Custom Content Challenge: August 2014: African Adventures / Tileset Expansions

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

well, at least I got that settled out. Here is an in-toolset early gorilla without any paint.

 

 

He's half way animated. Half the combat anims, half the other anims, just gotta finish up a few and do death scenes and he's good to go. I've been watching WAY too much gorilla footage the last two days!

 

Anyway, I've got a skin all ready to attach to his bones, but I think I may go with non-skinned this month and then when I have more time I'll do a skin version later. I start work monday so my model hours are going to sink fast.

 

So here's a list of what textures I am planning for this:

 

Mountain Gorilla (silverback)

Bar-lgura demon (3rd ed, not 4th)

Rage demon (dnd minis)

 

Then, if I have time, I'll add two arms and do up these:

 

White Ape (John Carter movie)

Girallon (without tail)

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Shadooow]

               

Could you make a special appear animation "climbing from tree"?

 

Reference: path of exile gameplay video

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

I was wondering about the appear animation. I may just do that.

 

Most of the videos I have watched show the silverbacks bursting out of cover of ground shrubs

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_DM_Vecna]

               

@ Mericksdad

 

You should check out the Gorilla in LOW Arbor Falls Hak. I am not sure that it will assist you in any way but it was the only other gorillas I have seen in game. 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Verilazic]

               

  Despite not being a fan of my own work, I am still willing to release the mask I made.  If I really wanted to improve on it, it'd require a complete overhaul of design, as the design didn't work out as well as I thought it would at first. But maybe somebody will like it or have a use for it somewhere down the road.

 

  And before anyone says anything, there are in fact round masks in certain parts of Africa. They don't scream african mask as well as the taller sorts of masks, but I liked the idea of a round mask so I went with it.

 

 

  I may revisit masks some other time, because I don't think it's a very good representation of what I had in mind. As for this challenge, I think that's it for me. Just a small contribution, so I can get back to my other plans.

 

On the contrary, I think there's a ton of potential in those masks. Looking forward to you revisiting them too!

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

@ Mericksdad

 

You should check out the Gorilla in LOW Arbor Falls Hak. I am not sure that it will assist you in any way but it was the only other gorillas I have seen in game. 

Do you by any chance know what file it was located in? I'm guessing the PW haks file, but at 300+mb that will take me an hour on this lame connection to just check.

 

Or if somebody has the mdl files available separate from the other stuff, I would be interested in taking a look to compare what I am doing with that one.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               

@ MerricksDad I don't suppose there is any chance of a winged version of the Gorilla? No I am not thinking Wizard of Oz here (they were monkeys anyway, not great apes). It's just that I have an old PnP module that has an interesting monster called a Hortrac which is basically a large, powerful winged ape.

 

TR

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

I don't play well installing flight animations, but you might see (if I have time) a winged and/or tailed gorilla in the future. What kind of wings does this Hortrac have? Would either the eagle wings or the bat wings from my last month's additions be sufficient (give a color change)?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               

The silly things have furry wings (like the mythical Cornish (I think)flying domestic cats). However I don't see why they couldn't have eagle wings for an NwN makeover.

 

TR

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Shadooow]

               

I don't play well installing flight animations, but you might see (if I have time) a winged and/or tailed gorilla in the future. What kind of wings does this Hortrac have? Would either the eagle wings or the bat wings from my last month's additions be sufficient (give a color change)?

wouldn't be a better to just properly add wing and tail dummy so builder will be able to decide which wings to use?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Combining wing animations for a F-type model with a non F-type model makes a hideous combination, due to speed differences in the animation (length of animation sequence actually), which is why I much prefer to add wings onto the model. It also allows you to put the wing model on in addition to the wings and have something like a backpack, or scabbard. It's win win. Tails I am not so sure on. I've been building a tail script so the tail moves as a trailing wave in relation to the pelvis and the ground plane. It isn't perfect yet, but you can see it working on last month's additions. (all those tails are machine-made, no hand work done at all).

 

All that being said, if all non F-type creatures had a separate (but fixed) wing and tail animation cycle length, then yes, I would 100% agree with you on that, and then make a series of for-creature tails and wings.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Bah, I am unhappy with my custom ape run. It looks like an obese gazelle. The knuckle-walk is pretty sweet though. The only attack he has right now (and shares for all combat animations for testing) is a lame monkey slap. I'd like to do a donkey kong style double smash for the reach attack, or maybe for the close attack. He also needs a mean backhand. Do apes bite? Should I make a bite attack for the stab attack? Donkey kong! Why didn't I think of that before. There is some wicked animation cycles I could steal from donkey kong country!

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Killmonger]

               

Well today has been momentous (for me at least)

I may yet have some new submissions for this beloved old game.

The clock is ticking....

 

I figured out my problem <from above> and it had to do with dds textures and Blinn Shaders

Gotta love that material editor...

Furthermore, the extensive use of skins <new to me> seems to require that each one is named differently.

Can't have two meshes pointing at the same texture file. It took most of a day to figure it out.

 

That said, I managed to superset and test prototypes of the following critters from Randomdays original sends

 

3 of 4 antelopes (21bones)

Bongo zt2

Oryx wp2

Gemsbok zt2

 

and a White Rhino zt2 (22bones)

They need a lot more work but they move great in game

'>

 

The Thompson's Gazelle, the Wildebeest and the African Buffalo are in the pipe

(with some problems) But I hope to overcome the technical problems soon (They look great in max)

 

Sorry, no screenies yet...

 

However,

after the critters appear in the toolset and I can test the saved build no problem,

when I exit the module or the toolset I crash the program.

 

Anyone have any insight as to why that might be?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Killmonger]

               

@ MerricksDad,

 

Just read your post <above>

 

If a gorilla bits you a person is in a world of hurt. They are incredibly strong and fast. Think "The Rundown" or "Planet of the Apes"

But I should think it would be a secondary attack. They would more likely scratch and rip one from limb to limb.

 

Donkey Kong for sure but please consider:

 

Tarzan's chest thumping

Wild territorial displays, feeding, grooming, scratching

Bouncing in place (upset)

The taunt animation and the bored animation.

Lastly, for inspiration, consider "Thak" the ape-man from the original Conan

 

Just some ideas for you...

 

imho

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

@Killmonger

 

I already have a chest thumping taunt, but I need to improve it, as it looks like he is more digging his chest and what not.

 

There was a video of an ape in captivity with some very bored actions, including standing straight up like a man and scratch his ass while he looked around. I really want that one.

 

He needs to get the running animation down better. Right now he runs and throws his legs out behind him, almost like a frog. With the speed increased from the dire bear, he looks really lame in run mode. If I can get him to hunker down and run like an actual ape, that would be prime. Torso on up is good in the run animation. They kinda run like a dog, with the torso kinked in relation to the pelvis, so that the knuckle walk/run does not hit the legs/feet. Most of the videos I watched had the bag legs moving as a single leg while running, and the knuckles hitting the ground more like a horse gallop.

 

I'm specifically making a combat-ready ape, so maybe somebody else can take it and make non-combat animations, like grazing and grooming at some later point.

 

I haven't seen any bouncing in place videos yet. In all the attack videos I watched, the attack was either sneaky, or sudden from either calm activity or a stare-down.

 

I'm not going on much, since most of the ape fights I have watched were more like wrestling than anything else. Does anybody have a video of an ape clubbing something with a stick?

 

 

About your post above, you wrote

 

"Can't have two meshes pointing at the same texture file. It took most of a day to figure it out."

 

Do you mean you are having trouble with two meshes on the same model pointing to the same texture? Because that is something I commonly do. Do you mean that two skins on the same model can't point to the same texture? Because I do that too, especially when the skin needs to be split into two halves due to the bone complexity, or proximity to other bones making it hard to skin. Both are definitely doable, so your issue may have been fixed simply by coincidence, and there is really another underlying problem.