Hi there, I'm new here.

I recently got interested in quake/idtech again and went from zero to this in the last couple of days

http://i.imgur.com/VyVhPgp.png

I'm really proud because I tried to achieve the same thing at least 10yrs ago but my comprehension was lacking then.
I learned to use blender for modeling and uv-unwrapping on youtube (DarrinLile has some great tutorials)

http://i.imgur.com/CoNfA8k.png

The model is fairly simple and the texture is just a material bake. Next step is painting the skin.
I used the mdl exporter by taniwha and arcane dimension's misc_model entity to make it show up in quake.

* Im still not sure how to properly scale and align the mdl to the floor (any advice on that?)

* Regarding animation I assume I'll set up an IK-rig, animate stuff and then export with the mdl exporter. Next I'll have to learn quakec and tell quake what to do with the stuff (Is my thinking correct here?)

* I've found no comprehensive tutorial on all of this, just scattered information all over the web. Is there like a goto tutorial for creating a monster for quake?

* Also do you guys have an irc channel to hang out at? 

IRC chan is http://webchat.quakenet.org/ #terrafusion but it's usually fairly empty. Best to post here most of the time in my experience. 

What I do is importing in an existing quake model, and scale/position mine from this one.
You'll need this plugin: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Import-Export/Quake_mdl 

Is 24 units below origin.
Small boundingbox is 32 wide, large boundingbox is 64. Small to fit. 

Scale to fit. Man, android autocorrelation really sucks. 

I give up 

 

Preach had a great tutorial on the QuakExpo2008.
This link is now in use for the QuakEpo2016.
I think it is somewhere on his site now, you should take a look.
Here is a short overview I made of it, still a must have for everyone who wants to make Quake1 models.

PreachModel 

Madfox may have forgotten that he actually helped me put this back online by filling in the gaps in my own archive of the tutorial.

https://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/qexpo-tutorial/

The version above has bonus "annotations" where I now disagree with something I suggested in the original tutorial, so I think it's worth seeing. Nowadays it might be preferable to do everything in Blender because of the opportunity to export directly (personally I still use GMAX) so there's plenty of room for someone to better that tutorial.

Other recommended reading:
https://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2012/11/24/a-modelling-pipeline/ - how I make models currently
https://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/skin-maps-for-mdl-format/ - information on how skin maps work in mdl format
https://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/normals-in-mdl-format/ - mdl format has smoothing groups, get the info 

In time, when I was making the screenshots I thought myself about industriously because the pages still would be on the QuakExpo site all time.

Now I'm glad they are still be conserved as there is not that much info about the subject.
I use it when I'm off line, but the one on the site is much more readable. 

thank you very much for the link. there's some great info there (the whole site). this saved me a lot of time searching :) especially about animation and qc.

Thanks also for the tip about the -24 unit floor height. That worked well. 

Already made some progress on the skin.

http://i.imgur.com/rMyzykI.png

My UV seams are shit. I need to understand this better. Next time...

Also I've tried Krita ( https://krita.org ) for the first time. I was always looking for an opensource/linux-native photoshop alternative but I hate gimp. So far Krita works really well. 

flp that is really creepy! 

I myself use the Blender mdl exporter because I love Blender. If you want to add more skins, you have to use Preach's java script. It works well but figuring out how to get the thing to run...I always forget. Something about the pyshell maybe? Or dragndrop onto the pythongui? And where in blang's dame did I install python at again...

Wish it was as easy as just having it as a little exe you dragndrop your .py file onto /<complaint>Pleaseplease<complaint>/. 

I use 3dsmax. I then use the snapshot tool inside 3dsmax that generates a mesh for every frame of animation. I then use Keens Batch Exporter to save each frame to an ASE file.

Then I use NeroMd3 compiler to import all the frames and save it to MD3 which I then convert to MDL using Preaches command line tool. It takes me less than 15 seconds to do all this. I love batch tools. 

I'll have to check out that NeroMd3 compiler! I've always wanted to add more anims to the existing monsters. 

I'm starting again with the basics of Blender again. I'm trying to export/import mdl files but with the plug in I can't seem to handle.

Usually I make my animations in AnimationMaster and export them to 3ds, obj or dxf after first having made my most comfortable base file.
Then I import them into Qmle, and start rescaling the base skin tex to heigh 300 x */64. It's my way, as everyone has its own.

What I learned is that MeshLab is a good program to help low polymodels turn up right in Qmle. When importing a model from Q2 or 3 they are easy to controll the verts and tris to lower patterns. 

Where I'm leaning at are the so called *.bhv files that can be imported in Blender. It are drawn movements of easy animations and free downloaded at animation street site.

I'm searching a way to translate these to a model, but it is a rather complicated way to attache the drawn animation to a model.

If it would succeed it would be a practic way to add new poses to a model. 

I ment *.bvh files. 

Import your animations in Blender, make sure to assign the material on it:

1) Go into edit mode on your mesh, and on the properties section click the button with a sphere (Materials)

2) Click the + button near the top to create a new material, then click the assign button to apply it to your mesh.

3) Still in properties, click the checkerboard button next to the sphere (Textures), and scroll the control back up to the top.

4) Click the + New button to add a new texture to your material.

5) Scroll down to Image, and click the picture image. A list of images appears, pick your g_infg.bmp image from the list.

6) Scroll even further down to Mapping, and click the button right of "Map:", then select your mesh to import its UV map (there's usually just one choice).

Then export to .MD3, and then use Preach's tool to convert to .mdl https://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/md3tomdl-0-4-released/

Finally open the model in QME. If your texture is messy, just import it in there, and save your model. 

You're assuming his Blender is set to Internal Renderer. If, like me, you only ever use Cycles, you will need to change the dropdown at the center of your files tab (usually very top bar in default blender layout) before you will be able to follow Daya's explanation. 

I wish I could follow your edit way, but for now I only can import a single 3ds file into blender.

This is the base file, all add on files clip the first one so I don't see a way to import a cycle of files. 

http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2016/06/1454944158-shotcyclerwip.png
Based on Q2's SSG viewmodel 

I'd like to collect all the good quality remakes of Quake models that are compatible with vanilla and put them into one PAK. They should also be appropriately licensed so I am allowed to release this collection, naturally with appropriate credit to the original authors.

I currently have the new knight model and the very recent shambler model to put into this collection. What other models could I add? Vanilla Quake only, please.

I'll release this compilation via Quaketastic once you've answered my question. And I'll update it later if new models are released that I can add into it.

It's nice to have one pak you can just drop into the data directories you want, if for example you want to keep your original Quake files unmodified. 

There are a bunch of remade models in the Makaqu engine's PAK10.PAK file.

And there's also the dog and the grunt from capnbubs.