Tutorials

Many people come to us asking for training on how to make a game.  While we welcome volunteers who are excited about working on our project, training people takes twice as long as game development.  We can't really afford to train people who are only interested in owrking on their own projects. However we do avidly support the Indie game development community and have created this page of tutorials to help others find the information they need to make Indie Games.

3D Art

MILKSHAPE 3D

These YouTube videos were created by Sparkling to help the Beginning Beginner learn how to use Milkshape3D

 Additional art tutorials are linked below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsunCbbf_3Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0BGz9J8HQA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk2vkXeWE6M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWDTfbrVb1A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b438trt32RI

Here is a tutorial on YouTube that Sparkling made for how to create LOD for models in Milkshape:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1i5LOoVHP8

Hopefully you don't actually need those though and can move on to some more advanced tutorials.

I taught myself how to draw 3D models using Milkshape (www.milkshape3d.com) and the best tutorial to help me was the CSGirl tutoral. You can download this for free from Fileplanet.

http://www.fileplanet.com/116212/110000/fileinfo/CS-Character-Modeling-Tutorial

If you are not a subscriber to Fileplanet, you can still download the file, you just have to wait in a queue for a while.

Some other Milkshape Tutorials that have been suggested by other users are:

http://www.realityfactory.ca/polygods.com/tut_cat.html

http://www.maxforums.org/

LOD For Trees in Milkshape (Thanks for locating this resource Racs!)
http://snakebitestudios.net/LODTrees_Milkshape.pdf

Advanced Tree tutorial - creation and completion.
http://snakebitestudios.net/BetterLODTrees_Milkshape.pdf

The blog referencing those tutorials is located at:
http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=14224

And also from J at Snakebite Studios:
PolySoup Models (for TGE 1.5, should work in TGEA also?) using Milkshape and Constructor:

http://www.snakebitestudios.net/wannaBePolysoupTUT1.pdf

Blender Tutorials

Some awesome tutorials for the free modelling program Blender.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro
http://www.cdschools.org/54223045235521/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=55205
http://blenderart.org/download.html

Rigging:
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/BSoD/Introduction_to_Character_Animation/Upper_body_armature

As for exporting to DTS and DIF:
http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=4662
http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.forum.php?qf=134
Blender Video Tutorials by Dingo_Aus
These tutorials show the basics of modeling in Blender, creating textures using Gimp, and exporting everything to DTS.

Official Tutorials
Web Tutorials
Video Tutorials
Manuals & Books
Some of these books can be purchased as downloadable PDFs for under $10.
The Blender Gamekit is particularly recommended.
Blender 3D - Noob to Pro is available here as a free "Wikibook".

Other Tutorials
Blender Newbies This is a Blog oriented tutorial page. They have a lot of "bite sized" lessons geared for the user who is new to Blender. Kind of an odd format with the blog though.
Simple Blender DTS Tutorials
Tutorials showing how to export a simple animated character in Blender to DTS.
Epilogue Player Model
A fairly abbreviated, but densly packed, tutorial on creating a player model.
Creating Normal Maps with Blender
As is probably obvious, this one is about using Blender to make Normal Maps.

Blender Tutorials in Flash
If you are interested in learning Blender 3D, this site has over 140 video tutorials on Blender. Videos require the free Flash player. Videos can be viewed online or downloaded and saved to CD/DVD.

http://www.gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html

Houdini Tutorials

If you want to see a pretty good overview tutorial on Houdini, go here:
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1180&Itemid=241

It also has some automated poly subdivide tools so that you can turn a rough boxy version of your model into a smooth edged model. A good example of that is in their "spoon" tutorial where they show you how to make a spoon and the various ways to render it. They also show you an awesome poly beveling tool that they used to sharpen the edges of the spoon up so that it looked more like a spoon. Their tutorials can be located here:
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=129&Itemid=241

Keep in mind, this is far from being just a modeling tool. It also contains things like, a particle engine. You can do so much stuff with this tool. Before I went to bed I saw them show how to create a teddy bear with fuzzy hair and then drop water on it to show how the hair is affected by fluid. -Derik

You can find some OUTSTANDING video tutorials for Houdini here:
http://www.3dbuzz. com

Maya Tutorials:

http://www.simplymaya.com/movie_pages/tutorial.mhtml?tut_id=135

Here is a 2004 page that might have some helpful tips, be aware some of the information might be extinct with newer releases of the DTS exporter and newer releases of Maya.
http://dannyn1.web.aplus.net/torque/maya2dts/reference/index.htm

Creating LOD for a Torque DTS object in Maya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deVsbjgyCSA

This is a link to the Garage Games forums where they discuss using Maya with Torque specifically:
http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.forum.php?qf=130

This is a link to the Torque Developer Network. You need to create a free account on Garage Games to be able to view this link.
http://tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/DTS/Maya/Downloading_and_Installing_the_Exporter

3DS Max Tutorials

This unfortunately named website does actually have decent tutorials:

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorial/tutorial.htm

Fragmotion

http://www.fragmosoft.com/fragMOTION/Help/fragMOTION.html

Daz|3D Tutorial Page

Daz can only be used for screenshots, we can't actually use the models created in DAZ, but we can make some fantastic splash screens and "Loading... please wait" screens, and some box art with it. DAZ Studio is free to download for those who wish to learn it.

http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/tutorial/0/-/?tut_cat=4

Constructor

William's Constructor and Game Dev page: http://sites.google.com/a/visionsdev.com/billbops-brain/Home

The Official Constructor Wiki at Garage Games:

http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=67687

Maybe you can dig something out of this that will help.

http://www.garagegames.com/blogs/985/10361

Be sure to check these links from that page as well:

Deconstructing Constructor - Part 1
Deconstructing Constructor - Part 2
Deconstructing Constructor - Part 3
Deconstructing Constructor - Part 4
Deconstructing Constructor - Part 5

Here is another GG Blog that might help:

http://www.garagegames.com/blogs/985/10765

Here is a tutorial on making Spiral stairs. Maybe it will help in making angled walls also. Since spiral stairs have to be made with angled brushes.

http://www.cybereye-visioneering.com/csx/Making_Spirals.pdf

and how to make portals

http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=13174

A BRAND NEW resource for free Constructor Tutorials:

http://web.mac.com/manged/iWeb/ArtOfJosiahReeves/Constructor%20Tutorials.html

How to make a simple museum:

http://wiki.pwlabs.com/index.php?title=Torque_Constructor_Build_Museum

Portals
So your models are looking better, but the lag (Framerate) isnt? Try adding Portals to your interiors. Tthis is a way to make the interiors not be drawn until needed. http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=13173,

http://tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/Constructor/Portals this site is only available to torque licensed owners, so someone may have to show you how to do it if you are not a owner.
Tirrem offers this quick layout on how its done: You take the dif model and create a box say in a doorway, then select csg subtract to make sure nothing intersects with it. This may or may not mess up the current model. Then with the box highlighted go to objects on the left of the screen and select portal. Just be sure when exporting to use map2difplus. In order for this to work the model must not have any visible cracks to see into the interior and the windows and doorways must be portalized. Hope this helps. -Tirrem

3D World Studio

John Spivey has created a nice tutorial on implementing LOD for models using 3DWS and posted it on the Garage Games website: http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=59919

Terragen

One of my developers found this tutorial for using Terragen to create Atlas terrain.

http://www.garagegames.com/blogs/44904/12553

Photoshop

Image Slicing: Haven't seen a whole lot of online tutorials (they may exist, I just haven't seen them) for Photoshop, but Tim found this one for me today that came in handy. I used it for slicing an image and then rearranging the parts for making a Torque GUI skin.

http://www.entheosweb.com/photoshop/slice.asp

How to make a Favicon: This tutorial isn't exactly for Photoshop, it involves using any 2D art program and this other ICO converter program. But this seemed as good a place as any to put the link.

http://www.hypergurl.com/favicon.html

How to make Rounded Corners on an image: Good text tutorial with graphics explaining an effective way to make rounded edges on an image. I just tried it myself and it worked (even though I didn't understand all the reasons for doing the things it said to do).

http://www.matthom.com/archive/2004/09/10/fast-rounded-corners-in-photoshop

How to make a 3D image of Boxart: A tutorial on how to make a 2D image look like a 3D image of a box. This would be good for making a Box-art graphic for the website.

http://www.spoono.com/photoshop/tutorials/tutorial.php?id=26

Box Art

Not exactly tutorials, but some guidelines and specifications for how box art should be made, as well as templates and resources for Box art ideas.

PC Boxart style guide. http://www.entmerch.org/IEMA-style-guide.pdf

A public Forum dedicated to Box art: http://www.vgboxart.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=10

 

World Building Tutorials

These tutorials may be hosted on our site or on 3rd party sites. They are provided for your benefit to learn more about worldbuilding effectively.

These YouTube tutorials were created by John Spivey, an artist who has been on our team and made some of the buildings in our games. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESDW8l2p9Tg

There is a torque video tutorial on precipitation:
http://www.garagegames.com/blogs/5316/14134
http://www.siteapps.net/tom/index2.html link right to video

MISC Tutorials

These tutorials don't really fit in any other section. But do contain useful or helpful information.

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/list.asp?categoryid=40#129

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/

Learning Resources

Game Programmers Guide to Torque - This is the number 1 reccomended resource guide for learning how to use the Torque engine. It comes with a demo version of TGE 1.4 and the instructions in the book are intended for TGE but most of the content is appropriate for TGEA as well. Main difference in TGEA is the use of normal maps, specular lighting, and Atlas terrain. Definitely a MUST HAVE book for game developers, programmers, worldbuilders, artists, anyone who will be interacting with the Torque editor!

3D Game Programming All In One (and it's Advanced sequel) - this set of books is the second most reccomended set for learning how to use Torque, as well as how to learn Milkshape and Paint Shop Pro, and other non-engine related tools which we use to create assets and content for the game.

 

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