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View Full Version : HeliDrone:Mapping Questions and WIP

Spex84
06-23-2006, 08:43 PM
I'm new to modelling, and working on a little experiment to familiarize myself with the process(Using 3Ds Max 8). This is an autonomous drone, inspired by Half Life 2 and my ceiling fan :) I have some questions, though:

I have the whole thing UVW'd to my satisfaction, but I'm not sure how to set it up so that separate objects use the same texture. I UVW'd each object separately, but I want the base and the drone to use one 1024 texture each. I'd like to rig the drone so the blades can spin, and the base so its "arms" can open.

1. Should I collapse the model into one object, pack my UVW's, and then detach the elements that I want to be separate objects? (I'm assuming that the moving parts need to be separate in order for the model to be animated (another topic I know little about).

2. Another Q: Back in the day, a helicopter's blades would just be an alphamapped disk with a "blurry blades" texture on it. Is that still how it's done? I'm not sure if just having the current blades spinning really quickly would produce a realistic effect.

Thanks for any feedback. For now, I'll keep messing with it until something works.
Here's a rough render and a quick collection of surfaces/elements I'd like to work into the texture.
http://chrisdrysdale.ninefires.com/sketches/hoverdrone06.jpg
Seebaer
06-23-2006, 09:30 PM
i would recommend to use 2 seperate objects (base and drone).

the texture thingy shouldn't be a real problem for you. as you said, collaps them, pack the uvw's and them detach.
the blades don't need to be seperated from the drone. just create 2 bones for the drone. the lower bone is for the drone body and the higher one for the blades. so you only have to animated the rotation of the upper bone and your blades will rotate also.

i think the second question is very engine specific. i assume that you should just test it. model the blades and animate them, and then try it with a bitmap. after that just take a look which variant is better in the engine....
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06-23-2006, 09:30 PM
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