ALIEN

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               In NWN, no-one can hear you scream...



Eight years ago, when the Aurora Toolset first pounced upon me and made me a helpless slave of its alluring possibilities, the first thing I wanted to do once I'd figured out the basics, was to put the "Demoness Tales" comics I'd been drawing for decades onto my computer monitor.
With the aid of Ryuujin's double-jointed leg and cloven hoof models (still amongst my all time top ten bits of CC) and a bit of rescaling, I soon had a basic Demoness... and about ten seconds later, I wanted to do one of her adventures I'd written and drawn a year or so earlier...

That being a story entitled... ALIEN vs DEMONESS...



Largely set in a Weyland Yutani mining colony named "Archangel" on KV-327, a remote world out in the Hyades, the premise isn't quite as strange as it seems given that Demoness Tales is mostly set in a "sword and sorcery" sort of world. The central character, a capricious Renegade from Hell, can wield all manner of Infernal arcane powers including being able to tear interstitial rifts through the aether that allow her to move between any plane, world, realm, usually at random, in her hunt for "Spleens". Thus a leap across time and space to a "futuristic" setting is hardly impossible for a creature to whom temporal and spatial boundaries are non-existent.

The whopping great obstacle to doing this story in NWN was the complete and utter lack of an Alien Creature model of any description. Over the years, I have made a few abortive attempts to put Giger's most famous creation into the game, each of which has been a spectacular and abysmal failure... Until now.

Finally, armed with gmax and a huge brick, I have apparently managed to accumulate more or less enough knowledge of what the hell I'm doing to create a viable Alien... Not to mention, I finally got fed up of a scaled-up Human female with Demonic bits stuck on and a range of silly outfits. Having thought about it for some little while now, I've abandoned the silly outfits and made a single, custom model of Lucirath, the Renegade Demoness, who's now bigger, curvier, more muscular and more Demonic with a completely new animated tail and looks much more like she does on paper...

The above is one of the original rough pencil sketches I drew, many years ago, whilst starting to plot AvD.
For me, to now finally be in the process of putting this story on screen with the rest of Lucirath's adventures is kind've exciting... and that's why you're getting bombarded by this unnecessarily vast plethora of pictures. It's because I'm foaming at the mouth rabidly and getting carried away. Please forgive the harmless but irritating enthusiasm...
Though I'm happy with the new Demoness model, she still needs more work to really be "herself", but she's a big improvement over just using an enlarged phenotype and assorted silly clothing parts. For me, the future of NWN starts here...


But, you're mostly interested in the Aliens. That's why the thread's called "ALIEN".
I know there were a few guys who really liked the Alien films who seem to have vanished from the Community who thus aren't here to see this, which is a pity. However, if there are still any others out there besides me who want to unleash a horde of eyeless, acid-blooded, bio-mechanical xenomorphs upon their unsuspecting Modules, be advised that we're not just talking about a single Creature model here... There's much more besides...

Being a dribbling lunatic, when I build an Alien, I don't just build an Alien... I build it's mother too...


               
               

               

                     Modifié par PLUSH HYENA of DOOM, 19 janvier 2014 - 05:03 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               

ALIEN vs DEMONESS, in my original comic strip form, called for considerably more CC than just the Alien itself. I've been doing Demoness Tales for 25 years now and over the years I've sat and drawn and written blithely sticking in the most outrageously detailed and wild settings my imagination could devise. All well and good until you suddenly want to create digital copies of stuff and have no idea which end of gmax is which.
Having been a model maker for decades and having built life-size Aliens, maquettes and so forth for so long, I keep getting the urge, even now, to stick my hands through the screen at the gmax models and slap clay on them and sculpt stuff... Doesn't work.

In this particular case, it was Hans Rudi Giger's imagination which was the issue instead of mine, for once. Naturally, when writing AvD, I wanted to stick in all the brilliant elements Giger had designed for Alien. So now, I have to try to recreate them all for NWN. A challenge... but fun! Or at least, I can say it's fun now when I'm starting to win.

First up was the crashed derelict alien spacecraft from Alien which the crew of the Nostromo stumble across with fatal results... or rather another one just like it.
In this case it's the colonists from Archangel who find it, with equally fatal results. Later, Luce and her young archaeologist friend, Tarella Dane, also find it... or at least they find a PHoD Placeable version that looks a bit like it.



The Derelict is a big Placeable. A damned big Placeable... a HUMONGOUS Placeable. As with all the Alien stuff so far, it's still very much "Alpha". Especially the textures. But the bizarre shape, which I copied from a maquette of the original sculpture, is moderately accurate. The only good thing about the texture is that by means of a bit of shading, I got the texture to give a pretty good imitation of the three apertures by which the Derelict is entered with only minimal additional verts on the geometry rather than trying to actually have proper trimesh tunnels leading inward which would've put the poly count up hideously.



Of greater interest, however, is what's inside the Derelict. The dead weirdo pilot.
Giger's design for the entirely non-human, el freako, so-called "Space Jockey" for Alien required the thing to be fused into its seat and the nameless apparatus jutting upward from it. Again working from scale models in my collection, I tried to make a perfect, detailed, accurate recreation of the original.
Instead, after hundreds, thousands, millions of hours of frustration, I made this shabby, not blisteringly accurate thing... 


Not wholly accurate as it is, I'm still quite pleased with it. It does at least have the basic shape of the Space Jockey and his bio-mechanoid chair thing, though it really still needs to be scaled up a bit more. Anyone familiar with Alien can judge for themselves whether or not it's any good yet. The rest of the Derelict Interior still needs a lot of work.


               
               

               

                     Modifié par PLUSH HYENA of DOOM, 19 janvier 2014 - 05:29 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               

Another of the most important settings for AvD is, of course, the Alien Hive.
Initially I planned to make a Hive Tileset. Then I came to my senses. Luce has now encountered the Aliens three times in the Demoness Tales comics, the second being on the sword and sorcery world where most of the stories take place and third seeing the Aliens in both Hell and Heaven with Luce and the Alien Queen forming a reluctant alliance by the end of the third one... As I intend to do all three in NWN, it will mean Alien Hives in different places. Thus a single Tileset representing the Hive in the mining tunnels of the Archangel colony isn't going to be much use. Functionality thus demanded the entire Alien Hive be assembled within other Tilesets from a series of Placeable elements. In this way the cramped, claustrophobic, weirdly shaped tunnels and warrens of the Hive can be, in essence, plastered all over the existing geometry of a Tileset much as the Aliens would do themselves...

"Looks like some sort of secreted resin..."
"Yeah, but secreted from what?" 


The disgusting Hive Placeables, naturally, have mushed colonists smeared into the resinous walls where the Aliens are using them for hosts. There are totally weird, organic shapes everywhere and huge strands of hardened resin jutting about at all sorts of angles...
Yes, you've guessed it; it makes trying to create a viable series of walkmeshes more or less impossible for Placeables which, to generate the best atmosphere, often end up very close with narrow, irregular rifts and passages between them, the problem compounded by the fact that I've tried to lessen the number of Hive elements needed by making many of them very large and having assorted details at different levels so that by sinking one through the floor on its z axis, you get a totally different appearance, etc. And a totally different "groundplan".
Also I want the Aliens to be able to appear more or less straight out of the walls when you least expect it in the depths of the Hive. So they actually need to be able to pass through certain points in the geometry.
Currently I'm working on having some small Placeables which will act somewhat like NWN2 walkmesh cutters to block movement where I want it blocked, regardless of the exact disposition of the Hive elements...

Enough technicalities, back to Her Majesty...



The Alien Queen is first encountered in AvD, much as in Aliens, in the core of the Hive amidst her Egg Chamber. As you will have noticed by now, there is a Placeable PHoD Alien Egg, several hundred of which litter the Hive... "So who's laying all these eggs?"
To have the Queen actually attached to her enormous eggsac/ovipositor thing would be more or less impossible. There's no way to make it a Creature model since the Queen would not then sit in just the right place to appear joined with it. I did think about making it a massive vfx element linked to the Queen but that went nowhere since it would move with her every slightest motion and thus all those huge strands of hardened resin supporting it and attached to the roof would shift about and it would look rubbishly unconvincing. So it's a basic Placeable, with the ovipositor at one end and a point of attachment for the Queen to pretend to sit on at the other.

Luce destroys the eggsac with Hellfire thus sending the Queen into a towering rage. Well timed "apply vfx", "destroy object" and "alter faction to towering hostility mode" scripts have, in the tests, given a reasonable transition between the Queen attached to the eggsac and the Queen on the rampage... Also, the entire rest of the Hive reacts at the same time, so I think the Queen/Eggsac joined/non-joined thing can be dealt with more or less easily...



If Ripley had been from Hell, she wouldn't have had such problems...


               
               

               

                     Modifié par PLUSH HYENA of DOOM, 19 janvier 2014 - 05:58 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               

Naturally, by the end, AvD is all out mayhem and, of course, when the Alien Queen goes on the rampage, she inevitably takes out her foul temper upon the colony of Archangel. Not that Luce cares anything for the colonists and the marines sent to protect them - as far as she's concerned it's all a good bit of fun. Being BIG as well as fast and frighteningly strong, the Queen is a pretty fair match for Luce in hand to hand, tooth and claw terms.

Along with the big, obvious stuff, however, there are still quite a few smaller details to fill in. Thus far, the Placeables for the stasis cylinders with Facehugger specimens in them are about as far as I've got.



Mostly been messing around with the Aliens.
The Warrior Alien and the Queen are more or less done, physically. It's just the textures, especially for the Queen that still require the application of a resoundingly large brick...





The Alien Eggs are Placeables, as mentioned...
From these, as you will know if you're familiar with the films, emerge the so-called Facehuggers, parasitic creatures which attach themselves to your face, stuff a filthy tube down your throat and implant an Alien embryo into your chest cavity where it proceeds to grow. And what is more, they don't even ask permission.
When this embryo has grown sufficiently, it emerges from your body through the ribs in a very, very nasty (and entirely fatal) way. This so-called Chestburster rapidly matures into the savage, Alien monster we all know and love. Well, I love them anyway - I've been living with them for 15 years so I have to.

The Facehugger Creature model I'm reasonably happy with though as yet I have to fathom how in hell to give it the means to actually attach itself to its victim instead of just grubbing about on the floor.
The Chestburster Creature model I'm... not happy with. It's rubbish. Needs a lot of work. But at least there is one, so the entire Alien life cycle is represented.

               
               

               

                     Modifié par PLUSH HYENA of DOOM, 19 janvier 2014 - 06:12 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               

Yes, so anyone with a shred of sense would run away with an enraged Alien Queen charging after them.
However, Luce doesn't run. From anything. Ever... She just happens to have formulated a plan to lead the Queen into an Infernal pentagram and thus drop her through an etheric rift to who knows where... (As it turns out in AvD 2, this wasn't actually the best plan...)



Another view of the Hive with a lurking Facehugger which has totally overestimated its chances and is about to get firmly trampled underhoof.



The Alien Warrior is not intended to be accurate to any of the assorted film designs, more just to be a generic "PHoD NWN Alien". There are assorted very good digital Aliens on a variety of 3D Models sites, but they'd be a thousand times too high-poly for NWN. Mine are not exactly low-poly but they've performed well in tests so far, even in numbers, and besides, it was damn good fun making them (once I'd reached the stage where a load of wireframe rubbish suddenly sat up and looked like the Alien and gave me hope).
The Queen is also a sort of generic "PHoD NWN Alien Queen" version but she assuredly has the "high heels" of the Aliens version rather than the flat feet of the Alien vs Predator version.



Anyway, there you have it...
The PHoD ALIEN project so far... This is very much a work in progress; everything in the screenshots is from rough test Areas just done as mock-ups to see how certain elements of AvD are going to work. There are still some Placeables to be done and I'm contemplating doing an Alien Hive Guard, the equivalent of a soldier ant, something more formidable than the usual Alien Warriors. Might also do a variant Alien Warrior in a brownish colour, similar to the Alien3 colour scheme...

Anyway, Giger's Alien now exists in NWN and my dream of eight years is a reality...
If anyone else out there does want piles of acid-blooded xenomorphs, that's what this thread is for. If there's any interest, I'll happily post this stuff somewhere at some point. Preferably when it's finished. Which could take a wee while, given that I'm likely to go on altering, polishing, tweaking, hitting with bricks for months whilst putting AvD together and seeing what works and what doesn't. If I malinger too much, you may have to poke me with a sharp stick and persuade me to put an "alpha" version out in the meantime...


               
               

               

                     Modifié par PLUSH HYENA of DOOM, 19 janvier 2014 - 06:49 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Malagant]

               Your work is always eye-catching, but I don't quite know about the flat-black head topper of the regular xenomorph. It seems a bit stark of a contrast with the rest of the model without a bit of shiny to break it up (especially since they went the route of adding a slime coating to the later versions in the newer films. I always preferred the original Alien / Aliens versions anyway.

Exemplary work, as always, and it's good to see that consistently improving.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Malagant, 19 janvier 2014 - 06:27 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               Truth be told, I didn't want it to be quite so black (though there is detail if you look close enough in broad daylight) but the geometry of the head made the first, detailed texture I tried look horrible. So it's black to cover evil texture warp at the moment. But like I say, this is all work in progress...

PHoD with some of his "reference materials"...


Fixated, moi?

(The one in the middle, second picture, currently stands about four feet away from where I sit at my computer and thus probably subliminally affected my NWN version and textures - don't blame me, blame it).
               
               

               

                     Modifié par PLUSH HYENA of DOOM, 19 janvier 2014 - 06:55 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Mecheon]

               I was gonna say, always thought the head was transparent, but my main reference is the Revoltech Alien they released a few years back

Looks neat all the same. Curious on your plans for it
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Malagant]

               The angle of your head in that photo makes me think I'm looking at James Frain.

As for the rest, I have complete faith in your abilities.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Mecheon]

               ... And I just realised I completely forgot to ask something

If you're still going with some Alien stuff, any chance at all at some designs based off the completely amazing and awesome Kenner Aliens line? Cause that Snake Alien, man
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_3RavensMore]

               *thud*

Picks myself up from the floor.  Everything looks fantastic, not to mention the...um...house guests you have. 
               
               

               

                     Modifié par 3RavensMore, 19 janvier 2014 - 03:34 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               @PHoD re your face hugger. I would suggest that for the actual face hugging that a separate model used with head aligned vfx should give the effect that you want. Another suggestion would be a separate head model complete with face hugger attached for the victim. The only problem with this approach is the transition from the nasty little bu$$er running around on the floor and it being on the victims face.

BTW I have a little bone to pick with you - do you know how expensive plasters/band-aids have become. I was doing all right (thinking to myself hmmm, nice creature models) then I came across your crashed alien ship placeable. You've done it again. You've made my jaw hit the floor.  

<wanders off, muttering under breath and rubbing sore chin>  

Really good work.

TR
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               Tarot - apologies to your chin. Suggest:- Grow hideously enormous shock-absorbing beard.
I also had similar thoughts for either a helm model or a ha-vfx for the Facehugger when it succeeds in attaching itself to a victim, but implementation tests so far have been... shall we say, comedic.

Malagant - Never heard of James Frain. Maybe I should look him up in case I'm being insulted and don't know it.

3Ravens - There are 125 "house guests"... (That's just the life-size ones). This gives them the advantage of numbers. I sometimes suspect we're the guests and they just tolerate us... (and one of them has purple hair!)

Mecheon - I think I've probably got all the old Kenner figures (rubbish as most of them were) in a box somewhere. I certainly wasn't planning to do them although there will be further Alien types. I drew a winged alien, sort of bat-like, in AvD 2, which I'm going to try when I come to the second Module, but that's very much in the future...
But yes, the Snake Alien was one of their better efforts. I always liked the Panther Alien. Very like the Alien3 version. I want to add a quadrupedal version of some sort, which will probably look not unlike that.

PS:- The "smooth-headed" Aliens generally do have a dark, translucent (not transparent) cowl which, if the lighting is right, can be seen through to a degree to the detail beneath. Mostly, during filming, successive repaints on props and costumes rendered these cowls ever less translucent though. The versions in Aliens and Alien vs Predator 2 dropped the covering and just left the non-translucent detail underneath visible, such as the two either side of me in the pictures above.
A translucent version with underlying detail in NWN would be possible but would add a lot of additional geometry to the model that would rarely be more than glimpsed. (They generally stick to the shadows).
               
               

               

                     Modifié par PLUSH HYENA of DOOM, 19 janvier 2014 - 05:12 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Malagant]

               Whether it's an insult or not would be somewhat subjective, as others may not agree with one position or another. He's an actor that's been popping up quite a bit lately but the photo reminds me of his role in Elizabeth: The Golden Era, sans goatee. In short, I certainly wouldn't consider it so.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Killmonger]

               Truly an excellent opus Phod.
For a long time I was fooling around with similar "Giger-esque" notions but never had the time to see them thru to completion....

<silent admiration moment>

Really good work sir,
Someday I too would enjoy building with your alien menagerie.
The head aligned vfx for the facehuggers seems the best way to go, with some allowances for the limitations of Bioware's engine. The only other alternative that I considered for the facehuggers and chestbursters was the development of a special phenotype.
However, I'm confident your skills will yield good solutions...As demonstrated by your great works of the past few years.

Just excellent news... I shall look forward to an alien module someday...

<Yay ! >