creating a material

[Master chief]

OK due to some post by other iv come to the conclusion that textures most likely wont do it for me( note there was nothing wrong with the post they just steered me in a new direction)

 

so i need to know how to make materials, any help would be nice

[Sacman]

First Search the forums:

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showforum=46

 

Second you might want to also try simbiont which offers some great looking materials that are ready to use.

 

http://www.darksim.com/html/simbiontam.html

 

Keep in mind that Materials, while resolution independent, will significantly increase render times as opposed to decals. It's a trade off which you may not be willing to make depending on what you are doing.

 

Oh yeah, I believe there is an excercise in TAoM for materials about making a marble material but it has been a long time since I looked at it.

 

Wade

[Caroline]

Materials are way fun. Complicated, and take time to render, but fun.

 

Start with exercise 16 marble in TaoA:M. That is a good introduction to materials.

 

Then examine the materials that came with A:M. Dissect them and check out how they combine attributes.

 

Then search for johnl3d's posts, because he puts up a material nearly every time, and dissect them.

 

Basically a material consists of attributes. Attributes just contain the surface properties that can be applied to groups in a model. But you can combine the attributes in interesting ways, using Material Combiners, which can also contain attributes and combiners.

 

This page from the manual explains Material Combiners well:

http://www.hash.com/Technical_Reference/Cu...t_Combiners.htm

 

Tutorial from Yves Poissant on Combiners:

http://www.ypoart.com/tutorials/materials/index.php

 

And a "wow, hold onto your brain" tutorial by Yves, to create wood grain:

http://www.ypoart.com/tutorials/wood/index.php

 

The other material textures are listed here:

http://www.hash.com/Technical_Reference/Cu...ure_Plugins.htm

 

Simbiont testing done here so you can see what is the result of the free Darktrees:

http://www.pixelburg.com/am_materialtest/d...nt21/index.html

[photoman]

For my upcoming tutorial series (See preview in tutorial section) I plan to do a tutorial on realistic make it yourself materials. Basically using GIMP to create maps and use plugin attributes to map them to objects. Keep and eye open for them in the next week or so

 

Photoman

[Helojammer]

the web tutorial on the wod blank was very helpful, Thanks so much for putting it up. that said I read over it but have not as of yet the skill to complete it, there are some tools I am still learning to use. but I will be attacking this tonite. I have seen some very well done models of space ships that I cant seem to duplicate I suspected that there must be a texture I am not applying to get the effect I want, but I also believe there is a tool I am not using to get the edge look, could this be beveling? thanks for your response. Helojammer.

[johnl3d]

When you say material there are decals or the various combiners etc readily availlable in the Hash library by adjusting the settings you can get a variety of results

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=33985

[Caroline]

but I also believe there is a tool I am not using to get the edge look, could this be beveling?

All the "best" modellers do plenty of bevelling. There is no bevelling tool as such, just add extra splines where the bevel should be.

 

You could put up images and wireframes of your spaceship and what you want it to look like, so that we can be more specific. I doubt it is a material that you are missing.

 

Coincidentally, Yves also has an article discussing bevelling on his site:

http://www.ypoart.com/tutorials/bevels/index.php

[Helojammer]

Hey guys thanks for getting back to me on this subject. The space ship I have seen is the Star wars WIP posted on the Hash site it would be the Jedi star fighter. I can get a good squared image but it never even looks close. I will upload what I have of a tail fin on the imperial shuttle tonite as I am on company time in about 20 min. and open it up for your critique. I have had the software for a couple of years but my computer was EXTREAMLY limited, I am sure it said Lisa on it somewhere, I have a new windows based system now and I am very new to Am and it is the only software I have ever used for Modeling or animation. I have been working on the tutorials and learning everything I could there are a lot of post so I have tried to stay focused on what looks like the direction I am going. Either way any info you pass along will be appreciated, thanks.

[Helojammer]

Alright I am able to upload those pics so any critique is helpful. I didn't know how to save it as a Jpeg, it is the tail fin of the Imperial shuttle. I was wanting the same effect that the Jedi Star fighter has, it was in the WIP files on the Hash site I would upload the pic but was afraid people might mistake my intentions. either way let me know what you think. Thanks Helo.

Shuttle_tail.mov

[robcat2075]

but I also believe there is a tool I am not using to get the edge look, could this be beveling?

There is no bevelling tool as such, just add extra splines where the bevel should be.

 

There's a brief vid about building bevels into your shapes on my tut page (link in my sig).

[Caroline]

it is the tail fin of the Imperial shuttle.

It's hard to tell from this how it is built (it looks fine to my inexpert eyes).

 

I didn't know how to save it as a Jpeg

The most useful for diagnosis is a screen capture of a shaded wireframe (that's 0 on the main keyboard, not numpad). If you are on Windows, do shift+Prt Scr, then go into your image editing application (I use Irfanview for that), and paste it, then crop the picture down to what is useful, then save it. I don't know how to do it on a Mac.

[Rodney]

There's a brief vid about building bevels into your shapes on my tut page (link in my sig).

 

Thats a nice collection of Tutorials Robert.

Very useful stuff so I hope people are paying attention.

[Helojammer]

Thanks so much I will def use the tutorials and see if I can't post something worth looking at. again thanks everybody for the input. Helo out.