Note that this is for making handheld/usable props in Blender!

Now, there are a few things you need to get this thing working.

You need...

• Blender∞
• Handheld Python Scripts∞
• The right group .ini file from Data/Props

Al right then, got what you need? Then let's go!

A handheld or usable prop uses group names to make itself usable. Open up Blender.

Open up your prop by opening a save, or importing. If you're a 3DS Max user who just want to use Blender for it's fine, advanced scripts. Select File > Import > .MSH, and select your file.

Now rotation of a mesh is important, when you want to make a new spaceship or helicopter or weapon, you almost always import them to see how they're built, scaling, rotation etc. But what is important in rotation when making a new pistol for example, is to get it in the right place. So your actor does indeed hold the pistol. What I suggest, is that you import a gun, then take a screenshot with simple Print Screen, then scale it down in MS Paint for example, and then import it into Blender as a background image. So when you have your screenshot, press View on the left side of the buttons header. Go up and press Background Image, push Use Background image, and click on the little folder-icon next to Image. then when you imported the image, you can scale it down to the size you want, and move it around the 3D View.

Now let's say you got a prop finished and ready, and all you need to do is get it usable. It's quite simple really. Where we were when we chose background image, 2 buttons to the right, you can see a button called Object, press it.

View Select -->Object<--

Now go up to the top and press Scripts, then go down to Object Name Editor. Now where the Material buttons and all that used to be, at the bottom of the page, is now the window for the Object Name Editor.

As you can see all the objects you have in your scene are there. Such as Meshes, Lamps, Camera and such. Now at all the places where a Mesh goes, here's where you gonna write. First of all, check which groupname your prop has, as we said it's a pistol we have, we're going with "pistol_ca_.00.000"

All groupnames start with the name of the group (in this case "pistol"), and ends with "_ca_.00.000".

So now write in "pistol_ca_.00.000" in all. You can see that they change automaticly to "pistol_ca_.00.001", "pistol_ca_.00.002" etc. If you have multiple meshes you need to have different numbers in the end, from 0 to how many meshes you got. But if you just copy "pistol_ca_.00.000" and paste in all, they will change automaticly.

And you're done with grouping in Blender! Now press Exit in the Object Name Editor and it will return to the buttons window.

The next thing you need to do is to Save your work in a file. File > Save.

Now, go to the little icon to the left of View, this allows you to change the window from 3D View to Buttons Window, Nodes, Timeline and Outliner etc. And that's where we're going now, Outliner. When you're in Outliner, press A KEY to show all the objects, materials, textures and so on. Then go up to File > Save. Then go to File > Open Recent and select your saved file.

This procedure will get rid of empty materials, textures and other stuff laying around, repeat this twice to get a good result when taking it through MED.

Now you can go ahead and Export it. File > Export > .MSH Exporting the right names is also crutial. Since we have a pistol, we want it to be named "p_pistol_name.msh", this will allow the pistol to be accessed later on. This is not fully true since we need more testing, but to be sure, do it

Now go ahead and export. The thing about these scripts (the Handheld_scripts ones) is that they require a groupname to get exported correctly. Otherwise it will end up with "Python Error. Check Console" And then it would say Cube, Circle or Plane. So watch out for that.

Now, open up what group ini you're planning on using, for my pistol I use pistol.ini. Open it and under the last one, press Enter and then Tab on your keyboard, then write in the name of your .MSH file but WITHOUT the .MSH extension. So I'll add in p_pistol_name.

Then take it through MED and add the pistol.ini to The Movies/Data/Props.

And that's it! You should now have a working prop! One thing you should know about rotation is that most props need to be rotated 90 degrees to the right before they end up right. If you're doing the rotation in Object Mode, be sure to press Object > Clear/Apply > Apply Scale/Rotation

Category:

CategoryTutorials