An experiment with models and textures

[atomic7732]

Teach me how or something.

[deoxy99]

Teach me how or something.

"Just go into a certain mode that allows you to move the points on the sphere."
That's how, and you can use a converter to change it to dds.

[atomic7732]

AHHHHHHHHHHH CONVERTERS

And what is that certain mode?

[Laura]

The thing is I haven't the foggiest idea of how to do this without my usual tools; 3D Studio Max 9 and Photoshop.
I'm positive it can be done with, like, Blender 3D and Gimp, but I can't tell you how.

[deoxy99]

AHHHHHHHHHHH CONVERTERS

And what is that certain mode?

Dunno.
Quite frankly, I fail at awesome 3D things.

[atomic7732]

That helps. *blinks*

[deoxy99]

That helps. *blinks*

Oh, it's edit mode.

[Laura]

AHHHHHHHHHHH CONVERTERS

And what is that certain mode?

You don't actually have to use .x and .dds if that's a problem. US2 will accept .3ds files as well, which are a common format, and you can use .png instead of .dds.

[atomic7732]

.png? For a surface?

[Laura]

.png? For a surface?

Sure, that or .dds provides the surface texture. In the case of the asteroid, it started off as a plain sphere before processing, so any texture that looks decent on a sphere (like that of the moon) will map properly onto it.
I may make a collection of boulders for the community to use freely, actually.

[atomic7732]

And where are the points of the sphere, I am in edit mode.

[deoxy99]

And where are the points of the sphere, I am in edit mode.

They are on the sphere, the little dots. Right click on one, and move it.
You can use sculpt mode to do that too.

[atomic7732]

ummm they aren't on the sphere... I don't see any dots.

[Laura]

And where are the points of the sphere, I am in edit mode.

They are on the sphere, the little dots. Right click on one, and move it.
You can use sculpt mode to do that too.

Does blender have a displacement modifier that can be applied to an object? If it does, that's the way to go about it. The displacement map can be something like this:

[atomic7732]

Sculpt mode? 

[Laura]

Blender is not for the faint of heart. I tried to make sense of it once and got frustrated and gave up. I didn't actually need to use it, after all.
You might try: http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax
It is a free version of 3D studio max for game content creation. It might just do the trick.
It has limitations, naturally, but this page explains how to make it export .x model files.
http://www.3drad.com/forum/index.php?topic=577.0

[atomic7732]

I'm not frustrated. blender is awesome, and this is what I have. hahaha a green sphere

I can move the camera, can't get the sun angle to change, and can't edit my sphere. I think I'm fine for images, but not for making an asteroid.

[Laura]

Well, I was at that stage too, once
It's a steep learning curve.

[atomic7732]

How do you rotate the camera? That's my next puzzle. I got how to angle the view 4682, and I can change to wireframe and solid and stuff. Also, how do you input a texture like you can change the color?

Deoxy, I think I know why, cause I added a different type of sphere, let me try the Meshes spheres

[atomic7732]

There, now to modify, I have two spheres! YAY

[atomic7732]

I got sculpt mode, but don't get how to make it indent or outdent FOR SURE, like controlling it. Still can't edit points. I'll learn eventually. I love learning this way. I find out myself and get a few tips of some people.

Found edit mode! YAY

[Laura]

Aha! Look what Google dragged in 
http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-232/displacement-mapping/

Seems to explain exactly how to do the displacement trick I use,  for Blender.

EDIT: No, it actually doesn't... but this does: http://www.m-sign.nl/displacement-mapping-in-blender-3d/
It turns out that that only tells you how to make it render the displaced mesh. It doesn't actually displace it in a way useful for exporting.
You would seem to need this function for doing that: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Modifiers/Mesh/Displace

So, make the kind of sphere that's in the first tutorial, then apply the displace modifier to that, load a heightmap image into the modifier, and then play around with the settings of the modifier.

[atomic7732]

I need help now. I accidentally made a VERY FAR OUT point on my sphere... idk it might be 2 or 3. I can't do anything!

[atomic7732]

Whenever I sculpt something, the other objects go away.

THIS IS CHEAP NOW I AM GETTING FRUSTRATED! I MOVE THE CAMERA AND THE RENDER CHANGES NOT AT ALL!!!!!

Oh, and now I have two cameras, one object shows up, my other two don't and when I render, it shows two objects? WTF IS WRONG WITH IT>

[atomic7732]

Here is fail.

[atomic7732]

Oh. It's a different camera and on global view, and I was on local! OKAY!

Learned to rotate also.

I have an image now...

[atomic7732]

Now, one last thing... How do you get textures working?

The moon has one, but it wont show.

[Laura]

Ok, I downloaded Blender, and I'm clearly reminded why I dropped it the last time 
It's just so needlessly arcane.
Anyway, try this:
1) Add->Mesh->IcoSphere. Give it 5 subdivisions.
2) Panels->Shading->Texture->World. Add new. Type is 'Clouds'. Set noise size to 0.750.
3) Panels->Editing. Find the 'Add Modifier' button and click it. Choose displace from the list.
4) In the texture field, type Tex.001 and hit return.
5) Set 'Midlevel' to 0.000 and 'Strength' to 1.500

Well, that's a basic asteroid shape. I don't know how to get it smoother, except by using more subdivisions to begin with, but that will massively increase the number of polygons. Also, the object has no UV map (it doesn't know that textures should map onto it as a sphere). Other than that, you can export it as a .3ds file and use it with US2 as is.
I'm out of time here

[Chaotic Cow]

Modeling. Could never do it. lol

[deoxy99]

Modeling. Could never do it. lol

Modeling, could do a little bit. I can't make a movie, but I can make a still image of just one or two things.