UFO:Alien Invasion
Development => Artwork => Topic started by: Zorlen on January 19, 2009, 01:05:06 pm
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Here's a draft of some scarey alien robot.
Surprising as it may seem, but I call it a Mantis. Supposed role - not particularly a combat machine, but rather a sort of field research drone to conduct autopsies and medical/biochemical experiments right on the field, unlike Bloodspider which is only for biomaterial retrieval. Hence the lack of ranged weaponry and not-so-combat-viable layout. Though with alien technology being wastly superior that ours, it could still be a fearsome opponent.
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nice! ;)
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It looks great and not so cute like the bloodspider (;
And about fighting abilities: combat vivisection anyone?
After all, more then half the Tamans you encounter at the beginning are the same.
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Perhaps it could be a replacement model for the Breeder (http://cs.streetofeyes.com/downloads/UFOAI/breeder.png)? It doesn't have some of the required characteristics, such as a body to store organic material, but I do like the legs better. Winter?
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Perhaps it could be a replacement model for the Breeder (http://cs.streetofeyes.com/downloads/UFOAI/breeder.png)? It doesn't have some of the required characteristics, such as a body to store organic material, but I do like the legs better. Winter?
The legs are better, but this doesn't even remotely fit what we need for the Breeder. Maybe we can transfer them onto the current Breeder model?
Regards,
Winter
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The legs are better, but this doesn't even remotely fit what we need for the Breeder. Maybe we can transfer them onto the current Breeder model?
I thought that Breeder was going to have threads, judging by its old model (even Corrupter UFO description (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/UFO/Corrupter) mentions threads). Actually I didn't like that part, 'cause threads seemed too much Earth-based tech to me.
Anyway, I put that model under GPL, so feel free to use any part of it. I haven't animated it yet, but it has bones and stuff. Should I make chassis walk animation? (Haven't tried that before, just going to learn)
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Definitely. Animations are hard to come by.
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The Mantis looks bad ass, I vote we add it.
Maybe you could render up a combat oriented "Heavy Mantis" with guns & whatnot.
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Here's chassis walk cycle along with rendered avi.
It it was moving, it would move ~10 Blender units per cycle.
Maybe you could render up a combat oriented "Heavy Mantis" with guns & whatnot.
I am thinking of some alien tank-like robot design, but for this to look alienish I can only imagine legged or hover chassis, which would make it less unique.
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Thanks for the animation. Can you try supplanting the breeder's legs, as Winter suggested? Sources for his model can be found here:
http://cs.streetofeyes.com/downloads/UFOAI/breeder5.3ds
http://cs.streetofeyes.com/downloads/UFOAI/breeder5.wings
It's also going to need animations for the other states, such as death and attacking. It attacks in melee (to infect an actor with XVI). It also has some psionic capability.
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Okay, I'll look into this.
Is Breeder is a sort of cyborg then? I mean - is its XVI-infested organic part being a developed (though artificially life-suported) thinking organism in charge of controlling mechanical body? Or it is a robot with electronic brain and XVI tissue is attached as infestation and psionic weapon only?
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keep in mind that we need at least the animations that are listed here: http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Modelling#List_of_needed_animations_for_a_character
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Okay, I'll look into this.
Is Breeder is a sort of cyborg then? I mean - is its XVI-infested organic part being a developed (though artificially life-suported) thinking organism in charge of controlling mechanical body? Or it is a robot with electronic brain and XVI tissue is attached as infestation and psionic weapon only?
The Breeder has no organic brain as such; both the organic and cybernetic parts are controlled directly by the intelligent XVI in its blood.
The organic top half is what produces the infected blood, and what does the attacking both physically and psionically. The cybernetic bottom half is just for moving around on.
Regards,
Winter
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Merged model with tentacle attack animation is attached. Opinions are welcome as always.
keep in mind that we need at least the animations that are listed here: http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Modelling#List_of_needed_animations_for_a_character
Should animations related with different types of carried weapons be omitted for Breeder or just duplicate its normal postures and movement? And should it have crouched state?
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Merged model with tentacle attack animation is attached. Opinions are welcome as always.
Should animations related with different types of carried weapons be omitted for Breeder or just duplicate its normal postures and movement? And should it have crouched state?
It's a start! The attack needs to be a lot longer though -- the tentacles reach out over at least 2 squares, pick up the target (i.e. a human), and hold him there whilst replacing all the blood with XVI-infected stuff. I don't know exactly how this will be best represented in the game, it'd be good to have some input from the coders there . . .
Regards,
Winter
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Finally I got my hands on that model again. Reworked walk and infest animations + added one for psionic attack.
Death animations are still pending.
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We have another animator? Sweet! Ive been busy lately, and so I havent gotten much done. Do you have access to the SVN? If you do, then I will upload the skeleton that I have, and we can both work on it
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I am not a hell of an animator, just following "do it yourself" approach encouraged by developers to have things done.
Anyway, I have Sourceforge login and can try looking into soldier animation, though being short on free time myself.
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Yeah, I kinda did that while taking 3 years of 3D animation. (Im good if I slow down and take my time, otherwise, things get blocky, badly timed, or just not good)
Towards the end of the animation sets that I've seen, the animation is incomplete and the model has been messed with so you cant fix the animation and still have a good looking model.
So, with Destructavator working on a new model, I set out working on animations (See my 'Animations list' thread).
I figured, for the sake of time, I would just use the old animation set. Unfortunatly, its still a slow work, manually keyframing each frame, and I havent put any....dang it, the word just escaped me...the handles that control the bones...
How well do you know Blender? I've mostly worked with Maya, and have both on my computer, but I cant find any file type thats a good go-between for animated models.
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How well do you know Blender? I've mostly worked with Maya, and have both on my computer, but I cant find any file type thats a good go-between for animated models.
try md5
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How well do you know Blender?
Not quite well. My modelling experience started mainly with modelling for UFO:AI in Wings3D, then I moved to Blender in order to use animations, thats all.
Unfortunatly, its still a slow work, manually keyframing each frame, and I havent put any....dang it, the word just escaped me...the handles that control the bones...
You mean you are not using armatures and animate the mesh directly? That must be a really painful work!
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Mattn: Its not accepted, from what I can see
Zorlen: Well, you can have the verticies move with the bone, but yeah, moving each bone without handles is really a pain in the rear end
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The legs and arms are fine but the whole image reminds me strongly of a Droideka (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Droideka). You might want to change the shoulder and the head parts. The downward slope of the head makes it look as if it's the Star Wars destroyer droid.
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The legs and arms are fine but the whole image reminds me strongly of a Droideka (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Droideka). You might want to change the shoulder and the head parts. The downward slope of the head makes it look as if it's the Star Wars destroyer droid.
I believe you mean original Mantis robot design? We decided not to use it in the game as is, but to merge its legs with the Breeder body. Now it looks like this:
(http://i035.radikal.ru/0905/38/d57ec4122bb4.jpg) (http://www.radikal.ru)
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I believe you mean original Mantis robot design? We decided not to use it in the game as is, but to merge its legs with the Breeder body. Now it looks like this:
(http://i035.radikal.ru/0905/38/d57ec4122bb4.jpg) (http://www.radikal.ru)
Hi Zorlen, would it be possible to resize this stuff at all? The Breeder is supposed to be a big lumbering mass of flesh, so downsizing the legs and upsizing the body would serve it better if you can make that happen. Thanks.
Regards,
Winter
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Hi Zorlen, would it be possible to resize this stuff at all? The Breeder is supposed to be a big lumbering mass of flesh, so downsizing the legs and upsizing the body would serve it better if you can make that happen. Thanks.
Regards,
Winter
Providing no one would say that it looks like Jabba Hutt!
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As long as the body isn't longer or wider than the legs. Not only would that make it look unstable, it would also mean the legs would be very tiny ingame since the unit has to be confined to the 2x2 area at all times. That's a cubic area, and the model's biggest dimension will be what determines its scale.
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As long as the body isn't longer or wider than the legs. Not only would that make it look unstable, it would also mean the legs would be very tiny ingame since the unit has to be confined to the 2x2 area at all times. That's a cubic area, and the model's biggest dimension will be what determines its scale.
Does height also count? I mean - if I just scale down the legs, the Breeder would be rather tall.
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Yes, height counts too.
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I believe you mean original Mantis robot design? We decided not to use it in the game as is, but to merge its legs with the Breeder body.
The Droideka look is now all but gone. Nice! ;D
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Made organic part wider to give it more bloated look and shortened the legs a bit. Reducing the spread of the legs wont help much since the "head" would protrude beyond their bounding box.
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Made organic part wider to give it more bloated look and shortened the legs a bit. Reducing the spread of the legs wont help much since the "head" would protrude beyond their bounding box.
Hmm, the head and neck definitely needs to be bigger/longer to emphasise their reach. Maybe have them hang down lower? The Breeder should look like quite a muscular thing rather than just a bloated bag of flab.
Regards,
Ryan
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Or maybe make its mouth tentacles bigger/longer. Less work, more reach, more awesome a look.
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Hmm, the head and neck definitely needs to be bigger/longer to emphasise their reach. Maybe have them hang down lower? The Breeder should look like quite a muscular thing rather than just a bloated bag of flab.
Regards,
Ryan
Point taken on muscular thing - it was just my initial impresion of Breeder being like overgrown amoeba. Longer neck would reqiure rework of attack animations since it is hard to restrain it's movement within Breeder's bounding box. I can do it if needed though.
My suggestion for the long-range infesting attack is using additional tentacle that is not included in the Breeder's model but shoots code-wise from its "mouth" in a ray-like manner when attacking. I this way coders would have perfect control of the attack aim and range. Otherwise different animations would be required e.g. for 1-tile long attack and 3-tile one. The "infesting" tentacle could be different from current ones, which would serve the role of feelers/psionic antennae in this case.
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Point taken on muscular thing - it was just my initial impresion of Breeder being like overgrown amoeba. Longer neck would reqiure rework of attack animations since it is hard to restrain it's movement within Breeder's bounding box. I can do it if needed though.
My suggestion for the long-range infesting attack is using additional tentacle that is not included in the Breeder's model but shoots code-wise from its "mouth" in a ray-like manner when attacking. I this way coders would have perfect control of the attack aim and range. Otherwise different animations would be required e.g. for 1-tile long attack and 3-tile one. The "infesting" tentacle could be different from current ones, which would serve the role of feelers/psionic antennae in this case.
Mmm, true. Practical concerns will have to come first for this. If you can make it happen, please do.
Regards,
Winter