User blog:C3PO the Dragon Slayer/Avian Hunt: January 2, 2007

January 2, 2008
I can't believe it's been so long since I last told Star Wars Fanon what I've been up to with this game. Of course, I have not had any slack on the project, and things are picking up more than ever!

So here is a status report on what I've been doing recently:

I have finished up all the models of starfighters, tanks, and aircraft for each faction on Blender.

I have been searching through ways to find the best way to create and use model textures, which are the 2D images that wrap around a 3D model to make it look like it is a real object. I have found a convenient way and have successfully tested it.

I have also been at the piano composing music for Avian Hunt, some of which I will likely upload soon. (At my request, midi files can now be uploaded to Wikia.)

So here's a step-by-step tutorial of what I do to make the models that are now successfully imported into Game Maker.

First, I use Blender to create the model. Blender is, while not a fantastic game creator, a very user-friendly freeware engine that can make 3D models splendidly.



Then, I export the model as a .obj file, also known as a Wavefront object. This is a commonly used file format that can easily be converted to other formats.

The next step is to use UV Mapper Classic, another free program that deals with 3D models. It is compatible with .obj files and its function is to automatically assign vertexes in the model to certain points on a 2D image, so it can be painted. Once I change the file to have a UV Map to work on, I start making it compatible with Game Maker.

Here I introduce Marzipan. This is a converter that is able to take Wavefront objects and turn them into a Game Maker model. This is the link from Blender to Game Maker that proves so useful.



Once Marzipan converts the .obj file into several separate Game Maker models (.mod files), I import them into a very handy tool called Model Painter, which has been mentioned before. Using the UV map, I am able to draw directly onto the model as if I were painting a toy spaceship. Once I'm done, it exports the picture that works as the model's paint, or the texture. Now all I have to do is load the models and textures into Game Maker (the textures are imported as "backgrounds") and draw them.



Here's your first taste of what Avian Hunt may look like. Note that the game this is in is called "3D example," which I just use as a testing stage to make sure all my 3D projects work in Game Maker. It is here that I also made the seismic charge (you know, the big asteroid-smashing weapon from Attack of the Clones) and a primitive flight engine here. I am currently working on a revised flight engine to be used as the control system for most ships, using the snowspeeder shown here as the object the player pilots.

Next post will come soon, exhibiting a few more examples of models and perhaps a music file or two!