Custom Content Challenge: May 2013: Dragon Stuff

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               Outstanding work so far!  I'm not a big fan of dragons and kind of think they've been done (and overdone) to death in this game. 

I was wrong. 

Great creativity and artistic skills on display in this thread!  The only thing wrong about the CCC is that it wasn't started sooner.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jenna WSI]

               Great work on the asian dragons.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Shemsu-Heru]

               Thanks; My oriental dragons are ready to download.....

ROZAN SHO RYU HA!!!!


               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Ssythilac]

               Good work, Shemsu! '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

OldTimeRadio wrote...

The only thing wrong about the CCC is that it wasn't started sooner.

haha, so true. Just imagine the things we could have already had!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               Probably definitely over-doing it, but I'm trying for it anyway.

Work in progress for red dragon armor.  Currently just the chest part, and way too many polygons, so I'll be culling a bunch in the next day or two. 

Going for more "realistic" dragon scale armor, and decided to use an original dragonscale texture instead of textures from dragon models (at least for the large scales).  The shoulder pieces will be made from the dragon models' heads, so those will use hardpoints' textures for that.

And yes, currently all the large scales are individually placed and welded.  It's not a seamless texture on a smooth model.

And this is actually the 2nd go round on this, since I didn't like the way the scales layed on the first try.

I was originally going to reshape the dragon chest model to fit as a piece of armor like I did with my frost giant.  Didn't like it for a PC though, as it looked like I was attempting to fake a half-dragon race or or something with armor parts (which is not a bad idea, really, but not what I'm going for).

Toolset testing screenshot, with and without shoulder pieces to test scales clipping and positioning.  Need to lift armor slightly to fix overlap with arm and cover base of neck model (chest is just a bit too low in back).


               
               

               
            

[Legacy__six]

               Looks rather neat.

You could do to redo the smoothing IMO, and it'd be nice if you could add soft shadows of the above scales onto the textures. Maybe try not to use the same texture for every scale to help in that.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par _six, 20 mai 2013 - 04:59 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_TheOneBlackRider]

               That scale armor looks great already!

I managed to pick up my work from back then (end of 2011!) and have (kind of final) models of mounted dragons for:
Gold, red, blue, white and silver. Riders are female/male+hooded and have masks. Animations have been smoothed here and there. Plus I added an open/close mouth animation, when breathing.
(Remember: The riders are part of the dragon model, so not mounted the "modern way".)

I do have to questionmarks, and maybe you can help me out:

1. After a (simple) death animation = getting up again, the neck is tweaked. Any idea, what causes this?


2. I tested some breathing fx and the only one really looking good is the fireball:


The ray of cold would be ok, but it's not really perfect...
Others, like the dragon breaths don't aim for the target.
I'd like to have something like the fireball for the other dragons: ball of cold, single (fat) lighningbolt, acid stream, ...
I'm lacking the knowledge (and the time) to create them atm. Maybe somebody else could do it. (That is just a bonus idea;) )

Aim: I'd like to get done a model for green and bronze. I'm not sure, if I manage to finish the helmed versions for all these models (colored and shiny), but I'd send them out for a later update, if that is possible.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par TheOneBlackRider, 20 mai 2013 - 10:26 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               

TheOneBlackRider wrote...
1. After a (simple) death animation = getting up again, the neck is tweaked. Any idea, what causes this?

Does this happen only when you're controlling/posessing the creature?  Posessing the creature and walking or doing emotes doesn't always yield the same results as when it's just running off scripts internally.  I assume you can't get a regular dragon into this state, only this one you've modified.  If it's not a testing artifact, might want to make sure you have bookend keys on your animation at the end or, possibly, that the animation that follows has bookend keys at the beginning- which they usually do.

Somtimes it's "safer" to make modifications to animations by loading up a geometry only version of the model then import the animations you want to modify using the anim mapper, make your changes and then supermodel it like this:
Geom-only model -> Modified animations only model -> Default model with default anims
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               Just posting another work in progress pic...because I'm kind of hoping to get more WIP from others.  What's everyone else up to?

I'm liking those mounted dragons so far.

I'm going to have to think of a use for those oriental dragons.  And the holy symbols look like they would be great for someone that uses those deities.

That zombified dragon is rotten, and looks like it'll be lots of fun to spring on players.

Anyone doing any scripts?  Prefab items/encounters/NPCs?  Sounds?  Weapons?  Misc. items? 

For my dragonscale armor, I remade the chest piece (again) from scratch, since my culling of polygons wouldn't work out right due to some poorly welded vertices.

I also changed away from using dragon-specific textures for the scales to .plt.  Not entirely happy with that change, since I don't get as precice control of the coloration and reflectiveness.  The metallic ones look good (using the Metal 1 channel), but the chromatics (using Leather 1, also tested with Cloth 1) take a little tinkering.  The "metallic leather" colors look best for depth of color (not pictured here, these are flat colors).

After some model and plt editing, I decided to go with 3 versions.  1 for chromatics (black, blue, green, and red), 1 for metallics, and 1 for chromatic (white).  The white required it's own .plt and model so it looks good in-game without being either grey or completely washed out).

Edited after updating my files.



Now that I'm pretty much done with the chest piece, almost time to move on to other parts (shoulders, forearms, shins, maybe something else).  I may have something done by the end of the month.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par The Amethyst Dragon, 22 mai 2013 - 05:19 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               Like the armour but Arrrgh! Attack of the clones!

TR
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TheOneBlackRider]

               First an idea for the dragon scale mail: I don't mind the "cloning" - it leaves room for further individual details.
And how about a set for females?

And now:

OldTimeRadio wrote...

TheOneBlackRider wrote...
1. After a (simple) death animation = getting up again, the neck is tweaked. Any idea, what causes this?

Does this happen only when you're controlling/posessing the creature?  Posessing the creature and walking or doing emotes doesn't always yield the same results as when it's just running off scripts internally.  I assume you can't get a regular dragon into this state, only this one you've modified.  If it's not a testing artifact, might want to make sure you have bookend keys on your animation at the end or, possibly, that the animation that follows has bookend keys at the beginning- which they usually do.

Somtimes it's "safer" to make modifications to animations by loading up a geometry only version of the model then import the animations you want to modify using the anim mapper, make your changes and then supermodel it like this:
Geom-only model -> Modified animations only model -> Default model with default anims

Thanks, OTR.
Hm... I had the feel, that this won't be an easy to understand answer for somebody like me...
I do know how to tweak existing animations within Gmax, but I still miss all the other basics.
This model is a PC with this mounted model as appearance using SetCreatureAppearanceType(oPC, #), if that helps. All the animations are controled by this mounted model.

So here is my plan for now:
A1) I finish the other models first (no animation fix), so they'll be ready to go into the CCC.
A2) If I still find the time, I try to work myself into your (OTR) thoughts / animations.

Well, (and this would be plan OTR, if you are really bored, and you'd like to take a look into the model/animations, I'd be glad to send them to you! '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               

TheOneBlackRider wrote...

First an idea for the dragon scale mail: I don't mind the "cloning" - it leaves room for further individual details.
And how about a set for females?

The "clones" are just an NPC I put the armor on and copy/pasted so I could look at different colors at the same time.

As far as a set for females, I plan on it.  I just want to get the basic parts done for human males, then I'll modify for human females, then the pieces will get run through the Armory software for other races.  I'll have to test and see if I need to do that for large phenotypes as well, or if that will have to be done by hand.

Female version will not be a "sexified" version, it'll be utilitarian and battle-worthy.  Some change of shape and proportions for the ladies, but won't be exposing extra skin in the process.  If someone's taking the time to turn dragon scales into armor, you can bet that armor won't be as useless as a dragon scale bikini. '>

Working on the shoulders right now.  I was going to use the dragon heads, but those with long horns (such as reds) won't work well, since the horse will clip throught he wearer's head in like half the animations.  I tested it out before I did much work on that aspect.  I might turn the dragon heads into forearm pieces, or shrink them down for more decorative pieces.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               AD, I was just kidding on the clones front. However, if you want to use the dragon heads and you don't want to shrink them too much how about using them for the back of the dragonscale helmet (assuming you are going to do one).

TR
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jenna WSI]

               AD, could you make a quick arm piece (possibly off the loose and flaired model) so that the top has something the mesh with?