Tutorial: Creating An End Table In Blender 2.5 Part 1-2

[cmomoney]

This is a series of tutorials which will take you through the process of creating an end table for The Sims 3 in Blender 3D. The series will cover the basics of cloning, meshing, UV mapping, and texturing an object and getting it in the game. Part 1 covers cloning to creating the mesh. Part 2 covers UV mapping.

Tutorial: Creating An End Table In Blender 2.5 Part 1 (http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Tutorials:Creating_An_End_Table_In_Blender_2.5_Part_1)
Tutorial: Creating An End Table In Blender 2.5 Part 2 (http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Tutorials:Creating_An_End_Table_In_Blender_2.5_Part_2)

Please post any questions and comments in this thread.

[cmomoney]

Part 2 is now up. :)

[Inge Jones]

Ok I have a question. I did your setting up tutorial first, and my screen when I open it now looks like it was meant to at the end of that tutorial. But when I come to do Part 1 of the meshing, I notice my screen doesn't look like yours does in that. The main thing I can see is that I have what looks like a bit of graph paper on the left hand panel, while you seem to have an options panel. How can I get from here to there? :)

[cmomoney]

The set up is the same as the tutorial, I just have the Toolshelf enabled in the 3D viewport. It's disabled in the tutorial pic. It is toggled by pressing T with your cursor in the 3D viewport. The 'bit of graph paper' has been cropped out of the pic.

[misukisu]

They are kind of a toggle panels that hop up. You can toggle the properties panel by pressing N and tools panel by pressing T.

Edit: Sorry for the repeat, I forgot to refresh before posting.

[Inge Jones]

Thanks :)

[leesester]

Hello, I am on step 8 of Tutorial part2 and I am having a few problems with the uv map of the top

See attached pic. I am not quite sure what has gone wrong. Can someone advise what I am failing on :)

[cmomoney]

Hmm, can you list what you did? I can't replicate that at all...

[misukisu]

In the discussion about the UV map problems in SimLogical, it was mentioned that there is some rule that things should not be mapped near the edges. Maybe your tutorial would be a good place to make this unspoken rule spoken out?

[cmomoney]

In the discussion about the UV map problems in SimLogical, it was mentioned that there is some rule that things should not be mapped near the edges. Maybe your tutorial would be a good place to make this unspoken rule spoken out?
I'd like to wait until we have confirmed the problem and the solution before doing that.

[Inge Jones]

Well, the rule has been in place since TS2 days - in sims modding you never map to the edge of your map. So even if the tool were to allow this, I am inclined to say it should be mentioned in any modding tuts that deal with mapping.

[orangemittens]

In the discussion about the UV map problems in SimLogical, it was mentioned that there is some rule that things should not be mapped near the edges. Maybe your tutorial would be a good place to make this unspoken rule spoken out?This issue has actually been discussed on several occasions in various threads in the meshing forum here at MTS so I wouldn't exactly call it an unspoken rule. ;) The recent change in the meshing process due to updates in s3pe/plugins/add-ons removed the part of the process where a warning message told creators they had invoked a UV Scales overflow if they mapped out of bounds.

This is why tutorials may seem deficient to a new person in not mentioning this...before they didn't have to mention it...the tools told new people something was up if they mapped in a way that would cause the problem. The tools are under development and, ultimately, this is going to occasionally cause existing tutorials to become outdated. Usually though, if you read back through the threads here, you can find something that is similar to a problem you're having to get the information you need. :)

[Inge Jones]

But why make a user wait until they think they are finished and are about to import their new mesh before finding out they *should* have done something different? I thought the whole idea of tutorials was to try and show people the right way first, so if they follow them correctly they should rarely receive a rebuke from a tool, nor a fiasco in-game :)

[leesester]

Hmm, can you list what you did? I can't replicate that at all...

Yes I am having more problems - I am not sure what is going on. I used the setup you listed in the setup Blender (except I already have a three button mouse so I didn't emulate it and changed the select to left-click as right click was driving me mad). On the first meshing step - align the top of the cube to the top of the target table when I press 0.8 for Z it NEVER lines up - so I did that bit manually. I also got a bit lost on the apply modifiers and ended up using an extra layer for the legs.

[cmomoney]

On the first meshing step - align the top of the cube to the top of the target table when I press 0.8 for Z it NEVER lines up - so I did that bit manually. I also got a bit lost on the apply modifiers and ended up using an extra layer for the legs.
On further inspection of the pic you posted, your tabletop has 1228 faces, 102 of which are selected. At that step in the tutorial, you should only have around 74 faces with 9 selected. How you did this, I don't know, but that's why you map looks that way. As for the cube top not lining up, I'd have to see what you're talking about to know what's wrong. Applying modifiers is just click the Apply button on the modifier you wish to apply. You have to do this because until you apply the modifier, you still editing the original geometry. The modifier is just showing you the resulting geometry if you were to apply the modifier. And that has nothing to do with layers, so you lost me there... :(

[leesester]

Not as lost as I am. I am going to uninstall Blender and then reinstall :) Then I will redo all the set up steps and start again. Its a great tutorial, I am just a tad thick. Oh, and Maylin looked at the model from the .blend file and said that somehow I had applied the mirror modifier to the top. That would explain the many faces.

[cmomoney]

Why unistall/reinstall? If you want to start from the default just go to File->Load Factory Settings and start from there.

[leesester]

I already did the factory settings thing -but still had fails in the tutorial so I thought fine - will reinstall in case I did something wrong there - took like 5 mins and put my mind at rest. I realised it was because I was getting horribly lost with the modifiers - I still am a bit. Of course, I am after using that rinky dink bevel function so I have to learn how.

I also found out why my box did not drop to the required height - I needed to have centred on the target mesh first. I think.

[armiel]

On Part 2, Step 8.. Don't you mean type 90 to rotate 90 degrees, instead of type 45 to rotate 45 degrees?

Great tutorial set, am waiting for part 3! :)

[orangemittens]

On Part 2, Step 8.. Don't you mean type 90 to rotate 90 degrees, instead of type 45 to rotate 45 degrees?

Great tutorial set, am waiting for part 3! :)If rotating 45 degrees isn't giving you the same results that are shown in the picture you probably have not correctly selected, split, and unwrapped the entire top face and the beveled edges. Make sure you're in orthoganal view mode (5 on the numberpad) and click 1 on the numberpad to get the table facing you front-on. Then use the box select (B) to select the top three dots before going on to split the edges. If you try to make that selection in Perspective view you'll have a very difficult time selecting what you need to get a result that looks correct when rotated 45 degrees.

You can tell which view mode you're in by looking in the top left corner of the right hand screen (assuming you have your screens set up as shown in the set up tutorial). It will say either User Persp or User Ortho.

[cmomoney]

No. When I unwrapped, the top came in on a 45 degree angle(like a diamond). Did it not do that for you?

[armiel]

I did every step fanatically by letter, and the top did not show up in diamond shape when unwrapping. It doesn't matter too much to me, cause changing the value to 90 helped. But, I have extra time while waiting for the third part, so I can redo the tutorial to see if I did do something differently.

Edit
Yep yep. Was on select edge mode instead of select face. Thus no 45 degree angle for me.

Edit2,
OM's comment reminded me that even though this above was my mistake (I missed that one mode, cause was hassling with the keys..), in first part, there is no mentioning on that you should be on ortho view instead of perspective. I spent whole good half an hour scratching my head and wondering why my screen looks different, and then I just started testing every button until I managed to make it look the same.

So, where you first time tell a user to go to front view, please add that they should also put them selves on ortho view at that point. Maybe you had it set by default, but to me it gave perspective view, and a nice headache ;)

I'm not trying to complain, sorry if it sounds like that. I just have never used Blender to anything else than baking, so this is all new and exciting (+frustrating) for me.

Here is my table top, meshed and mapped when I didn't get the 45 degree angle.

[orangemittens]

I think the Persp view is the factory default...at least I never changed it but that's what I got initially also. Shoulda remembered you could get the same "45 degree rotate doesn't look right" issue from being in the wrong select mode also...been there and done that too :P

[ellacharmed]

Easy way to tell Persp view vs Ortho view is the grid, apart from looking at the name, that is. :)
Perspective View has the grid on the floor and is bigger closer to you, narrower further away.
Orthographic View has the grid facing you and is all the same size.

Just a question, cmo, on Ripping vertices. Most UVUnwrapping tutorials have them as Mark Seam, so what is the difference? I mean why would choose one over the other, in what kind of circumstances do we tell which is better to use in that instance?

[cmomoney]

Ripping/splitting the vertices is not the conventional way, marking seams is. The reason I do ripping/splitting is strictly for this game, because the vertices have to be split to match the islands in the UV. So, even if you use mark seams in the initial unwrap, you may have to split some stuff later, so I just do it to begin with.

[ellacharmed]

I guess depends on the textures, right? Which island is mapped to which area and all? In the multiplier, overlay, mask, etc...
I think I finally get the concept when you talk about islands. :)
Thanksies!

[cmomoney]

Islands are what Blender calls the individual pieces of the UV map. Marking seams would work as far as unwrapping is concerned, but you would still need those parts separated in the mesh.

[itdan2]

This Tutorial is great. First let me say that I appreciate all the work that you have put into these training manuals. You should be commended! I have taken the tutorial supplied with Blender 2.6 to learn the basics. I have to admit that I never made it to the UV section on those tutorials, so your Part 2 is my first experience in that area.

I am running Blender v2.6 I had a few stumbling blocks.

The first was that I didn't realize I was in persp mode, until I unwrapped the font and back and the back showed up as a smaller piece below the front. Perhaps it would be best to mention you should be in Ortho for this step. After i realized my mistake I went back and restarted step 2 from my save file from Step 1. I must have chaned the mode at some point during Step 1 (Laptop Keyboard, and number pad... UGH!)

Then a weird thing happened a few times... when I unwrapped the leg in step 5, it caused this wierd spirel in the UV. I undid the steps back and re-did them, and it kept happening. I started it over from my save file and the spiral stopped, but instead of the tall legs from your picture, I got a line of blocks. After re-trying that with the same results, I gave up and just resized them to look like your picture. Don't know if something was selected or turned on that shouldn't have been.

Also, when I tried to resize the islands in UV with the average Islands scale, they went all different sizes and colors and was way off from your picture. The one thing I noticed that was different than in your picture was that I had an Island covering the .dds picture in the center. I recall it appearing when I unwrapped the entire table top with Unwrap->Reset in step 7. I ended up having to resize everything to match as closely to your picture as I could. I still have the extra island that was covering the .dds picture.

I'm sure that one or all of the above mentioned items are due to my inexperience, but I thought I should let you know. I learned a lot and am excited at the prospect of being able to import my very first mesh into my game.
I am REALLY looking forward to Part 3!
Thanks a TON!

[Kolakanin]

Thank you for the great tutorial! :) I'm really looking forward to part 3 now. Do you know when it will be uploaded?

[lichtje]

Hello cmomoney,

I was (again) looking for an up to date tutorial about Sims 3 object creation when I stumbled about your tutorial serial. And it is exactly what I and my partner where looking for since month. It's so hard to find a Tutorial thats not already outdated in big parts and so far it was even impossible to find a tutorial where the hardest part - the uvmapping is not just a kind of gambling game in uvmapper. We decided long ago that we need to learn objects creation with proper tools, meaning s2oc, s3pe and well well you do us such a favour... Blender - even with the new interface and new programm logic!

We are looking so very forward to the baking tutorial part... I think it's essential to get a perfect look for our objects... as far as I understood it, it'll put out an almost ready multiplier? Baking a multiplier in Blender will be the last step that is not yet covered in other tutorials... from there on we might be able to proceed to complete the object with the help of older tutorials. Which doesn't mean we are not looking forward to even a 4th part of your serial! Your tutorial really give us hope that this time we might make it to objects creation. We hope to see your baking part soon!

But for now we wish you and everyone some fine last days of this year!

Greetings
lichtje

[orangemittens]

Hello cmomoney,

I was (again) looking for an up to date tutorial about Sims 3 object creation when I stumbled about your tutorial serial. And it is exactly what I and my partner where looking for since month. It's so hard to find a Tutorial thats not already outdated in big parts and so far it was even impossible to find a tutorial where the hardest part - the uvmapping is not just a kind of gambling game in uvmapper. We decided long ago that we need to learn objects creation with proper tools, meaning s2oc, s3pe and well well you do us such a favour... Blender - even with the new interface and new programm logic!

We are looking so very forward to the baking tutorial part... I think it's essential to get a perfect look for our objects... as far as I understood it, it'll put out an almost ready multiplier? Baking a multiplier in Blender will be the last step that is not yet covered in other tutorials... from there on we might be able to proceed to complete the object with the help of older tutorials. Which doesn't mean we are not looking forward to even a 4th part of your serial! Your tutorial really give us hope that this time we might make it to objects creation. We hope to see your baking part soon!

But for now we wish you and everyone some fine last days of this year!

Greetings
lichtjeThe EZ Bake built into the Blender tools makes a great multiplier...if the object is made with Blender the bake is essentially perfect without any tweaking. I wrote a tutorial on its use which will work whether you're using Blender or MS to make your objects with. You should be able to use this tutorial by just skipping the first step and baking your MLOD. It's located here:

http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=435938&page=1

[insanoflex312]

I'm having problems using S3PE to export a mesh into the .s3m2b format. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[orangemittens]

I'm having problems using S3PE to export a mesh into the .s3m2b format. Can anyone point me in the right direction?Which version of s3pe are you using and what is the problem you're having?

[insanoflex312]

Which version of s3pe are you using and what is the problem you're having?
I'm using the newest version, and I simply can't figure out how to export the mlod 000000 to the right format so I can import the model into blender. It only wants to export it as a .lod file, but the tut doesn't say anything about that type.

[Mellinator]

Hey insanoflex,

you must use the version s3pe_11-1001-1447 ... than it works! I had the same problem!!

I'm looking forward to Part 3, too!

P.S. excuse my bad english... i'm german ;oP

[orangemittens]

I'm using the newest version, and I simply can't figure out how to export the mlod 000000 to the right format so I can import the model into blender. It only wants to export it as a .lod file, but the tut doesn't say anything about that type.The newest version will export to the correct format but you need to install the mesh ExpImp helpers. Make sure you read the instructions in the thread about how to correctly install these or read the read me text file that shows up in your s3pe folder once you've installed s3pe. If you don't have the helpers the option won't show up on the drop down list when you go to export the lods.

[lichtje]

Happy new year to everyone,

we did it!!!! *happily dancing around* - it's not yet a ready to use ingame object though but we followed your tutorials and ended up happily with every steps of the two parts accomplished. It looks almost ;-) the same... though right now with the first try I have the same as itdan (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=3691034#post3691034):
"The one thing I noticed that was different than in your picture was that I had an Island covering the .dds picture in the center. I recall it appearing when I unwrapped the entire table top with Unwrap->Reset in step 7"
I didn't redo and have the square (actually they are 3 squares stacked on top of each other) left.

Also I didn't end up with a diamond unwrapping the table top - might be both facts belong together - like armiel (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=3666302#post3666302), so didn't rotate it... going to try that step again soon and going to watch out to select the correct mode doing so.

So... I am going to step the second tutorial through a second time... just to get it perfect... But already we are really happy about how it came out in the first try... because uv-mapping was always the point where we got lost in uvmapper... this tutorial is great covering this subject with uv unwrapping the object by hand.

@insanoflex: had the same problem and solved it as orangemittens explained already with installing the Helpers correctly.

@orangemittens
thank you for your advice about the baking. I found your tutorial already short after my first comment here and agreed with my partner to give this one a try... we just can't wait to see our table ingame! Thank you for reassuring us.

Wish you all a happy, healthy new year for now
lichtje

[GrayOwl]

These tutorials were fabulous! I'm just waiting for part three. Is there another tutorial that picks up from where cmomoney's left off, even if it's not his?

Thanks so much! I never knew a noob like me could pull off object creation. :)

EDIT: I use Blender, and haven't tried anything else, though I'm up for a challenge if there's a tutorial in Milkshape or some other 3D editing program.

[iamnotamod]

Did Part 3 go into a rabbithole and get lost? Nobody has tried this since January?

[scoopy_loopy]

ooo gosh, finally a tutorial that walks one through Blender's UV mapping process. I can't wait for the rest, already your tut has shown me better ways to do things. xD

[Ketheira]

Great tutorials man! I'll be waiting for the 3'rd one :)

[shoue]

:help: :!:
I have been waiting for it too.
Received a lot of help due to this.
I would like to know how fast Blender baking.
Make updates please as soon as.
I am not good at English.But it is hard to learn.
please...part 3 show me! :lovestruc :lovestruc :lovestruc

[shoue]

please.... T.T I'm really waiting for it.

Quick, please update me.

I would like to start soon Blender to texture.