Arerano's CS art

[Kaityra]

I really like the tent but I see a slight problem there. It will only look good if placed on a level surface. On any inclined surface it will probably look as if parts of it are floating above ground. I can imagine that it is not that easy to determine of one stands on a surface which is level.

[Arerano]

Yes indeed. But the same problem exists with every other item with a larger base area. Lets take the ulbernaut fur as example. But also buckets, chairs and tables.. or beds.

However, I could make the wooden sticks longer at the bottom so that they stick into the ground (and have an extra floor for the tent). It may look more realistic as long as the ground isn't too steep. But I think it's common sense to search for a more-level area for your tent. In case somehing like that - building a tent - is ever put in-game it maybe could also be disallowed (code wise) to build tents on "too steep" places. Another idea could be to make the "collision detection" drop (and rotate) the item so that it really lays on the ground. (But I've no idea how possible or impossible that is  )
...just some thoughts from my side.

[Nikodemus]

When the ground is steep, you modify the mesh and save as new, deforme the texture a bit, because it is most likely already deformed a bit, though the trick is to not overdo. You can see so often in games when the artist forgot about it, and the textures look al messy, though there are many reasons when it happens

[Arerano]

When the ground is steep, you modify the mesh and save as new, ..

The idea was rather to have the tent as a "take with you item" which you can build up outside the cities for example
But if you understood it that way, I don't quite get your reply since there would need to be like "40" different tent-item-meshes (rather more) for each possible steepness.

[Nikodemus]

Then the engine would have to adjust the tent along some algorythm ;P What i dont see happening anytime soon, heh.
Yes, i think you are thinking good to have the tent always looking good even on small slopes, with the same mesh.

[Arerano]

This is my low-poly-character start (after many bad-looking attempts)

450 triangles so far. I'll need some more for the knees (~8) and probably some more for the ellbows (~8) to be able to bow them without having them deforming strangely.





PS: If ANYONE of you successfully exported characters to cal3d from blender, please let me know.

[Eliseth]

Nice work so far Arerano only 450 triangles? You're doing well

[archker]

Arerano, I am having trouble making the alpha-terrain work as it should. Not even your supplied blender-file comes out correct in CS walktest.

Perhaps you can tell me what revision of CS 1.3 you used? (or the date it was downloaded) 

edit: spelling...

[Arerano]

Arerano, I am having trouble making the alpha-terrain work as it should. Not even your supplied blender-file comes out correct in CS walktest.

Perhaps you can tell me what revision of CS 1.3 you used? (or the date it was downloaded) 

I used CS 1.2 Revision 29388.
Maybe you used an old blender2crystal exporter? I used revision 1860.


Now with hands and feet. Bad thing is, if I try to use the "Decimate" modifier (to count the triangles) I get an error: Non-manifold mesh as input. 

Edit: fixed it. 1010 triangles so far. I made sure that the fingers can be animated (bent without looking weird). The wrist should also work.. well, I'll see.




And now with a vague head. (lacking only face + ears + hair)
1112 Triangles so far. I think the breasts need some improvement, they look really strange from some angles.


And face and ears. I'm not that happy with the ears, the mouth and the eyes. Maybe making the eyes bigger? The ear maybe more flat? Hmm.. doesn't seem to get any better tonight, any suggestions?
1590 Triangles


The next step with many improvements (ears, eyes, nose, mouth, breasts, bum, knees)
1606 Triangles

[spacecat]

I think that looks great

greetings Grai

[Arerano]

1742 Triangles (with hair. I didn't remove the top of the head yet)

I'm not that good with texturing. The clothes are mainly there lest she's naked.
She now has bones. 2 for the head, one of them controling the jaw.
2 for the neck for turning and tilting the head.
1 chest
1 belly (for breathing)
2 lower body
and per side:
4: each side: shoulder, upper arm, lower arm, wrist
19: each: Hand
6: each side: hip, upper leg, lower leg, ankle, foot, heel

I will probably need to add some more triangles for the shoulder and ellbow but can probably remove some more from the eyes, unless I make them animateable too.

The feet look clumsy by design (for the shoes she will hopefully wear one day )




PS: I am not that contented with the mouth and chin yet.
Suggestions, comments and critique are WELCOME.



And the first pose. Seems like espeically the shoulders and the hip-part needs some more triangles for better animation.




Hmm... lets call him Adam:
538 Triangles so far. I have to simplify the arms as it seems..


Too bad, I updated my graphic cards drivers (which fixed some bug with blender, but now blender always hangs some seconds when I make selections in object mode ..couldn't find anything helpful yet.. lets see.)

restarted the male (for lower poly count)

Diabolo? 

[Lolitra, Celorrim Purrty Twins]

Hey,  you are comming on there Arerano.   I like your developing technique.

[Mathy Stockington]

Excellent work Arerano. I am very impressed. You are very talented!!

[Nalain Tarek]

that's pretty cool.

[Arerano]

And there's more to come:


I know, the street really doesn't look like a "street inside a city" yet. But considering that I suck at "designing architectural stuff" (and I don't have a concept artist yet), it doesn't look that bad.
Currently I am working on some bump mapping for the house textures. The houses (actually everything) are extremely low-poly. Having few poligons are currently the most important requirement because I am planning to have like 200 houses in that part of the city.
The whole "city" is going to be seperated into 3 parts, each of them being an own platform, only connected via a bridge. To get to the "topmost" platform, you have to pass the two lower platforms. The lowest platform is the "poorer people" part whilst the topmost platform, which is also the smallest platform, will be for the rich.
kinda like:  rich -> o=0=O <- poor (Ok, doesn't look conviencing as ascii art  )