Hikaro's Creation Thread

[Hikaro Takayama]

Well, since it's a pain in the rumpus to create a bunch of different threads for unit previews (and even a bigger pain to delete said previews when you don't need them anymore), I've decided to put 'em all in one thread.

That said, I'm posting pics of the next several unit's I'm working on (in approximate order), just in case someone's interested in making some comments or suggestions. I'll keep updating the pic on this post as I complete units or change production order.

Units in Preview pic from Top Left to Bottom right are: Viera Sniper from FF TA, Esperling for the Returners from FF VI, X-Cannon for Shinra from FF VII, Chocobo Knight, Sengoku Era Noblewoman armed with a Naginata, Princess Garnet from FF IX King unit, and Hilda Garde III UU for Lindblum from FF IX.

[Stormrage]

Hikaro! You ROCK! Sword-chucks! Yo!

[Orthanc]

See? Aren't these creation threads just the greatest idea?

Anyways, can't wait to get my hands on that Chocobo Knight, it looks sweet. Chocobos rule!

[Spacer One]

Wark Wark!!!!

[Kyriakos]

Can you create a new cataphract?

[Ogedei_the_Mad]

Originally Posted by Hikaro Takayama

The last one (bottom right) is a Sengoku-era Noble woman armed with a Naginata, requested by ShiroKobure.... He wants to make these units immobile, but I'm making a run animation anyways.

I might be using that unit as well for the "Annals of Seven Kingdoms" mod along with several others of your excellent Final Fantasy units.

Nice ranger unit. Very reminiscent of the Archer class in FFV.

[ShiroKobbure]

I was thinking of a more tradtional look for the Naginata female.
these are women of samurai blood, their kimono will be colorfull, women of the muromachi period often wore their hair down.

wearing men's clothing





Muromachi female


a female in total samurai armour would also look cool, but its probably unrealistic, and would require more work i think.


if you need images of naginata combat, i can post some as well.

[Mithadan]

Sweet, that's a wicked idea and is already looking good as a unit.

[Hikaro Takayama]

Well, I was hoping to hold off posting any replies until I got the Fidget animation of the Female Ranger done, but I ended up having to re-do the animation twice (I'm on my 3d complete render right now). The first was because I'd somehow key-framed the ground prop on the last frame so that when I rotated it (to get the unit to rotate), it always would rotate back to the SW direction in the last frame. The second re-do was because it turned out the fidged animation looked rather wierd, so I changed a few things and made sure it looked good rendered out in the SW direction, and I'm rendering the SE direction as I type (only 5 more directions to go W00T!). So basically between having the bow way too long (I now have the "Short Bow" morph at .25 so that she's using a 6 ft long bow (usual size) rather than an 8 ft long bow), which caused me to have to completely re-render the default animation, and this forking around with the fidget animation, I've basically lost an entire day's worth of rendering time

Anyways, to answer the mail bag now:

Vwarnos: I cannot do those Cataphracts, because even though I MAY have the armor for the guys on the horses, I don't have the barding (horse armor) or, for that matter I may not even have a saddle or horse (though I think that one might come free with P5, I may be mistaken). I could do a dismounted Cataphract, but in the meantime, I'd suggest using Kinboat's excellent Cataphract.

Ogedei: glad you can use the naginata girl

Shiro: Well, I could try re-texturing the naginata girl, but If I use the Kimono expansion for the V3 MFD, it will be a bit TOO colorful (not to mention difficult to make parts with civ coloring), and if I use one of ISOP's kimonos, the figure's movement would be too restricted for some of the moves I want to have her do. What I'd really like is for DAZ (or Renderosity, etc) to come out with a Hakama and Keiogi for the Aiko 3 Anime doll. In the meantime, I'm sticking with the Rei no Senshi martial arts uniform that I'm using right now. It would actually be very easy to convert it to a whole samurai thing, since I have some samurai-esque armor for Aiko 3 that could be re-textured as such fairly easily, as well as some vambraces and gloves that would work well with a little re-texturing.

Mithladin: Thanks!, However, which of my previews are you directing your comment towards?

Oh, and one last thing: I finally found a pic of an X-Cannon..... Fairly simple, just a HUGE tracked artillery piece with a big plasma attack (it will replace the Mobile Artillery in the FF mod and have +1 range and lethal bombardment). It would take me only a few hours to make the model in Bryce, so I may start on that soon.

Edit: posted an updated pic of the naginata chick:

[ShiroKobbure]

well... i would prefer her hair down or in a traditional style of hair. you could try applying your own textures to the V3 MFD kimono to lessen the colors. Or maybe like this http://www.reconstructinghistory.com.../momoyama2.gif a white top and a color full hakama or dress.
by the way i sent you a few hair props right? I think i also have one down like that too.

[Hikaro Takayama]

Shiro: I posted an updated pic of the Naginata Chick, along with the scan of a pic of what I'm working for. I happen to like her current hairstyle, and don't feel like changing it. If I have to, I WILL put it to vote if that's the only way to settle that issue for once and all.... As for the rest of the outfit, if you still don't like it, I did manage to find two Hakama sets on Renderosity: One is Bat Labs' Miko set (looks just like the outfit that Kikyo wears in Inuyasha (犬夜叉)), and the other is a kendo outfit, and I could buy either one (they're only about $10, and since this project is some time aways in the future, I can wait until one of them goes on sale). You see, one of the reasons I'm being so helpful with your Sengoku scenario is that once you release it I'm planning on turning it into an Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale scenario, with Kagome, Inuyasha, Naraku, etc in it and have a Reverse Capture the flag victory option (find and collect as many shards of the Shikon Jewel (四魂のかけら）as possible to gain victory points).

Oh, BTW, I've finally got the Fidget animation for the Ranger done, and have posted a preview of the default and fidget animations:

[ShiroKobbure]

well the women in those pictures are perfect for me. notice they are wearing kimono or yukata. yours is more of a karate gi or ninja uniform. they also have typical muromachi hair. the tail is low...
I think i may have a hair prop like that. or if you have the image map for that one make the tail transparent and add another tail lower.

[Hikaro Takayama]

Okay! Enough with the hair already.... I've found a long, untied hair prop in my collection. Also, As of right now, the Ninja suit is the best thing I've got for the current figure, and I've already listed the reasons why I won't use the other figures that I have kimonos for (not to mention that the sleeves on the V3 one are almost impossible to work with). Below is a preview of the latest version along with a tentative new outfit: the Miko outfit by Bat Labs. If that don't suit you, then I might as well just scrap this project.

[ShiroKobbure]

i have the free version of that. it is for the smaller v3 girls. but maybe you could strech it for her

[ShiroKobbure]

http://digitalbabes2.com/~yamato/MilGirl.html
its for preteen. but i think it would look good, since japanese were/are smaller than westerners and women are smaller then men ^ ^;; or maybe you could strech it to fit adult v3

[Hikaro Takayama]

Don't worry about it. The commercial package is for A3/V3 (both figures which I have and A3 is the one I'm using), and only costs $10 I figure that it's more than worth that in the time I'd save from having to re-size and re-skeleton the Pre-teen one (I get paid $12/hour at my current job, so that's pretty much how I determine the cost/time value). It would take me at least 5 hours to get the PT outfit to work, which comes out to being the equivalent of wasting $60, whereas I pay $10 and spend maybe 15 minutes adding & texturing the figure that already fits, which comes out to around $15 by the same calculation. However, since I work full time, my free time is even more valuable, since it takes so long to render stuff in Poser, so the less time I have to twiddle with figures and props, the more time I have to animate and render projects.....

As for making her more "Japanese Proportioned" I could just adjust the "young" and "BreastSize 2" morphs to 1......

[ShiroKobbure]

haha i dont think making the beast smaller is needed. my gf is half japanese half korea and she is... <.< >.> "big"

i would feel guilty about having you pay for a project ^ ^;;

[ShiroKobbure]

on guard stances

[Hikaro Takayama]

Don't worry about it! I can think of over half a dozen projects that will use this outfit without even straining my brain (Miko, LH for the Inuyasha scenario, Yuna from FF X, etc). Besides I just bought it (need Renderosity to get done confirming my debit card is valid, since this is the first thing I've ever purchased from them). In the meantime, I'll just concentrate on my current project: the Ranger.

Oh, don't worry about the Naginata stances and such: I took Tae Kwon Do for about a year before I joined the Navy, and I had extensive Bou training (and 99.9% of Bou techniques can be applied to any polearm), so I already have a good mental picture of how this attack sequence is going to work (Thrust, overhead chop, figure-8 spin attack)..... Not to mention that Seung Mina is one of my favorite charachters from the Soul Calibur series.

As a matter of fact the second "ready" stance is identical to the basic "ready" stance I learned with the Bou..... Given the choice I'd rather have a Naginata than a Katana, woman's weapon or not. (Yeah, the guys might laugh at me, but they'll die laughing. I was the undisputed broom-fighting champion on my ship when I was in the Navy... Nobody else could even touch me!)

[Ogedei_the_Mad]

Aside from Renderosity, were do you get your props from? Are there any Korean props? I haven't come across any in my searches for them... I still don't know how to use Poser (since I haven't been using it all that much lately... ), but I will get around to it and intend to make some Korean units (such as the Iybyon and Koryo halberdier).

Originally Posted by Hikaro Takayama

Given the choice I'd rather have a Naginata than a Katana, woman's weapon or not. (Yeah, the guys might laugh at me, but they'll die laughing. I was the undisputed broom-fighting champion on my ship when I was in the Navy... Nobody else could even touch me!)

There's a reason why we Chinese call the spear the "King of Weapons". I have some limited spear and staff training myself, though I'm not that good (of all weapons, I'm only mildly competent in the two-handed Zhanmadao variant of the Taijiquan broadsword style).