This looks great, Amel! The colors don't matter and neither do the little fine tuning things you can still do. What's important is that you understood what the whole thing was about. Door Animations! Keep up the good work.

I downloaded the tutorial....but when I went to open it, it didn't let me open it...could youplease put it in a differnt format, so i can open it like microsoft word or publisher. Thanks message me when you do.

The tutorial is in DOC format and should open in Microsoft Word. There's also Open Office, a bunch of free office programs that can also read DOCs.

Very nice tutorial! I followed it and made my first animated dresser! Thank you so much

Though I do have a point not quite clear and hope someone could answer it.
In step 11 - in mesh tool, after selecting Armoire in "Models" window, you said check GMDC view and use "+" and "-" to find the main armoire part to match our part, I wonder how you could tell that Sub Group #1 is the part that matches? There is no indication shows this is the sub group we want. The "view" won't help either as it's just a messy black/white picture which does not make sense to me. Same question for DoorLeft and DoorRight. How you could tell that sub group #3 is for DoorLeft and #2 for right, not the other way?

*lol*s

It's almost worth it to not do the rotating in milkshape, just so you can see the outside of the armoire lying on the floor, and the doors rotating sideways.

I say "almost"

So: Is there any really stupid reason why milkshape showed me the game's armoire mesh in the upright, facing me position, so that I didn't think it was necessary to rotate it, and why wings3d showed me the original armoire lying like you said it would, ALONG WITH my new mesh?

They both lied to me, and look at what the result was!


Oh, yeah! Let's see YOUR doors do that!

Anyways..I KNOW both 3d programs displayed both the original and the modified as being oriented the same way. So:...what happened?

There is one part i dont get about this and many other tutorials over the web why do you have to clone an object i wanted to make my own custom objects can sombody please help me i am starting to get really frustrated because all the custom object tutorials i find always include cloning an object please help

Yes, all custom objects need to be based on an existing object in the game. I don't know if technically it would be possible to build up an object from scratch, but it wouldn't make much sense. You can often modify the cloned object greatly, likely make a completely new mesh with its own textures, and, on a more advanced level, add new interactions and so on. But you will have to start off with a clone, preferebly a clone of an object that's as close as possible to the object you want to make. Say, if you want to make a table, it makes sense to clone a table instead of a chair. If you want to make a loveseat, which are usually 2 tiles wide, then you should start off with a loveseat that's also 2 tiles.

So, the custom objects you can download at MTS2 or elsewhere are based on clones from Maxis objects.

Thank you your help is apreciated but some of the objects I download are nothing like a object already in the game eg. the pet bat.

Ignorantbliss is that why when you change the color of an object it has the color and another part with squares is the other one the mesh.?

1 more thing how do i recolor my object

darren, for your first question, yes, even a pet bat is most likely based on an existing object, just heavily modified from it.

I'm not quite sure I understand your second question. Can you explain in more detail what you mean?

Numenor has an object recoloring tutorial in this forum that also explains how to recolor custom objects.

I followed this tutorial until I was supposed to lower the poly count, in MilkShape. Can I do this in Wings 3D??

I hate to be a pest, but for some reason my computer does not like .doc format. I tried all sorts of programs but the text gets messed up and the images are completely missing. I couldn't follow some of the instructions that were based solely on looking at the images because they didn't show up for me. Wings 3D didn't even have the features mentioned and I don't believe I have the meshtool. I heard it was obsolete now. I just tried making an armoire and it exported it and imported it at the right position (standing up). But I can't get the doors to open because I don't understand how to set that option. :-(

As far as I know, the Mesh Tool, is not obsolete, it can still be used to retain animations. Here are short tutorials for retaining animations on different types of objects with the Mesh Tool.

Mesh Tool is not obsolete, it works as it always has. We can still use it for basic body editing (which has a lot more bones than a dresser does), so I assume it can do a dresser still.

DOC format is a Word format, and there are a few free programs - including Open Office - which should be able to read them. Did you try Open Office? It's what my son uses.

I've got the same question. A view other members asked this question before. Could someone please give an answer to this question?
I'm stucked in this tutorial, you see. I can't find an option to reduce the polycount.

Bye,

Oiche

Ok, thank you. :-)
I am curious about something. The tutorial says that the armoire will be laying down in the mesh program, but with the current version of SimPE it doesn't seem to do that. When I export/import the mesh it is oriented properly. Does this mean that the current version of SimPE corrects whatever caused it to be laying differently? Also, even if I do not clone as stand-alone I still get the clothing mesh. Could this be another change? Or am I going about it the wrong way?

In SimPE, which is the "order" listed in the GMDC under the list of Models: Is it XZY or XYZ? The position in the mesh program will depend on that.

I think you always get the clothing mesh, but the clothing texture is not included unless you make a stand-alone clone.

ah. ok. it is XZY I think. And I'm supposed to have XYZ? sometimes my eyes don't focus that well so I miss things.
Thanks.

Yes, it should be XYZ, otherwise, after taking the mesh through the Mesh Tool, the armoire will eventually be laying down on the ground.

Hello!

I'm very curious why nobody answers this question. A view members asked this question before and I see no answer on it anywhere in this topic. Now I've asked the question and again nobody answers.
Doesn't anyone know a way to reduce the polycount in Wings 3D?!

If nobody has answered then that means its likely that there either is not a way or the people reading do not know.
Maybe you could try a google search or ask.com search for something about "reducing polygon count in wings3d"?
I can't even figure out how to do anything at all in wings3d so I have no clue.

Thank you very much for your help suceress! I will try to find something with ask.com. This is a wonderful tutorial and I really hope to find a way to reduce the polygon count.

Bye,
Oiche

Yes I have seen the light and have learnt to read and take note which way my alphabet is facing. something so simple as what order you have your xyz in, can make so much difference.

Can I be a bit cheeky and ask maybe if you could rite a tutorial on how you did the mesh for this wonderful tutorial.

I have a bit of a problem with the Mesh Tool....On page 52 of the tutorial it says: "We're through linking our armoire pices to the correct armoire animations, so click on the button "replace" (directly under the Commit and Add Model buttons) Here is my problem: There is no "replace" button. I have a "commit" button, but no "Replace" or "Add Model" buttons. I tried to make the meshtool windo bigger, but I can't. What do I do now?

As of yet, no one has an answer to your question, please stop reposting it in a second place. What resolution is your screen set to, can you try setting the entire screen to a higher resolution and see if it shows up for you?

edit ---

I just went over to my pc and fired up meshtool. My monitor is set to 1024x768 and I can see the last two buttons.

If you cannot get meshtool to work for you, you might ask in the objects creation board with a new thread if there are OTHER ways to accomplish this task -- SimPE has gone through a lot of changes since this tutorial was written a year ago, and there's also the Unimesh plugins, which _might_ work, but I have not tried editing an armoire with it.

hi,
am having a problem with the 3d mesh tap
see it does not show up
in my SimPE package
am using the latest version of SimPE .58 alpha
anyone know how 2 fix this