Guide Me

[ciao_gamer]

I have plenty of free time. Apart from the odd bit of homework or study the rest of my time is spent playing video games. So as this project needs some skilled members i will devote some of my time to learning the skills we need. The one problem is that i have no real idea what we need. So if someone can give me the specifics i'll do my best to learn 'em.

[Ysne]

Wonderful. We will take all the help we can get.

[Shiver-Tail]

1) Art. Like banners, etc.
2) Modeling:
Softimage/XSI:
http://www.noesisinteractive.com/xnabot/ (tutorial)
http://www.softimage.com/downloads/XSI_M...fault.aspx (download)
Blender:
http://www.blender.org/

[ciao_gamer]

I've downloaded both and I played around bit.
I'm getting the hang of modeling in softimage pretty quickly (Already made a baseball bat with a nail in it )
I'm having trouble installing blender but I think its starting to work.

[Shiver-Tail]

Not to be rude but F*** Blender... Softimage is way better. Basically it's 3ds but then slightly limited and easier.

[Lady Nerevar]

ive never used this softimage, but the advantage blender has over most other programs (maya and max included!) is its excellent exporters. because the program is open source it is very easy to develop for, and therefore its nif exporter can handle things, like animation, that others cannot.

[Shiver-Tail]

True... but then we're talking about the exporting plug-ins and not the actual process of creating an object. But anyway: "De gustibus non est disputandem."

[Lady Nerevar]

it doesnt matter how easy it is to create an object if you cant export it, or can only export it as an inferior format, because that then adds hours of work for other people and greatly slows down the production pipeline.

[Shiver-Tail]

Create it in 3ds and the export it trough blender? That doesn't slow it down much. 3ds --> .obj/.3ds --> Blender --> .nif

[Lady Nerevar]

im not too familiar with the .3ds format, but my guess is that it too doesnt support everything that .nif does, and would therefore need to be adjusted (if youre making a sword or armor, for example). furthermore, every export/import makes corruptions in the model much more likely, especially when it passes through several programs. if you have 3ds max youre better off exporting strait from there since it has the tools necessary, but the above still applies to freeware programs.