Call of Duty: Create Models with Blender (without Maya)

By CoDEmanX and Flybynyt

The Call of Duty mod tools include plugins for the commercial 3d modelling software Maya by Autodesk (former Alias). It's an expansive application and not many modders want to or can afford it.

Fortunately, you don't require it anymore to create models (static/rigged) and animations for CoD:

Blender-CoD Add-On

Blender-CoD is a free, open-source project and provides a plugin for the as well free and open-source 3D modelling software Blender. It adds support for XMODEL_EXPORT v6 and XANIM_EXPORT v3 formats, which can be compiled to xmodels and xanims using the mod tools.

You can basically import any supported 3d model into Blender (e.g. Blender files, Wavefront OBJ, Collada DAE, 3ds Max 3DS and more), edit it and finally export it for CoD using the Blender-CoD Add-On.

Project page

The project is hosted at Google Projects. You can:

• submit bugs and feature requests on the issue section,
• browse the code of the repository in the source section and
• get the latest releases in the download area

Link: http://code.google.com/p/blender-cod/

Releases

29-Sep-11 | Blender-CoD Addon v0.2.2 (alpha 2) for Blender 2.59

Features

XMODEL_EXPORT v6

• Supports mesh export with automatic triangulation
• Armature export (bones)
• Vertex colors
• Mesh modifiers except Armature (optional)
• User Interface: File > Export > CoD Xmodel (.XMODEL_EXPORT)

XANIM_EXPORT v3

• Supports armature animation export
• Frame range and framerate can be specified
• Inline notetrack export (for vCoD, CoD2, CoD4)
• User Interface: File > Export > CoD Xanim (.XANIM_EXPORT)

Installation

1. Download the archive, but don't unzip it!
2. Run Blender
3. Click menu File > User Preferences...
4. Click Install Add-On... button at the bottom
5. Double-click the archive
6. The following entry should be shown: Import-Export: CoD model/anim addon (version)
7. Tick the checkbox on the right to enable it
8. Click Save As Default button at the bottom to enable it permanently
9. Export options will be available from File > Export menu

Blender Tutorials

• Official Blender.org tutorial page (many good text and video tutorials)
• BlenderGuru.com tutorials (high quality video tutorials and blog)
• BlenderArtists.org Forum tutorials
• Wikibooks Blender tutorial list (some may be outdated, look for Blender 2.5x tutorials)
• BlenderNation.com tutorials
• Pixel2Life.com Blender tutorials
• Tutorialized.com Blender tutorials