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Help for simpleton on applying materials....

D

drdavid

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wales
Having a wonderful time getting to grips with gmax - bought 'the Bible' and slowly plodding through.....

Any chance of a push in the right direction please? I've made a basic model using tapered cylinders etc, but can't seem to apply the material (from equally simple bitmap). Here's what I'm trying to build:

Auto-gyro in gmax.jpg

Again, apologies for asking such basic questions - your assistance much appreciated. ;)

Cheers - Dai (EGFE). :cool:

Edit - Found Gryphon tutorials - will persevere and bother you with more detailed questions soon - nothing personal, you understand! :rolleyes:
 
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Hello Dai,

* Create a material in Material Manager (red ball icon),
* Add a texture to it
* Click on blue and white checkerd cube to turn on the texture (otherwise texture will not show)
* Select a part that will use the material
* Click Add on Material Manager to add the material to the object
* Add a UVW Map to the object, and adjust/select Plannar type, angle, etc. Adjust to fit. Best to make the Plannar square (size inputs) and fit to size from there. Note that you can select the Gizmo from the UVW Maps stack.
* Add a UVW Unwrap and edit the wrap mesh in the UVW window (click Edit to bring up window) and move the mesh over the area on the texture of which has the texture for that part.

Done...

For me, this turned out to be the hardest part of learning Gmax. Later, it became a huge bennefit compared with other programs as you can do so much with the Plannars (types, angle adjustments, View Align command, Fit command, etc), that it makes modelling so much more easier. Mapping and textures is 50% of the model process...



Bill
 
First off - thanks for the brilliant tutorial, Bill. I've printed it off and am slowly digesting the bits! Most of it makes sense - I guess the personal trial and error of getting to grips with gmax will eventually do the trick.....;)

In the mean time (which is a groovy time, according to Jimi Hendrix) I've managed to get a simple model exported to FSX. Here it is - buried halfway in the ground -

Rupert's_plane_in_ground.JPG

I guess my aircraft.cfg needs editing! But, my major problem right now is with the bl**dy animation manager in gmax. Try and try again, I get the rotor, say, working nicely and when I activate the animation manager from FSTools, it goes haywire. I've seen complaints about this in numerous other posts and look forward to finding out which particular combination of spells are needed to get round this! :confused: One thread I've seen (windmill rotation here by ronh, talks of 'linking' rotating objects to an enclosing box. But I can't find 'link' in the menu - does ronh mean 'group' or is there another feature I've missed?!? :D

Anyway, thanks for your help - and, thanks for the HU on the Gryphon tutorial, Stratobat! So - onwards and upwards.....

Cheers - Dai (EGFE). :cool:
 
I really don't understand the problem. The Animation Manager does nothing but associate a selected part with the correct "animation name."

1. Select the "animation name"
2. Set the Start and End keyframes, 0 and 100 usually
3. Click Create.

That's it. Stop. You're done.

animationmanager01.jpg

Shot at 2009-06-07

Here is a screenshot of how to "Link" parts:

animationmanager02.jpg

Shot at 2009-06-07
 
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Ahhh...

You have to rotate the Rotor in animation sequence. At point 25, rotate 90 degrees (in right direction). At point 50, do the same. Repeat at 75 and 100. Done.

Note; In FSX, prop and rotor animations have a glitch. They do not run smoothly as like FS2004, but tend to twitch and backfire intermittently. There is no way to get rid of that.



Bill
 
Actually, there is a way to smooth out the rotation, and that is to simply drop keys every 10 frames after creating the initial animation keys... :D
 
Hey - TWO Bills! Thanks for your support - much appreciated at this stage in the learning curve. ;)

O.K. Started again, from first principles:
1. Created 'left_rotor' (elongated box);
2. Cloned to make 'right_rotor';
3. Moved 'right rotor' to right with space for:
4. Created spindle from cylinder and called it 'rotor_slow';
5. Moved 'rotor-slow' to line up with pivotal centre of the rotors;
6. Linked 'left_rotor' with 'rotor_slow';
7. Linked 'right_rotor' with 'rotor_slow';
8. Created rotary animation - 0 to 100 in 4 steps of 90deg;
9. Checked animation - O.K.;
10. Opened Animation Manager - selected 'rotor_slow' from list, set 0 and 100 in boxes and clicked 'create' button;
11. Checked Animation Summary -
.................
rotor_slow
ANIM: rotor_slow(Start=0.0 End=100.0)
left_rotor
right_rotor
................. so O.K. there (no 0.001625 rubbish!)
12. Exited Animation Manager and tried the acid test.....
13. Checked animation....... O.K. - YES!
So, thanks again Bill(s) - it was certainly worth the pain to see it working. But, I guess, I may just have been lucky this time - I'm not looking forward to getting any spurious animation introduced by the FSX element in gmax, but will have to take the rough with the smooth. :D

Right, any suggestions for where to look for that trouble with the aircraft.cfg?!? It's one thing after another, eh? :confused:

Cheers - Dai (EGFE). :cool:
 
I know nothing about tuning rotors and only enough on props to get me in trouble. You might with to start a new post on Helicopter rotor adjustment in the config to see how that is done.

I am sure it has something to do with gear ration in the engine section. Thats where the Turboprop is adjusted.


Bill
 
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