Modeling from Scratch with Milkshape

I think it's a very good tutorial :D and with a bit of trial and error has allowed me to import an amazing coloured ball and pointy thing into my map! But it doesn't animate :( I'll try and fiddle that to work though.

I would like to know how to have it do different animations when I do manage to get it to animate. Whats the point in having a model without stationary , walking, attacking and death animations? This tutorial only goes into the stationary one.

Oh a request to all you programers out there, could you try making a program that does all the required steps? It's kinda long winded opening and closing all the different ones. It might be difficult, but I believe it would be worth it.

Added: I've just had a go again and still can't get it animated. I also tried using a different model that I want to use in game, but that didn't animate and also it's 'front' instead of being at the model's front was at it's side so it moved sideways. Also I'm getting skinning problems with that one, it's a high poly model and in Lithunwrap the feet were only a point meaning I can't give them a texture just a block colour. A few other parts of the model were also just block colour and not textured. (the texture is a pixel pattern and not blocks of colour)

Here are some problems and some working answers:

After importing, says cannot find <model>.mdl:
Simple, Save your map, close WE, reopen WE, open map, and models are loaded, the thing with this is, you have imported the models, but they have not yet loaded, saveing, closeing, and reopening, should fix this.



Here is a small guide on how you get the model from scratch into .mdx:

Make model in milkshape, once done, go to save as, save it as what ever u want, then close milkshape.
Open Lithunwrap, and click File, go to Model, and click open, it will open it up, click File again, and goto UV, and save, save the bmp with the same name as the model, so if your model is called bob, name the uv bob.bmp
Next, Go back to File, Model, then save, go to the extension menu, has the current extention of .lum i beleive, switch that to .3ds, and save the model.
Close LithUnwrap.
Open 3ds&obj--->.mdx, it is a plugin in wc3 utillities.
Once it is open, There are 2 text fields, the top one, is the model you want to convert, the bottom is the save path, click the ... to the right of the top one, find your .3ds model, and click open, then on the bottom one, click the ... and type in the name of your model, again, in my case it would be bob, click save.
Wait dont click convert yet, go to Textures, next to file, and click textures pathname.
Type in where the .blp will be, i useualy put it in Textures\
In my case i would do Textures\Bob.blp
Now Convert the model, now there is a Animationless .mdx in your folder.
I have not yet figured out how to get Animation working, but im working on that.

If you have any other questions or comments, please PM me.

[edit] Those who are getting distorted models ingame, i beleive this is a cause from too many Faces or Verticies, i made a 32000 face model once and it wasnt prety.

What program can handel 3DS and OBJ?
Milkshape can but can Maya or Max 3D? o_O

3ds is basicly 3ds max, So you can use 3ds max, i dono about maya.

ok
i have geted Milkshape 3D i have made a model and ''bones'' to it but the animation part i dont get :< and when i acutly get it work it wont save o_O and i got regg version

Alright guys if you read the tutoial completlig where will only be one problem

when you convert the file .ms3d file to a 3ds file (in Unwrap) then anime stop working why ??? o_O

PLEASE help :(

I can't move my joint I can select but I can't move it. :(

[edit]Ok, nevermind. I can move the joint but when I play the animation, only the joint moves. The sphere stays where it is.

There is an easy way,select the fur corner and press ctrl + n (sry for my bad english) :8

Four corner *

i did everything alright but the only problem i get to in with the file converter.....it wont let me convert the files it says "Unknown file format".. can anyone help out? thanks.

When i try to load a file with the file converter so i can change it to a .mdl it says unknown file format so i tried to load a .blp and it gave me the same error can someone tell me how to fix it PLZ! or give me a link to another converter.

When You import the model on a unit the .mdx is suppose to change to .mdl

Look im am a noob ill admit it i just finished the TEX PREP program and i have quite a lot of time on my hands now im great at most things except computers but i wanted to say you should tell why u do the things u do otherwise we cant make our own models unless we have instructions so next time tell why u do those things plez i want to be a good modeler but i need to know the basics plez help us and i speak for all NOOBS!

http://home.earthlink.net/~ioquan/
This is the link for a ms plugin(u need to use it when animating,don ask why ^_^ )
Ill reply if this works...
EDIT:u need to go to ms plugins,it is called "ioquan's Zero Joints plugin for Milkshape"