Want to get into content creation, need some help.

[AMTRAKwannabe]

Hi, I want to get into creating buildings for my routes but need some help learning about creating textures and making buildings look realistic, I also need help learning how to apply textures in gmax, yes I know most creators would say to use blender but I found it too hard to use when trying to make something, I find gmax 800 times easier.

 

[davesnow]

I started with this tutorial, and went from there:

http://trainz.christrup.net/TRS/tut5.html

As far as creating textures, I had a 33 year engineering, graphic design, commercial art, and before that photography background, and I've always liked to draw, so creating textures was a bit easy for me. I use Photoshop and Illustrator.

Creating for Trainz isn't something you learn overnight--- or even in a year. It takes a lot of know-how, and I'm not even that learned yet. My stuff is mediocre at best.

Good luck,

Dave Snow

 

[Lendorf]

Regarding textures, if you posses a digital camera, you can create almost any texture you need. Look around the place you live, old wood, rocks, bricks, metal, rust, doors, windows, shop fronts etc. can all be created in most paint programs from the pictures one takes.

Re creating in a 3D program, start to learn in one that tickles your fancy, peruse the DevWiki how to export scenery items once created in it. Mindful, as pointed out above, you will not learn creating in a few days, one needs to be proficient in a 3D program first and then practice, practice and practice some more.

Lennard

 

[pcas1986]

If you take photos for use with buildings, make sure your image editor is capable of "seamless tiling" otherwise you will have problems getting your textures to look natural. You can look up seamless tiling on the web if you don't know what it means.

Your choice of 3D editors is entirely yours but GMAX's future is limited to say the least. Any 3D editor has a huge learning curve so you may as well start with one that is going to be supported.

Start with something easy. I suggest making a street sign is about as easy as it gets and you will learn a little about image mapping when you try and align your street sign image with your mesh. For example: go and photograph a road stop sign or give way sign and model it.

 

[dragonharh]

I use Gmax with and it works just fine with Trainz.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

I started with this tutorial, and went from there:

http://trainz.christrup.net/TRS/tut5.html

That's the one that got me started too! The only tutorial/s I was able to understand at the beginning. It's a shame that Jytte Christrup is no longer active in Trainz, she was nice to talk with and very helpful.

 

[martinvk]

Hi, I want to get into creating ... also need help learning how to apply textures in gmax, yes I know most creators would say to use blender but I found it too hard to use when trying to make something, I find gmax 800 times easier.

Welcome to the wonderful world of creating. I too still use Gmax and after all these years, still find it more than adequate to make the things I want.

Applying textures is easy, finding or creating good ones is more than half the battle. Doesn't matter how well you make your object, unless the texture is top notch, you pride and joy will end up look rather shabby. Spend some time really looking at things around you. Notice their color, is it uniform, is the surface smooth or rough, shiny or matte, etc.

See how objects are made of a combination of simple shapes. Consider how close you might get to your object in Trainz. If a detail is too small to see clearly, consider adding it to the texture instead of making part of the mesh.

The best way to learn is to just make a simple cube and apply a texture to it. Then start to make small changes and notice the results. Take notes of each change and what effect it had so that the next time you want to have the same effect, you'll know exactly how to recreate it.

 

[JCitron]

If you take photos for use with buildings, make sure your image editor is capable of "seamless tiling" otherwise you will have problems getting your textures to look natural. You can look up seamless tiling on the web if you don't know what it means.

Your choice of 3D editors is entirely yours but GMAX's future is limited to say the least. Any 3D editor has a huge learning curve so you may as well start with one that is going to be supported.

Start with something easy. I suggest making a street sign is about as easy as it gets and you will learn a little about image mapping when you try and align your street sign image with your mesh. For example: go and photograph a road stop sign or give way sign and model it.

To echo what Paul has said here, if the textures don't repeat properly, they can look like a really cheap patch carpet when they don't tile properly.

As far as making models goes, like anything else it takes practice and experience, and like learning anything go about it in small steps so you learn the fundamentals. Once you learn the steps you can then go on and make more complicated things.

John

 

[oknotsen]

Hi Amtrak,

Happy to read you jumped in! This world can never have enough content creators.

in gmax, yes I know most creators would say to use blender but I found it too hard to use when trying to make something, I find gmax 800 times easier.

I would not be surprised most creators do not use Blender.
That's why I wonder what the outcome will be of the poll and what will be done with the outcome.

 

[nicky9499]

http://www.cgtextures.com/

 

[WindWalkr]

I would not be surprised most creators do not use Blender.
That's why I wonder what the outcome will be of the poll and what will be done with the outcome.

So far, there's a reasonable split of people between Blender, GMAX, and the various editions of MAX.


We're considering which tool(s) to support, moving forward. Here's what we've got so far:

* GMAX users will probably not convert to MAX due to the pricing.
* GMAX is long discontinued, so it's not an option.
* MAX is what we've supported in the past, but it's expensive both for us and for our users.
* Blender is free for our users, and is expected to be significantly cheaper for us to support over time.
* Some users of the other products are willing to switch to Blender. Some are not.

chris

 

[oknotsen]

Thanks for the feedback, Chris!
Happy to read I don't have to prepare for switching from Blender to another tool. Learning Blender (so far) was a whole experience already :hehe:.

Just curious, but what is the expensive part for you on supporting MAX?

 

[Jananton]

Yup, this is welcome news indeed. Apart modeling, blender can be tailored to your specific needs with reasonable effort without expensive licenses and such, it just might take some sweat and gray matter input. :hehe:

Greetings from cloudy Amsterdam,

Jan

 

[matruck]

considering

Being the big word here. I certainly wont be going anywhere near Blender free or not.
Cheers Mick.

 

[WindWalkr]

Just curious, but what is the expensive part for you on supporting MAX?

They tend to break plugin support with every new version. This means we need to spend time rebuilding the exporters every year (to stay up to date) or at least every 2-3 years (if we don't mind not supporting the current version.)

While it's not exactly a difficult task, when you're talking about something that is only touched briefly with very long intervals in between, the overhead of setting up an appropriate development environment, getting up to speed on the code, figuring out what (if anything) needs changing, and then testing on every supported version of Max, can become quite expensive.

Since it brings no benefits whatsoever (at the end of all this, we're just back to square one: "yeah, we have an exporter for the current version of Max") this isn't an ideal use of our resources.

chris

 

[pcas1986]

...
I would not be surprised most creators do not use Blender.
...

I use Blender and happily provide support and tutorials for those who choose it. But I stand by my earlier statement that you can choose whatever you like. I am puzzled by those who say that GMax is easier than Blender because I found the opposite to be true. So when I chose Blender over GMax it was a "no brainer". The difficulty I found was the concept of 3D modelling and the concepts that came with it. That is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to content creation. Unless you are gifted, which I am not, it can be hard work but immensely satisfying.

The other Blender advantage, of sorts, is the ability to compile Blender from the source code which I managed to do for the first time just before Christmas. So, in theory, I have the power to make my own version if I so choose.

 

[Barry]

So far, there's a reasonable split of people between Blender, GMAX, and the various editions of MAX.


We're considering which tool(s) to support, moving forward. Here's what we've got so far:

* GMAX users will probably not convert to MAX due to the pricing.
* GMAX is long discontinued, so it's not an option.
* MAX is what we've supported in the past, but it's expensive both for us and for our users.
* Blender is free for our users, and is expected to be significantly cheaper for us to support over time.
* Some users of the other products are willing to switch to Blender. Some are not.

chris

Blender will export to several differnt file types and in addition to the blend files which I use for my Game Engine maritime routes I have used direct.x, obj and vrml2 when exporting to some of different simulators I have used, and also it is very well supported. Also the basics are easy to get started with for newcomers in my opinion as regards making meshes up to 12 miles.

Barry

 

[norfolksouthern37]

I am not happy with how that sounds at all. I would rather chop off my own fingers than learn a new software package... I already use so many.

 

[AMTRAKwannabe]

Thanks for all the help, I will start with the tutorial mentioned, move onto some signs and small structures and go from there.

 

[pcas1986]

I am not happy with how that sounds at all. I would rather chop off my own fingers than learn a new software package... I already use so many.

You want to chop off your fingers because you use too many? Two finger typists need only two.



Sorry, I couldn't resist. :hehe: