how do you make an age?

[groath]

so ive been reading the fourms and doing some reasearch and i cant find any thing on how to make an age ive been playing with blender every day and im slowly getting better at it but i jsut cant figure out how to make my own age or how to edit one. but if any one wants to give some pointers or somthen that be great ore just even pointing me in the right direction would help

thanks in advance

groath

[boblishman]

All you need to know to get started is in the Wiki .... HERE

[pappou]

Groath, i take exception with this canonical view of starting an age. I will never be anything but a noob in the camp of Blender age writing, so i guess i think differently.

However, to my mind, it just makes sense to start at the beginning, not at the point where you want to enter your age into Blender. First you have a story to tell. [If not, why are you worried about starting an age?]

Composition teachers normally suggest if you have a story to tell, you should begin by outlining that story. I think this makes some sense, as long as you don't get carried away with it and turn outlining into writing too quickly.

Then i think you should do a quick plan – a site plan – of where all the parts and pieces go. In GoW age writing, this seems to be mostly overlooked, i think, because 'programmers' tend to think linearly, not spatially. But it could be a most essential tool for age writing: Having a plan of spaces as well an outline of events makes the Writer far more aware of what he/she is doing then trying to keep all this in the memory. It just does not work well that way.

To do serious age writing, i think the next stage is combining the verbal outline with the visual site plan by constructing story boards. Story boards are outlines too, but essential in laying out the direction of visual work – especially so in producing ages.

And THEN, i believe, it is time to start putting the big special events into Blender. This gives you a sense of the 3D impact of certain highlights and will inevitably adjust your previous linear thinking. Somewhere about this point is where i think the GoW Wiki instructions pick up.

Your question, Groath, was, 'how to make an age'. As I said, Start at the beginning; not with Blender. But if you have all your ducks lined up, then maybe you ARE ready for Blender. If so, i can't help you. But if you need help with above pre Blender work, let me know.

[groath]

im having some problems becues i downloaded every thing and made sure its up to date but when i go to add book in blender i go to scrpit window,add and then theres nothing under the add section so i dont now what i did rong

thanks pappou but i do have and idea for the type of age im making i think it will be my market age that i put under the art section in the fourms and if i do need any ideas or help i go straight to you thanks!

[andylegate]

Groath,

You have to put the plugin in the right place, and you have to tell Blender about it.

the plugin script files go to the script folder where you have your Blender install. For most people it is:

C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\.blender\scripts

And yes, there is a period in front of that one .blender.

Once you have done that, open up your Blender. Change one of your windows to User Preferences (the big fat "i")
You should have several buttons appear. You want to click on File Paths.
Once you click on it, several boxes will appear. You want to go to the one that says Python. Click on the little button that looks like praying hands, and a directory will pop up. Take it to the scripts folder where you put the plugin files.
Once you've done that go back to that Python box and now click on the little button that looks like a note.
Exit Blender and restart it.

That's all you need to do.

[groath]

ok so i did what you said got all my files in the right place now, i think, but when i go to add new book i click it and it says python scpit error check consle.. so i have no idea what to do im still trying to get used to belnder but i have no idea if this is a file related issue or not

[Aloys]

The 'console' is the little black and white window that opens up with Blender. If you get a "check console" message have a look at the console and tell us what is written on the last line.

[groath]

oh ok thats good to know... it says file"<string>",line 47, in <module> importError: no module named alcconfig. thats every thing it says so it cant find somthen...

[Zander]

However, to my mind, it just makes sense to start at the beginning, not at the point where you want to enter your age into Blender. First you have a story to tell. [If not, why are you worried about starting an age?]

Absolutely agreed, pappou...but I think most of us, maybe all of us, are still at the "learning how to use Blender and the ever-evolving plugin" stage of things, and starting with a story when you don't know if the Age is going to make it to release is redundant. We're going to come up with a lot of Ages that don't have any reason for existing other than to teach us our craft. This is something I didn't realise when I first bounced in here all confidence and ideas, and it's been a sobering experience.

An Age that is fit to be released must start from a story. In the meantime, I think it's okay just to concentrate on getting the land under your feet and the sun in the right place.

groath, you have alcconfig, it just isn't in the right place. Everyone gets that.

[D'Lanor]

oh ok thats good to know... it says file"<string>",line 47, in <module> importError: no module named alcconfig. thats every thing it says so it cant find somthen...

That probably means some files are still not in the right place. They should all be directly under scripts, not in the src folder.

(I wish they would get rid of the src folder in releases since that folder only has meaning to developers)