> After you finish all 20 of your animations, and are sure that they have exactly 198 frames altogether, your next goal is to clean it up a bit for use as a Quake2 PPM. This is called optimization, and covers many areas such as making sure your model is the right size, sealing up unwanted holes in the mesh, and a few other things as well.

> The first step of the optimization phase of building your PPM is to make sure your model is standing on the right spot, facing the right way, and the right size. In order to do this, we need to compare it to a completed Quake2 PPM, and use that as a reference to make the appropriate adjustments to your model. Because Animation: Master does not have very good import / export support, we can't import a Quake2 PPM into AM, so we must export your model to a format that can be opened in Quake Model Editor. We will save it as a 3ds file, because QME uses this type of model. However, you can't save a model as a 3ds in AM until you install the 3dsMax export plugin, which you can download here from Hash Inc.'s official FTP site. Once you download the plugin, simply place it in the IE sub-folder of wherever you installed AM.

> Before you begin exporting your model, make sure that your frames are shown by their current cell number, so that Frame 1 is displayed as "1". To do this, go to the Tools menu, and choose Options. In the Units tab, there will be a section called "Show time as". Make sure "Cell number (1)" is selected, then click OK.

> In the Project Workspace window, right click your choreography, then pick Export. If Export is not available, opening a window in your Choreography first might fix this. When giving your model a name in the Export Model As window, save it as a 3ds file. If the 3ds file type is not available, then you haven't installed the 3dsMax export plugin. Just remember to restart AM after installing the plugin in order for it to take effect. When you click OK, you will see a new window named Export Options. Here, you will be given an option called Polygons Per Patch. At this point, it won't make too much of a difference which one you choose, because for now you're only exporting for comparison purposes. I recommend you pick "1", because this will give you the lowest polygon count. Once you click OK, you will see yet another window, this one being Frame Range. For both the Start and End values, enter "1". Doing so will export only the first frame of your model, which is fine for now. Since we are only dealing with one frame, the Step value doesn't matter. Once you click OK, your model's first frame will be saved as a 3ds model, and will be ready for use in QME.

Make sure the 3dsMax export plugin (3ds.hie) exsists in your Animation: Master / IE directory.

In order to avoid confusion later on, make sure that your frames are shown by their current cell number. Access the Units tab by going to the Tools menu, then choosing Options.

In the Export Model As window, save your model as a 3ds file.

In the Export Options window, pick one polygon per patch. This will export your model with the lowest
polygon count.

In the Frame Range window, set Start to "1", and End to "1", so that only the first frame of your model's animation gets exported.

> Now it's time to load your model into Quake Model Editor, and compare it to an official Quake2 model so you can correctly adjust your model for use as a PPM. Open QME, but don't close Animation: Master yet. Import your newly created 3ds file by going to the File menu, Import, Import Append Verts. When the Import File For Editing window comes up, open your 3ds model, which will probably have a 0 added to its filename. If your model doesn't show up on screen, it could be severely off-center or too small. If this is the case, you can pan and zoom your views by turning on the Pan Views  button on the lower-right corner of the screen. Once on, moving your pointer over the views should turn it into a hand. You can rotate the view by going to the upper-right view, holding down the left mouse button, and dragging the mouse around. To pan the camera, go to any other view, hold down the left mouse button and drag. In order to zoom, go to any view, hold down the right mouse button, and move the mouse up to zoom in, or down to zoom out. But if your original model is already centered in AM2000 and not microscopic, you should be able to see it just fine in QME.

> Now we're going to bring in the comparison model. In this case, we'll pick the Male model, because it comes with Quake2, and it's guaranteed be a good reference. Go to the File menu, Choose Reference Model. This will open up a window called Open File For Editing, from which you can find and open Quake2's Male model. This model is called tris.md2, and can be found in baseq2/players/Male in the folder where Quake2 is installed. Once you open tris.md2, you should see it in your upper-right view, along with your model.

In QME, open your one-frame 3ds by going to the File menu, and then Import, and Import Append Verts.

You should see your model in all four views.

Open Quake2's default Male model as your reference model. Under the File menu, pick Choose Reference Model. In the Quake2/baseq2/players/Male folder, open tris.md2.

You should see Male in the 3D view along with your model.

> The next step is to adjust the position, direction, and size of your model, using the Male model as your reference. Now, you're probably thinking that this is done in QME, but it's actually a job for Animation: Master. Go to the first frame in your Choreography, and click on your model in the Choreography. Using the open QME window as a guide, adjust the direction of your model. Don't worry about the position or size of your model just yet; we'll do each in turn. When adjusting the direction of your model in AM, just remember that the lower-left view in QME is the front view by default. Also remember that the upper-left view is the top view by default, and in this view, your character should be facing the bottom of the screen. In fact, if you know this, you don't need the reference model to correctly adjust your character's direction. If your model is facing forward in Animation: Master, it should be facing to the left in QME. In order to fix this, go to your character's first frame in the Choreography window in AM, and in the Properties window, go to the Rotate tab, and choose to edit angle as Euler. Entering "90" in the Y field should cause your character to make a quarter-turn to the left. However, this will only happen to the Stand animation. Go to the first frame of each of the other animations in the Choreography, and set their Rotate Y value to 90, until all of your animations face the right way. Run through the frames and verify that everything's OK, then save your Choreography. Export your Choreography again in the same way as before. Start a new file in QME, but make sure not to save your model when prompted. Open the new 3ds in QME. If you don't start a new file before re-opening the new 3ds, you will see both versions of the model at the same time, and this will double your model's polycount. If the model faces the bottom of the screen in the top view, and faces towards you in the front view, then it's turned the right way.

In QME, the upper-left window shows the top of your model. A correctly oriented model will face the bottom of the screen in this view.

The lower-left window shows the front of your model. If your model is facing you in this view, it's facing the right way.

Models in QME are oriented a quarter turn clockwise of models in AM. Because of this, your model may be facing the left side of the screen in the upper-left view of QME.

In AM, make sure you're in the first frame of your choreography, and that your model is selected.

In the Properties window, go to the Rotate tab. Make sure that Edit Angle As is set to Euler. Entering "90" in the Y field should cause your character to make a quarter turn counter-clockwise.

All frames of Stand should now be facing the right way. However, the rest of the animations are still oriented incorrectly. Go to the first frame of Run and make the same correction by entering "90" in the Y field.

Repeat the process with the rest of the animations.

After re-exporting you model's first frame as a 3ds, be sure to start a new model in QME, but do not save the old model when prompted.

If your model is facing the bottom of the screen in the upper-left window, and facing forward in the lower-left view, then it's facing the right way.

> The next thing to do is to make sure your model is standing in just the right spot, and that its feet are on the floor. This would be a lot easier if the reference model showed up in all four views, but we only have the upper-right perspective view to work with. In Animation: Master, if your model's feet are on the 0 mark of the Y axis, the model should appear to be hovering above the ground in QME. If you built your model so that it's centered on the X and Z axises in AM, it should be centered in the same way in QME as well. If so, all you really need to do is adjust model's vertical position in the Choreography.

> In Animation: Master, turn off the Key Skeletal Rotations  option by clicking on its icon. Select the model, and click the Edit Channels  icon. If the Edit Channels window does not come up, skip ahead to the next paragraph. A graph will appear, and you should see one or more lines that may or may not have many control points along them. To the left of the graph should be a list, and only Translate (X, Y, and/or Z) should be under your model's shortcut. Draw a box around all of the control points and delete them, then close the Channel window. This should cause the line or lines to disappear or become flat and splineless. Deleting these control points will ensure that when you move model in the first frame to its correct position, all frames in your model will follow suit.

> Now, we are ready to correct the position of your model. In QME, rotate the perspective view so that the Male model's feet line up vertically. This should give you an idea of where the floor is going to be. Back in Animation: Master, make sure you're on the first frame of your Choreography. Select your model and go to any view except the bottom or the top. Using the views in QME as a reference, adjust your model's position in AM, so that its feet in QME are in the same vertical position as that of the Male model; that is, so that it stands on the same floor as Male. If your model is centered on the X and Z axises, you probably want to make sure your model moves only up and down, and not to the sides. You can do this by locking the Y axis; simply hold down the number 2 key, then drag the model into position. Mercifully, you only have to do this for the first frame, and all others should follow suit automatically. Once you've guessed where the floor is in QME, re-export the Choreography as a 3ds in the same way as before. Re-import the 3ds in QME and note its position. Continue to fine tune the model in AM, and to export it to QME after each adjustment. Just remember to make the Choreography 1 frame long in AM, and to clear the old 3ds files in QME with each adjustment. If you still need to center your model on the floor, go to QME and turn on Show Origin in the Options menu. This will cause a plus sign to show up on three of your views. Your model's feet should be centered on either side of this plus sign. Once the model is standing on the floor and centered, only the size adjustment will remain. Now would be a good time to save your choreography.

The reference model in the 3D view is standing in the correct spot; It is centered in the bounding box, and it's standing exactly on the floor. This is where your model should be standing.

Turn off Key Skeletal Rotations  and enter Edit Channels  mode. You should see a graph that has one or more splines.

Select all of the control points on the spline, and delete them. Exit Edit Channels mode.

In QME, rotate the 3D view so that you're looking at the reference model exactly from the side. Male's feet should line up, one passing exactly in front of the other.

Back in AM, go to first frame of your choreography, make sure your model is selected, and switch to any view except Bottom or Top.

If your model is already centered on the X and Z axises, you need only to move it up and down. Hold down the 2 key as you make your adjustment, and using the 3D view in QME, guess where your model's feet will touch the ground.

Re-export the first frame of your model as a 3ds, and in QME, start another new model without saving the old one. Check your model's feet against that of Male. Go back into AM, and fine tune the model's position, then re-export.

Repeat the adjustments until the bottom of your model's feet are vertically lined up with the bottom of Male's feet.

If your model in not certered on the X or Z axis, go to the Options menu in QME and select Show Origin. A plus sign should appear in three of the views. Adjust your model so that the plus in the top view is directly between the feet.

> The only thing left to adjust now is the size of your model. The goal is to make your model between one head smaller and one head taller than Male. When your model eventually becomes a playable Quake2 PPM, it will be surrounded by an invisible box called the bounding box. Players can hit other players only if they hit this bounding box, and the actual size of the model is ignored. The bounding box is the same size, no matter how big or small your model is. If you make your model a giant, and a player hit a part of the model that's outside the bounding box, it doesn't count as a hit. If the model is tiny, it will be hit if a shot hits its bounding box, even if the shot misses the model. So your goal here is to make your model a reasonable fit for the bounding box.

> In Quake Model Editor, rotate the perspective view so that the bottom of your model's feet line up with the bottom of Male's feet. If your model is currently taller than Male (it most likely is), make a note of how high the top of Male's head is to your model. In Animation: Master, make sure you're on the first frame in the Choreography window, and click on the vertical ruler on the left side of the window. An arrow should appear on the ruler, as well as a horizontal line, which should span the length of the window. This is called a marker. Now, decide how tall you want your model to be. If you want your model to be as tall as Male, adjust the marker so that it points to the same spot on your model where the top of Male's head is in QME. If you want your model to be taller or shorter than male, adjust the marker to where you want the top of your model's head to be next to Male. Then, select your model in AM, grab one of the corners of the selection box, and drag it so that your model's hieght matches that of the marker. Export the file as a 3ds and compare it to Male, the same as you've been doing before. Fine tune the model if necessary, then save your choreography again.

In order for your model to be a fair fit for Quake2's bounding box, it should be between one Male head shorter and one Male head taller than Male.

In QME, rotate the 3D view so that the bottom of your model's feet are lined up vertically with the bottom of Male's feet. Observe where the top of Male's head is positioned next to your model.

In AM, go to your choreography's first frame, and place a horizontal marker where the top of Male's head was on your model in QME. Adjust the height of the marker depending on how tall your model will be in Quake2.

Select your model and resize it by grabbing one of the box's corners and dragging the mouse. Resize your model by having the top of your model match the hieght of the horizontal marker.

Re-export the first frame of your model as a 3ds, and in QME, start another new model without saving the old one. Make sure your model's height is not significantly greater or less then that of Male. Re-adjust and re-export if needed.

> While this step does not directly involve optimizing your model, it is an important bridge between the steps that do. If this step is not done correctly, it can lead to trouble later on. The goal here is to export all 198 frames of your model into the 3ds format, a type of model that can be read in Quake Model Editor. After this step, you may not need Animation: Master for the rest of the project, depending on weather or not you want to build a custom VWEP for your model.

> In Animation: Master, export your model as a 3ds file again. However, this time in the Frame Range window, make sure Start is set to "1", End to "198", and Step to "1". This will export every frame from 1 to 198 without skipping any frames. As for Polygons Per Patch, I strongly recommend you choose "1", since this will give you the lowest polygon count. Polycount suggests a polygon count of 800 or less for a Quake2 model in order to preserve game performance. Keep in mind that this exporting process will save each frame as a separate numbered file from 0 to 197, so it may be a good idea to put them in their own folder. The process of exporting all 198 frames may take several minutes, so this would be a good time to take a break.

> ONCE YOU EXPORT YOUR MODEL TO THE 3DS FORMAT, YOU CANNOT RE-IMPORT IT BACK INTO Animation: Master. Any changes you want to make to the model's mesh or animations will have to be done in Quake Model Editor. If you insist on doing these changes with AM, you will have to change the original model, and then repeat all of the steps after that all over again. So before you export all of your frames, you better make damn sure you don't want to later go back and change anything. Once all frames have been exported, you can close Animation: Master.

> The next step is to change the names of your 3ds files in order to ensure that they are loaded in the correct order when you import them into Quake Model Editor. If you were to try to import them now by alphabetical order, the frames would load into QME in the following order; 0, 1, 10, 100, 101, 102, etc. This is obviously not what you want. A solution could be to import the files in chronological order, but the files may not have been exported exactly in this order, so this again would lead to your files being imported into QME in the wrong order. In order to fix this problem, make sure that there are exactly three digits in the numbered portion of the filename of each 3ds file. If the name of my model was Dib, the file "Dib15.3ds" would become "Dib015.3ds", and "Dib7.3ds" would become "Dib007.3ds". Anything above 100 would be left alone since they already have three digits.

In AM, export your model as a 3ds again, but this time in the Frame Range window, set Start to "1", and End to "198", so that now all of your frames get exported. Make sure that Step is set to "1".

Importing your 3ds files into QME in alphabetical order now will result in the frames being loaded in the wrong order.

Change the names of the 3ds files so that they all have exactly three digits in the numbered portion of their filenames.

> Go to whatever directory you exported your files into, and count how many 3ds files you exported. If you have exactly 198 files, the export was a success, and you can skip this section. Otherwise, you're probably using the original version of Animation: Master 2000. After some experimenting, I've realised that AM2000 v8.0 has a problem with exporting long series of files. Every time I tried to export my Quake2 Dib model as a series of 3ds files, it would give one frame its correct name, but then give the next frame the same name as the one before it, overwriting the old file. AM would follow the exact same pattern every time I tried the export, so that the same frames would be overwritten each time. At first, I thought it was the Dib Choreography which was at fault. But when I exported another Choreography as a series of 3ds files, I got the same errors in the same exact spots. Here's the method I used to get around this problem.

> In my notebook, I wrote down all of the numbers of my frames, from 0 to 197, a list that spanned four pages. I deleted all of the 3ds files of my Dib model, then went back to Animation: Master, and re-exported my model as a series of 3ds files, but this time I did it an average of 30 frames at a time. Each time I exported a series of files, I would choose which frames I wanted to be exported in the Frame Range window, just like I've been doing before. But before doing so, I made sure that my frames were displayed by the elapsed frames, rather than the current cell number. Remember, files are always exported from Animation: Master by elapsed frames (Frame 1 is displayed as "0"), regardless of how the frames are displayed. (In order to display the frames this way, I went to the Tools menu, selected Options, and clicked on the Units tab. In the "Show time as" section, I picked "Frames Elapsed (0)"). This way, the filenames matched the number of each frame. As each frame was being rendered, I marked them off in my book by placing a check where the correct frames were being rendered. Whenever a frame was being saved as the wrong name, I wrote the number of the correct frame next to the number of the frame that it should have been named. For example, Frames 117 to 124 were being saved correctly, but Frames 125 to 127 were being saved as the previous frames, overwriting them. Frame 128 and all others after it were correctly named. So I wrote a 124 next to 125, 125 next to 126, 126 next to 127, while every other number had a check next to it. After making sure my filenames each had three digits in their frame numbers, I solved my frame problem by correctly renaming the following files; "Dib126.3ds" to "Dib127.3ds", "Dib125.3ds" to "Dib126.3ds", "Dib124.3ds" to "Dib125.3ds". Because Frame 124 was originally exported correctly, but then overwritten by Frame 125, which I later renamed correctly, I had to then re-export the real Frame 124 by entering "124" in both the Start and End fields in the Frame Range window. The problem happened again when Frame 63 overwrote Frame 62. So I fixed it by renaming "Dib062.3ds" to "Dib063.3ds", and then re-exporting Frame 62. Since the newly exported file (Dib62.3ds) now had two digits in its frame number, I fixed this by renaming it "Dib062.3ds".

> After your 198 files have been exported successfully, and they're all numbered with three digits, it's time time to compile them into a single md2 file. Md2 is the type of model that Quake2 uses. At this point, you may close Animation: Master if you haven't done so already. Open Quake Model Editor, and bring in your model's mesh. Do this by going to the File menu, then choosing Import, then Import Append Verts. When the Import File For Editing window comes up, go to the directory where you saved your 3ds files, and pick any one frame of your model's 3ds series, then click Open. This should cause your model to appear. Now, we're going to import your model's animations. Go to File, Import, Import Append Frames to once again bring up the Import File For Editing window. When it does, make sure your files are listed in alphabetical order. Single-click the last frame of your 3ds series, hold down the Shift key, and then click on the first frame of the series. In the Filename text box, you should see the names of the first few 3ds files in your series. When you click Open, your frames should be opened in the correct order. If you selected the first frame first and the last frame last, the last frame would have been opened first, followed by the first, and then the rest of the frames.

> Once your frames are all loaded into QME, use the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the screen to cycle through your frames, and check to see if your frames imported correctly. If so, then delete the very first frame, which should be the one you saw when you imported your verts, and should be numbered "0" and labeled as "Frame 1". To delete the frame, make sure it's the one you see on screen, then go to the Edit menu, and choose Delete Current Frame. When asked "Are you Sure?", click OK. Your model should now have 198 frames, from 0 to 197. To save your model as an md2 file, go to the File menu, then Export, then Export to MD2. In the Export to MD2 File window, give your model a name, and pick a folder to save it to. After you click Save, another window will appear, labeled simply as Open. This window will ask you to provide a pcx image, but since we haven't built any skins yet, just make up any name and then click Open. Your model and its animations are now a single md2 file, but it's far from being an official Quake2 PPM.

> On the upper-left of screen, there are four tabs, each marked with a single letter; C, M, B, and V. If you want to see your model's animations, click on the V tab to expose a section called Play Cam. To see a certain frame range of your model in motion, enter the last frame of the range in the To text box, and the first frame in the From box. When you press the Play Cam button  the model in your Perspective view will repeatedly cycle through the frames you picked, and another press of the button will stop the animation. The FPS text box sets your frames per second; a higher setting will result in a slower animation, while a lower setting will make the animation go faster. The default FPS is 10, which is how fast Quake2 runs its PPMs. If you want to see your character run continuously, set To to 45 and From to 40, then click Play Cam.

Bring your model's mesh into QME by going to the File menu, Import, then Import Append Verts.

When the Import File For Editing comes up, open your model by choosing any one of the 3ds files you exported.

To apply the animations to your mesh, go to the File menu, and then to Import, Import Append Frames.

When the Import File For Editing appears again, make sure your 3ds files are listed in alphabetical order. Click the last frame of the animation, hold Shift, and then click the first frame. Click Open to bring in the animations.

After all the frames are applied to your model, use the horizontal scroll bar towards the bottom of the screen to go to the very first frame should be numbered "0" and labeled as "Frame 1".

Delete this first frame by going to the Edit menu, and choosing Delete Current Frame. When asked "Are you Sure?", click OK.

To save your model as an md2 file, go to the File menu, then Export, then Export to MD2.

After you click Save, another window named "Open" will appear. This window will ask you to provide a pcx image, but for now just make up any name and then click Open.

> I was working on my Dib model as I wrote the Animations section and everything after it. Dib is an extremely complex model with many segments, making it an ideal model to demonstrate the process I use when building a Quake2 PPM. I figure that if I can accurately explain my process with Dib as my example, following my tutorial to build a simpler model should be a piece of cake. I used to flip normals with a pirated copy of 3DSMax I once owned, and then do the rest of the optimizing in Quake Model Editor. However, I've recently discovered how to do the optimization fairly easily in QME alone. Here's my current method of flipping normals in QME.

> In any polygon-based 3D modelling program such as Quake Model Editor, (as opposed to a spline-based program like Animation: Master,) a polygon is a three or four sided flat shape. In QME and Quake2, all polys have exactly three sides. The sides of a polygon are called edges, and the corners are called verts. A single-sided polygon has only one solid surface, and is only visible when viewed from that surface; if you were to try to look at the polygon from the opposite side (the backface), it would be invisible. A polygon's normal is an indicator of which surface is solid, and when that normal is flipped, the other side of the poly will become solid while the original side will become invisible. In order to show the model with both surfaces of its polygons showing, activate Draw Backfaces by going to the Options menu, and the 3D view, Draw Backfaces. Or, you can just press D on the keyboard. One drawback about QME is that it doesn't allow you to select a poly by clicking on its backface, even when Draw Backface mode is activated. 3DSMax could do this, which is why I used it to flip my models' normals.

> Since QME has a rather dark color scheme, it may help to change the colors to make it easier to work. Go to the Options menu, then select Configure. Click on the Colors tab, and you should see a list with a bunch of colored squares in it. I find it helpful to make the 3D Background white, the 3D Face bright green, and both Face Selections bright yellow. Switching from the default black 3D background will help you tell the difference between the background and particularly dark polys. Just be sure not to make the 3D Wireframe or the 3D Face the same color as the 3D Background, because that would of course, make your model invisible.

QME's default color settings can be confusing to work with. When the brown polygons are viewed at certain angles, it can be difficult to tell them appart from the black 3D background.

In order to change to color settings, go to the Options menu, and then to Configure. Click on the Colors tab, and in this screen, you can easily configure the colors of QME.

It's a good idea to select a color scheme that provides maximum contrast between the background and the darker polygons. Bright green against a white background works really well.

> Make sure you're in Face mode when flipping your model's normals. You can switch to this mode by clicking the Face button on the lower-left corner of the screen. The easiest way to flip the normals in your mesh is to work on it one section at a time. In order to do this, you must have only the section you're working on visible, while everything else is hidden. When isolating a single group, I find it easier to display the 3D view in Wireframe mode (Options menu, 3D View, Wireframe), and to activate Draw Backfaces. To select polygons, click on any tab in the upper-left corner of the screen except for C, and click the Select button. To select individual polys, simply click on any polys you want to select, and if you want to de-select a poly, click on it while holding the Alt key. To select a group of polys, click and drag within one of the viewpoint windows to draw a box. Any polys that have at least one of their verts inside the box will be selected. To de-select all polygons, press the / key.

> Remember, you have to click the Pan Views button every time you want to adjust the camera view, and click Select again to go back to selecting polys. In order to hide certain polys from view, click on the V tab. You will see three buttons, Hide Selected, Hide UnSel, and Unhide All. These buttons are self explanatory; Hide Selected will make all currently selected polygons disappear, Hide UnSel will hide all non-selected polys, and Unhide All will make all polys visible again. When a polygon is hidden, it's not really gone, just invisible. There are two ways to isolate a group of polys. You can select all of the polys in the group and click Hide UnSel, or you can select everything else and click Hide Selected. This is not always as easy as it sounds; some groups are partially buried inside of other groups, especially in the case of segmented models. Other groups can be completely buried inside the model, and only pop out on frames in which they're needed. If I come across a particularly difficult group to isolate, I select the parts of the model that surround the group while the entire model fits into one of the viewpoints. I do this by drawing a box around these parts, being careful not to select any polys of the group I want to isolate. I often use more than one view when making my selections. I then click Hide Selected, which will leave only my target group, plus the polys which are more difficult to get to. In order to select these, I zoom in extremely close to them, and draw a box around just one corner of each currently unwanted poly, making sure I don't catch the corners of any polys I want to remain visible. When only the group I want to modify is unselected, I click Hide Selected again. Sometimes, it helps to change frames to make the selection of certain polygons easier.

When isolating a group of polygons, I find it easier to display the 3D view in Wireframe Mode.

Isolating a group of polys is often tricky when they're partially or fully buried within the mesh. In this example, I will isolate Dib's eyeballs so that only they are visible.

Select the polys that surround the eyes by drawing boxes around them. Make sure you don't select any of the polys of the eyes. Don't worry about the polys that are very close to or touching the eyes right now.

Push the Hide Selected button under the V tab in order to hide the polygons you selected.

In order to hide the more difficult polys, zoom in very close to them, and select the by drawing boxes around their corners.

Push Hide Selected again to hide the selected polys, leaving only the eyes visible.

> Once you have hidden everything except for the section of the model you want to work on, check the section to see if any of its normals need to be flipped. In order to make your work easier, display the model in Flat Shaded mode (Options menu, 3D view, Flat Shaded). A good way to check your normal orientation is by using the Draw Backfaces option. If the exterior of the model looks the same with the backfaces drawn than without, that usually means the model's normals are facing the right way. Another way to check is to zoom inside the model with Draw Backfaces turned off. If you see any polys that should be facing outward, then they may not be seen from the outside. While still inside the model, click on all of the polys you can see on all sides to select them. Then, go outside of the model and press the D key to see the backfaces. If the selected polys only appear when the backfaces are shown, they are facing the wrong way and need to be flipped. In order to flip your polys' normals, click the M tab to expose a button labeled "Flip Normals". With the Select button activated, select the polys you want to reverse, and then click Flip Normals. When all of the polys in the section are oriented correctly, go back to the V tab and click UnHide All to make your whole model visible again. Continue to flip your model's normals section by section until all normals are facing the right way. Mercifully, the normal orientation is universal for all the frames in your md2, so correcting the normals in one frame will do so for all of them.

When flipping the normals of a group of polygons, I find it easier to display the 3D view in Flat Shaded Mode.

In this example, I will work on Dib's basic head, and make sure its polygons' normals are facing the right way.

First, I check to see if the normals are correct by looking at the head as I turn Draw Backfaces on and off. When DB is off, some of the polys disappear. This tells me that the invisible polys are facing inward and must be flipped over.

Because QME doesn't allow you to select polys from their backfaces, you must get on their other side. The best way to do this is to zoom inside the model.

If Draw Backfaces is turned off, as long as you're zoomed inside the model, you should see only the polys which are facing the wrong way.

With Draw Backfaces turned off, individually select all polys you see. You can also select inward facing polys from the outside through the holes in the head.

Flip the normals of all the hidden polys, and de-select them.

If you can still see polys while zoomed into the model's head, select them individually and zoom out. De-select any polys you can see from the outside. Flip normals.

> Sometimes, a section will need to have both of its surfaces solid in order to show up correctly. This is usually the case if your model has any paper-thin sections, such as a cape. As you should know by now, if your model's cape is built with only with single sided polys, it would appear to be perfectly normal from the back, but appear to have a large section missing when viewed from the front, assuming it's visible at all from this angle. In order to make both sides of a thin section visible, you will have to build new polys over the backfaces of the old ones. Before you begin, it may be a good idea to isolate the polys you want to work on by hiding the rest of your model.

> When creating backfaces for your model, you must click the C tab on the upper-left corner of the screen. This should expose four buttons, including Build Face. Also, it helps if you view the model in Wireframe mode. To build a backface on the other side of an already existing face, make sure Draw Backfaces is turned off, and click the Build Face button. This should cause the cursor to change. Then click on one of the verts of the backface you want to build, then click the other two verts in a counter-clockwise motion. Make sure there are no un-hidden verts behind the ones you're selecting, because you may accidently select those instead. If the blue line that appears after you click the first vert looks like its not anchored to the vert, right-click to cancel the building of the face, and try again. If you were to click the verts going clockwise, a face would be built on the side you're facing, so that you'd have two faces on the same side of a poly, and this would never do you any good. To check if the backface was built, click Pan Views and rotate the camera to the other side of the polygon, making sure Draw Backfaces is still off. If you see the backface from this side, and it's attatched to the same verts as its counterpart on the other side, the backface was built successfully. If the new poly is not connected correctly or is backwards, simply hit the delete key to get rid of it. When asked to delete any isolated verts, answer yes. If you run into a poly that consistantly attatches to the wrong verts, delete the polygon, zoom in close and try again, and if the problem still persists, try changing the camera angle a little bit. Keep building the section's backfaces in this manner until they're all in place.

Because polygons have only one solid side, any paper thin portion of your model, such as a cape or a flag, will be visible from only one side.

The other side of the thin section will either be invisible, or appear to have a large section missing.

It may be a good idea to isolate the section you will be working on before drawing the backfaces.

In the 3D view, with Draw Backfaces on, pan the camera so you're facing the front faces of the section you're working on. If possible, pan the camera so that there aren't any verts behind the ones you're working on, in order to avoid selecting the wrong verts.

To make the other side solid as well, go into Create Mode, and click the Build Face button. This should cause the cursor to change. Also, go into Wireframe Mode to make selecting the verts easier, and turn off Draw Backfaces.

To build a face that faces the opposite way of the face you're looking at, click on one of the face's verts. A blue line should appear that's attached to the vert you just clicked on.

If the blue line does not appear to be anchored to the vert you clicked, right-click to cancel the face build. Pan the camera to view the vert from a different angle, then try building the face again.

Click the other two verts of the new face in a counter-clockwise pattern. A new face should appear on the opposite side. Pan around to the other side to see it.

If the new face looks like it's not attached to the right verts, delete it and try building it again from the different camera angle.

Once the face is on correctly, build the backfaces for the rest of the section.

> After you are sure that all of you model's polygons are facing the right way, and all your desired backfaces have been built, it's time to do the final steps of your model's optimization. If there are still holes in your model where there shouldn't be any, you can patch them up by building new faces over them. Click on the C tab to access the Create Panel. Go into Wireframe mode, and zoom in on your model's unwanted hole, making sure you're on the side where you want the patch to be visible. Click on the Build Face button, and then click the three verts which immediately surround the hole in a clock-wise motion. Go into Flat Shaded mode and check to see if the hole was patched properly. If not, delete the new polygon, hide whatever polys are behind the hole, then try again.

> When you build a model in Animation: Master and then export it to a polygon based format, there are likely to be a number of unwanted extra polys buried within the model. These polys do not show up in any of your model's animation frames, and needlessly add to your model's polygon count. In all of the Quake2 PPMs I've worked on, I've always seen the most extra polys within the head and hands. In order to get rid of them, isolate a section of the model, and hide everything else in the same way as we've been doing before. Go into Flat Shaded mode and turn off Draw Backfaces. Also, make sure you're in Faces Mode, and that all polys are unselected. Then, click on each poly of the group, selecting all the visible polys one at a time. Click on the V tab if you're not already in the V panel, then click on Hide Selected. All visible faces should disappear, revealing any hidden poly within. If the are hidden polys, select them all by drawing a box around them, but don't delete them just yet. Click on UnHide All to make the entire model visible again. Use the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the screen to cycle through your animations, and thoroughly check to see if any of the selected polys is an actual useful poly (not just a thin line and not just bleeding through another polygon). Exclude any such polys from your selection by holding down the Alt key and clicking the poly. Once the only polys that are selected are the useless buried ones, press the delete key, answer "Yes" when asked to delete selected verts, and answer "Yes" when asked to delete any isolated verts. Repeat the procedure for the rest of your model until you get rid of all unwanted polygons.

To remove hidden and unwanted polygons from a section of your mesh, it's a good idea to isolate it first as described above.

Set the 3D view to Flat Shaded and turn off Draw Backfaces. Go into Face Mode and select all visible polygons of the section. It helps to change frames to get to polys which are only visible in certain frames.

Hide the selected polygons. If any polys are still visible, they are probably undesirable polys which are completely useless.

In order to verify that the polys still visible are actually wasted polys, select them all by drawing a box around them. Unhide all polys, and make sure none of the selected polys are visible on any frame.

If the polys only appear as dotted seam lines, or as polys that appear un-naturally within other others, delete them.