Post by misstex89 on Nov 25, 2017 23:01:48 GMT -5
This is just a general question(s) for people who have experience.
So, I'm taking a crash course in blender and some things crossed my mind that I wondered that I can't really ask on the Sensei forum. Hopefully people here have already experimented with this stuff...I'm in a degree plan for animation so a lot of what is taught is for video render and custom rigging and I'm not sure I understand what the rules of the Sims are comparing custom content from creators, with assets made without the sims in mind. Anyone that can answer any question would be appreciated...
Materials:
1. When creating a material (such as metal, glass or silk) for a CAS object, do all the options edited in blender (spec, diffuse, emission...etc.)transfer to the game? I know you can create emission with the emission tab in studio, but I was curious if you could theoretically do all the effect editing in Blender and have it work in game. Does it make the file smaller if you use studio to do the effects instead of Blender?
2. Is it just Blender Render or do Cycles edits transfer over? It was mentioned in the video that sometimes Cycles is not used for gaming assets, but a lot of tutorials for good metal have been through cycles and node editor so I'm not sure which to use.
3. If I wanted to created a multi-dimensional dress...i.e. blue dress with purple sheen when the light hits it, would the game render that effect if I input the settings for it or would I have to fake bake the effect on?
4. If I wanted to make an animated material such as a subtle glowing color change (like the ice furniture in sims freeplay) is there a special way to do that, or do we just do the same as if applying a static material? I know how to make an animation in Blender, but not sure how to get what's in blender to studio.
5. If I downloaded a pre-made material, would it work for the game?
Texture:
6. Since the game has to have certain sizes for things, how can we get the clearest, cleanest texture other than uncompressed and raising the resolution to print quality...can you raise it higher? Should you? I've been trying to get cleaner lines on clothing textures and 300 doesn't seem to be enough...
Editting:
7. Is there an issue if you make an objects bigger and then size it down to fit the avatar? I've had an issue transferring an object to zbrush and back, but perhaps it would be easier to do detail editing at a much larger size instead of extreme zoom? I know how to decimate, I was just wondering if someone has experience with this.
8. When creating alpha hair or object with hair elements, do people generally do the overall shape first and achieve the effects by unwrapping the object in pieces?
9. Some clay hair I've tried to do has the texture show up too large, which normally I would just make the UVs bigger, but with the limited workspace, I feel like I'm missing something important. Does that have to do with unwrapping the UVs in smaller sections as well?
10. When you want a better UV_1, can you unwrap it yourself and align it to the templates provided on the site, or is it just safer to just stick to the messy data transfer?
Animation:
11. If you want to make a custom animation that the sim can do (i.e. custom dance) is that still considered an override even if you don't want to replace any base game animations?
12. How do you attach a custom animation to an object? (i.e. click on object and select action/animation; like the clicking on the computer comes up with options such as research, play games, write jokes...etc.)
...I've realized I have a ton more questions that go more into coding, but I'd really like to understand this first. Perhaps someone can create a section for questions on coding/tutorials on the sims code/editing code? My knowledge is more in the design area and less in the code, so is there a good resource to check out to get a better idea of the basics of understanding the code sims uses?
Is there any creators that specialize in code that wouldn't mind answering questions?
These things have been rolling around in my brain for awhile now, and now that I am more confident in my understanding/use of blender tools, I'm trying to fill the gap between the holes in knowledge between transferring asset from blender to studio to game.
So, I'm taking a crash course in blender and some things crossed my mind that I wondered that I can't really ask on the Sensei forum. Hopefully people here have already experimented with this stuff...I'm in a degree plan for animation so a lot of what is taught is for video render and custom rigging and I'm not sure I understand what the rules of the Sims are comparing custom content from creators, with assets made without the sims in mind. Anyone that can answer any question would be appreciated...
Materials:
1. When creating a material (such as metal, glass or silk) for a CAS object, do all the options edited in blender (spec, diffuse, emission...etc.)transfer to the game? I know you can create emission with the emission tab in studio, but I was curious if you could theoretically do all the effect editing in Blender and have it work in game. Does it make the file smaller if you use studio to do the effects instead of Blender?
2. Is it just Blender Render or do Cycles edits transfer over? It was mentioned in the video that sometimes Cycles is not used for gaming assets, but a lot of tutorials for good metal have been through cycles and node editor so I'm not sure which to use.
3. If I wanted to created a multi-dimensional dress...i.e. blue dress with purple sheen when the light hits it, would the game render that effect if I input the settings for it or would I have to fake bake the effect on?
4. If I wanted to make an animated material such as a subtle glowing color change (like the ice furniture in sims freeplay) is there a special way to do that, or do we just do the same as if applying a static material? I know how to make an animation in Blender, but not sure how to get what's in blender to studio.
5. If I downloaded a pre-made material, would it work for the game?
Texture:
6. Since the game has to have certain sizes for things, how can we get the clearest, cleanest texture other than uncompressed and raising the resolution to print quality...can you raise it higher? Should you? I've been trying to get cleaner lines on clothing textures and 300 doesn't seem to be enough...
Editting:
7. Is there an issue if you make an objects bigger and then size it down to fit the avatar? I've had an issue transferring an object to zbrush and back, but perhaps it would be easier to do detail editing at a much larger size instead of extreme zoom? I know how to decimate, I was just wondering if someone has experience with this.
8. When creating alpha hair or object with hair elements, do people generally do the overall shape first and achieve the effects by unwrapping the object in pieces?
9. Some clay hair I've tried to do has the texture show up too large, which normally I would just make the UVs bigger, but with the limited workspace, I feel like I'm missing something important. Does that have to do with unwrapping the UVs in smaller sections as well?
10. When you want a better UV_1, can you unwrap it yourself and align it to the templates provided on the site, or is it just safer to just stick to the messy data transfer?
Animation:
11. If you want to make a custom animation that the sim can do (i.e. custom dance) is that still considered an override even if you don't want to replace any base game animations?
12. How do you attach a custom animation to an object? (i.e. click on object and select action/animation; like the clicking on the computer comes up with options such as research, play games, write jokes...etc.)
...I've realized I have a ton more questions that go more into coding, but I'd really like to understand this first. Perhaps someone can create a section for questions on coding/tutorials on the sims code/editing code? My knowledge is more in the design area and less in the code, so is there a good resource to check out to get a better idea of the basics of understanding the code sims uses?
Is there any creators that specialize in code that wouldn't mind answering questions?
These things have been rolling around in my brain for awhile now, and now that I am more confident in my understanding/use of blender tools, I'm trying to fill the gap between the holes in knowledge between transferring asset from blender to studio to game.