completely redone (See Weapon Descriptions.txt for more info)
15 New explosions of various size and color
Includes ambient explosions and battledust Documentation for how to implement the more exotic effects, such as the ambient explosions used in Itano Circus and the battledust used in 88 Flak.
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Feel free to use and modify the work in this pack. Please credit me in the readme of your mod. I also ask that you send me a PM through The Starport, or e-mail me at bmh123@comcast.net to give me a heads up on its use.
Posted by why485 
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