Posts : 311 Join date : 2012-11-04 Age : 33 Location : Somerset
Subject: Snowtrooper Sun Nov 11, 2012 11:02 pm
JUST FOR REFERENCE, HERE IS THE CONVERSATION WE HAD IN A .TXT DOCUMENT ON DROPBOX:
This document was entitled 'snowtrooper'
Snowtrooper progress, update 25 Oct 2012:
Ande:
Added snow to the cloth, new shoulder pad model (+small cubey thingies), new arm pad.
TODO: Hands, backpack.
Texture: Fixed seams, added small details to chest, shoulder and arm pads now have a normal map with various smaller details. Generally did some more work, added snow to some parts.
TODO: Hands texture, backpack texture, stuff I can't think of yet.
Any suggestions, criticism, jawas?
Sharky: Jawas jawas jawas Back to the snowtrooper - it's very cool. The only thing that i would suggest is making the part that covers the face( nose, mouth etc) to be a little more shaped on the nose and bigger where the neck is. Other way even the strongest guy will be freezing with so thin cover ;p
Ande: (I think Ben on dropbox? Can't see my own name...), 26 Oct: I tried to make it feel thick by only doing large folds in the cloth. The cover of the troopers in the movie is even thinner BTW. I used that ref: http://ukitakumuki.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=48#/d2m22m2 for most details. You can see that the cloth isn't that thick (maybe 2 cm or so). What I really disliked with SWBF 1 and 2 was that all the troopers seemed so wide and blocky, maybe that's why I wanted to keep the troopers appeareance so lean... I'll play around a bit with the neck part and see how it'll look.
BTW, Do you think I should add more of the small red and blue controls on the chest armor?
SHarky: Actually these blue and red are not controls but it shows the rank of the man. Like higher the rank, more blue and red squares ;] It woulde be nice. Maybe just paint them in the texture. Also maybe i didn't say it right, maybe the cloth around the face should be more free than so lying close.
Amde: Ah, good to know! I can add some more to the left side of the chest piece. The point with making the cloth more free/have more volume is that it still has to deform right for animation, so if I make it too free it might look a bit weird when the head moves etc. Have to test it though.
BTW, Added hands (gloves). So only the backpack is left. And some adjustments etc...
Sharky: Nice! Can the hands be used for first person view? I am just talking about the models. The rigging is different part
Ande: I think so. Might have to make it a bit more hi rez so there are no deformation errors in first person. Do we have someone who can do the rigging? In UDK you could use the skeleton from Gears of War I think to test models. I assume we'll do our own animations sometime but for now if it's possible we could use the Agent animations.
Sharky: I could do the rigging. There are plenty of tutorials on rigging character for cryengine 3 ;P Are you talking about the agent's 3rd person animations or the 1st person. Because for 1st person we have to make our own for sure since the weapons are different.I have one animated pistol for 1st person so far that is working in cryengine 3 but it's not related to star wars. The animations are not professional but it's something. I have video if you want to see it.
For 3rd person there might be an option to use the agent's walk animation.
Ande: I meant the 3rd person animations because they most likely take the longest to create. We could slowly replace CryTeks' animations with our own as they're finished. My problem with rigging is that I'm using XSI instead of Maya or Max. I assume most of the tutorials are for Maya or Max so getting it all to work with XSI and then transferring it successfully over to Maya or Max for exporting is maybe not worth the time. Better someone () learns how to do it right in Maya/Max and then rigs all characters up and exports them.
Sharky: See what you did there . From what i see i am the only one so far who has done rigging and animation in 3ds max, so i will do it.Hope everyone agrees. This is my weapon i made for another mod i was working on. It's not very hard. Only the animations require more work when making them.
Ande: Cool. You animated the weapon and the arms? If that's true then you're hired as (at least first person) animator.
Snowtrooper progress, update 27 Oct 2012:
Ande:
Added hands, changed the mask.
TODO: Backpack.
How's the mask now?
Sharky: Sweet. If you can make some deformations on the mask it could easily go for star wars movie character Maybe if you can change the model because from what i see the textures are ready and editing them there might be hard. But you know best ;]
Ande: How exactly would you edit it?
Snowtrooper progress, update 27 Oct 2012:
Ande: Added backpack.
Sharky: Well addiding some edjes and moving them away. I'm not sure because this might stretch the textures in a bad way. It depends on te UV mapping.If it doesn't work leaving it like this is fine for me. The backpack is perfect btw ;] I so want to learn how to make that effect like it's a little durty and it shines more then the rest where's cleaner. Do you use the spec map for this :?
Ande: If you want to do a lot of moving the UV map will be stretched. Moving the edges forward a bit (away from the trooper's face) won't stretch a lot. Yes, I use a spec map on everything of my trooper. I have to adjust it a bit though. Some of the parts on the cloth are a bit too shiny I think.
Sharky: Yea, that's exactly what i was thinking about so it doesn't look perfect, that way it will be more real with moving some edjes away a little. Imperfection is perfection itself PS: I guess you are using photoshop for the textures?
Ande: (I like the dropbox notification system). Yes, CS2. Somehow got stuck with that. I tried Gimp but only shortly, Gimp's design (at least the version I used) was horrible IMO.
Sharky: Yup pretty nice. Almost like skype ;D. Do you have one btw? I have and idea how to make specs but im not really good at them. Do you paint the dirty parts on a different layer first and take them to the specs and whiten them or you use different method?
Ande: Skype id is andebt Yeah, I usually first paint the dirt on the diffuse/color texture on a separate layer then I copy that layer over into the spec map and usually invert it.
Sharky: Hmm maybe i don't match the proper colour right sometimes I will add so it will be easier to communicate ;]
Luke: Guys, if exporting is giving you trouble, if you want, as long as everything is rigged and skinned properly, send me the .max files or xsi files and I can export to CE3, I've had lots of practice importing models from Mass Effect and Skyrim.
Ande: I can skin the model in xsi and send it to you as a .fbx if I get a skeleton I can skin bim to. Our animator should create the rig/skeleton though because he had to work with it.
Oh and Luke, we need more animators really. I'll change the recruitement page soon so it says we're looking for more animators.
We've got about 10 million modellers. Which isn't a bad thing, but you know, we should be looking for more animators.
Ande: I can definitely paint some things in... I can add that thing on the right of the chest plate, too. I have to check if it looks any good if it's only modelled on and not actually in the model of the chestpiece.
Luke: Yeah more animators, definetly. Those are a rare species. I can do some simple anims (REALLY simple), but the best would be to get mocaps. (haha). i was hoping some of you modelers might be anims too. anyways, we dont need anims for everything, i mean, most of the walk, run , roll, etc (i.e: movement) default anims are good, and I think modification of existing anims to account for new weapons shoudl be just moving a few bones around.
Ande: Yes, now I just need the default skeleton so I can skin the characters to it... If someone could convert it to a .fbx and send it over I'd be happy. Then I can rig it, export it as .fbx again and someone can export it to cryengine.
Sharky: Some modelers actually can animate , but i am busy with the hoth interior atm and i can't rig,animate and export it right away.
sceluk: anims are a low priority. first level, then main models, gamecode, etc.
Lephenix: I did anims, but for swbf2 :p, never rigged or created a skeleton though.
Ande: I'll try to get my snowtrooper working with the default animations, that should do for the next time. He's ingame. No lods but working with a decent skin and materials.
Ben2356: just want to say that snowtrooper model is exceptional! Great work on that!!
rocknroll237: Yes, the Stormtrooper is looking sweeeeet! Can I just say, I think his nose should poke through the cloth just a little bit more maybe?
Ande: Well, I'll put that on my todo list. For now I'll concentrate on getting him and the rebel snowtrooper game-ready so they can shoot each other.
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You animated the weapon and the arms? If that's true then you're hired as (at least first person) animator.
Then I can rig it, export it as .fbx again and someone can export it 