Development > Artwork

Some alien beasts (alien ghost + ... )

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Anarch Cassius:
Okay, I got them plugged in as a new race. Sorta.

The details of what UFO:AI wants from a md2 elude me and the straight export from Blender is tiny, floating in the air and seems skinned wrong. It does however animate as instructed and I got the alien blood graphic that game with the model displaying as their blood pool.

Of course plugging in and stating the model is easy compared to their special moves. However this does mean the model should basically work with minimal effort.

EDIT: And I found .md2 exporting from Blender info: http://ufoai.org/wiki/Modelling/Blender All is well :)
The pivot took me forever but they are working. Their blood pool has an alpha channel error where it shows over things like trees and they need a lot of special code to really be like what I described but they exist and I drew up armor and other stats. They even show up in Skirmish :)

krilain:

--- Quote from: Anarch Cassius on December 17, 2012, 05:14:00 am ---Actually I was thinking along those lines yes. :)

There's already something similair... MORE SPOILERS... watch the movement of supply ships, the mail about of them being related to bases isn't idle chatter if you ever see a supply ship disappear it have entered a base. When I see a lot of supply ships I send interceptors to scan the area extra carefully and it's worked well.

So the seed ship is small fast and likely more stealth with few armaments. Where it lands it creates a hidden locust colony, like an alien base, which then goes on to send out locust swarms. I'm not sure which is easier for the engine, spawning them directly as missions near the hidden colony or making some kind of ground unit to use the way bases do supply ships.

In any case the point is that ignoring a locust infestation site would cause more locust infestations and more XVI if you didn't catch it.  Assuming XVI system stays on track all this battle map stuff should be easier to do than the jumping attack itself. "Farming" is something that shouldn't be encouraged too much. It can be tempting, even work out if you are very careful but in this sort of gave I'd like it to be a devil's bargain. Really I'd rather the player feel they'd like to wipe out the main colony as soon as they find it because another is probably about to land.

--- End quote ---
I agree with all of that. And I appreciate the very clear way you have to expose those mechanisms.
Just about "farming", I supposed that by the word "farming" you meant "keeping a seed alive". If that's right, I agree with you that it shouldn't be an easy task. Anyway, in my opinion, it is enought interesting as a thing to try, to motivate the player for he restarts the game many times, just for the pleasure to become each time a greater farmer :)

--- Quote from: Anarch Cassius on December 18, 2012, 03:19:53 am ---Okay, I got them plugged in as a new race. Sorta.

The details of what UFO:AI wants from a md2 elude me and the straight export from Blender is tiny, floating in the air and seems skinned wrong. It does however animate as instructed and I got the alien blood graphic that game with the model displaying as their blood pool.

Of course plugging in and stating the model is easy compared to their special moves. However this does mean the model should basically work with minimal effort.

EDIT: And I found .md2 exporting from Blender info: http://ufoai.org/wiki/Modelling/Blender All is well :)
The pivot took me forever but they are working. Their blood pool has an alpha channel error where it shows over things like trees and they need a lot of special code to really be like what I described but they exist and I drew up armor and other stats. They even show up in Skirmish :)

--- End quote ---
It is an excellent preview here :)

Moreover I think you are doing good by starting with a free animated model that complies perfectly. There is only to implement the special animations now, but as far as I know the actual spiders are also in need for new attack animations (there are 2 attacks animated exactly the same maneer).

I have not too much time this week, but if it is only a question of adding frames for a model animation, I could do it very easily. I think I've well understood this part of char modeling. I suffer more in texture application, or even in mesh conversion.

Anarch Cassius:
Wait really? Perfect

I'm a programmer artist. Not on of those people who draws crappy BMPs as placeholders. I started doing that at 12 and somehow built up some artistic talent. My specialties are all conversion, filters, particle systems and algorithms of course. I do the programmy side of artwork on my projects and let the people who went to college specially for it do the detailed sculpting and drawing.

I have been animated a 2d system (in RAW CODE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sb5p9btQ4w The animation is all me and done by code, the mech is from 3d assets and the monster is drawn) but that extra axis makes things even harder. If I tried it would take forever and come out jerky.

The model actually came with a lot of what we want. It has a leap action and several attacks. It could use 2 other deaths and an animation specially for implanting eggs. It has a lot of hurt animations, which UFOAI doesn't use, and one is filling in for panic now but it looks a little spastic.

I'm attaching a .pk3 that contains all the locust files. For animating though you just want the original model from Blendswap. Now that I know what I'm doing getting it out is a snap.

krilain:
First of all, thanks for presenting yourself, but I may have misunderstood something on what you said. I generally miss 15 to 30 % when I read english. So I didn't say you were not able to deal with the animation, I just thought you would have to learn more blender. Moreover, programming directly animation would always be for me the best way to make it... If only 3D modeler were also programmers, which is generally not the case. So dont take it bad if I proposed you to fill by hand some of the blank frames for the locust.

From my side I'm only an Autocad (for architecture) user - at work. I have no more access to Autocad at home even if evaluation (for generally one month) or student versions are free to download. This is because I sold the computer of mines that was powerful enougth to play one of those last versions that are now the only ones we can download (I want 2006 back!).

So I was forced to train with Gmax, and discovered that fortunately the IKBones system is quite usable and efficient for animating characters.

Here comes 2 remarks. Even if I love the free model you found for locust, which reminds me great hours of playing half-life :)
 (1) I think, that first it could also be rebuilt from the start with IKBones --> more work at start but infinite possibilities later.
 (2) The second remark is what I've already said. Given an already existing 3D model I can use the geometry modifiers patiently in order to add new frames as clean as possible because I'm used to manipulate objects that are big 2Dmaze at work. 3D design is really more easy due to the fact you can render the scene to have a nice overview on where you are going.

Here was for clarifying this point. Just one last thing, whatever, I will probably be at hollidays out of home for one week (or two?), I don't know. It would postpone but not cancel my engagement (if needed).

I downloaded the PK3 archiven and will take a look at it, thanks :)


ps : You did a great job at the youtube demo you linked. I was ignorant about ATL language or any such a tool. I'm absolutly sure it would be useful to open a topic (eventually at the off-topic place) for a deeper presentation. There would be too much questions to ask for doing that here. I've in particular clicked on some other videos related with yours which revealed a wide field.

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