Home For Builders Builder Profile - Danmar

Builder Profile - Danmar

Profile by Jay Watamaniuk
April 23, 2003

Many NWN fans have expressed interest in creating their own content in order to really tailor the worlds they create and explore. This can be a daunting task when faced with the technical ability that is required to make custom content and the sheer number of details that have to be learned before even starting on such a task for the novice.

Danmar has created a series of tutorials using .avi movies that show you step by step how he goes about making custom content in NWN. His tutorials range from creating placeables models, weapons in Studio Max and Gmax to the basics for creating new creatures and adding animations. These tutorials have proven to be invaluable for introducing the amateur builder to the world of 3D modeling, texturing and computer animation.

 

Where can I find these very fine tutorials?
Download Danmar's video tutorials from Neverwinter Vault
Note: Each tutorial is in .avi format and are anywhere from 10 MB to 35 MB in size.

 

We managed to tear Danmar away from his family long enough to answer a few of our questions:

1. What is your experience in 3D modeling?

I've been a hobbyist 3D user since around 1985 or so starting with a text based 3D program on the Amiga which took 15 minutes to render a single frame of a roughly 300 poly heart and graduating through pretty much every 3D program since whether its something like Lightwave to make Babylon 5 at home or Studio Max for making mech war scenes or WorldCraft to make Counterstrike levels based on my office building so IT could show Editorial who their daddy was.

Lightwave will always remain my favorite program but I work primarily with Studio Max these days because most of what I play around with at the moment is game related, 99% of it NWN related ever since the beta toolset was released.

2. Why did you create these tutorials for NWN?

Primarily because I wanted to try to enable others to share in the sheer joy I've had in working with 3D. There's just something incredible about creating something out of a bunch of dots and lines and then watching it walk around or to craft a small micro world and walk around in it. That joy has sustained itself over almost two decades and shows no signs of subsiding and I can't help but want to offer others the same chance to find it.

And because I'm lazy. :) I wanted a lot more variety for module building and didn't want to have to make it all myself. So there are selfish reasons as well. So far the responses I've gotten from the tutorials have been well worth the time involved in making them.

3. If there is something you could change about creating and using custom content in NWN what would it be?

The primary thing I'd change would be the 2da system. It's a good system if one group is working with it but with hundreds of people contributing to at random it becomes a nightmare for the average end user to keep up with and try and combine the single pieces he or she wishes to use. I'm not sure of what a final solution would be but something that would allow users to mix and match content on an individual basis without a lot of hand editing and merging and blueprint overwriting would be what I'd love to see happen.

4. What sorts of things are you working on right now?

Trying to keep my 13 month old son from killing himself or me with a heart attack as he climbs onto every flat and not so flat surface he can reach directly or by piling other objects in front of to give himself a boost.

But you probably mean NWN related. :) I've just started a DM'd campaign which got off to a very good start I think so I'm currently busy creating areas and npc's for the main and branch storylines. I'm also constantly adding/modifying new tiles and placeable objects as I discover a need for them, my most efforts to try and get a working drawbridge for a small keep. Also I've very recently been shanghaied into trying to organize a new collaborative CC tileset that will consist of nothing but building interiors to add more depth and variety for the module builders to use. Shacks, houses, mansions, churches, warehouses, all these and more will hopefully end up in this tileset as the community contributes to it. It wasn't even a concrete idea before the prolific Velmar had created the first couple of tiles to get it started.

5. Anything you would like to say to the budding custom content creator out there?

Essentially the age old adage, "Rome wasn't built in a day."

Start slow, don't jump in and attempt to make 9 headed Tiamat as your first project. You're not only having to learn a 3D program which is a complex program to say the least but also the various bits and pieces to make the content NWN specific and useable.

Craft a new blade for a weapon or a new carpet to decorate a house, ease into skinning and texturing with a new crate or chest, dabble at animation by making a sign that sways back and forth. Above all don't get discouraged if you're at all interested in crafting. People like Batinthehat are not only greatly talented but they've had years of experience and work to get to their current level.