New Fantasy Units; 16/10/2003

[Smoking mirror]

Yay! I just found a way to cut my production time for storyboards in half ('bout 30 mins per board rather than over an hour), so expect a few new units in the future.

First up is the skeleton spearman. Next will be either the mummy or the spider rider, Still gotta do some more animation work on them though, & my parents computer is still acting realy badly. However I'm getting a brand new PC next month, (unless theres an emergency and I have to spend the money on something else).

You can get the flics here;Skeleton spearman

And heres a pedia icon, though you will need to convert it a bit;

 

[Smoking mirror]

And heres a sneak peak at a possible future project, though no gaurantees that it will get made. A renaisance armoured infantry man;

 

[Smoking mirror]

And a little animated preview of the skeleton spearman;

 

[Amenhotep7]

First to comment! Yes! Superb unit!

 

[embryodead]

Very cool SM, do you use Civ3_SBB?

 

[Kal-el]

Here are the converted Pedia Icons.

 

[Xen]

sweet!

though if that infantry man was made... perhaps a differnt sheild design would be called for

 

[Kinboat]

Looks cool I like the looks of that armored guy too...

 

[tjedge1]

Now I have a defense unit for my undead civ! :jump:

 

[Raw is War?]

Great work!

 

[Smoking mirror]

It takes so long to storyboard cos the computer I'm using has "memory issues", I realy don't know why it takes so long to carry out every opperation, I think the only way to sort it out would be a reinstall & that risks losing all my libray of textures and models, as has happened in the past (last time I put it all on CD & then lost the CD).

On the subject of Civ3_SBB, My Render program will not render in 256 colours (only 16bit) and the way I ususaly make the model renders (pose the model for each frame & then rotate for each direction) means that my file stucture ends up much different to that used by Civ3_SBB. Both these combined mean that using the program would be hard work for me (re-arrage and re-name all the files before converting them individualy to 256 colours).

Anyway, I'll continue to plod along untill I get my new PC next month.

 

[Steph]

First, SBB should be able to read 16bit bmp. So you don't have to decrease color depth.
Second, you could try Irfan view, a small tool that is really very nice when you need to rename files, to get a better structure.

Could you also describe how is your file structure? Perhaps I could include an option to read files in a different way. That's what I did for American conquest

 

[Smoking mirror]

For steph;
I was glad to hear about the 16bit compatibility, and it was with great anoyance that I realized that my program won't even do that, unless its saved as a targa (cor) image. Umm well hopefully I'll be getting a new program soonish And I can switch over to CIVIII_SSB.

My file stucture is like this;

Animations;
-Attack
--Frame1
>SE
>S
>SW (etc..)
---Frame2
->SE (etc...)

With frame2 being a folder inside frame1 that contains all the directions for the frame in individual rendered PCXs, and frame three being a new folder inside frame2 with all the directions for that frame.

That helps me to remember what animation I'm on, and what frame I've just rendered/story boarded.

Oh and congratulations on the new baby

I had a dream that my girlfriend and I had a little kid the other day, Boy what a nightmare! (though the little girl did turn out to be an alien with special mind control powers which was prety cool) Let this be a warning to every one; don't eat cheese before you go to bed.

 

[Steph]

Originally posted by Smoking mirror
For steph;
I was glad to hear about the 16bit compatibility, and it was with great anoyance that I realized that my program won't even do that, unless its saved as a targa (cor) image. Umm well hopefully I'll be getting a new program soonish And I can switch over to CIVIII_SSB.

Then what do you get when you render as a bitmap? true color?

 

[ArbitraryGuy]

Way nice fantasy unit!

All I have to say is:
Reniassance Infantry! Reniassance Infatry! (But maybe without the flower shield?)

 

[Smoking mirror]

Yep, my program renders in 24 bit. Thats prolly one of the reasons it takes me so long to render & storyboard.

Does anyone have any pictures of a more apropriate shield?

 

[Kinboat]

I happen to like the shield the way it is... But if you have to change it maybe use a symbol from one of the Monarchies... Maybe an English Rose (Thinking the War of the Roses either red or white... or civ-specific). Or a French Fleur-de-Lis... Maybe a German Eagle... Actually this site might be handy
http://www.fleurdelis.com/ I actually just found this and it has a some info on the meanings and some sample designs.

 

[Steph]

Originally posted by Smoking mirror
Yep, my program renders in 24 bit. Thats prolly one of the reasons it takes me so long to render & storyboard.

Then it should work with SBB. SBB takes a picture of any color depth, and produce a true color storyboard. It's after that step that you apply the palette.

 

[aaglo]

This issue here is a bit off-topic, but it's quite important though...

I thought that Pov-ray renders in true-colour. Apparently it does not, since I can bring the bmp's straight to SBB. (in another words - I think I haven't read the SBB manual completely )

 

[Yoda Power]

sorry for bumping, but I first noticed now, great job

and make the renaissance infantry!