973 replies to this topic

[Happycrow]

Oh, I'm an idiot - that was Semper I was thinking of.

 

4760, if you take this up, documenting how you did it would be a godsend.

[kamal_]

4760 you've got PM.

[Hellfire_RWS]

I bet the Umber Hulk skeleton would work great for this guy

If someone knows how to assign skeletons to models or is willing to learn, I have 5-10 creature models ready to go, minus their skeletons. Such as the Green Slaad shown below.

[Dann-J]

The umberhulk seems to have a gorilla-like gait though, knuckle-walking on it's long arms as it moves about.

 

http://nwvault.ign.c...?ss=1204&page=3

[grotbag1]

I saw grotbag1 wishing he had a camel for his Tales of the Whispering Sands desert campaign, although they would probably be useful for any desert-based module. But that would require a new model, alas.

 

 

Yeah, I'm sure camels would be a hellish endeavour. Still, this thread has just let me know about Dannj's awesome-looking sheep model. Sheep are nice and desert-y! 

[rjshae]

A Troll could be reskinned with a blue aquatic hide to get a Scrag.

 

[Dann-J]

I applied a seaweed-like effect to trolls as a quick-and-nasty method of making them into marine scrags for Isle of Shrines, as seen in the bestiary. The description in one of the Monster Manuals says:

 

 

Large, green, and pot-bellied, scrags are thick-skinned and heavily scaled. Their feet are wide and webbed to aid them in swimming. While their limbs are shorter and weaker than those of ordinary trolls, their mouths are larger and filled with hundreds of needle-sharp teeth.

 

 

It would seem that a complete remodelling would be required to do it properly (webbed feet, shorter arms, bigger mouths, etc). Although a scaly texture and shiny normal map might do in a pinch.

[Dann-J]

Speaking of reskinned trolls; this is my mountain troll. It's really just one of the alternate troll armour types, with a pale skin that can be tinted any colour. He's been making a name for himself in the club scene.

 

[Loki_999]

If you know someone who can do skeletons, I have proper slaadi models.

 

Unforntunately not

[Dann-J]

I was thinking (yes, it happens once in a while); perhaps the animation viewer in the toolset would be a quick way to generate images of each creature appearance type, via screen captures of the preview window. The images might not be high quality, but at least they'd all have a standardised background.

[4760]

I bet the Umber Hulk skeleton would work great for this guy

True, it's the most fitting (compared to troll and ogre skeletons). But it needs reworking anyway, since the arms are shorter for the slaad. And due to the size of the belly, I'm sure a few bones would need to be added, to make it move while walking.

In the end, it means redoing all the animations.

[-Semper-]

If you know someone who can do skeletons, I have proper slaadi models.

 

creating bones and rigging ain't that of a problem, and with a bit of training everybody should be able to create something useable. what the community really needs is a skilled animator. that's an art of itself and not that easy to be good in.

@slaadi: without reworking the model it won't really fit to any of the available skeletons.

[Happycrow]

I'd go for it, but I could never get the plugin (that pretty much everybody else has been able to use) working for me.  So I follow your tuts, Semper, and then fall on my nose at the "how to rig" stage where bones are concerned.  So right now I"ve been limited to arms/armor and perverting various animals into mutant aberrations by tweaking the verts.

 

Gotta go back and see why I can't get the expotron/granny thing working. It's in the right directory and everything, just... irking me ferociously.  

[-Semper-]

iirc you need max 6-8 to get the plugin working. if you have no access to this versions you can always create skeletons and animations in your preferred 3d software and export everything as fbx. max8 supports this format up to vers. 2006.11.2 - which should cover meshes, bones and hierarchy and animations.

[rjshae]

Q. Does the Expotron include a granny dll file (or gr2)? If so, it may be possible to reverse engineer the library calls needed to use it.

[Tchos]

creating bones and rigging ain't that of a problem, and with a bit of training everybody should be able to create something useable. what the community really needs is a skilled animator. that's an art of itself and not that easy to be good in.

@slaadi: without reworking the model it won't really fit to any of the available skeletons.

 

I'm a skilled animator, but I have very limited experience with creating bones and rigging, and no experience with doing it in these programs.

[-Semper-]

@rjshae: the needed dlls can be found in nwn2 root folder. it's the same the exporter uses. at least i expect that, but then i dunno why obsidian had to remove the exporter because of legal issues.

 

@tchos:afaik hellfire's ankheg was ready, besides the animations. perhaps you could start with this creature if you find the needed time. would be such a marvelous addition

[rjshae]

@rjshae: the needed dlls can be found in nwn2 root folder. it's the same the exporter uses. at least i expect that, but then i dunno why obsidian had to remove the exporter because of legal issues.

 

Cool, thanks. I think the Granny folks get upset if you use their SDK to develop unlicensed apps that can manipulate their files. But reverse engineering of software technology is permitted in the U.S. for interoperability purposes, I believe.

[Happycrow]

iirc you need max 6-8 to get the plugin working. if you have no access to this versions you can always create skeletons and animations in your preferred 3d software and export everything as fbx. max8 supports this format up to vers. 2006.11.2 - which should cover meshes, bones and hierarchy and animations.

 

I've got 8, which is what I do my work in, but when I put the software into the appropriate folder (can't remember the specifics, it's been ages), I don't get/see what the tutorials say I should see. Much argh.

[kamal_]

True, it's the most fitting (compared to troll and ogre skeletons). But it needs reworking anyway, since the arms are shorter for the slaad. And due to the size of the belly, I'm sure a few bones would need to be added, to make it move while walking.

In the end, it means redoing all the animations.

The other slaad is probably easier to fit to a stock skeleton.

[Tchos]

@tchos:afaik hellfire's ankheg was ready, besides the animations. perhaps you could start with this creature if you find the needed time. would be such a marvelous addition

 

I thought I recalled seeing animation on that ankheg model already, but I could be misremembering.  In any case, would it need to be 3ds Max, or would Blender or Gmax work?  And if you have a link to tutorials handy, I'd appreciate it.

[4760]

The other slaad is probably easier to fit to a stock skeleton.

Yes, I just need to find the right one 

I'm finishing the animated placeables hak at the moment, so I'm afraid I didn't dig very deep yet.

[Hellfire_RWS]

I thought I recalled seeing animation on that ankheg model already, but I could be misremembering.  In any case, would it need to be 3ds Max, or would Blender or Gmax work?  And if you have a link to tutorials handy, I'd appreciate it.

The Ankheg was finished

[rjshae]

Looking at the creatures from the Baldur's Gate series, I don't think we have a Mist Horror or a Blue Salamander. Do we even have a Salamander model? Perhaps one could be created from a Yuan-ti half-blood? The heads look a little different though. Possibly a Mist Horror can be created from a wraith and a suitable visual effect. (There's also the somewhat similar Vampiric Mist.) An Aerial Servant could just be created via a visual effect on a human. But there's the Alhoon: a mind flayer lich, which looks similar to the mind flayer but with a different hide.

[andysks]

I remember searching for a Gibbering Mouther some weeks ago. Googling it came up with mixed results. I saw kamal wanted it in a list he made. I saw that it existed somewhere in a PW, and that a SEF is included in Pains pack. Me, I don't even know what a sef is. Does a model exist somewhere? Or easy to create given that we already have this SEF? Because if I try to use this SEF from Pains as appearance I think it's not a Gibbering Mouther... not complete at least.