Nice four-pointed star, wanting to port into Maya

Community Forums/Graphic Chat/Nice four-pointed star, wanting to port into Maya

WedgeBob(Posted 2006) [#1]
I came up with a nice animation strip for a four-pointed, Japanese-style star that I have just done in PSP X, and coded into an animation program with Blitz 3D. However, it's not exactly 3D unless it's ported into Maya, and placed with a camera to freely roam around the rotating star. Now, instead of the four-pointed star, I'm looking at adding two more points in the other direction, to make like a 3-D compass of sorts that you could rotate around. This looks great, but it's only half-way there. It would look cool to set the animation into both rotating on the X-axis, and the Y-axis, well, it's good for the 2D rotation so far, but to make a 3D rotating star, I need the extra two points. This is where I am so far, just need to use Maya PLE at very least to make this come together with the 6-pointed compass star. Here's the 4-pointed 2D star below:




Ruz(Posted 2006) [#2]
so you just need more points added to the model and rexported?


jhocking(Posted 2006) [#3]
Huh? Are you just showing off the pics of the star or do you need help? If the former, why the long explanation? If the latter, you didn't ask a question.


SheepOnMintSauce(Posted 2006) [#4]
Like this?



WedgeBob(Posted 2006) [#5]
Well, I am displaying the 2D version of the star for rotation animations like a pinwheel. However, with that 3D image, I can do a "gyroscope" style rotation, and the user can interact with it, and allow you to turn left, right, zoom in and out with the up and down keys, and yes, that image above looks like a start. Maybe that may be an awesome idea. Have a nice ground and sky around it, and it'll look cool from there on in.

With the help of TerraGen for the atmosphere to put the star in, that will add to it. I'll use Maya for the star, and have the ground and sky done through TerraGen and have it all come together, I assume that can be done, not too sure how easy, tho.


SheepOnMintSauce(Posted 2006) [#6]
Ah, I thought you meant you were going to do it as a gyroscope anyway. What are you planning on doing exactly? Sounds like some sort of flight simulator, or something.


WedgeBob(Posted 2006) [#7]
Here's also the background that I plan to use, I just did this in the combination of TerraGen and PSP X. It should compliment the star just fine, as the sunlight is set just in the right position for the star's shading. Of course, the image is bigger than this to use for the actual program. I'll have to see how doing all of this in Maya will handle. I think Maya PLE will also do what TerraGen will, but you just have to make the terrain from scratch unlike TG. This may be a little complex, but to make a 3D environment and an interactive animation, that's going to take a while.


WedgeBob(Posted 2006) [#8]
To start off, before going with the 3D models for the program, I'll just add this background to the 2D model to see what it looks like as a stationary animated program, then I'll continue with the 3D phases of this program.

To answer your question about a flight sim, I am holding off on the DodgeFlight project so I can actually use other programs to study 3D animation and making the best environments for 3D objects, and how to interact with them. It's a long shot, but at least it's a great start.


SheepOnMintSauce(Posted 2006) [#9]
Well, sounds like you've got a plan. Good luck! =)


WedgeBob(Posted 2006) [#10]
Okay, I'll start another thread in the Blitz 3D forum regarding how to use all of this in the 3D perspective, and how to maneuver around it. This thread was to feature my first phases of the program in generating all the graphics for the program.