[Blender 3D] Tutorial

First of all you'll need these tools :

Python Programming Language 2.5.4
Blender Modeller
ELU Exporter Plugin
ELU Importer Plugin

Installation:

First of all, Install Python. Then, Install Blender.

Now, inside the blender folder (If you don't know where it is, select the shortcut, press ALT+ENTER to bring
properties and check where it is), there is a folder that can be hidden called ".blender".
Inside it there is another folder called "scripts". Paste the Exporter and Importer Plugins in there.

First Steps:

Now that everything is installed, start Blender. You'll see a cube, a Camera and a light, press A and the cube will de-select.
Press A again and it'll select all. Now press delete and click on the message below your mouse.

Now, we can start modeling :3

Modeling:

Assuming you have everything already installed, try making a simple weapon.
Believe me swords and daggers are the easiest ones, although Blender isn't that hard to use...

You may start with a plane or a cube, cube is generally better, since we're making a 3d item.

Press SPACEBAR and select ADD > CUBE. now press TAB to enter edit mode.

You'll see some dots on screen representing the cube's vertex. Stretch them until you make a small part of the sword, starting with the blades is generally easier.

You can select the vertex by right clicking them, or pressing B once to make a cut-like selection, or pressing B twice to select like a pencil tool on photoshop. Move them around by pressing G (Grab)

Once you have a small part of the blade, something square on it, select the top vertex and press E (Extrude) and select Region. Then, move the mouse to define where the new vertex will be located.

You can scale the faces by pressing S (Scale) and rotate them pressing R (Rotate). You can even select in what axis you want to rotate/scale/grab (X,Y or Z, Local or Global by pressing X, Y or Z once or twice) and how much, by typing it on the keypad, but remember only the floating point isn't a dot, like american's standards, it's a comma, like rest-of-world standards.

Make your model on the extrude base, however if you need cylinder and spheres (you'll need them mostly for hilts), while on EDIT mode, press SPACEBAR > ADD > Cylinder/UVSphere.

You won't need so many images to figure this step out, but even if you do, check this: Blender 3D: Noob to Pro Modeling a Simple Person

Now for the complicated part: UV Mapping and Subsurfing.

UV Unwrapping:

There are two methods of UV Mapping. The Projection and the Automatic.

The Projection method is a lot easier to figure out, and you won't need that much work for painting it, and it even could end up in a good job if you spend A LOT of time doing it.

The Automatic will do every dirty job for you, but you'll need to figure out what belongs to what.

Either method, this step is common: If you take your mouse to the far right, it'll turn into that resizing arrow. Right Click and select SPLIT AREA in the 3D View. A horizontal line will appear, middle click to make it vertical and left click to divide the screen on that line. On the left, let it 3D View, and make the right one an UV/Image Editor. Now select everything with a simple A pressing, press W > Remove Doubles. This will eliminate Double vertex and make your mesh lighter. But be careful since it sometimes end up affecting SubSurfing... Something we don't use in GunZ, but the tip is useful if you're modelling for any other games.

The projection method: Select a few faces of your mesh and press U > Project From View. These faces will appear on the right window, and if you load a image, whatever drawed inside the right window faces will be the texture of it. I mean, if you select the hilt and put it in a yellow part, and the blade in a blue part, you'll have a sword with a yellow hilt and a blue blade.

With projection, after you spend some time, you'll have something like this:




The automatic method: Select everything and press U > "Unwrap (Smart Projections)"

Now, in ANGLE LIMIT, put 89 (the max) and in ISLAND MARGIN put 0.250 (Max also). If you put the angle limit to 1, only a few faces will be drawn together.

Angle Limit 89:



Angle Limit 1:



You could also try, instead of selecting "Unwrap (Smart Projections)", selecting "Lightmap UVPack". Just select PACK QUALITY and MARGIN at the max, and IMAGE SIZE at 512 really, but it seems to be the more confusing method of all.

If you want to know what you're doing, use the projection method or the auto with 89 angle and 0.250 margin. They're the less confusing of all.

Now, on the file bar, where it says "SR:2- Model" click on the button on it's right (with 2 arrows) and change it to 5-Scripting. On the bigger window, change it again to UV/Image Editor.

Take a screenshot of it.

Now open Photoshop, or whatever you use, paste that, cut ONLY the UV Image, resize to 512x512. and paste it, making the UV itself occupying a 512x512 space.

Now make the texture as you wish and when you finish, save it as PNG. On the UV Image window, click IMAGE > OPEN and point to the image you drew.

Select every face on 3D View, Every face on UV Image and set the image to that you loaded. If nothing happens to your model, press ALT+Z to view it in texture mode.

You shall have something like this:
https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img17/5900/afteruv.png

Triangling:
Now, select every face on 3D view and press CTRL T once. Every Square will become Triangled. This guarantees more compatibility.


Exporting:
On the button window, press F9. In Link and Materials, there are two text boxes: one titled OB and other titled ME. name both for eq_<equip name>, example: eq_practice_sword.

Now, press F5, and under the "Links and Pipeline" click on Add New.
Press F6 and click on another Add New. On texture Type, select Image and on Image, click LOAD and select the texture file.

This is necessary to work in GunZ.

Now click File > Import > GUNZ (*.Elu). and go to a decompiled model.mrs folder. Import katana03.elu (Golden Dragon Sword) and katana_palmpou.elu

Move the Golden Dragon 10 units left and the other 10 units right on any viewport. Now rotate and scale your model until it's on the middle.

The Golden Dragon Sword will show you where the blade should be rotated, while the Palmpou shows you where the char will hold it.

Here's a perspective of how the sword should be placed between the other two:

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img50/664...hreeswords.png

Now, delete the katana03 and the katana_palmpou, select your katana and click File > Export > GUNZ (*.Elu)

Select the destination and export as version 7 (the bigger, the better detail. Older versions also won't allow alpha channels.).

If you're making a rifle, remember of Importing another rifle and grabing elements like muzzle_flash and empty_catridge to the right place in your model, since they're also used in GunZ engine.

After you add it on GunZ engine like you would for any other item, it'll look like this:

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img211/5834/gunz098.jpg


The End.