The Usages of Models?

[Rosencrantz]

topic title

So I'm just wondering about something:

What was the function of "The Spriter's Resource" to begin with?
Simple. To provide a database for all the sprites of various sprite-based games for people to use. Sprites are incredibly easy to use, seeing as how
well
you could plop them into virtually any graphics program and manipulate them as you see fit.

This then led to sprites having a multitude of usages, ie. from being used in sprite comics, in fan games, in graphics for avatars/sigs/what have you, and things of that nature.

But then the question comes in:
how are we supposed to even *use* models?

Are they pre-made so that you could open a 3D program like Maya or Blender and then make an animation using them? Or will we have to do that ourselves? (which, in that case, it would be good to have tutorials for things of that nature)
Are they rigged so that you could easily import them into a Source game (either as model replacements for games like Counter-Strike or ragdolls in Gmod)? If not, will there ever be tutorials for us to use them like that?
And what else could models be useful for?

I'm just asking this from the point of view that I have no understanding of models whatsoever

[GrooveMan.exe]

I assume they come with the bare bones that allow them to be used for things practically. It's a bit pointless otherwise.

[Shadowth117]

Alright well I'm not exactly one for explanations and such , but I'll try my best.

For the most part, a lot of these models are pretty much ready to use from the start. Depending on if it was possible or not to extract a model with rigging, it may or may not have it.

However notice how I only said the MODELS will be usable from the start. As I stated before, it may be necessary to rig them yourself. The materials may need fixing. Heck the models may even use some kind of weird texture tiling that isn't possible in the average 3d program requiring you to change the UVW mapping around to get it to work.

This isn't even including other things that you'd have to do for yourself anyway to a scene like creating the lighting, cameras, animations, or whatever else you might do with it. Of course what you might do with the models obviously varies for what you want to do with them and so you may not have to mess with any of the above at all really.

For example, I haven't personally done much with Garry's mod, but with say Halo, all you'd need is a rigged model and add in a few node markers for effects and sometimes for animation purposes (weapon placement in relation to the character model etc.) although this obviously varies from game to game. As for whether these would be ragdolls or model replacements it would really be your choice. There's no real limitations on that kind of stuff. If you really wanted to you could use a level model for a player model which would lead to something predictably stupid looking aesthetically, but not really problematic other than maybe taking up more power from your computer to render.

If your doing animations, you may or may not just do a simple backdrop with some fitting lighting, import the model, animate it (if its rigged anyways), and render it. If you wanted to do this for say a Machinima, you'd just not do a backdrop, animate, render, and add the animation in through your favorite video editing software.

The thing is there's a whole lot you can do with models, but most of the time these things WILL require more user input and be more difficult to use than something like sprites right off the bat. There's an undeniably larger learning curve for this stuff. However in the end just like the Spriters Resource, it makes a lot of high quality media readily available for anyone who wants to do a project like a fangame or a game mod or to make a cool signature, avatar or whatever and easier for the general public to use. In the end, the way sprites and models end up being used isn't all that different.

Hope that helps you understand the purpose of this.

[Neros Urameshi]

Alright well I'm not exactly one for explanations and such , but I'll try my best.

For the most part, a lot of these models are pretty much ready to use from the start. Depending on if it was possible or not to extract a model with rigging, it may or may not have it.

However notice how I only said the MODELS will be usable from the start. As I stated before, it may be necessary to rig them yourself. The materials may need fixing. Heck the models may even use some kind of weird texture tiling that isn't possible in the average 3d program requiring you to change the UVW mapping around to get it to work.

This isn't even including other things that you'd have to do for yourself anyway to a scene like creating the lighting, cameras, animations, or whatever else you might do with it. Of course what you might do with the models obviously varies for what you want to do with them and so you may not have to mess with any of the above at all really.

For example, I haven't personally done much with Garry's mod, but with say Halo, all you'd need is a rigged model and add in a few node markers for effects and sometimes for animation purposes (weapon placement in relation to the character model etc.) although this obviously varies from game to game. As for whether these would be ragdolls or model replacements it would really be your choice. There's no real limitations on that kind of stuff. If you really wanted to you could use a level model for a player model which would lead to something predictably stupid looking aesthetically, but not really problematic other than maybe taking up more power from your computer to render.

If your doing animations, you may or may not just do a simple backdrop with some fitting lighting, import the model, animate it (if its rigged anyways), and render it. If you wanted to do this for say a Machinima, you'd just not do a backdrop, animate, render, and add the animation in through your favorite video editing software.

The thing is there's a whole lot you can do with models, but most of the time these things WILL require more user input and be more difficult to use than something like sprites right off the bat. There's an undeniably larger learning curve for this stuff. However in the end just like the Spriters Resource, it makes a lot of high quality media readily available for anyone who wants to do a project like a fangame or a game mod or to make a cool signature, avatar or whatever and easier for the general public to use. In the end, the way sprites and models end up being used isn't all that different.

Hope that helps you understand the purpose of this.

Thanks for the tip.

[Asther]

Thanks for the tip.

Here's a tip: Use the Thank button (next to the Reply button)

[Shadowth117]

Thanks for the tip.

Here's a tip: Use the Thank button (next to the Reply button)

He probably should have, but I did lead him to this thread so there's no reason to blame him. Still I think I'll just lock this thread to avoid something like this later.