Sun and Moon

[John.d.h]

Okay, I wanted to have all of Moon's buildings done by now, but a little bit of life got in the way and now I'm heading out of town for the weekend, so I thought I'd upload a pack of my current progress on the buildings.  This is a request for comment/critique, so please download it, take a look at all of the units, and give me as much feedback as you're willing to give so that I can improve my work.  I plan on releasing more RFCs periodically so I can continue to hold my work to a high standard.  I look forward to your constructive criticism.

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[center][b][size=12pt][url=http://download772.mediafire.com/x5sdxm5an2lg/mlizfm1m1bm/SolunarRFC_5_Mar_2010.7z]Click here to download SolunarRFC_5_Mar_2010.7z[/url][/size][/b][/center]Included are:

• Cairn: construction, destruction, idle, summoning, texture
• Dun: construction, idle, WIP texture
• Garrison: destruction, idle, broch_destruction, broch_idle, texture
• Lifespring: idle, blank texture
• Orchard: construction, destruction, idle, texture
• Standing Stones: idle, henge_idle
• Squire: equipment, equipment texture
• readme.txt -- It's there to help you give a more helpful critique so I can make a better mod, so please read it. :)
• license.txt
• Solunar - Moon tech tree.html

Packed size: 1.73MB
Unpacked size: 11.5MB

[-Archmage-]

Overall they looked pretty good, but some weren't so great.....

Good stuff: Everything that isn't bad.

Bad stuff:
-Cairn:
--MODEL: The branches on those tree things stick out only 'side-ways', they need to stick out more 'frontish-backish', get it? That rope that hangs on the rock doesn't look very realistic because......I don't know really how to explain.......but it's looks way too low-polygon, get it? There isn't enough detail on the pot in front of the rock, it's not circular enough...
--ANIMATIONS: The destruction animation looks absolutely terrible(no offense), please, don't make me explain why... Ok, the summoning animation looks too strange, especially the cloth's movement, the cloth flops and then slams against the rock.
-----
-Dun:
--ANIMATIONS: The idle animation looks good but strange, because the flag flaps beautifully, and then wham it hits an invisible wall.
-----
-Garrison:
--ANIMATIONS: The dying is rediculous, you agree right?
-----
-Orchard:
--MODEL: On the two sides where there isn't a wall of green stuff blocking the way you should put some stuff there it would make the model about 10 times better, also maybe add some more polygons to the team color things...
--ANIMATIONS: The idle animation looks bad because the team color things all move at the same time and do an unrealistic flapping motion. The destruction animation is pretty bad....please once again don't make me explain why...
-----

As already stated, the rest of the stuff is either good, great, or AWESOME!!!

Can I see some Humans and your humanoid animations?

[John.d.h]

Thanks for the feedback!  I think this will be really useful.

-Cairn:
--MODEL: The branches on those tree things stick out only 'side-ways', they need to stick out more 'frontish-backish', get it? That rope that hangs on the rock doesn't look very realistic because......I don't know really how to explain.......but it's looks way too low-polygon, get it? There isn't enough detail on the pot in front of the rock, it's not circular enough...

Hmm... I do see what you mean.  I think I'll re-do the trees to be more like the tileset ones, now that I know how to use alpha without causing that annoying transparency glitch.  In fact, I think I'll probably redo the entire model and texture, but still using the same concept.  It shouldn't be too hard, I hope.

--ANIMATIONS: The destruction animation looks absolutely terrible(no offense), please, don't make me explain why... Ok, the summoning animation looks too strange, especially the cloth's movement, the cloth flops and then slams against the rock.

For the destruction animations, I was going for something like in Age of Mythology, where everything just kinda collapses in a cloud of dust, but that would require those cool MegaGlest particles, and this is a GAE mod, so I might have to go back to the drawing board on that one.  Also, I think I should redo the cloth with some physics.

-Dun:
--ANIMATIONS: The idle animation looks good but strange, because the flag flaps beautifully, and then wham it hits an invisible wall.

Yeah, I see what you mean.  I'll play around with the wind a bit more.

-Garrison:
--ANIMATIONS: The dying is rediculous, you agree right?

See above, but I'll work on it.

-Orchard:
--MODEL: On the two sides where there isn't a wall of green stuff blocking the way you should put some stuff there it would make the model about 10 times better, also maybe add some more polygons to the team color things...

Do you think it would look better if instead of the vegetation that's on there now, I just put a small tree in the middle?

--ANIMATIONS: The idle animation looks bad because the team color things all move at the same time and do an unrealistic flapping motion.

True.  It should look better with physics.

As already stated, the rest of the stuff is either good, great, or AWESOME!!!

Thanks, it was a lot of work!

Can I see some Humans and your humanoid animations?

You'll have to wait until I have some, but sure.

[-Archmage-]

Quote
--ANIMATIONS: The destruction animation looks absolutely terrible(no offense), please, don't make me explain why... Ok, the summoning animation looks too strange, especially the cloth's movement, the cloth flops and then slams against the rock. Tongue
For the destruction animations, I was going for something like in Age of Mythology, where everything just kinda collapses in a cloud of dust, but that would require those cool MegaGlest particles, and this is a GAE mod, so I might have to go back to the drawing board on that one.  Also, I think I should redo the cloth with some physics. Cool

I would make a Glest/MegaGlest release, and a GAE release.

Quote
-Orchard:
--MODEL: On the two sides where there isn't a wall of green stuff blocking the way you should put some stuff there it would make the model about 10 times better, also maybe add some more polygons to the team color things...
Do you think it would look better if instead of the vegetation that's on there now, I just put a small tree in the middle?

Yah, and have the tree surrounded by bushes.


Is this seriously all you have?
If so, this is going to take forever, maybe you could let me help.

[John.d.h]

I would make a Glest/MegaGlest release, and a GAE release.

Ehh... that sounds like way more trouble than it's worth, especially with balancing.

Is this seriously all you have?

For Moon, yes.  All of the buildings are modeled, most are textured, and most are animated.  I have some other stuff done for the Sun faction, but right now I'm focusing on finishing one at a time, and Moon comes first.  Everything that was in the RFC is all recent work from the past few months.  I had a bunch of older low-quality models, but my skills have improved so I redid them all.  I go back and fix/replace my old work all the time, which means my progress is pretty slow but it holds my work to a high standard.

If so, this is going to take forever

It will take as long as it takes, and I'm totally fine with that.

[-Archmage-]

Maybe I could model something of do something that you don't like or look forward to doing?

[John.d.h]

The things I don't like are the things you like even less: unwrapping and texturing.

I'm not very good at either, which is actually why I want to do them myself.  That way I'll just have to hit it hard and get it done, so to speak, and when I'm done hopefully I'll be a lot better at it.

[Fluffy203]

Hey John dude if you need help ask , cause i wanna see this done or better yet give me something to do cause i wanna help you with it 

[-Archmage-]

If you've been following this as much as I have you'd know he doesn't want a bit of help.

[Fluffy203]

i know he doesn't , he hasn't from the start , but i wanna see this done. so.... LET ME HELP YOU JOHN  :'(

[-Archmage-]

Learn to not ask that, buddie.
It's impossible to give estimates for when you're going to be done working on something.

[John.d.h]

It's funny that you should ask that today because just yesterday I did my basic man model from scratch, so that's a big step forward.  It's also unwrapped and rigged, but needs a few tweaks to get the musculature right.  When that's done, the Squire and Gallowglass should be trivial to make, since I've already modeled their equipment and I've got a good basis for the texture.  I'll try to have another RFC package up by the 11th (in time for GCDM 28 ).

Additionally, "done" is a bit of a nebulous term when it comes to this project, as I plan on developing it continuously for a long time.  Anyway, my schedule is pretty erratic, so when I get some free time I usually make a lot of progress pretty quickly, but that's not very often, so basically I have no idea when this will be playable.  If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say some time this summer (in the northern hemisphere).

[-Archmage-]

Goodie!

So are you going to have some animated humanoid units?

[John.d.h]

No promises, but I'll try to have at least the Squire complete, including animations, by the 11th.  As a side note, I'm surprised at how easy it is to make passable chain mail by desaturating denim.

[Fluffy203]

yea we've all been waiting on this one 

[Loronal]

I'll do textures and maybe if Im in a really realllyyyy good mood i might unwrap something 

[John.d.h]

I'll do textures and maybe if Im in a really realllyyyy good mood i might unwrap something 

I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm going solo on this one.

Maybe we could use your help over on GLADE's new project, though.

[Fluffy203]

Yea he won't let me help  :'(

[John.d.h]

Sorry about the lack of updates, but school has me pinned down lately.  I've had this Squire sitting on my flash drive for the past week or so, so I figured I'd share since it's quite possibly the only update I'll be able to do until May.

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[URL=http://img97.imageshack.us/i/squireviews.jpg/][IMG]http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/6595/squireviews.th.jpg[/img]
[/URL][URL=http://img704.imageshack.us/i/squireg3d.jpg/][IMG]http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/1958/squireg3d.th.jpg[/img][/URL]Click for full size.

I'll gladly take suggestions as to what I should do to it.  The texture is still WIP, of course.

[-Archmage-]

Nice, how did you get the chailmail texture?

[John.d.h]

It's desaturated denim.

http://www.burningwell.org/gallery2/v/textures/surfaces/other/denim_4.JPG.html

[-Archmage-]

Cool.

So, I guess I can expect an RC or whatever you call it, in may?

[John.d.h]

Yeah, this semester is over on the 27th of this month and then I've got a week of finals, so I should be back to working on this shortly after that.

[John.d.h]

Last time it was buildings, and this time it's troops.  Not one, not two, but three fully-animated human units ready for your perusal.

This is a request for comment/critique, so please download it, take a look at all of the units, and give me as much feedback as you're willing to give so that I can improve my work.  I plan on releasing more RFCs periodically so I can continue to hold my work to a high standard.  I look forward to your constructive criticism.

-- same goes for this one.

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[center][b][size=12pt][url=http://www.mediafire.com/file/tji2zyuzntd/SolunarRFC_31_May_2010.7z]Click here to download SolunarRFC_31_May_2010.7z[/url][/size][/b][/center]Included are:

• gallowglass - *.blend, *.tga (placeholder), *_idle.g3d, *_attack.g3d, *_walk.g3d, *_die.g3d
• savage - *.blend, *.tga, *_idle.g3d (placeholder), *_attack.g3d, *_walk.g3d, *_die.g3d, *_morph.g3d
• squire - *.blend, *.tga, *_idle.g3d, *_attack.g3d, *_walk.g3d, *_die.g3d, *_morph.g3d
• known_issues.txt
• license.txt

Here are some screen shots to whet your appetite:

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[URL=http://img185.imageshack.us/i/squirerender.jpg/][IMG]http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/5759/squirerender.th.jpg[/img][/URL][URL=http://img34.imageshack.us/i/savagerender.jpg/][IMG]http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/2248/savagerender.th.jpg[/img][/URL][URL=http://img9.imageshack.us/i/gallowglassrender.jpg/][IMG]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/9383/gallowglassrender.th.jpg[/img][/URL](click for full size, of course)

[ElimiNator]

The models look cool, how much % done it this mod would you say?