ruby_sauce meets Gen. Rommel: Blade Master Unit Thread

Gen. Rommel

Gen. Rommel

Wüstenfuchs
Joined
Feb 6, 2007
Messages
973
Location
Krefeld, Germany
After recently seeing that ruby_sauce created (and uploaded) a Warcraft III inspired unit (and it turned out beautifully, might I add), I felt like undertaking a WC unit of my own and decided to create and set up the model for the Blade Master hero unit useable by the Orcs in Blizzard's strategy game. However, since I want to devote time animating for my other units, I thought it a good idea to join forces with ruby_sauce and let him create the animations for the unit. I highly respect his animating skill since he always seems to come up with fresh and very intricate animations, so I know the result will be nothing short of stunning (I am rather excited to see what magical second attack he comes up with).

So far I have basically finished the model and am very satisfied with the outcome. Here's a preview:
OrcBladeMaster.jpg


So, what do you think RS? You up for it?
 
:eek:

he loose AWESOME!
I can't wait to start animating him :)

I'm a little busy today, but maybe I'll get to him in the evening.
 
Stormrage said:
A) is that the PDM?

B) How did you do the face?
Click to expand...

I can answer both those with the same sentence: I "smelted" two figures to create what I have there. Essentially, the upper body is orc with the PDM only serving as a kind of skeleton underneath, while the bottom is the PDM figure. Here's the figure of the orc, which you can get for free: http://www.sharecg.com/v/21560/poser/Orc:-Base-Figure

Stormrage said:
D) Finaly that ball-necklace thingy is being used properly :D (When I saw it on Utah`s unit, the Blademaster is the first thing that came to mind)
Click to expand...

Same here...first thing that popped into my head when I saw that prop. I'm quite glad utah made it, since the necklace is definitely one of the more noticeable traits. I need to change the color though, since it's way too black right now. It's supposed to be more quicksilver looking, at least that's what it looked like in the pics I used as reference. But that's only a minor tweak and will be no problem at all.
 
Quinzy said:
You gonna make his sword glow too? :D

He looks awesome man!
Click to expand...

I'll leave that up to RS, since he has way more experience with creating effects like that. But I would also love to see that, wouldn't be a true Blademaster without the light emitting sword.
 
Gen. Rommel said:
I can answer both those with the same sentence: I "smelted" two figures to create what I have there. Essentially, the upper body is orc with the PDM only serving as a kind of skeleton underneath, while the bottom is the PDM figure. Here's the figure of the orc, which you can get for free: http://www.sharecg.com/v/21560/poser/Orc:-Base-Figure
Click to expand...

That's genius. Brilliant idea and execution. This looks like it should be a fantastic unit.
 
Nice unit ... but if i may, i'd like to ask if any 'elf' based units for the WH 40K period have been made?? i looked in the unit area but all seem to be fantasy. I need a few for some genetic adaption's planning in late period of mod building. If not i'll use something else.
 
I'm getting busy again this week and next week, but I will try to free some time to slowly animate him ...

one thing, I will need help with the glow on the sword, because I have never done that before. tranparency in poser doesn't work. I remember vuldacon saying something about it but I completely forgot where >_<...
 
Making something glow is easy. You just need make sure that "casts shadows" is unticked for that object, and make its Ambient colour similar to the Diffuse colour. So if you want, say, a red glowing sword, you make the Ambient and Diffuse colours both red (not necessarily exactly the same shade of red). Also make the Highlight colour white.

For a bright glow, you might also want to create a light so it looks like the glowing object is illuminating other objects. This light should be positioned next to the glowing object (it doesn't matter precisely where, at civ scale) and parented to it, so that it moves with it. The light should cast a light of the same colour as the object. As usual, be careful not to let this light cast a shadow on the ground; you might want to use a spotlight which is angled so that it shines only on the upper body of the unit. Not completely realistic, but it looks good.
 
basically there are a few attacks to choose from:

his mirror image skill where a second blademaster pops in (:p) and dissapears. might be a bit long, but oh well. I don't know yet, because the mirror images don't do damage ingame (otherwise could be a fidget?),

we got the normal strike and the critical hit strike

and the bladestorm skill...

but before all that, where can I donwload the figure O_o
 
Plotinus said:
Making something glow is easy. You just need make sure that "casts shadows" is unticked for that object, and make its Ambient colour similar to the Diffuse colour. So if you want, say, a red glowing sword, you make the Ambient and Diffuse colours both red (not necessarily exactly the same shade of red). Also make the Highlight colour white.

For a bright glow, you might also want to create a light so it looks like the glowing object is illuminating other objects. This light should be positioned next to the glowing object (it doesn't matter precisely where, at civ scale) and parented to it, so that it moves with it. The light should cast a light of the same colour as the object. As usual, be careful not to let this light cast a shadow on the ground; you might want to use a spotlight which is angled so that it shines only on the upper body of the unit. Not completely realistic, but it looks good.
Click to expand...

Excellent...does this mean I can rig it like so myself before sending it to ruby? Because I'd like to save him as much hassle as I can. If so, I'll get working on it tommorow, if not then...

I will be sending the model to ruby tommorow (which should also answer your question of where to download ruby). Just send me a PM with your email, since I'll be needing that regardless. I'll have to send you all the props that you need plus the baser model, or does anyone know if this is not necassary if the unit already is set up? If so, I can send the model without a problem in 2 days at the latest (depending on whether I can do the glow effect or not). So you should be able to work on him soon enough. And don't sweat it if your swamped with other things, there's no rush to finish it. :goodjob:
 
Gen. Rommel said:
Excellent...does this mean I can rig it like so myself before sending it to ruby? Because I'd like to save him as much hassle as I can. If so, I'll get working on it tommorow, if not then...

I will be sending the model to ruby tommorow (which should also answer your question of where to download ruby). Just send me a PM with your email, since I'll be needing that regardless. I'll have to send you all the props that you need plus the baser model, or does anyone know if this is not necassary if the unit already is set up? If so, I can send the model without a problem in 2 days at the latest (depending on whether I can do the glow effect or not). So you should be able to work on him soon enough. And don't sweat it if your swamped with other things, there's no rush to finish it. :goodjob:
Click to expand...

take the time you need with the glow, I am sure you can do it with an awesome model like that :)

I will pm you with my email, and I'll await the model :)

as you said, there is no rush
 
Gen. Rommel said:
Excellent...does this mean I can rig it like so myself before sending it to ruby? Because I'd like to save him as much hassle as I can. If so, I'll get working on it tommorow, if not then...
Click to expand...

It ought to be possible. Give it a go and see how it looks.

Have you managed to set it up so that the parts of the orc upper body - including his arms - move together with the parts of the PDM upper body which lie beneath them (and which I'm guessing you've made invisible)? Because if so then it would be possible to apply existing animations to the underlying PDM and have them work for this character, which would open all kinds of useful possibilities. If you've managed to do this I'd be very interested to know exactly what you did.
 
Plotinus said:
It ought to be possible. Give it a go and see how it looks.

Have you managed to set it up so that the parts of the orc upper body - including his arms - move together with the parts of the PDM upper body which lie beneath them (and which I'm guessing you've made invisible)? Because if so then it would be possible to apply existing animations to the underlying PDM and have them work for this character, which would open all kinds of useful possibilities. If you've managed to do this I'd be very interested to know exactly what you did.
Click to expand...

You don't know how beautiful this would be Plot! But sadly, there's one problem keeping me from doing this: the fact that the arms and other body parts of the orc don't align perfectly with the PDM's upper body parts, meaning if the above set up were possible, the arms for instance would be offset too much and look weird when moved.

As you can tell, this adds a considerable level of complexity to this unit in comparison to others, as you always have to move two figures rather than only one. It's not as bad as it sounds, just something extra that needs to be noted while animating. Think of it kind of like a horseman unit, which also has essentially two units that need to be animated.

Sorry I couldn't help you further Plot. :sad:
 
Right, that's what I thought would probably be the case. I have tried doing this with various models and not succeeded yet; as you say, it would be fantastic to manage it because then existing animations could be applied to different figures.

It is easier to do it with legs, though, because you can just parent the feet of the visible legs to the feet of the invisible PDM legs. This is how I made my Satyr Worker and Settler, which use the same animations for the PDM worker, and are PDM from the waist up but different from the waist down. It works even if the legs are articulated differently, as in this case.
 
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