Next FF LH: The Star Sybil of Windhurst

[Hikaro Takayama]

Well, this is my first attempt at a non-human type LH. Sybil, leader of the Federation of Windhurst is a Taru-Taru Sage. The Taru-Taru are a race of magical haflings that live in the world of Van'adiel, which is where FF XI online is set.

Here's the ref pic I used for getting to this rough point, Sybil is the bottom right hand one:
BTw, if anyone knows a site where I can find a japanese kimono for the P5 girl figure, I'd be indebted.

Preview:

[Dom Pedro II]

I think the term Fugly applies pretty well here.

[Hikaro Takayama]

Originally Posted by Dom Pedro II

I think the term Fugly applies pretty well here.

Well, this is an early rough version of a WIP... I never said that I was completely happy with the way it was at this point

[Hikaro Takayama]

Okay, round II. I've got rid of most of the "fugliness," but still have yet to find any kind of kimono (I know Frenchman got some that he used for his Suiko LH, but he never said where they were obtained), even after searching through hundreds of free items in Renderosity (although I did find a Wizard's hood&cloak, that could serve in a pinch, especially once I re-texture it with the classic "White Mage" design).

Anyways, preview (note: once I get around to editing the diplo text, expect Windhurst's to have a good amount of Taru-talk):

[Hikaro Takayama]

Well, since I haven'g got any bad reviews on this version, I'll be continuing my quest for kimono type clothes. In the mean time, I've got some concept art for a LH idea that popped into my head the other day, and I might just make sometime in the sorta near future. If anyone can use this guy for a scenario, just let me know

[Dom Pedro II]

Originally Posted by Hikaro Takayama

Well, this is an early rough version of a WIP... I never said that I was completely happy with the way it was at this point

Well, that's not a criticism of your work... it's entirely a criticism of the fact that she is butt ugly.

[Hikaro Takayama]

Originally Posted by Dom Pedro II

Well, that's not a criticism of your work... it's entirely a criticism of the fact that she is butt ugly.

Yeah, but she'd still beat Firaxis' Catherine, Elizabeth I and Isabella in a beauty contest any day I've been trying to reduce the ugly factor and make her look cute and cuddly, like she's supposed to be (the taru-taru are one of those disgustingly super-cute races that Square seems to come up with every other FF game they release).

BTW, if you happen to have any handy-dandy links to where I could find some kind of Japanese kimono-type prop/figure, I'm all ears.

[Hikaro Takayama]

Well, in case anyone gives a rat's ass, I've managed to find a kick-ass Japanese site with free Poser content, thanks to Frenchman. I've now just about got Sybil where I want her. Also, expect to see a Wutai Ninja unit in the sorta near future, (a.k.a. Yuffie) thanks to the cool stuff I downloaded off that site (I still need a good oversized shuriken or bamboo fan, but I've got most of the clothes).

Anyways, here's the latest version of our Taru-Taru leader:

[Goldflash]

Screw what everyone esle syas I think she's cute.

[Hikaro Takayama]

Well, I'll admit that I wasn't too happy with the first two tries, but I'm glad you like her. I haven't been able to find any kind of hood/headdress like the one in the reference pic, so I'll probably be using this hair piece that I downloaded in an "Alice in Wonderland" clothing pack for this same figure (I'm planning on using some of the stuff from the Alice pack and others for future unit projects). I also don't like the ridiculously large charm necklace that the original is wearing, so I'll just give her some other kind of pendant (or none at all...). Other that those two gripes (and finding a good Windhurst screenshot for a backdrop) I'm pretty much done.

[Kinboat]

I think the hair could be thicker... poofier... something Other than that it looks good. By the way, what site did you find that kimono on? And I might be willing to do a bamboo fan if you need a prop.

[Chris85]

In the first 2 pictures she looked kinda like Michael Jackson, but the last picture looks much better. Like Kinboat said, the hair needs to be "poofier". Can't wait to see the finished product.

[Hikaro Takayama]

Well, Kinboat, I got the main figure, as well as several sets of clothes (including the kimonos) for her from a japanese site called Integrated Standard of Poser ( http://iso.power.ne.jp/ ). As for the hair, I've gone into the hair room and played around a bit. I found out if I try to do much of anything with the bangs, they end up going all over the place, and trying to style the individual hairs on my slow-ass computer is like trying to perform delicate beain surgery with a sharp stick.... And as for the prop, what I actually need is a giant shuriken, like what Yuffie in FF 7 uses, since that's the unit I'm planning on eventually making..

BTW, Kinboat, how do you do the walk animation for your units? All the default walks in P5 cause the arms to move, and are at least 30 frames long. I've tried just manipulating the legs, but all that the parameter dials do is twist them around so that it looks like the figure has got multiple compound fractures.

Here's what it looks like now:

[Kinboat]

Just a normal 4 pointed star or is it something else? I never really got into the FF games that much (past the first few anyway) and a picture could help.

As for the walks... I used the walk designer to get a half decent run and then changed it around a bit. I cut down the arm swinging by reducing the numbers by half or more in each of the 15 frames (the walk designer lets you set the number of frames). I would think that Poser 5 should have this available. After I did that once I saved it and use it for all my units (with some modifications each time).

I've been to that site... not in a while though

[Hikaro Takayama]

Thanks for the tips. I'v also discovered that I can make the legs move properly for designing my own walk simply by moving the feet. It only took me 6 months to figure that one out. I'm glad that Frenchman pointed me to that site, because 90% of the stuff there is perfect for FF/anime based stuff (then again, it is a Japanese site). I'd like to get hold of that Japanese High school Sailor Fuku kit that the guy's got displayed. I could use the top along with some baggy girls pants for the Lindblum Aviator UU (replaces Paratroop for Lindblum).

Anyways, here's an exact picture of what I was talking about for the Giant Shuriken (since I'm planning on making the girl pictured therein into a unit).

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Originally Posted by Hikaro Takayama

Well, since I haven'g got any bad reviews on this version, I'll be continuing my quest for kimono type clothes. In the mean time, I've got some concept art for a LH idea that popped into my head the other day, and I might just make sometime in the sorta near future. If anyone can use this guy for a scenario, just let me know

Looks like an excellilent Cyborg leaderhead for the Colony Wars series....please make...please make....

[Hikaro Takayama]

Originally Posted by Sword_Of_Geddon

Looks like an excellilent Cyborg leaderhead for the Colony Wars series....please make...please make....

Don't worry, I'm making that LH just for the funny factor alone.. I even saw a borg face prop on renderosity when I was looking for kimonos, but didn't download it, meaning I'll have to go back and search though 600 posts of free items- AGAIN If you didn't already guess from the fake diplomacy text, that guy is the main villian from the old Sega game, ZeroWing, which is acknowledged to be the worst translation of any game into English ever, and since I saw some fanart that somebody did, I got the insane idea to mage that dude into LH (I'll have to install the superhero cape from my Poser5 content CD as well as get the cyborg stuff off of Renderosity), but I'll work on him in the background while I'm doing my other LH's (so far, my schedule looks like this: finish Sybil, do Either Edgar or Ramuza, do Cloud after that, then do Ramuza or Edgar (whoever wasn't done the first time).

I'm almost done with Sybil, but I need to find a good Windhurst screenshot to use as a background. Oh, and if you want to know what I've been doing most of yesterday and the day before since finding that Japanese site where I got this figure and the clothes, here's a quick pic:

[Kinboat]

How's this for the Star? http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Star_3DS_Prop.zip

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Yuffie? Man, I wish future final fantasys could have the Hidden Character concept again. It was great in 6(GoGo, Umaro and Mog) and 7(Vincent and Yuffie).

[Hikaro Takayama]

Kinboat, thanks for the making the 4-point Shuriken, It's perfect. Also, the Sybil LH is almost done. I just need to make the LH, Civpedia and advisor PCX files. It would have been done, but I forgot to re-calculate the dynamics for the hair after I added the rest of the frames and started animating, so at frame 31, her hair would all of a sudden poof out. Of course I didn't discover this until after I'd rendered the whole animation out, so I had to re-calc the dynamics and re-render the whole thing.

I'd do the PCX file right now, but I've only had like 4 hours of sleep in the last 48 (I've kept going on a mix of Caffine, John Williams original Star Wars soundtrack and the elation of finding so much cool poser stuff in a mere three days), and I think I'll just collapse in an exhausted heap now.....