tutorial: make HL2 props fit with your brushwork

[Pericolos0]

heres a little tutorial i've written for the insurgency crew a while ago, i thought i could share it cos one of these days someone is gonna ask how this can be done

This is just a little tutorial on how to make your 3dsmax models align perfectly with the architecture created in hammer.

It's really easy and you could have prolly found out yourself ;p

anyways.

I made this little building part in hammer, and i want the top to be a nice detailed tower, so it's best to have that modelled

first we'll setup 3dsmax's grid to fit with hammer's

in 3dsmax, go to customize->grid and snap settings

set home grid like this (multiples of 2):

alright now switch back to hammer. Export the brushwork you made to .dxf (not the entire map ofcourse ).

And import that dxf file in your 3dsmax document, like i did with the building.

for some reasons imported dxf's are always inverted, so just flip the normals

as you can see now, the model should align with the 3dsmax grid perfectly.

You can quickly unwrap it if u need the textures to align with the extra bits of architecture you're gonna model.

I modelled this thing at the top

thats pretty much it. Delete the brushwork model now, make sure the modelled architecture aligns to the grid and has a nice origin, and export it.

It should fit perfectly with your brushwork in hammer now

pretty easy and fast working method for me. import the rudimentary architecture, spice it up, and reimport the mesh parts ;p. It's also a good idea to make your mesh parts in such a way that you can reuse them in different parts of the map.

you can also use the same texture for both model and brushwork in hl2, just make a new vmt for it.

[st0lve]

good tutorial peris~

I think the origin part is the most important thing with the models, you should have it on an perfect '8 if you understand me.

[KungFuSquirrel]

good tutorial peris~

I think the origin part is the most important thing with the models, you should have it on an perfect '8 if you understand me.

Origins are by far the most important part of a model. If you're working in a team where your artists don't understand this, you will cry.

An old Game Developer had an excellent article by Lee Perry a designer for (at the time, at least) Epic covering the UE2 static mesh system and logical origin placement for modeled props based on how you'd be using them. I.e. when to center, when to line up to an edge, when to line up to a corner, etc. Do they keep those archived online? Would be an excellent resource combined with this. Especially since Valve still hasn't added wireframe model rendering to the 2d views. Grah!!

[Pericolos0]

yeah another good thing is to press s when moving around your model for a proper origin, this way it'll always snap to the grid

[Fullauto]

Someone should compile all these pearls of wisdom Peri keeps spitting out

[ReNo]

Yeah, submit them as tutorials to snarkpit or something - just posting them in random forum threads doesn't make them too easy to find for the general population

[Pericolos0]

Yeah, submit them as tutorials to snarkpit or something - just posting them in random forum threads doesn't make them too easy to find for the general population

oh good idea

EDIT snarkpit wants me to 'check the spelling and resubmit'

fuck that shit

[SKULLHOZER]

Um, and how would one do this in Maya?

[hessi]

Um, and how would one do this in Maya?

i wrote a pdf on that a while ago.

here is a list of all my tutorials:

HL2 und Maya:

http://www.thomashess.net/exchange/tutorial_maya_hl2_workflow.pdf

setting up maya to work with hl2 exporter

http://www.thomashess.net/exchange/tutorial_maya_hl2_fitting_objects.pdf

fitting objects in maya (SKULLHOZER thats for you)

http://www.thomashess.net/exchange/tutorial_maya_hl2_tree_trunk_modelling.divx

modelling a tree trunk

http://www.thomashess.net/exchange/tutorial_maya_hl2_tree_trunk_modelling_leaves.divx

placing leaves on your tree

http://www.thomashess.net/exchange/tutorial_maya_hl2_tree_trunk_modelling_birdy.divx

pimp up ya tree

unsorted:

http://www.thomashess.net/exchange/tutorial_hl2_vertexalphafake.pdf

vertexalpha fake

http://www.thomashess.net/exchange/tutorial_hl2_vertexlighting.pdf

basics on vertexlighting in hl2

Photoshop

http://www.thomashess.net/exchange/tutorial_photoshop_hl2_detailed_shadows.pdf

tree shadows with high fps

http://www.thomashess.net/exchange/tutorial_photoshop_hl2_tree_texture.divx

creating tree textures

http://www.thomashess.net/exchange/tutorial_photoshop_hl2_tree_textures_resource.rar

reference images for tree texture tutorial

PS: feel free to link on this forum's thread whenever someone asks for the same stuff on other forums. i didnt found enough time to code a tutorial section for my website yet

[von*ferret]

we have a place for this in the engine help forum.

[SKULLHOZER]

Wow, thanks so much Hessi!

[Defrag]

KFS: I think Gamasutra has the tutorial you're thinking of (and it is indeed very helpful).