New Member iamthewalkingdude Posted October 24, 2013 New Member Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 Hey everyone! new user here. first of all, id like to already apologize, if my questions are something really simple or answered many times over. so, i bought 3Dcoat from steam when it was on sale there, its my first 3d modelling program. for the last 6 months though, i had to stay away from it, because of my girlfriends sickness, it pretty much stopped all the plans i had for this, but everythings getting better now so i can start something. ive been making a 2D top down shooter for awhile now, and some of you may be completely aware how extremely difficult it is to make top down animations from scratch. i thought that why dont i use 3d coat as my help, when doing frames and poses for my 2D sprites. and now comes my really noob questions: 1. is there any free 3d models anywhere of a (preferrably) basic, naked, normal figured (or atleast close) human? i noticed that i had some team fortress models for free, but im not sure if they serve my purpose, because of their "comical" figure. "why not make your own model?" - thats an option, sure, but as of now, my game and sprites are a priority, and a complete model would help me understand this program as well as study it by toying/fooling around with already existing model. 2. is there a good simple tutorial(video) explaining from start to finish, how to make different poses for the model? you know, like moving hands, rotating torso etc. just have to note, that im not looking anything really accurate or detailed model. its just to study how to get good animations from top down perspective. OR, if anyone knows any program where you could just move around a camera and some kind of model at free will, that would do also, i myself havent found any. i know these must be really basic questions, but i just want to start clean, the program can be really overwhelming at first. i apologize if im being vague or just a noob. im not asking anyone to hold my hand and to guide me through, but any help would be greatly appreciated. so, there it is. thanks for reading! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlosan Posted October 24, 2013 Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 1. is there any free 3d models anywhere http://www.makehuman.org/ http://www.daz3d.com/daz-studio-4-pro/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contributor BeatKitano Posted October 24, 2013 Contributor Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 Using a sculpting/modeling/texturing/uving tool to make animation frames ? I'm not sure it's the easiest way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advanced Member JimB Posted October 24, 2013 Advanced Member Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 Here's a couple of programs that will create sprite sheets from 3d models. Model-2-Sprite http://www.thegamecreators.com/?m=view_product&id=2302 SpriteMe http://www.thegamecreators.com/?m=view_product&id=2301 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Member iamthewalkingdude Posted October 24, 2013 Author New Member Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 Using a sculpting/modeling/texturing/uving tool to make animation frames ? I'm not sure it's the easiest way. well, maybe i was being a little vague, sorry im not trying to make all the animation frames from a 3D model. its just that because of the perspective, i would want to have some kind of guidelines for making the sprites and eventually, animations. i would only need some key frames to get some kind of idea how the different poses look like. so, a model from top down perspective would help, then i could just take a few screenshots from different poses to use them as a guidance and perhaps tracing images to study the perspective. ive done animation before for my platformer, but that was fairly easy and straightforward with anime studio (and by hand) because of the side view,its more expressionable. but i cant really use anime studio in this case, since top down animation relies more on small details of body movement to give it depth (if that makes sense). im not afraid to take the hard road with this either, it only gives me experience. and also, im just trying to use the tools at my disposal to my advantage. top down perspective is alot more difficult than a traditional side view, but i knew that when i started but anyway, thanks alot for the suggestions everyone! ill start inspecting those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contributor BeatKitano Posted October 24, 2013 Contributor Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 Then in that case you're not doing yourself a favor here. You need top down view models as guideline, this means you need a "ready mesh" for stills, in that case you need a mesh with constraints and proper articulation rigged. Posing a mesh necessitate good anatomical knowledge which contradicts with your initial goal (maybe you can pull it off I don't how proficient you're with anatomy). I would suggest poser or something like that since you're sure to have a proper "human" for posing and derivating sprites from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contributor ajz3d Posted October 24, 2013 Contributor Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 I pretty much agree with Beat. Daz3D has its Studio available for free. I believe it comes bundled with a couple of free rigged models ready for posing. I never tried it myself, but it looks like what you might be looking for, for this particular task. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Member iamthewalkingdude Posted October 24, 2013 Author New Member Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 Then in that case you're not doing yourself a favor here. You need top down view models as guideline, this means you need a "ready mesh" for stills, in that case you need a mesh with constraints and proper articulation rigged. Posing a mesh necessitate good anatomical knowledge which contradicts with your initial goal (maybe you can pull it off I don't how proficient you're with anatomy). I would suggest poser or something like that since you're sure to have a proper "human" for posing and derivating sprites from it. I pretty much agree with Beat. Daz3D has its Studio available for free. I believe it comes bundled with a couple of free rigged models ready for posing. I never tried it myself, but it looks like what you might be looking for, for this particular task. hmm.. i see, for some reason i thought that Daz3D was not free, but if it is, then i will most definitely give it a try. there will be inhuman creatures or "monsters" in the game so maybe i could make atleast some use of 3Dcoat for that. nothing fancy though, but it always helps to have some kind of 3d models to get an idea. i also stumbled across some videos showing "endorphin", physics based animation program. infact, that has always intrigued me, but im afraid i dont have the money for it, atleast not now. i recall "euphoria" animation engine that is used in some games is from the same company and it really looks very good and lifelike. though its way too unnecessarily fancy for this project. it could be fun to toy around with though. anyway, im just rambling now. i appreciate the tips, now i got some good options to start tackling this challenge. thanks guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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