PlaneShift
Fan Area => Fan Art => Topic started by: ArcaneFalcon on October 01, 2004, 05:57:12 am
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Since I can\'t play PS (nat firewall) I decided I would attempt to contribute instead. This is my first attempt at a model of this type, so input would be greatly appreciated! I\'m still working on getting the model cleaned up (it was pretty messy), uv mapped, skinned, animated, and ported to the CS engine. But before I do all that, bar cleanup, I will also be making a saddle, luggage, and possibly some different versions.
Model specs:
435 verts
936 tris
Optimized version (shown):
414 verts
897 tris
Edit: images taken off because they were old and long
Here (http://www.nexternal.com/puzzles/images/1241-4.jpg) is the URL to the picture I based it on. The only change I made is I combined the front of the wing and the arm sort of thing.
zip URL (contains model in .3ds and .max, and also the sketch texture): http://www.freepgs.com/falcon/psimages/pterosaur.zip(zip last updated 10/1)
*note: the .3ds format adds _tons_ of vertices, they just need to be rewelded with a padding of no larger than 0.1 .
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I\'m no dinosaur expert but a quick search on the net yielded many images and text from museums who say the pterosaur has \'thing\' out the back of its head.
*Sty wonders what it is? maybe some sort of counter balance to its beak?
Anyway the model looks good can\'t wait to see the cleaned version with saddles, luggage and hopefully different versions (including different skin patterns?).
*edit*
Appears no head problems, excellent :D.
I like the idea of a peacetime/commerical versus a military look!
*/edit*
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Stydracos:
I\'m no dinosaur expert but a quick search on the net yielded many images and text from museums who say the pterosaur has \'thing\' out the back of its head.
Yeah, I redid my google image search and turns out you\'re right. Seems that one is more of a general term and the other is a specific name (I think). Meh, it\'s not all that important anyway :P
Stydracos:
Anyway the model looks good can\'t wait to see the cleaned version with saddles, luggage and hopefully different versions (including different skin patterns?).
I\'m planning on at least trying to make a war version (or evil?) and a luggage version (good?). The war version would be smaller and quicker, while the luggage one would be larger so as to carry more. Then, yes, I\'ll be making several skins (that\'s the easy and fun part!).
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I like it, althought I think for a Pterasour you may want to flatten the chest somewhat but still it looks great... I like the head...
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Looks pretty good, but there\'s just a few things that bother me:
Firstly, its wingspan is not nearly enough to carry itself into the air, let alone carry luggage, a saddle, and passengers.
Also its claws are much too small. In real life, pterosaurs used their claws for walking when on the ground. They need to be large enough to grip wall surfaces and support the weight of the body when on horizontal surfaces.
Finally, it needs a tail. Bats don\'t have tails because their wings are large and powerful enough to allow for hoverring in the air. Pterosaurs are more like gliders, and so they need a \'rudder\' to help with controlling their flight direction.
Keep it up, looking forward to updates. :)
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Firstly, its wingspan is not nearly enough to carry itself into the air, let alone carry luggage, a saddle, and passengers.
I see your point. I\'ve enlarged the wings, hopefully enough.
Also its claws are much too small...
I noticed that and had started working on it even before you posted. I made them a bit larger, but they may still be a bit too small.
Finally, it needs a tail.
Actually it had a tail, but my renders just didn\'t show it very well. The updated ones should suffice.
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It looks good so far, a few tweaks are needed, as Moogie pointed out. I also think the legs are a tad bit too long.
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What\'s done:
modeled - 90%
saddle - 50%
uv mapped - 90%
skin - <10%
rigged - 90% (I hope)
(all the 90%\'s means I will have to do a bit of editing for the war version)
What\'s not started:
bags
animating
CS exporting stuff
I\'ve tweaked the things Moogie suggested. Icefalcon, I shortened the legs a little (they were a tad long I think), but I didn\'t want them so short they looked funny animated. I think I reached a happy medium.
As far as the saddle/bags go, I was figuring there would be 2 versions. A \"wild\" version, with no bags, saddle, or straps; and a \"trained\" version. I figure the straps I can put on the skin easy enough. The saddle and bags will be seperate meshes that the engine just sort of adds accordingly (like different hair styles on player characters).
Most(ly) up to date render:
(http://www.freepgs.com/falcon/psimages/pterosaur9_b.jpg)
Does CS have any sort of poly smoother (like the max 5/6 renderer) does anyone know? I\'ve gotta be honest, it doesn\'t look near as good faceted. I\'m just gonna hope it does, and if it doesn\'t, I\'m just gonna hope it looks better in-game than rendered :emerald:
*side note: :baby: This is supposed to be a baby? I thought it was a bald guy with a gotee. Seriously.
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It looks good :)
Can\'t wait to see it animated & fully textured! :D
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Ok, here is the beginning of my skin. Pretty much all I have done is the base texture, and the eye. But hey, I kinda like the eye. :D
(http://www.freepgs.com/falcon/psimages/pterosaur12_b.jpg)
Anyway, I have a bit of a dilemma. I read the blurb on the PS site that says: The Pterosaurs are reptiles with organs adapted to flight,...and long tails, which they use as a rudder. Now, I saw this and realized my tail was nowhere near long, and what did the \"rudder\" thing mean? Well, here is the only thing I could think of:
(http://www.freepgs.com/falcon/psimages/tail.jpg)
The solid gray thing is the tail, and the gray outline is a verticle rudder at the end of the tail. Is this what it is supposed to be? I need some thoughts, \'cause that one sentence isn\'t overly clear.
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As I see it, the pterosaurs use the tail as a rudder and counterbalance, not have an actual rudder tacked on the end of the appendage :)
I think the tail as a whole needs to be somewhat flattened on the sides (the sides being wider to assist with steering) and definitely needs to be longer :)
josePhoenix
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I went ahead and added the tail. I know it looks a bit funny pointing straight out, but that will help me rig it easier. Though, don\'t expect it to change too much with the animation, as the pterosaur flies the tail won\'t be in much of a different position. Also, I added a faceted version of the same render for comparison.
(http://www.freepgs.com/falcon/psimages/comparison.jpg)
:emerald:
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Shouldn\'t there be sharp teeth?
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Just thought I\'d check in and see your progress, must say its come a long way and is looking really good so far.
I had a quick check on the web to look at comparasons to see if I could offer anything to help you out.
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/images/pters.gif
This picture shows a skeletal view and might help you with the tail size (which by the looks of it the tail is about another body length in size).
I read some more and found they were just like birds having different niches of food... so the beak is fine without teeth (not sure how accurate this has to be anyway I think its great if its at least a little unique itself.)
Anyway I guess my only concern atm is the rudder like bit at the end of the tail.. but I think a nice skinwill cover up its jaggered look.
Anyway keep up the great work *thumbs up.
(must remember not to post when this tired... forgive me post if there are too many mistakes in it!)
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Nice work... This pterosaurus looks almost too kind and happy (http://smaylik.by.ru/i/277.gif)
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Nice work ArcaneFalcon, but I must agree with JosePhoenix. I would imagine the tail to be very thin, like a blade, and taper out towards the end, I thinkt he rudder on the end looks somewhat strange. Make the tail tall vertically and thin. then have it come to a sort of point or something and see what it looks like.
Very nice work though.
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Look @ the overview on the main site (nere the bottom they describe \"Flying Animals\") http://www.planeshift.it/setting_overview.html
\"long tails, which they use as a rudder.\"
do you think this means they have a tail that functions like a rudder or one that actually looks like a rudder? I do not know...
Maybe adding 4 or 8 more polys to the end of the tail wouldn\'t hurt?
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Ok, I made the tail more knife-like. Tell me what you think:
(http://www.freepgs.com/falcon/psimages/pterosaur17_b2.jpg)
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Hmmm... not too sure if I like that. It doesn\'t seem to fit the rest of its body.
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If you look at some RL examples, the common Pterosaurus didn\'t have much of a tail, due to the structure of its limbs (see here (http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t025/T025577A.jpg)). Other smaller types, such as Rhamphorhynchus or Dimorphodon, generally had long spaded tails (as seen here (http://www.nhm.org/journey/pictures/flying/rhamphorhynchus!.jpg)).
The difference between these creatures is that the smaller reptiles had evolved for fast, maneuverable flight, whereas big Pterosaurs were \'gliders\'; some scientists theorise that they couldn\'t actually \"fly\" at all. These would have been slow and unable to change direction quickly like the little ones.
Because of the structure of your Pterosaur, i.e. wings attatched to the body rather than the legs, it needs to follow suit with the smaller reptiles, but the tail will need to be slightly larger than proportionate size, due to the fact that it needs to be able to support passenger(s) and cargo.
The wing muscles should be very defined aswell. The limited span means it will need to work extra hard to even take off into the air fully loaded. His arms currently look like sticks... easily snapped. :)
Here\'s a good comparison between wing structures of various creatures, including a Pterosaur:
http://www.transitionrig.com/wings.htm
[Edit: Found a better Pterosaurus pic]
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I think the original tail looked better, but don\'t err \'spade\' it as much.
As for the wings Moogie, the pictures vary greatly, even ones from encyclopedias etc.
Plus, all artwork of dinosaurs is speculative, and made up of assumptions, they can not adequately conjure an image of a dinosaur\'s appearance, as the fossils are of bone, there may have been body parts thar were not bone, thus no trace would be found of them.
This is evident in all the mistakes and misclassifications there have been in paleantology in regards to dinosaurs.
So the actual wing shape is more guesswork than fact.
I for one like the wings better on the body with the long tail.
Edit: These links talk about difficulties with fossils.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/howdoweknow/q43.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/howdoweknow/q51.shtml
Plus there is good old human idiocy...
For example, when Robert Plot found the end of the thigh bone of a bipedal carnivorous dinosaur in England in 1677 he thought it was the fossilised testicles of a giant!
Found these a bit later on:
This is the first Pterosaur found... note it weighed 100 grams, and had a 60cm wingspan.. one of the first to flap to fly, not glide.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/fact_files/forest/pterosaur.shtml
This is general definitions.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/fact_files/glossary_p_q.shtml#pterosaur
Sorry for the length.
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I personally like this tail:
(http://www.nhm.org/journey/pictures/flying/rhamphorhynchus!.jpg)
\"had long spaded tails (as seen here).\"
http://www.nhm.org/journey/pictures/flying/rhamphorhynchus!.jpg
More like the first one, adding a little more polys to make the \"Rutter\" @ the end of the tail look More round...
maybe making the tail a little more skinny?
Hey, It looks good...
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lol! All I heard for the longest time was to lose the rudder thingy and make it more knifelike. That\'s fine, I liked it better previously anyway. Here\'s an up to date render with the final tail. I like it. Those who don\'t, eat yourself. :D
(http://www.freepgs.com/falcon/psimages/pterosaur18_b2.jpg)
:emerald:
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Wow, you are still up this late it\'s 1:15am....
Anyway, as I said before Hey, \"It looks good\" :D
But no, Keep the tail like this, I like it...
now on to the texture right? can\'t wait to see it fully textured...
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Sorry Arcane, I was one of those, but I just said try it with a new tail. I greatly approve of your new tail. Bravo! Nice pterosaur.
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Wow, you guys responded quick. Thanks for the approval, I appreciate it. :) Sorry I didn\'t get more done today, I was working on foiling my NAT firewall all day (I do mean ALL day) so not much got done. BTW, after one day, I\'m saddened to say, the score is Nat: 1 ArcaneFalcon:0 If anyone wants to help me, PM me, I\'ll tell you all about it :P
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I\'ve made a more \'proper\' skin texture for the Pterosaur. I\'ll send it to ArcaneFalcon and he can post some render pics. I would, but the viewer program I\'m using doesn\'t let me zoom as far as I need without going straight past the model... it must be a pretty small pterosaur. :P
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Indeed. It\'s like I\'ve always been saying, if you want something done right, have Moogie do it...
(http://www.freepgs.com/falcon/psimages/wings.jpg)
(http://www.freepgs.com/falcon/psimages/moogie_ownz.jpg)
:emerald:
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I love the it! I Agree Moogie Ownz!
I could do a bump it for a more scaly in-depth texture.
Basically adding texture to this texture...
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nice work, I would optimize it a little more on the wings and the back, it looked like it could do without many of those polygons, overall the architecture is good, but I would thin the tale, but overall, very nice
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Its good, except I don\'t like the top of the head. The blue doesn\'t fit in IMO.
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Agreed, I think a dark red would suit better
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The skin looks a little way too colorfull for my taste... Here are some of my suggestions,
1) Remove the blue skin on the head...
2) The red parts should be more yellow...
3) The tounge should not be that sharp at the end...
4) The skin around the eye doesn\'t fit in too well either...
5) Some parts are too dark...
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I dont think the color looks right either. I would emove the blue, and the red on the leading edge of the wings looks too saturated. tone it down a bit and see how that looks. great model, just what a pterasaur is supposed to look like
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by the way, what is this going to be used for? a kind of mounted steed prehaps? i like the idea, but i would prefer a dragon instead... but anyway, are the devs puting ridable creatures into CB?
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All the info you want can be found at this nifty website. Enjoy.
Planeshift Info (http://www.planeshift.it/main_01.html)
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Originally posted by Icefalcon
All the info you want can be found at this nifty website. Enjoy.
Planeshift Info (http://www.planeshift.it/main_01.html)
Actually he is looking for the settings page: http://www.planeshift.it/setting.html
the Flying Animals is second to the Bottom: http://www.planeshift.it/setting_overview.html
:D
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Oh i see, thanks Zeraph. But will there be aerial dog fights? I would love to see two megaras fighting in the sky...
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As would I, that\'s one of the reasons why I\'m thinking of modeling a magara, going to ask Dev\'s about it later...
(maybe I\'ll get concept on it or something) Who knows...
there will be (I suspect) different \"mounts\" to rid also as I have read...
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Originally posted by Zeraph
Originally posted by Icefalcon
All the info you want can be found at this nifty website. Enjoy.
Planeshift Info (http://www.planeshift.it/main_01.html)
Actually he is looking for the settings page: http://www.planeshift.it/setting.html
the Flying Animals is second to the Bottom: http://www.planeshift.it/setting_overview.html
:D
Thats part of my nifty site... :rolleyes: My link has all that and more. :D
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No-one ever seems to have noticed from previous Pterosaur-pics that the wings are different, so to add more realism you should change the bone-structure of the wings (note the place of the lower-, upper-arm and the long hand), also the legs are too long and separate from the wings and tail.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/Siberiantiger/Pterosaurs/Tropeognathus.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/Siberiantiger/Pterosaurs/ScaphognathusAnurognathus.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/Siberiantiger/Pterosaurs/Quetzalcoatlus.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/Siberiantiger/Pterosaurs/Germanodactylus.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/Siberiantiger/Pterosaurs/Dsungaripterus.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/Siberiantiger/Pterosaurs/Batrachognathus.jpg
By the way, only a few small Pterosaurs had such long tails, all the big ones had not. (oh, seem to remember Moogie already said that...)
Apart from that you can see that you can use almost any head you like, they\'re all Pterosaurs
Of course you dont have to change it (I like the tail myself), it\'s just more realistic, however changing the wings and legs would really look much better
Keep up the good work
PS:
Adeli wrote:
Plus, all artwork of dinosaurs is speculative, and made up of assumptions, they can not adequately conjure an image of a dinosaur\'s appearance, as the fossils are of bone, there may have been body parts thar were not bone, thus no trace would be found of them.
This is evident in all the mistakes and misclassifications there have been in paleantology in regards to dinosaurs.
So the actual wing shape is more guesswork than fact.
I for one like the wings better on the body with the long tail.
Edit: These links talk about difficulties with fossils.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/howdoweknow/q43.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/howdoweknow/q51.shtml
Plus there is good old human idiocy...
For example, when Robert Plot found the end of the thigh bone of a bipedal carnivorous dinosaur in England in 1677 he thought it was the fossilised testicles of a giant!
Adeli, firstly men has become a bit more knowledgeable since 1677 so great mistakes like that are not made anymore. Secondly, there has been found a great amount of Pterosaurs all over the world, most of which died at the sea, so they were well conserved in mud, as a consequence there are also many impressions of wings and other bodyparts found
(http://framer.barewalls.com/frames/bw/61/61105,61202,61601/17/13/preview/n111040906p.jpg)
just wanted to mention that :)
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Maybe I\'m just using a different picture (http://www.nexternal.com/puzzles/images/1241-4.jpg) for reference.
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That\'s the first pic ever I\'ve seen with such legs (even with google I can\'t find one), mine are from a very good and recent book, but still your pic shows a different wing-structure and non-seperate legs
ah well, just wanted to give some criticism and suggestions, don\'t mind me if you don\'t want to, I\'m sure the model will become great :)
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Well...I know that using google you can find pictures like that, because that is where I found that one. Also, if you had read the first 2 pages you would have known that originally the tail was short, but I changed it to match the description on the PS website. Realism has nothing to do with it. This is a video game, realism can be defenestrated (look it up). The constructive criticism is fine, but would have been more welcome a week ago I\'m afraid. Thank you for your opinion though, if I make changes in the future I\'ll keep them in mind.
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great model :D
well there are more than one flying dinosaur... and there are also \"without\" that \"balancing\" thing behind the head... :)
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Ytanium do you have any idea how wrong you are.
That was NOT and never will be, a dinosaur.
Dinosaurs did not fly.
This is like a pet hate of mine.
There are not more than one flying dinosaur, there are are less than one, in fact, one less than one.
Why have you used \" \" quotation marks? the words you\'ve used them on are not obvious choices to quote.
Those links I gave, a little surfing will turn up a description, and types of dinosaurs, and it clearly said (Dinosaurs never flew). A Plesiosaur is not a dinosaur either.
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oki oki sorry. forgive my previous reply and this one
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Don\'t apologise, there is no need.
Now you know, there is no harm done.
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Geez Tyralus, lighten up.
Welcome to the forums Ytanium, if I haven\'t said that already.
Arcane, even though your reference pic shows the animal having such long legs, I think our Planeshift version would look better with shorter legs. Just my opinion...
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Yeah, I know where you\'re coming from Ice. I really do. I\'m just not too worried about it at the moment. You\'ll see ;)
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Holy thread resurrection Batman!
There is an art contest here at school, and one of the divisions is animation. I decided to complete this project so that I can enter it. I\'ve completely redone the uv map, skin, and skeleton, and I\'ve created some animations to go along with it. You can get a video of the fully animated model here (http://www.ps-mc.com/arcane/movies/entry_web.avi). It\'s a 23 meg avi or something like that.
Here are some renders for those that don\'t want to/can\'t get the movie:
entry_render3.jpg (http://www.ps-mc.com/arcane/images/entry_render3.jpg)
entry_render4.jpg (http://www.ps-mc.com/arcane/images/entry_render4.jpg)
entry_render5.jpg (http://www.ps-mc.com/arcane/images/entry_render5.jpg)
:emerald:
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But that\'s ok, because it\'s suweet! - Robin
That is awesome, legs look a little stocky, but great overall.
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I see a lot of effort in the texture work to, keep up the awsoome work
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Looks great! Good job!
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...nice....hope this will get into the next update!!!!
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Does this mean that we could be looking soon at air transport!!!
Oh, by the way, they look great the models.
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This will at no time be in any of the upcoming updates. Sorry. I will submit it, but if they actually want it I will be completely revamping it again (tweaking the mesh, doing a whole new skin, etc.). This doesn\'t have near the detail that is needed for the real pterosaur so it will, at best, be a random flying monster. I appreciate the comments!
Edit: Contest results are in. I got second place. First place was a short movie done by 6 or 8 seniors in the advanced animation class (it was alright, but they didn\'t have any textures and it was black and white). Not bad considering I haven\'t taken any of the animation classes yet.
:emerald:
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Well done on your achievement! :)