3D Game Programming All In One (2004)

Tab

Model

This is used for the placement of vertices and shape primitives, as well as for the

construction of polygons and skeletons.

Groups

This contains commands used to group vertices and polygons. Groups can also be

created from existing polygons.

Materials

This deals with the creation of materials, including textures from file, ready to be

assigned to groups.

Joints

This contains tools for manipulating and managing skeleton joints.

Button

Select

This tool puts the program into select mode so that the user can select any object

or collection of objects on one of the wire-frame views. Once you are in select

mode, you can specify one of four different selection target types: vertex, face,

group, or joint. You also have two optional settings: ignore backfaces and by

vertex (which is only available in face selection mode).

Move

This tool permits you to move any selected objects by clicking in the appropriate

wire-frame view and dragging the cursor. You can also specify discrete movement

by entering numbers in the Move Options boxes at the bottom.

Rotate

This tool permits you to move and rotate any selected objects around a single axis

by clicking in the appropriate wire-frame view and dragging the cursor up or

down. You can also specify discrete rotations and multiple axes rotations by

entering numbers in the Rotate Options boxes at the bottom.

Scale

With this tool you can change the size of any selected objects along one of two

available axes in each view by clicking in the appropriate wire-frame view and

dragging the cursor up, down, left, or right. You can also specify discrete scaling and

multiple axes scaling by entering numbers in the Scale Options boxes at the bottom.

Vertex

Use this tool to place individual vertices, one at a time, in a wire-frame view. In

each different view, the vertex will be placed at the zero axis position for

whichever axis is not presented in the view. This tool has no options.

Face

With this tool you can connect individual vertices to create a face, one vertex at a

time, with three vertices defining a face. The Threshold option specifies how close

to a vertex you need to click to add it to the current face you are building. As you

build the face, select the vertices in a counterclockwise direction to create an

outward normalized face.

Sphere

This tool is a shape primitive tool. To create a sphere, simply click and drag the

cursor in a wire-frame view. With the Sphere options you can specify the number

of slices (like the slices in a pie) or stacks (like a stack of pancakes) that make up

your sphere.

GeoSphere

Use this tool to create more realistic spheres using a different program technique.

You use the tool the same way as the Sphere tool, but you can only specify the

complexity of the sphere using the Depth option.

Box

Use this tool to create cubes. Just click in a wire-frame view and drag until it has

reached the size you want.

Cylinder

Use this tool the same way as you use the Sphere tool, even including the

specification of stacks and slices.

Extrude

This tool operates only on the faces. If you have two faces aligned to create a

flat surface, like a piece of cardboard, you would use this tool to extend the

surface in a specific direction to create a box. Just click the mouse and drag to

perform the extrusion. Using the Extrude options you can specify which directions

to do the extruding in—normally you would use only one direction at a time. The

Smoothing option tells the program to smooth shade the polygons as it draws the

extruded shape.

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Button

Group Selector Box

Select

Hide

Delete

Regroup

Rename

Smoothing Groups Select

Smoothing Groups Assign

Smoothing Group Numbers

Smoothing Group Clear All

Smoothing Group Auto Smooth

wish

Item

Description

Material Selector Box

This is the white area at the top. It contains the names of the

materials, one material per line. You always need to choose a material

from this box before performing any material operations.

Material Preview

The currently chosen material is displayed, mapped onto a sphere. You

can click and drag the sphere with the mouse to view hidden parts of

the material map.

Ambient

Use this tool to get a color picker window for setting the ambient light

of the environment the material is in. This attribute affects the color

and the intensity of the color that the material reflects.

Diffuse

Use this tool to get a color picker window for setting the light that the

material will directly reflect. This attribute has the most influence over

the color of the material.

Specular & Specular Slider

Use this tool to set the specular highlight of the material. Basically,

selecting a bright color will create a highlight on the material of the

color chosen. Moving the slider below it changes the focus of the

highlight. The highlight can range from appearing as a small spot to

appearing as if the object is immersed in incandescent light.

Emissive

Use this tool to get a color picker window for setting the color and

intensity of the light that the material emits. This attribute will appear

as a glow around the material.

Transparency Slider

This slider adjusts the amount of transparency that an alphamap

applies to a texture and the faces that the texture is assigned to. You

must click Assign or click in the viewport to update the model to

reflect your changes.

Texture Browse Button

Use this tool to select a texture to apply to the material. Pressing it

will reveal a Windows Explorer browse box from which image files can

be selected. The None button beside this button removes the texture

file from the material.

Alphamap Browse Button

Use this tool to apply an alphamap to the material. A black-and-white

image can be used to remove areas of texture where there may be

holes. Black is fully occluded and white is fully visible; it is possible to

use variations of gray to achieve semitransparency. The None button

beside this button removes the alphamap file from the material.

New

The New button, when pressed, will create a new blank material with

default attributes, no texture or alphamap files, and a default name.

Delete

To delete a material, choose it in the Material Selector, and then click

the Delete button. This literally removes the material from the

workspace, so use this wisely.

Rename Button & Box

To rename a material, choose it in the Material Selector box, type the

desired name in the box next to the Rename button, and then click the

Rename button.

Assign

Use this tool to assign the chosen material in the Material Selector box

to the selected group.

MilkShape 3D

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The Joints Tab

Using the Joints tab (see Figure 13.21), you can specify the joints for

skeletons, which are used in animations. Joints are also used as sub-

stitutes for the concepts of special nodes that are used by the Torque

DTS Exporter. Table 13.14 describes the Joints tab functions.

The Keyframer

The Keyframer (see Figure 13.22) is a special tool used for defin-

ing animations for your model. With it, you can save skeletal posi-

tions in a model. You then produce animation by storing several

keyframes to the Keyframer and playing them back. There is a set

Figure 13.21 The

of controls for managing the playback. Typically, only frames

Joints tab.

where changes take place need to be set by the user; hence the

Item

Description

Joint Selector Box

This is the white area at the top. It contains the names of the joints, one joint

per line. You always need to choose a joint from this box before performing

any operations on joints.

Keyframe Slider

Use the slider to preview your animation before playing it. Using the

slider, you can move freely backward and forward between the

frames with mouse movement instead of pressing the Play Forward

and Play Backward buttons to see the animation. It is useful for

selecting animation frames in smaller animations; use the Frame

Position box to select frames for larger animations with many (more

than a dozen or so) frames.

Playback Controls

The playback controls allow you to view your animation in MilkShape

3D in a manner similar to a VCR or DVD player. From the left, the

buttons are First Frame, Previous Keyframe, Previous Frame, Play

Backward, Play Forward, Next Frame, Next Keyframe, and Last Frame.

All of these commands update the model to the current frame, and

the slider is also moved to the appropriate frame.

Current Frame Number Box

Use this box when you have a lot of frames in your animation and

the slider does not allow the accuracy you desire when selecting

frames. You can type in a value here that will set the number of

frames in the animation. The box will accept a whole number to

indicate the frame to which you wish to go; the slider and view will

change to reflect the selected frame.

Total Frames Box

In this box, enter the number of frames you want in your animation.

Most modelers choose a relatively high number, depending on the

number of animations the model is to perform, and key in animations

between certain numbers of frames leaving a threeor four-frame

gap between animations. With a Run, Walk, Jump, and Shoot

animation, you would key in the Run animation first and then leave

several frames, key in the Walk animation and then leave several

frames, and so on.

Animate Button

This button enables the Keyframer. It behaves like a toggle—when

down, the Keyframer is enabled; when up, the Keyframer is disabled.

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Chapter 13 ■