Corvette Sailing Warship Preview

Colonel Kraken · Dec 20, 2002

At the behest of Kal-el, I began to modify the Civ3 Privateer unit to not have the skull and crossbones. This is the first time I've ever done this, but he thought I'd be able to do it because of my preview of a possible Ship-of-the-Line I'd tried out.

I was encouraged by Kryten and Dark Sheer in this thread to try my skills at unit "creation" (copy and paste).

So, here it is, a preview of the run animation now completed (2 days of meticulous, repetitious work), the Corvette:

It'll take me a while, Kryten, but I'll keep plugging away.

GenMarshall · Dec 20, 2002

Great unit. I hope both the Ship-of-the-line and the Corvette comes out great :greatjob:

Yoda Power · Dec 20, 2002

As i already said in an other thread: Very nice.

Kal-el · Dec 20, 2002

That looks fantastic! Keep it up. I know a lot of people are looking foward to all the new Sailing Ships being made.

Akula · Dec 20, 2002

Good job

finally some sailing ships
It look's far better whitout the skull and crossbones

Kryten · Dec 21, 2002

Originally posted by Colonel Kraken
It'll take me a while, Kryten, but I'll keep plugging away.

After the first 3 or 4 hundred hours, you'll find that you fingers will go numb and your fingernails will fall out.....it becomes much easier after that.

:goodjob:

Colonel Kraken · Dec 21, 2002

Originally posted by Kryten

After the first 3 or 4 hundred hours, you'll find that you fingers will go numb and your fingernails will fall out.....it becomes much easier after that.

This is doubly funny because I meant to address that statement to Kal-el. :lol:

Very funny, though.

By the way, what do you think of my work so far, Mentor Kryten?

Kryten · Dec 21, 2002

I think it looks terrific, as does your 'Ship-of-the-Line'. :love:

It's amazing how just a relatively simple change can result in a new unit.

I do have one slight suggestion.
Personally I'm not bothered by the 'crows nest', but I wonder if copying the civ coloured blue flag from the top of the fore mast and pasting it above the 'crows nest' (so that the ship has two flags) would help distinguish who owns the ship.
Perhaps making this new flag about 2 or 3 fames out of synch with the current flag would help it look like it was fluttering independantly, and not in unison.
Just a thought.

Anyway, keep up the good work (soon they'll begin asking you to make a new unit every week....then you'll KNOW you've been accepted! :lol:

).

Colonel Kraken · Dec 21, 2002

Originally posted by Kryten
I think it looks terrific, as does your 'Ship-of-the-Line'.
It's amazing how just a relatively simple change can result in a new unit.

Thanks.

I do have one slight suggestion.
Personally I'm not bothered by the 'crows nest', but I wonder if copying the civ coloured blue flag from the top of the fore mast and pasting it above the 'crows nest' (so that the ship has two flags) would help distinguish who owns the ship.

I was thinking this very thing!

Perhaps making this new flag about 2 or 3 fames out of synch with the current flag would help it look like it was fluttering independantly, and not in unison.
Just a thought.

Good call. I'll try implementing that.

Anyway, keep up the good work (soon they'll begin asking you to make a new unit every week....then you'll KNOW you've been accepted! ).

I'm sure you're right. Then I'll wish I had never started! :lol:

Grandmaster · Dec 21, 2002

Looking good, Colonel. I like your ship of the line too. Keep up the good work.

Redking · Dec 21, 2002

What takes you so much laborious effort could be done very quickly by the people that generated that unit in the first place. Why they don't throw us a few bones after so much middling effort for paying product... it baffles me a bit.

Arne · Dec 23, 2002

Like I said in the other thread: Great work! I really hope, this will be finished.

Colonel Kraken · Dec 23, 2002

You'll be happy to note that I've finished the run and default animations which were relatively "simple" because the animation doesn't change much.

But I was looking at the death and attack animations, and it's going to be a real pain in the backside (take an awful long time) because each frame changes so much. I don't see how I'd be able to copy and paste. It looks as if I'll have to touch up each frame by hand. That's about another 150-200 frames! :eek:

Kryten, do you have any advice on the best way to attack the death and attack animations?

Kryten · Dec 24, 2002

Ah!
Welcome to death.flc's.
Death.flc's move in 3 dimensions.
All animators hate death.flc's.

Fortunately, your animation is relatively easy....but will need to be done by hand per frame.

You have two options.....
*either get the main mast right in the first frame, and then use the 'rotate' tool to paste that section onto the the following frames.....or.....
*copy the foremast sail (which, by chance, also tips over in unison
with the main mast), and paste that onto the main mast.
Don't worry about too much about the 'smoke'....it is your friend, not your enemy.
Just use the 'dropper' tool to pick various shades of grey smoke to 'smudge' the left over blue bits of the falling mainsail.

I had a quick go at method number two.....it took me about 15 minutes in the SE direction (and now I have an example, the other directions should be much quicker)....

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads3/Privateeer_Death.zip

.....and here is what it looks like.....

Kal-el · Dec 24, 2002

Fantastic!

Colonel Kraken · Dec 24, 2002

Well, thanks Kryten. You make it sound so easy, and 15 minutes! Bah. You make me sick . . .

Anyway, I don't have a rotate tool, so it's method 2 for me. I was just taking a look at the death storyboard and it's a mess. I don't know how you used copy and paste for every frame. Toward the end the sails are twisting in different directions. It's not as apparent in the SW direction but in others it's definitely a real problem.

Hmmm . . . I imagine I'll just have to play around with it. Maybe if I ask really nicely, I can get you to do the death flic for me. :love:

I don't think I knew what I was getting into when I started. This animation stuff is a real pain. Kal-el, remind me next time not to volunteer for your projects so easily next time.

*sigh* Back to the drawing board . . . .

Kal-el · Dec 24, 2002

Originally posted by Colonel Kraken
... Kal-el, remind me next time not to volunteer for your projects so easily next time.

*sigh* Back to the drawing board . . . .

LOL

1. I doubt I will have to remind you.

2. Hell if I will

Kryten · Dec 24, 2002

Originally posted by Colonel Kraken
I don't think I knew what I was getting into when I started. This animation stuff is a real pain.

....ah but think of the adulation, the praise, the undying love of the whole civ community..... :lol:

Anyway, here is a finalized version of the PrivateerDeath.flc, with all the sails done.....

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads3/final_PrivateerDeath.zip

You may want to tidy up some bits, and I haven't added a second flag (I thought I'd better leave something for you to do.

).

And here is a quick preview (please note that in FLICster, and in the game, the smoke is white, not grey).....

Thrawn · Dec 25, 2002

Hurrah! More sailing ships!

Kal-el · Dec 25, 2002

This one is so close I can almost taste it! Merry Christmas everybody! Happy Holidays for everybody else.

Corvette Sailing Warship Preview

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