Blog Azeroth

I've seen on some of your blogs the use of images created with the Wow Model viewer. Might I ask for a simple how-to for those of us just starting out with this program? Or perhaps links to the tips or instructions you might have found previously?

I have lots of fun viewing things, but haven't found a way to actually do anything with them...

I imagine the most commonly used feature of the model viewer for the blogging community is to take screenshots of characters for use in website graphics and character sigs. Is that what you need assistance with?

I used the Model Viewer to get a video of my character firing the crossbow so I could use it as an intro to my Gruul video. But I am no means an expert.

When I get home and are able to sit down with it, I will make a response with what I know how to do if it will help.

that's pretty much what I'd like to do with it. I don't know how to add backgrounds, or take screenshots out of it...

Well, I believe under the File menu there is a Save Image option. And under View or something there is a background color and image selection option.

=( I can never get the Save Image option to render an image with the correct lighting. I simply hit my PrtScrn button and then paste it from the clipboard into my graphics program.

I'd love to figure out how to play with the lighting more. I've used other 3D programs like Truespace (a lot) and 3DMax (a little).

I guess, since 'm sitting in front of it right now, and trying to play with it, when taking a screenshot of, say, your character, what color background do you use to make it easy to make the BG transparent for use online?

that's a simple one I can think of.

Generally you would use a pure blue (R: 0 G:0 B:255 for example) to denote a color to be used for transparencies. Some graphic programs let you choose the color which you would like to be transparent when modifying the image.

Burn-your-retinas fluorescent green is what I go with. Think: the color of the Undercity sludge.

Depends on your graphics program. Because I take a screenshot and crop out the background, I use exactly the same background color as my website. This was black before and now is 26R/26G/26B.

I apologize in advance for the following very large image. It is a screenshot of my desktop while I had a screenshot of Model Viewer open.




Once you have Model Viewer open with your character of choice posed (using the Animation pane, you can have them do anything they can do in game), you can Save Screenshot using the option under the File menu.

I've found that the weapons and other items held in the hand can frequently interfere with the composition because of the special textures and glowing. When I import data from the Armory (found in the Option menu), sometimes the textures on the weapons and shoulder pieces do not display correctly.

In my editor, I can use a Magic Wand Tool to highlight the entire background and delete it from the image. Since the background is all white, the tool picks up everything white that is touching the background. Under the Tool properties at the bottom is the Threshold slider--if you lower it, the Magic Wand Tool is very picky about the variation of color that it will pick up. Set to 0 it will only highlight the very specific color code you click on. So, if there were a few pixels that were only slightly off-white, they wouldn't get picked up.

WoW Model Viewer models are very well defined and can usually be extracted very easily from backgrounds (recreating traditional "greenscreen" or "bluescreen" effects works well, since most characters aren't blueberry or lime colored). Weapons and their glowing can interfere, as you see in the screenshot above, where some of the Tauren's arm is going to be removed if I continue cropping out the highlighted background.

Wow Ologhai, I found that screenshot pretty useful.

Useful in showing me I need to take a damn photoshop class, since I don't know how to do much mor than resize and cro[p and add a text box.

Anybody know where I could find a tutorial for manipulating screenshots?
For like, the Photoshop newb?

I just did a search for "photoshop tutorial" on google and came up with thousands of hits. There might be something there for you, It's just sorting through the trash to find a good one...

If you want to create awesomesauce digital art, Photoshop and other programs like it are the way to go.

If you want to create graphics and edit images for using on a website, you might want a less feature-intensive option. I've been using Macromedia's Fireworks for years to great success. It's got plenty of bells and whistles that are a lot easier to manage than Photoshop. Another similar "lite" program is Paint Shop Pro.

I found Pixel2Life.com in my intarweb meandering not too long ago. It seemed like a decent resource. Googling is always an option if you have the patience to sift through the results.

The trick in learning a program is to do it incrementally. Like respeccing right before a raid to something you've never done before, it's best to avoid adding extra variables to the mix. Pick one tool and start using the heck out of it. Don't worry about the end result, just make sure you understand the working components.

Once you understand all the tools, you'll know how to achieve the look you're going for.

Theoretically speaking of course. Usually I just keep fudging with things until I'm satisfied. I don't do visualization well. I start with a half-formed kernel of an idea and start experimenting and changing as I go until I'm more or less satisfied with my result. It'd be nice to know what I want when I look at a blank canvas...

Can anyone point me in the direction of the latest Mac version of this that someone linked in their blog a while ago??

It's a long shot I know, but I've been trying to use the version that is on www.sailesha.com/wowmodelview/ but I'm having tons of trouble with it. I saved the link somewhere but I'll be buggered if I can find it


also - Has anyone got any tutorials of how to put together spell animations and the effects that go with them? I can get them both individually, but haven't got a clue how to get them going together

thanks in advance.

While I'm clever with the clone-stamp tool, I'm having a lot of problems once I've saved a screenshot and I open it in CS2. Most of it's transparency--the entire helm and shoulders for certain character set ups won't show at all. Any ideas?

EDIT: It seems that when I change what type of file I save it as, the issue mostly resolves itself. >_>

Actually, 3B, this is on my list of blogs to write. I'm a screen junkie (as my last journal post illustrates), and I do a ton of modifying with Photoshop. I'll put it together, and we can see if it helps.

Photoshopmeister,
~Rhoelyn

Paint Shop Pro isn't so "lite" any more. I've been using it since PSP4 and now it's on #11 and pretty feature-intensive (I almost prefer the old "lite" version at times).

Here at work, I've had the opportunity to work in Photoshop along with my Paint Shop Pro and while Photoshop is the de facto standard image editing program of professionals, I still find PSP easier to use (yeah, probably because I've been using it for years), but it's also cheaper which is always a huge plus.

For someone just getting into graphic editing, I would first compare prices of PSP and Photoshop and then download a trial as both come with 30 day free trials. If one works for you, get it, play around with it, experiment with it, and learn as you go.

PSP 11? Wow. I've still got a PSP5 demo install on my hard drive.

Thread necromancy? I hope not...

I have been trying to get a few images of my character, and the first one is giving me a headache.... Here is a small rendering of what I am trying to do...



See the problem? The axe and sword are acting as if I were shooting... I donno, greyscreen?

I changed the background color, (to hyper-neon-ouch) no juice.

I added a background bmp (again, HNO) and no go, all the saved screenshots act the same....

How do I fix this? or is this just an issue with the weapons themselves (I head that alot of the WotLK stuff is buggy...)

Assuming that I understand what it is you're trying to do:

If you want to keep the weapons from crossing that way, you're actually going to have to do a little editing. They're not crossing because of a bug or because you're shooting, they're crossing because you're mounted (hands holding "reins").

In this case, I think you'll need to have two shots - one of the character standing (ready stance, maybe?), one mounted (with no weapons), and you'll need to splice the two at the waist in a manner that works best. You may also need to manipulate specific parts of the image. For instance, if you go to my blog and look at the image I have in my header, that was manipulated in photoshop (by a third party - I understand mechanics, I just suck at them). The actual motion you see doesn't exist in the game in that way - it's a manipulation of the arm/hand during a dance emote, coupled with a shot of the character frozen mid-blink. From the information I was given from the person who made it, it required completely cutting off her left arm, cutting and pasting it in a way that it looked best, and then reattaching it.

Fortunately, photoshop and layers make that a pretty good way to go.

Hopefully that helps.

No, thats not what I meant.... But I really like your picture!

Basically, this is a gag-picture, there is going to be a peice of text along the lines of "I am not compensating!"

Its mostly just a trial run.

My issue is that the sword itself (and the axe in his other hand, but its less noticable.) Are semi-transparent. I am more and more certain, however, that this is an issue with the sword and axe itself, because there is no other trasperancy issues...

If there is no way to fix it, Ill just use some other weapons...... any suggestions on REALLY big weapons... preferably pre LK (I am afraid this issue will be shared amongst many LK objects...