Posts by twiz

  • Putting a light inside a model.. doesn't look right.

    Okay, so I made this purty model and finally got it compiled(Rick_D did it for me THANKS!), and tried to implement it. I really doubted it would work in the first place, but I wanted to give it a shot. I'd like to see if you guys could help me get it to work. The idea is for some spooky lighting for my graveyard/crypt level I'm workin on. So I decided to make a skull that is mounted on a little stand that is attached to the wall, with a candle inside the skull. I've tried a bunch of different ways to light it, but it doesn't seem to work like I pictured in my mind. If I put the light inside of it, the light just goes through it and casts no shadows. I basically wanted to see a big shadow of the skull's face on the wall across from it. All it really does is light up the inside of the skull(like it should), but everything else is just lit like there is nothing there - normal light, no shadows. Am I doin something wrong, or does HL2 just not cast shadows from props? I was thinking of trying to build a little invisible box to help block some light(dont know if this is even possible), but the detail is just too high, it'll just turn out all blocky.

    I just had the idea of expanding the skull in Hammer and placing it near the opposing wall, then crafting some invisible, light blocking, no-clip boxes right in front of the wall. How can I go about doing this? Also is it possible to make these invisible light blocking brushes shake a bit, to simulate the look of a candle flicker?

    I'll get some pics of it in a few, it looks pretty terrible right now. The worst part about it is the light going 'through' the skull illuminates some faces on the outside that shouldn't be lit. In fact the areas lit should be heavily shadowed... I think the best looking result so far was to put a bright light inside the skull, to illuminate the inside like it should be, and a much dimmer very small light source right outside the skull, just so the skull isn't a silhoutte. I still have to fix those lit faces. I'm thinking of just eliminating that face from the model since its rather unneccesary.

    I don't think it looks good enough to use like it is though. I might just stick the candle on top of the skull and call it a day. I really would have liked the shadows, woulda gave it some great atmosphere, but its probably just not possible.

  • hammer css spawn problems

    I had the same problem when I only had a single CT and T spawn. I added a few more and the problem went away. I dunno if I messed up those first two spawns, or if it just requires you to have more than one spawn per team? How'd you fix your problem?

  • I cant' figure out this mdl compile error

    I've tried it using just studiomdl.exe, writing my own .qc, and with HL2 Compile Toolkit. I get this error when it tries to compile the mdl:

    The procedure entry point CommandLine_Tier0 could not be located in the dynamic link library tier0.dll. I get this error a half dozen times then it gives up. Can anyone help?

  • Skull model, suggestions anyone?

    Quote from Swifty-

    Texture itself looks already a little blurred, so i'd use my attention to making it sharper, skull isn't soft at all, should be more.. crispy? There's also lot of wasted texture space like ferret said, i guess it should be used effectively. The model itself looks nice to me

    I don't think there is, it's just the part in the skull which is lower, milkshape makes it look like unsnapped vertices.

    Yeah you're right, theres a recessed part right there.. just a funny angle. I probably will take that out in the final version. Unneccesary detail for its purpose.

    I will probably be using that extra space on the skin for the stand and candle. If I have room I'll make it bigger.

    It is for a map that is rather surreal and supposed to be shadowy/spooky, so I don't mind if it doesn't look 100% like the real thing. I'm going to play around with sharpening it.

    I made those cracks so light because they're supposed to be hairline cracks, they're not terribly visible on a real skull.. but it will probably look better if they are a sharp line. I'll work on it.

    Thanks for the suggestions!

  • Skull model, suggestions anyone?

    * WARNING - CONTAINS MILKSHAPE SCREENSHOTS *

    IF LIGHT BLUE BACKGROUND CAUSES NAUSEA, VOMITING, DIARRHEA, TEMPORARY BLINDNESS, OR INVOLUNTARY CLENCHING OF THE ANUS, IMMEDIATELY HIT THE BACK BUTTON AND FIND A THREAD WITH REAL SOFTWARE/TALENT

    Anyways, I made this skull model and skinned it. I'm pleased with the model so far. I still need to make the insides, that will be very simple though, since you're not going to see inside it well in-game. The model right now is excessive on the poly count(471, probably will end up around 650 with the insides), but I'm going to simplify it to get the count down. Theres a good bit of detail in there that I can mush out in about 5 minutes and let the skin do the work. Just wanted to make a nice model since I haven't made anything in years... brushing the dust off the old tool kit.

    Heres some pics.

    Flat shaded:

    [Blocked Image: http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/410421/original/skullflat.jpg]

    Textured:

    [Blocked Image: http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/410350/original/skull2.jpg]

    The skin:

    [Blocked Image: http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/410422/original/skullskin.jpg]

    Yes, the jaw and skull are mirrored on either side for the most part. I changed the crack up a bit going on the top of the head, but other than that they're the same. I didn't think I was going to have room to do two different halves, but it looks like I can crop it together to fit. I may do that, I may not. Its just for an in-game prop, not a big deal. I actually might need the space for another part of the model(I'll get to that later).

    The skin looks okay, nothing special. Rather boring, but I wanted a cleanish skull, no big holes or stains or anything.. just yellowed bone. But it still doesn't look quite right, and this is where I'm looking for suggestions. How can I make it look better? The skin just looks too flat, it doesn't seem to be the right texture.. but I'm a photoshop noob and I can't get anything to look better. Help!

    Oh and the goal for this model is going to be a lamp of sorts... I'm planning on modeling a simple cast-iron bar that comes off the bottom/back of the skull(spinal cord area) on a 45* angle and is attached to a wall. Stick a simple candle inside and you have a spooky lamp... Hopefully it works as good as I hope. Probably not though, I think I'm getting too fancy. Whatever.

    Oh a few more things. I know the upper jaw is missing teeth at the back. I noticed this after I added the jaw, and I fixed it on one side, but not the other... I then pulled the wireframe to make the skin from the opposite side, so my texture didn't match the fixed side.. I didn't have time to fix the skin so I just deleted the added teeth. They will find their way back in though.

    The model took me 2 1/2 hours, the skin took me around 6 or 7.

  • Post Your Pic Extravaganza 2006 ~~!

    Quote from ginger_lord

    How dare you drink Newcastle Brown from a can you heathen!

    I've always had newcastle in a bottle, I've never even seen it in a can. I saw it in a grocery store, and was like.. I gotta have that. Bought a 6 pack. Don't worry, I still have a bunch of bottles in the fridge!

    Its actually really good from a can. Don't know why, but its not any better or worse than a bottle.

    Dead... its coming. It takes me 3 weeks per poly, so maybe in a couple more years

  • Some new photos, including a toad and my house/yard

    Thanks! Yeah that 4th photo sucks, I thought it would turn out great when I was taking it, but it blurred and the colors came out crappy. I should have cropped out the bottom third of the picture, but I already had enough tree/sky pictures... I really just wanted to get that funky dead tree in there, but its hard to find a good angle on it that really shows what it is. You can tell its all weird and twisty, but I guess it has more charm in person. It kinda gets lost in the clutter of the forest. I'll try to find a better angle and lighting so it stands out better.

    I also thought the one with the moon would come out better. It came out okay but lack of a tripod made it kinda blurry, and the close tree came out blueish. I wanted the close tree to be a silhoutte. I also would have liked the colors of the leaves to stand out, they also got pretty blued. Oh well.

    I like the last one and the sunset one the best, although I now hate the border I put on the last one.

    I'm going to search for a good camera that won't break the bank, as well as a tripod.

  • Some new photos, including a toad and my house/yard

    Note, these are all photoshop tweaked, consisting of cropping and hue/saturation/lightness adjustments.

    First, heres the toad! He's crazy!

    [Blocked Image: http://www.turboslut.net/toad1.jpg]

    The toad was completely gray. I took the original color and cycled through the entire hue adjustment spectrum, and the toad stays the same!! Its freaky to watch all the colors change around him but he stays.. weird toad. He's also sitting on a leaf that is perched on a branch of a small bush, he's about 8inches above the ground in that photo. He sat there for 2 days, then disappeared... we spotted him later on in the same bush but further in, about a foot off the ground. I never knew toads could climb trees.

    Pictures of my house/yard...

    Front door and a chair:

    [Blocked Image: http://www.turboslut.net/house01.jpg]

    Yard:

    [Blocked Image: http://www.turboslut.net/house02.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.turboslut.net/house03.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.turboslut.net/house04.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.turboslut.net/house05.jpg]

    Enjoy!

    (p.s. I know my camera sucks, especially the 3rd and 4th house picture...)

  • Burnt building, okay photo...

    Okay, a little backstory on this one to make it interesting. This is/was a dunkin' donuts building near my house. Apparently about a week ago, people spotted a wire dangling from a telephone pole, which appeared to be a live wire. It was ~8feet above the ground. They called Connecticut Light and Power, but they didn't do anything for a few days... a few days later, a big wind storm hit, shook the wire free and it hit a parked car, which lit the car on fire... it lit the car next to it on fire, etc etc until the building itself caught on fire. It burned pretty good, not much left of it... as well as the 4 or so cars in the parking lot. The cars burned completely as well. Anyways, this photo was taken with a Canon digital Elph camera, nothing special. Pretty crappy actually. I was driving by with my dad, snapped a few photos as we drove around the building(car is a convertable ). I took a few not-so-spectacular photos, then this one I just kinda stuck my hand out and hit the button as we were rolling away. I liked it, the framing and content is actually quite nice.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.turboslut.net/burning.jpg]

    I did a little photoshopping, basically I stretched it out sideways a bit and edited the brightness/contrast/hue/saturation a tad.

    I can post the other photos if you're interested.