Amateur Car Creator needs a little directon

[Storm_Sullivan]

So, I wanna learn how to make (not convert) MM2 cars. But how?

1. What are all the programs I need?
2. First step?
3. How to make functional wheels?
4. Sirens and lights?
5. Creating textures?
6. Basically, I guess I need a tutorial that goes step-by-step through the entire process.

Thanks for help! If I find what I need, I'll someday be able to take requests.

[e-cobra]

There is a tutorial made by Silent1Unknown available here. It explains everything required to make a car for MM2 from scratch.

[Storm_Sullivan]

Can't open it because of my internet security program (because its online storage). Will have to get my Dad to temporarily disable the security.

[Storm_Sullivan]

I have Zmodeler, dear2, dash placement, .Tex program, windows paint, irfanview, VCK (is it compatible with Zmodeler?)

Anything else I should have besides tutorials?

[KingAndy]

Well, in my case I think it's easier to convert a car from other game (compatible with Zmodeler) than creat a scratch made car. The programs I use: Zmodeler 2.2 (opens lots of nice games cars and has some better tools than 1.7 version), Zmodeler 1.7 (in my opinion easier to use and fudamental to convert the car file in Midtown Madness 2 format), windows paint (easy to work with the textures), notepad (for tuning the car), paint.net (work with tga. files and it's free, but the tga. files made with this program will have a totally transparent alpha channels, so you need to save it in dds. format and convert it online). Well, this is my basic software, but I need much more programs, some of them:

deAR2 (for open the original ar. files of the game, and make your cars from the game stuff), tex2tga (if you want to use the original textures from the game you may need this to convert them from tex. to tga), a sound editor software (to make your car souds if you want to make your own), dash placement (to place all parts of your dashboard, I'm learning how to use this one).

During your car making process, if you are in a situation this programs aren't enough for something you want to do, just find on internet for software you need or ask us.

EDIT: I forget a really important one, you should have WinZip, 7Zip or WinRar to pack your car files into a ar. file when it's done.

[Storm_Sullivan]

Yes, I have both winzip and 7zip, as well as dear2
my Zmodeler is 1.07b
I'm trying to find a bms(?)2pkg converter to try conversion on mm1 cars, but the one I found I can't get unless I'm a member and I'm a member of enough things as it is. If I borrowed someone else's account long enough to get what I need...but anyway, I'll get the paint.net, though if Z 2.2 costs, its out of the deal for me.

Then beyond that, I just need some "how-to" because all the links I got kept being blocked by my internet security and I don't have the password.

[KingAndy]

[...] though if Z 2.2 costs, its out of the deal for me.

[...]

I got it for free

If you want a tutorial, there is a really nice one here in PDF format, all you need to know in a simple language. It helped me a lot when I started my V8 Interceptor, I hope it would be helpfull to you too: https://www.mmarchive.com/tutorials/begi ... torial.pdf

BTW, here says you need Photoshop, but with Paint.NET you probably can do almost all that youneed, but if you prefer you can get GIMP that is free to and almost equal to photoshop, but much bigger in hard disk than Paint.NET.

About that thing to save the textures on Paint.NET as dds. format and after that convert on the internet, this is the website I use to convert dds. files to tga. (with all of this process you will not have big problems with tansparency): https://image.online-convert.com/convert-to-tga

[Franch88]

The first tutorial and resource to check in order to know how to make cars 3D models and put them in MM2 it's the very good Silent1Unknown's tutorial. The one linked by e-cobra it's the first version, but check and follow the second version with videos available at his website here. Check also this topic, it's now old and not the best, but it's still a valid resource.

Can't open it because of my internet security program (because its online storage). Will have to get my Dad to temporarily disable the security.

Well, this is an your problem, do something for it, no need to tell it continuously.

[Storm_Sullivan]

Yes, thank you for all the help. Franch, I was only commenting the reason why I wasn't getting any tutorials. I now have a couple, however, I'm beginning to thing that a bit of coaching is in order, if anyone wants to help. To get me past issues that tutorials don't cover, like how to get my picture sized right. I've tried every dimension, but nothing is squared. in Z, it always comes up too oblong or too short. Also, I run into issues with poly's. Do I have to cover the auto with little triangles lined up in a certain symmetrical order? Can I just connect lines however? Why, when I use a side bp, the model shows up in the middle of the front bp rather than the side of it?

So you see, its about more than tutorials. If someone is willing to guide me through such issues via p\m or something, I'm entirely open.

[EnzoSkylineMiura]

No sweat, dude. When I started out, I made a topic, so the entire community can show you what to do. So, If I were you, I would make a topic named "Storm_Sullivan's Car's". At least that's what I did.

[Storm_Sullivan]

Good idea

[e-cobra]

About the blueprints, there re a few things to keep in mind to get them perfectly aligned in Zmodeler. First, select a 'good' blueprint like this one:
Notice that this blueprint contains all the views of the car, you may not find all views in the blueprint of the car you're to model, but that's fine upto a extent. You must have the front, back and one of the side views at least.


Next, to start separating that single image into multiple images, (front, back, left,etc..) start from the front or back view. Here I started from back. Carefully move the selection so that the car exactly fits inside it (don't worry about the selection not being a square, it'll be made to a square later).


Now once you've selected the car from back view, copy this selection (I'm using Paint.NET to do this) and create a new image whose canvas size should be exactly equal to the size of this copied image. (Paint.NET does that automatically, just press Ctrl+C to copy, Ctrl+N to make a new file and a window will appear asking the canvas size, let it as it is without changing any values and press Ctrl+V to paste in that new file)


Now do the same thing for one of the side view: I select right view.
Now as in this blueprint the back and right views of the car are exactly aligned, I just moved the selection horizontally to select the right side of the car.



Make a new file and paste this selection into it, just like the previous one. Do the same for front and back views.
Now you have back, front and side views separated so its time to make them square so that they don't appear elongated in Zmodeler.
Go to the back view and note its width in pixels. In my case, its 137 pixels. Now go to the right view and note its width. Its 290 pixels. As we didn't change the height of selection and the blueprints were perfectly aligned, their height will be the same.
To make these images square, adjust their canvas size. The right view is 290 pixels wide so the size of back view should be at least 290x290. Go to canvas size and make the back view 290x290 pixels with its 'anchor' in the centre.


Do the same for right view, make its canvas 290x290 pixels. (Canvas size will be different in your case and not 290x290 pixels, just make sure that the width of the side view should be the canvas size of the front/back views and width of the side view should be made equal to its height by adjusting canvas size.)


Now these images are ready to be used in Zmodeler.

[Storm_Sullivan]

I did it before I saw this in half the steps just with paint, my models are correctly sized. But they keep moving off the screen when I try to create.

[e-cobra]

Don't use the hand tool to move blueprints anywhere, if they're correctly aligned and of the correct size, they should appear exactly at the centre of the view.

[Storm_Sullivan]

Problem fixed now, the prints are in position.