TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
Moderators: Necrolis, Nefarius
- NewbieModder
- Angel
- Posts: 681
- Joined: Fri May 31, 2002 4:41 am
- Location: Where the floating goats sing...
- Contact:
TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
Figured i'd write a tutorial. Many thanks to the Animation Conversion Tutorial, which I couldn't write this without.
TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
You should (and will need to) read the Animation Conversion Tutorial by Joel, Nefarius, and Alkalund first. It helps to get a grasp of the direction system and setting up the GIF and such. It is recommended you read this tutorial once-thru before following it.
Step 1: Make your model. Remember, It will be rendered small.
Don't make it so detail-crammed that it looks like a blob at a small size. When/if animating your model, take into account the fact that you can either do COF/animdata editing to use your own framecounts, or simply match the existing framecounts you will be replacing.
Step 2: Arrange your model for rendering.
Set up an isometric viewpoint (In anim8or, it's an ortho view.)
Now, the model will be rotated often. You need to set it up as such. (at least 8 times for monsters, 16 for chars, and such).
There are two options to make it rotate easily; pick whichever is easier in your editor.
Method 1: Rotate the camera between renderings, while keeping the angle isometric. Make sure that any lights you have rotate as well! The complexity of lighting makes this a more difficult method.
Method 2: Rotate the object (grouping it in a group or childing it in a null object first) between renderings. This one is easier for me.
The model should, at first, be facing direction 0 in Diablo II (Which is facing the bottom-left corner of the screen)
Step 3:: Render your model's first direction, first mode.
There are a few formats you can render in; they all end up about the same, although some lose color quality (Of course, Diablo II is a 256 color game, so it's somewhat moot of a point)
You can render it as a GIF, AVI (this is the only choice for some), or individual BMP's. The render size must be under 256x256, unless you're making a multiple-part animation, in which each part must be under 256x256. Realize that act bosses aren't much over 256x256 in total.Make sure you're rendering the whole animation and that everything is OK. It's best to preview your render before advancing to the next step. Make sure the background color ISN'T even close to anything in your model, and it should optimally be 170,170,170, or else your model might get semi-transparent and look horrible.
Step 4: Rotate your model to the next direction.
Rotate either your model or the camera so it faces the upper-left corner. This is a 45-degree change. It is now facing Direction 1 ingame. Render it the same way you did in Step 3.
Keep repeating step 4, rotating it each time, until you finish direction 3 (facing bottom-right). Then rotate it so it faces straight down (direction 4), and repeat the same steps, stopping again at direction 7 (right). For monsters, this is where you stop. For chacters and missiles, refer to the Animation Conversion Tutorial for the remaining directions.
Step 5: Assembling it all. Use GIF Movie Gear to open your first direction. (It may be import for AVI animations) Then, append direction 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and so on. Before saving it as a GIF, check a few things. Is the framecount a logical number? (Such as 128 frames). If you get a weird framecount, such as 83, then something's wrong. Find what direction(s) are the problem, and fix them. Then (this next few sentances is in the Animation Conversion Tutorial) optimize the animation, with the following checked:
Shrink palettes (global and local)
Remove local palettes
Create a global meta-palette
Shrink frames to smallest needed rectangle
Then unoptimize, set transparent color, and make sure it's "Background Color" before drawing next image
Then save the GIF.
Step 6: Convert the GIF to a DCC.
Everything is set up in the GIF, so open CV5, save it as a .DCC, do offsets, and give it the right filename!
Step 7: Doing the other modes.
You will need to repeat steps 3-6 for any other animation modes you have.
Give it the right filename and folder, do Animdata/COF editing if needed (which is described in the Animation Conversion Tutorial), and check it out! Any assertion errors are, again, described in the Animation Conversion Tutorial. However, here's some errors specific to 3d modeling:
1) Part of my image is transparent!
This means that your background color and part of your image are two closely matched; they get merged in the palette as one entry.
2) My background ISN'T transparent!
You didn't set the transparency color properly in Step 5
3) My monster walks backwards or oddly!
The directions are arranged in the wrong order.
TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
You should (and will need to) read the Animation Conversion Tutorial by Joel, Nefarius, and Alkalund first. It helps to get a grasp of the direction system and setting up the GIF and such. It is recommended you read this tutorial once-thru before following it.
Step 1: Make your model. Remember, It will be rendered small.
Don't make it so detail-crammed that it looks like a blob at a small size. When/if animating your model, take into account the fact that you can either do COF/animdata editing to use your own framecounts, or simply match the existing framecounts you will be replacing.
Step 2: Arrange your model for rendering.
Set up an isometric viewpoint (In anim8or, it's an ortho view.)
Now, the model will be rotated often. You need to set it up as such. (at least 8 times for monsters, 16 for chars, and such).
There are two options to make it rotate easily; pick whichever is easier in your editor.
Method 1: Rotate the camera between renderings, while keeping the angle isometric. Make sure that any lights you have rotate as well! The complexity of lighting makes this a more difficult method.
Method 2: Rotate the object (grouping it in a group or childing it in a null object first) between renderings. This one is easier for me.
The model should, at first, be facing direction 0 in Diablo II (Which is facing the bottom-left corner of the screen)
Step 3:: Render your model's first direction, first mode.
There are a few formats you can render in; they all end up about the same, although some lose color quality (Of course, Diablo II is a 256 color game, so it's somewhat moot of a point)
You can render it as a GIF, AVI (this is the only choice for some), or individual BMP's. The render size must be under 256x256, unless you're making a multiple-part animation, in which each part must be under 256x256. Realize that act bosses aren't much over 256x256 in total.Make sure you're rendering the whole animation and that everything is OK. It's best to preview your render before advancing to the next step. Make sure the background color ISN'T even close to anything in your model, and it should optimally be 170,170,170, or else your model might get semi-transparent and look horrible.
Step 4: Rotate your model to the next direction.
Rotate either your model or the camera so it faces the upper-left corner. This is a 45-degree change. It is now facing Direction 1 ingame. Render it the same way you did in Step 3.
Keep repeating step 4, rotating it each time, until you finish direction 3 (facing bottom-right). Then rotate it so it faces straight down (direction 4), and repeat the same steps, stopping again at direction 7 (right). For monsters, this is where you stop. For chacters and missiles, refer to the Animation Conversion Tutorial for the remaining directions.
Step 5: Assembling it all. Use GIF Movie Gear to open your first direction. (It may be import for AVI animations) Then, append direction 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and so on. Before saving it as a GIF, check a few things. Is the framecount a logical number? (Such as 128 frames). If you get a weird framecount, such as 83, then something's wrong. Find what direction(s) are the problem, and fix them. Then (this next few sentances is in the Animation Conversion Tutorial) optimize the animation, with the following checked:
Shrink palettes (global and local)
Remove local palettes
Create a global meta-palette
Shrink frames to smallest needed rectangle
Then unoptimize, set transparent color, and make sure it's "Background Color" before drawing next image
Then save the GIF.
Step 6: Convert the GIF to a DCC.
Everything is set up in the GIF, so open CV5, save it as a .DCC, do offsets, and give it the right filename!
Step 7: Doing the other modes.
You will need to repeat steps 3-6 for any other animation modes you have.
Give it the right filename and folder, do Animdata/COF editing if needed (which is described in the Animation Conversion Tutorial), and check it out! Any assertion errors are, again, described in the Animation Conversion Tutorial. However, here's some errors specific to 3d modeling:
1) Part of my image is transparent!
This means that your background color and part of your image are two closely matched; they get merged in the palette as one entry.
2) My background ISN'T transparent!
You didn't set the transparency color properly in Step 5
3) My monster walks backwards or oddly!
The directions are arranged in the wrong order.
Last edited by NewbieModder on Tue Jul 22, 2003 10:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
[align=center]
Tyromancy:
Divination or magic using CHEESE - [/color]
[/align]
The Waffle Mod Website
Tyromancy:
Divination or magic using CHEESE - [/color]
[/align]
The Waffle Mod Website
- Paul Siramy
- Principality
- Posts: 2828
- Joined: Sat May 25, 2002 2:39 pm
- Location: La Garenne Colombes (near Paris)
- Contact:
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
[quote=NewbieModder";p="116349"]Method 1: Rotate the camera between renderings, while keeping the angle isometric. [/quote]
You don't talk about lights in your tutorial, but if you use this method without rotating the lights with the camera, we'll see a little problem
You don't talk about lights in your tutorial, but if you use this method without rotating the lights with the camera, we'll see a little problem
DT1 Tools - DS1 Editor - MPQ list file - Extracting D2 Animation - Adding ANY Monsters and ANY Objects to a DS1 - New monster color variations from scratch
In development since 16 Feb 2012 : MergeDCC v2
In development since 16 Feb 2012 : MergeDCC v2
- NewbieModder
- Angel
- Posts: 681
- Joined: Fri May 31, 2002 4:41 am
- Location: Where the floating goats sing...
- Contact:
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
Thanks for pointing that out! It's added now. I never use the rotate-camera method, but I added it for users of the free program anim8or (which does NOT have a heiarchy tree, so you must either move each element individually and risk messing up, or rotate the camera)
[align=center]
Tyromancy:
Divination or magic using CHEESE - [/color]
[/align]
The Waffle Mod Website
Tyromancy:
Divination or magic using CHEESE - [/color]
[/align]
The Waffle Mod Website
- 4ever~|link
- Paladin
- Posts: 122
- Joined: Mon Jan 06, 2003 11:47 pm
- Location: Kadena ABS, Okinawa
- Contact:
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
thanx for the tutorial modder, very helpful. could this possibly be sticky material?
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
Well, seems easier than with 3DS ... can anim8tor loads up 3DS file or meshes ? or does it exist any mean to do a convertion to have anim8tor read these files ??
"How much suffering, mortal, does it take before you lose your grace?"
Shadow Empire (coming soon) | forum
Shadow Empire (coming soon) | forum
- NewbieModder
- Angel
- Posts: 681
- Joined: Fri May 31, 2002 4:41 am
- Location: Where the floating goats sing...
- Contact:
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
Easier then with 3ds? How? Does 3ds lack a tree or something? I couldn't imagine that it would...
Anim8or can export/import .3ds files, but don't expect the textures to turn out too well. I'm not sure if it supports UV mapping.
Anim8or can export/import .3ds files, but don't expect the textures to turn out too well. I'm not sure if it supports UV mapping.
[align=center]
Tyromancy:
Divination or magic using CHEESE - [/color]
[/align]
The Waffle Mod Website
Tyromancy:
Divination or magic using CHEESE - [/color]
[/align]
The Waffle Mod Website
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
Well I only use 3DS at work during my spare time and I can't buy it ... so I was thinking to use anim8tor.
"How much suffering, mortal, does it take before you lose your grace?"
Shadow Empire (coming soon) | forum
Shadow Empire (coming soon) | forum
-
- Angel
- Posts: 585
- Joined: Sun Aug 17, 2003 12:42 pm
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
one thing that i didn't find mentioned: enable "don't anti-alias against background". i remember 3dsmax has that at least.
if you look at tyrael you'll see when his model ends it's all faded to black, which doesn't blend very well with his wings.
player characters(or just about anything) though don't have this effect and look much nicer(because the smart blizz folks used that option), which you'll want.
if you look at tyrael you'll see when his model ends it's all faded to black, which doesn't blend very well with his wings.
player characters(or just about anything) though don't have this effect and look much nicer(because the smart blizz folks used that option), which you'll want.
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
What you are saying is i create my caracter/monster in the anim8or and then i rotate it in diferent directions and i render them, in what order and i just simply rotate and render, rotade and render? and the background in the anim8or?
may the source be with you :p
-
- Crusader
- Posts: 73
- Joined: Sun Jul 27, 2003 8:32 am
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
Thank you NewbieModder! (You're not quite newbie ) I was looking for this, now all i have to do is get the graphics from the game Electro Torrets anyone?
- DragonBane
- Champion of the Light
- Posts: 410
- Joined: Fri May 31, 2002 6:16 am
- Location: Minnesota
- Contact:
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
Can you use gmax? It's probably my only options besides Anim8tor, and I hate Anim8tor.
"Cold be heart and hand and stone, cold be traveller's far from home."
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
This might be a dumb question but does this mean that you can import graphics from 3d games and insert them into d2?
Grab something from unreal and then port it over with your method?
Grab something from unreal and then port it over with your method?
- Alkalund
- Throne
- Posts: 7597
- Joined: Sun May 26, 2002 5:54 pm
- Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Contact:
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
[quote=DDDiablo";p="137320"]This might be a dumb question but does this mean that you can import graphics from 3d games and insert them into d2?
Grab something from unreal and then port it over with your method?[/quote]
If you can somehow get the animation 3D model from the game and have the software to render it, then yes, you can do it.
Grab something from unreal and then port it over with your method?[/quote]
If you can somehow get the animation 3D model from the game and have the software to render it, then yes, you can do it.
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
Epic (the creators of unreal) released all the character models and their animations for UnrealTournament2003. It might be interesting playing as one of those characters.
- LordOfMars
- Posts: 76
- Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 6:46 pm
- Location: Cary, NC
- Contact:
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
Interesting. Someone could make a high-tech futuristic total conversion of D2.
Would be a hella lotta work though...
Would be a hella lotta work though...
The Martian Warlord
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
Uhh, ops, wrong thread
Last edited by Scrute on Fri Apr 09, 2004 11:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- malice
- Paladin
- Posts: 137
- Joined: Wed Jun 19, 2002 11:01 am
- Location: Stage 5.0 (26 Dimensional Jump)
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
After lurking for so long, and giving this a lot of thought... I'm interested in creating a new character set, but I wonder just how many animations do you need, because I remember people posting about missing animations causing errors, and stuff like no animations = cannot dual wield (?).
Besides the basic movement animations, how many attack animations are there? Do I need to create separate partial animations e.g. for the head? Why? And how many? Special animations, e.g. jump, teleport, dying? I really don't want to do something half-assed.
Oh, and I probably should figure out what kind of colours should be in my palette, no? Are there any issues with that?
Besides the basic movement animations, how many attack animations are there? Do I need to create separate partial animations e.g. for the head? Why? And how many? Special animations, e.g. jump, teleport, dying? I really don't want to do something half-assed.
Oh, and I probably should figure out what kind of colours should be in my palette, no? Are there any issues with that?
" Because sooner or later, seeing his picture might make you have one. " - Avatar profile 1:1
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
A character animation is around 6000-8000 frames, so its a huge task to do a new character animation.
- malice
- Paladin
- Posts: 137
- Joined: Wed Jun 19, 2002 11:01 am
- Location: Stage 5.0 (26 Dimensional Jump)
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
A definitive number is nice to look at. It'd be best if I could find out where the current character anims are stored, so I can look through them and see exactly what animations are needed. What folders should I be looking into?
Yes, I do realize it's going to take a while. A LONG while. But we've already been here for a few years, a couple months or so shouldn't make too much of a difference
Yes, I do realize it's going to take a while. A LONG while. But we've already been here for a few years, a couple months or so shouldn't make too much of a difference
" Because sooner or later, seeing his picture might make you have one. " - Avatar profile 1:1
look in d2char.mpq in
data/global/chars/XXX
where XXX is the three letter code for class (ama,sor,nec,drz,ass,bar,pal)
data/global/chars/XXX
where XXX is the three letter code for class (ama,sor,nec,drz,ass,bar,pal)
"How much suffering, mortal, does it take before you lose your grace?"
Shadow Empire (coming soon) | forum
Shadow Empire (coming soon) | forum
- malice
- Paladin
- Posts: 137
- Joined: Wed Jun 19, 2002 11:01 am
- Location: Stage 5.0 (26 Dimensional Jump)
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
Right, thanks. I'll worry about the image format and other stuff later, I want to concentrate on the actual images. I'll go read up on all the tutorials first to keep myself from posting newb questions. See you guys later
Malice re-lurks.
Malice re-lurks.
" Because sooner or later, seeing his picture might make you have one. " - Avatar profile 1:1
thought i would add something useful to this ancient sticky. while trying to mod Oblivion i came across this free 3d editing program, has loads of features:
http://www.blender.org/
it also supports Python scripting (links to it somewhere on the above site), so anyone who is good at programming will (probably) be able to write a program to render from different angles, to make d2 animations from. if that fails it should be good for making d3 monsters from
http://www.blender.org/
it also supports Python scripting (links to it somewhere on the above site), so anyone who is good at programming will (probably) be able to write a program to render from different angles, to make d2 animations from. if that fails it should be good for making d3 monsters from
Doom Shadows mod forum at Charsi's Forge
http://charsisforge.org/phpBB/viewforum ... dddbf78b31
Doom Shadows 0.07 download
http://www.filefront.com/17360669/Diabl ... 07BETA.rar music: http://www.filefront.com/15180117/D2XMU ... adows.rar/
http://charsisforge.org/phpBB/viewforum ... dddbf78b31
Doom Shadows 0.07 download
http://www.filefront.com/17360669/Diabl ... 07BETA.rar music: http://www.filefront.com/15180117/D2XMU ... adows.rar/
- Necrolis
- Throne
- Posts: 9125
- Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2006 1:22 pm
- Location: The Land of the Dead
- Contact:
[quote=Evilpanda";p="410109"]thought i would add something useful to this ancient sticky. while trying to mod Oblivion i came across this free 3d editing program, has loads of features:
http://www.blender.org/
it also supports Python scripting (links to it somewhere on the above site), so anyone who is good at programming will (probably) be able to write a program to render from different angles, to make d2 animations from. if that fails it should be good for making d3 monsters from [/quote]theres also milkshape, but atm the best tool for this is omens converter(a modeling program will never be the best for this, only for making the actual model)
http://www.blender.org/
it also supports Python scripting (links to it somewhere on the above site), so anyone who is good at programming will (probably) be able to write a program to render from different angles, to make d2 animations from. if that fails it should be good for making d3 monsters from [/quote]theres also milkshape, but atm the best tool for this is omens converter(a modeling program will never be the best for this, only for making the actual model)
Netiquette, Do you USE it?!?! | Nefarius' Fixed TXT Files | Terms Of Service
Blackened | Day of Death | D2GFEx
"What was yours is mine. Your land, your people, and now your life." - Lim-Dul, the Necromancer
Judgement is Final, Death is Eternal
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
theres also the XSI mod tools pack, which is far more powerful than blender or milkshape (its free), the only problem is that it requires a lot of processing power
11/1/08 - COTL; 5/10/09 - Angel; 11/11/09 - ArchangelAlthough done for our needs, mod-makers should like these changes, too.
Re: TUTORIAL: How to make a 3D model be used by Diablo II
Remember that monster directions come in this order sw,nw,ne,se,s,w,n,e (up being north left being west ect)!