track making school

Discussion in 'Track Modding' started by les, Jun 18, 2012.

  1. les

    les Registered

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    i am sitting here thinking about all the guys that make tracks and all the guys that want to make tracks, i think we need a track making school so of you experienced guys being teachers for the guys that want to learn i am willing to help out in this if anyone is interested in helping post here.

    we take 5 or six people that want to learn and teach them what do you guys think and teachers want to help ??
     
  2. les

    les Registered

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    scott from ISI would be a good teacher if we could get him involved scott could you afford a couple hours a week
     
  3. Michael Juliano

    Michael Juliano Track Team

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    I'd have to think about this, and how best to approach it. Obviously, time is a HUGE issue right now (as always). But beyond that, it would have to be well-organized to be constructive. Let me toss it around in my head for a bit and see if anything begins to make sense... :)
     
  4. les

    les Registered

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    thank you scott, really we would have to organize it make it well structured,
    1. track making 101 the basics.
    this would include
    a very basic track on how to create it this will give people an idea of what to do. examples would be real road setup, make trees that point at the camera to track lighting, getting the correct materials shaders and such. its not teaching them max so much as to teach how to get the track looking good. basically learning how to make a track from start to finish

    i have learned how to setup the real road good and night lighting i dont know everything
    but i also want to learn and help others
     
  5. Mike Cantwell

    Mike Cantwell Registered

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    Yep. I like this idea. I am frustrated with my build. I think there needs to be a very expicit video with files and step by step. Making the mesh is not so bad, but the texturing and so on is where I am messing up.
     
  6. Banger

    Banger Registered

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    what mike, i think your track looks excellent, well detailed and throughly fought out. i just started using 3ds max 2010, i have the basic idea's and some basic knowledge of 3ds max, i transfer from bob track builder since it no longer supported by the creator.but this school thing sounds great.
     
  7. Radar

    Radar Registered

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    I know where Mike is coming from.. There are standards, and there are standards.. What you think is good quality now can only be better once the knowledge is gained in the tools like 3Ds Max.. I did the Canberra 400 track and I was impressed with it for rF1 but there were so many things I couldn't do because I didn't know how to use Max.

    Now I am starting with things I know are basic to make like a building (which could be a good start Scott) and learning how Max works, to paint it etc.. Then the material blending on the track with the grass etc, the list goes on.. Last thing I will be working on is the track itself as I will have to re-do mine and the terrain around it (things like white lines not being part of the texture now but part of the road).. End result is that I will have a 3Ds file to work with later when updates are done with the game rather than playing with each GMT.

    Also better smoothing of the track, ie not jagged edges as BTB did...

    When I am finished with Canberra 400 for rF2, and Mike with his Queensland track, you will know where we are coming from.. You only have to look at Feels and Turtle with their tracks to see the potential.. the Terrain looks so much more real, better and what rF2 tracks should be, not some conversion from rF1.

    Time needs to be spent on the conversions to make them the quality that rF2 deserves..

    It would be nice to have a PDF on some of the basics rather than a video also imho.
     
  8. freew67

    freew67 Registered

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    Videos are just so much easier to make. :) Hows the saying go, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". I always felt you get better at Max by using it. If there is one way to do something with Max, there are prob 2 or more other ways to get the same job done. Ive been using Max since 2005 and I constantly learn something new. What I find is folks dont want to try tutorials that are not RF related. I tell people to try the Fiat 500 tutorial when they are starting out. It teaches you where the basic buttons are and to perform some simple task. Thats the first tut I remember doing when I started in Max. My guess is most folks dont try it or give up too quickly. There are already plenty of tutorials out there on creating a basic track. Any tut for RF1 should work for RF2 except you might just need more polys for the road surface now.

    These are just my views on this and Im sure some of you will disagree. Its just what has worked for me and my little ovals. :)
     
  9. Alesi

    Alesi Registered

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    +100500 totally agree, help would be great)))
    maybe we need some video or something that would show full process creating a track from zero to ingame
     
  10. MickyMutton

    MickyMutton Registered

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    This would be great, I'd love to be able to make tracks and cars so a tutorial with just an oval track and an easy car that show how to make it and then put it in rf2 would be superb!
     
  11. Cristian Why

    Cristian Why Registered

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    Can you point people the direction of these "plenty of tutorials"? thank you freew67
     
  12. JJStrack

    JJStrack Registered

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    there are some good ones on his own channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/freew67/videos
    as freew67 said, for the basics there are plenty of tutorials.
    what i would need more, are toturials on how to bring some finesse into your track, i.e. how to bring much diversity into your road surface and grass, how to make nice trees, how to make decent backgrounds and how to maintain a good performance while turning up the visual quality. i think these are the things that take the most time to learn, so it would be awesome to see the various ways the good modders do those things, so that you could get inspired how you could do it...
     
  13. freew67

    freew67 Registered

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  14. freew67

    freew67 Registered

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    Thats exactly what I would like to see also.
     
  15. les

    les Registered

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    i like videos too but sometimes the people who make the videos dont explain everything but really what i was talking about was having a school (my idea) was to have someone that knows how to create a track from scratch on a live video chat showing exactly what needs to be done. not only that but being able to ask questions like, ok how did you do that some of us are thick in the head. it takes a little more explaining to figure it out,(like) for example when you create the track mesh and you want to add materials to it with the modifiers. making sure the textures look right using the modifiers also using the gmoter materials and setting up the materials.

    learning the real road was something by watching your tutorial free that helped me alot with that.

    the idea for the school , was to create from start to finish a track showing us and someone that has never built a track how(materials real road too exporting)

    i figure if we take 5 to 6 people teach them they in turn can join the school and help teach others. this way people will learn to make better tracks rf2 quality.

    as for making cars from start to finish yes i would love to learn that but i have no clue about how to even start with a car and get it in game
     
  16. les

    les Registered

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    this is where i asked ISI(scott) as he creates tracks (rf2 quality) for ISI he is the man when it comes to making them look good
    he would teach us all as well as you free if you were too teach( i know i have been playing around with rf1 converts) but im not happy with the quality of them. as for scratch tracks i have never built one( i can create the shape of the track but assigning the materials this is where i get lost) this is where a school would help me out, i have figured out real road and exporting into game
     
  17. Alesi

    Alesi Registered

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    i m in)) when do we starts?))
     
  18. les

    les Registered

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    well we need to find out who will be willing to teach and help i know im in as well i am going to create a web site dedicated to track making and car making where we can go and call up videos or lessons or class lessons but i first need to find out who is willing to help
     
  19. Alesi

    Alesi Registered

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    would be great!!
     
  20. JJStrack

    JJStrack Registered

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    i really don't want to be destructice here, but i think videos with commentary (like freew does them) are much better because:
    -the can be in the "teachers" native screen resolution, which makes you able to read / identify each button he uses; live chat won't give you that quality
    -you will be able to watch one step of the video over and over again; in live chat with 6 or more participants you shouldn't redo a step so often
    -the "teacher" can produce his video well thought out, putting extra annotations into the video (descriptions of buttons, sample screenshots etc.); also the "pupil" can formulate better thought through questions or use Google for more general questions. this would make the whole thing much more time-efficient for either side
    -everyone could watch the videos anytime; making dates for the lessons would be a mess! Also there could be a very good range of tutorials ready when rf2 goes gold and new modders come in.
    i guess there are more point that could be made about this (also FOR the live chat) but those were the most critical that came to my mind at this time of day (nearly midnight here :p)
    so, good night everyone :p
     

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