Inkipedia:3D Models

The 3D Models project's goal is to construct pseudo-3D images of the weapons in Splatoon that can be freely rotated.

Example

File:S2 Weapon .96 Gal 3D.pngFile:S2 Weapon .96 Gal 3D.png

“

Template:!! This is not for the faint of heart. It requires a bit of knowledge on how Blender works, and a lot of time and patience since a lot of models will not be centered correctly by default, or would require to manually edit the textures, thus requiring plenty of tweaking to get them ready for the process.

”

Requirements

This page or section is under construction.

Please excuse its informal appearance while it is being worked on. We hope to have it completed as soon as possible!
Can you help us get it done?

The rendering system works as a Blender addon, so you'll need the latest version of Blender, which you can get here: TODO

You'll also need the latest version of the addon itself, where you can get here: TODO.

Select "Download Zip" from the download menu and you should be good to go.

Initial setup

If you have never used Blender before, you'll want to play around with it a bit to get used to the basics.

This might be a good video to follow, not really sure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8sg0nHNTTo

Installation

Once you've got Blender up and running, you'll need to install the Addon itself. This is pretty straightforward. Open Edit->Preferences and select the Addons sub-menu.
Click on the "Install" button at the top right and then select the zip file you've downloaded.

You should see the SplatoonImageGenerator addon pop up. Tick the checkbox to the left of the menu to enable the addon.

Now that you've got the addon installed, you'll need to install the libraries the addon needs to run. Expand the menu that just appeared with the dropdown arrow, and click on "Install Dependencies". This will install the Python library Pillow link? so that it can be used by Blender.

In the case that the button doesn't work, or an error appears either near the button or on the bottom bar, don't panic! TODO Explanation of how to fix

Once you successfully install the required libraries, you should see a new category in the tools panel (press N on your keyboard to open the tools panel when in the 3d layout). That's it! You're all set up and ready to start loading in your models.

Getting Models

You can get almost all of the Splatoon models from https://www.models-resource.com/nintendo_switch/splatoon2/. The addon has only been tested with a select few weapon models, so don't be too surprised if it doesn't work out of the box for some of the other types. However, with a bit of tweaking, you should be able to take images of any model of your choice, Splatoon or otherwise!

Importing Models

Importing models is quite straightforward, simply File->Import->fbx, and select the model you'd like to take an image of.

Using the addon

Addon Structure

PIC OF ADDON The main meat of the addon is its ability to rotate and render 3D models to form the pseudo-3D images you see around the wiki. However, it comes with a few helper functions to make your life easier when rendering the models.

The helper functions can be found under "Basic Settings" and help complete commonly used tasks on the model to prepare it for rendering. Their exact functions are as follows:

Base armature

This is to select the top-level Armature object of the model, which will dictate which model is rotated and processed. If something isn't working right, check that the correct armature is selected!

Rotate and Scale

Rotate and Scale does exactly what it says on the tin, rotates the model and scales it up so it's easier to navigate from the default Blender view. It relies on the fact that each model comes with the same starting rotation though, so take care to check it's done its job correctly.

Position Cursor

The addon rotates the 3D model around the 3D cursor when rendering, rather than object origin, since the origin is rarely at the centre of mass of the model. This button places the 3D cursor at an approximate midpoint of the model. Again, it's not infallible, so check that it looks approximately right before rendering.

Position Camera

This button positions the camera to look at the model side on, with enough margin around the edges to leave some space if the model grows when rotating. Check that the model is centred okay, and that fills the camera with a bit of margin.

Fix Object Material

For some reason, Splatoon models are imported with backfaces visible. This button simply disables this for all meshes, so that you don't have to do this yourself. You can easily see what it does to an imported model in Rendered view.

Set HDRI

This just adds a Skate Park HDRI to the scene to add some organic lighting.

Some further options are available in Advanced Settings:

X Rotations

Sets the number of rotations in the X axis displayed on the final image. More leads to a smoother rotation experience, at the cost of higher storage space.

X Resolution and Y Resolution

These determine the resolution of the image rendered by Blender, NOT the final generated image. I haven't really found a use for this, except to tweak aspect ratio, but I've left it in anyway.

Output Format

Does what it says on the tin. Choose between PNG (transparent) or JPEG (lower file size)

Then finally to render, there are the following options:

Output Folder

The folder where the final image will be placed. CAUTION: The addon uses folder called 'tmp' within the selected folder to store images. So maybe make a separate folder to store the outputs if you have a folder called tmp with important stuff.

Render to Wiki Image

Renders the final images, generates a weapon.{output format} file and a weaponoffsets.txt file with the description needed to get it to work.

Taking images

The basic steps to take an image are quite straightforward. Import your model, select the armature, go down the list of buttons in Basic settings, select your output folder and render! However, use each of the steps with care, as every Splatoon model is different, and the addon may make mistakes. Check each step to see whether it has worked as intended. Checks are as follows:

Rotate and Scale

Check that the model is in the right orientation (muzzle facing left/right, handle facing down, etc.). If this isn't the case, you'll have to rotate the Armature manually to fix it.

Also check that the model rotates as intended (i.e local axis are lined up). The local Y-axis should pitch the armature up and down, as if it were aiming and higher and lower targets. If this isn't the case, you'll have to reposition the armature and apply scale as necessary to get this to happen.

Position Cursor

This usually works fine, but check that the cursor is at the approximate centre of the model. You can also set Blender's pivot point to 3D cursor, and check that the model rotates naturally around it. If not, reposition the armature (or 3D cursor) so that it's about right.

Position Camera

Check that the model is fully framed, and that when rotated it never leaves the frame. You could, at this point, zoom the camera in to frame the model even closer to get a higher resolution final image, being careful that nothing leaves frame.

Fix Object Material

Just check that the mesh doesn't look weird and inside-out after using this, sometimes you won't have to use this button at all. If the material still looks wrong, because of colour issues, shininess, surface detail or missing glowy bits, check Advanced Usage to modify the material.

Set HDRI

Check that the model lights up in Rendered view. If you don't want to use the Skate park HDRI, simply select your own and skip this button, which would normally overwrite it.

Advanced Usage

Setting Materials

If your material looks a bit off, it's likely that the FBX import didn't use all the textures needed for your model. It's easy enough to fix this, but some experience with Blender's shader editor is useful but not necessary. Here are some common issues and their fixes:

Missing Glowy Bits

The model is likely missing an Emission shader. Add an Image Texture to the object material, and import the texture ending with _emm from the model's images folder. Connect this as the fac value to a MixRGB node, and plug this into the Emission input of Principled BSDF. Turn up emission strength, set one colour to black and the other to one of your choosing, and you should be good to go.

Missing Surface Detail

It's possible that the normal map for the model isn't being applied strongly enough. Turn up Strength on the Normal Map node connected to the Normal input of the Principled BSDF.

Missing Colours/Black Sections

This might be due to a Team Colour not being applied. Add an Image Texture to the material, and import the image ending with _tcl from the model's images folder. Connect this as Fac to a MixRGB node. Connect the albedo texture that should be already connected to Base Color to one Color input. Choose a color for the other input, and plug the output of the MixRGB into the Base Color of the Principled BSDF. This hopefully should fix any colour issues with the model.

Not Shiny Enough

Possibly due to a missing metallic texture or roughness texture. Check which nodes on the Principled BSDF have nothing connected, out of Metallic and Roughness. Find the image ending with _mtl for Metallic, or _rgh for Roughness in your model's images folder. Add the ones you need as Image Textures, and connect them up to the relevant node on the Principled BSDF block.

Changing Lighting

Feel free to add any other lighting if needed, if you feel it improves the look of the model. For instance, consider Area lights to improve surface detail and cast shadows, or a coloured Sun light to add a tint to the model. You can also change the HDRI to add a different lighting effect. Just remember not to press the "Set HDRI" button as this will overwrite any HDRIs you use.

Help develop the addon!

Needed Features

Auto Import Textures

It'd be nice to have a system that would automatically import Emission maps, Team colour textures etc.

Github

You can find the Github here: https://github.com/RadiatorSyrup/SplatoonImageGenerator Any and all contributions are very welcome.