but when I try and export it from zmodeler it says that it can not find the original file to export.
so how do I deal with that issue
Hi warhunterwolf1-1,
It's great you're trying to learn some new skills, and are keen to take on people's advice to develop your skills.
In terms of advice, I'd strongly recommend you steer clear of SketchUp 8, as it's more of a programme that is used by architects and engineers to bring about concept designs and develop ideas for buildings; not building models, as it doesn't really function effectively in this way. Despite the fact that most of your models will probably coming out looking rather blocky and rectangular, you'll experience a tonne of problems trying to successfully get them working in Zmodeler, let alone the issues that'll arise post-import, with aligning the model and exporting successfully in to the game.
A great piece of software for 3D modelling to get started on would be Wings3D. It's completely free, and I personally find it suits me great and is very simple to learn and work with as a programme. It can be found
here, with some in depth tutorial videos
here. Although it may take time to master the basics, I can assure you that soon enough your models will start looking a lot better than they do at current, and to a novice, 3DS Max is probably a very daunting software; it's a professional level piece of kit, incredibly complex with many different options which may take months and months to learn properly; it will provide the best models of cause, but that's not to say Wings3D won't provide exemplary content which'll match up for a real-time simulation game like Emergency 4.
With regard to textures, at current I'd advise practising on pre-existent models that can be found around at numerous sites, most notably
http://www.emergency-forum.de. I'm by no means saying release any of this content, but if you practice around on the UV maps (A kind of template where you paint on different sections, which is then projected on to a model), you'll soon master the basics of texturing. With regard to programmes, Photoshop CS5 and CS6 would be by far the best pieces of kit, yet again the complexities may be quite hard for an amateur to handle at first, so Paint.NET and GIMP will suffice.
Overall, learning to mod is nothing to feel ashamed about, and producing content that may be criticised by the community is simply an ever-present factor on the journey to learning to mod successfully; at least you're trying, and I'm sure if you show real progress in learning skills, and start producing some basic, but high quality, skins and models, people will soon follow you and help you in any way you need. Of course, you can always ask any questions on the forums here in the Modding Related Support topic, ranging from scripting, modelling, skinning and mapping, and will be given advice and support if a member can help in your specific area.
Above all, perhaps halt the development of this project until your skills are better matched for the task at hand, and then proceed. As you'll have probably witnessed, the best modifications have usually started out as small skinning jobs and moved themselves up to the innovators of the scripts and models many of us look forward to on this site.
Hope it helps,
Rlast.
