From scratch.

Well this almost seems more trouble then it's worth, so it's a good thing I'm stuborn.

I want to make my own models to play with in warcraft. Problem is I don't have a ton of money to throw around.

It seems everytime I ask for help anywhere I have to download one to three more programs. I'm getting kinda tired of that, so this time I JUST want the process of getting models into the game with what I have. (Though I'll get more plugins if need be.)



Ok first I have Blender3d For modeling - Been doing it for years, and I'm pretty dang good.

Paint Shop Pro for skinning - Again, been doing it for years.

Milkshape3d - Just bought it cause people say to do animations from there. I got the import/export plugins for MDXs and they work great.

Lithunwrap - After I got it I found about a hundred threads on google saying it wasn't that good. This one I'm willing to replace if there's something easier.

Yobgul's file converter - This one's pretty obvious, even to me.



What I want to do is create my own animations, add attachment points, and properly skin my models with these programs. I don't care what it takes to do it, I just want some clear directions.

I don't know how I could add incentive to getting me links to the tutorials I need/write out a list of things to do, but I'm on the verge of desperation at this point. Please help me.

It's tricky, modeling is really one of those things that you have to figure out as you go along.

Heres a tutorial for Milkshape, it looks like you seen it already:
http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=50366

Heres some assorted tutorial, although they are for GMAX definetly outline the basic principles for Warcraft III modeling.
http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=50366

Your experianced, so if you take a look at the guide blizzard wrote for the art tools, you should be able to roughy figure out what to do.

I'll go play around with my copy of milkshape and try to remember some things about animation.

RDZ is the best guy to speak to regarding Milkshape. I'll see that he posts here.

Blender3d unfortunately has very little support for Warcraft. I think that it's possible to export as some format and convert just the geometry to MDX, but it's pretty limited.

There are a few modeling programs just for Warcraft, but I don't think they work very well.

Are you sure that the MDX exporters you're talking about export Warcraft MDXs? The main exporter that I know of exports as MDL and does not export animations or shading correctly most of the time. I wrote/am writing one just recently that does, hopefully, a better job. You can get it at:
http://www.wc3campaigns.net/attachme...4&d=1150595263 and read about it here: http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=83773

I'll write some instructions in case you want to use it:
Make your model and put animations one after the other, leaving some space.
Edit the model comment (this is in the F1 tab) to tell it how the animations should go. An example would be:

Stand, 1-30
Walk, 60-80
Attack, 90-113, nonlooping
Death, 120-200, nonlooping

Edit each material to say what texture path it should use. That would look like

Path:Textures\whatever.blp

And then just go File->Export->Warcraft III MDL. If you export as MDL, you have to use Yobguls' converter to make it MDX. MDX should work just as well.

None of this is tested very vigorously, but it seems to work better than the old one.

My mistake. It does do MDLs. As for blender's limited support, I only want to use it for the modelling portion. I'm about 10 times faster with it then anything else.

Instructions would be great. I'm sorry to put you to extra trouble, but I've been burning up google for weeks and I must be either stupid or unlucky, cause other people have managed to figure this out somehow.

Thanks for all the fast responses.

Heh, those were intended to be the instructions. If you need instructions on using Milkshape itself, you can find those in the help menu.

LOL I am more inteligent then that... Been distracted all day. That helped a lot.

Ok now I wanna know how to add cameras for portraits, attachment points, and maybe team glow and particle emitters?

After I get this all sorted out you're all gonna think I'm even more of an idiot cause of the silly models I'll be putting out.

There's a few MDL editing tricks for adding those if you can't do it within your existing programs.

Magos' model editor is handy for adding portraits (not sure on the current status for attachment points), the rest may be worth a quick glance at the MDL tutorials:
http://wc3campaigns.net/forumdisplay.php?f=652

Oinkerwinkle's tools are also useful for MDL editing and has a particle emitter tool.

Yet another question: How do I make a model apear only for certain animations. A lot of models have pieces that only show up when they're in use. If I'm not mistaken they're completely transparent the rest of the time. How can I duplicate this?

They're called GeosetAnims in MDL.

http://wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=81227

I am planning on adding all those things to the Milkshape exporter, but I'm going to be gone for the next week. So you might want to hold off on doing those parts, I don't know. Just so you know.