Angel of Death Plague Animation (13 May 2006)

[Plotinus]

This is a bit experimental, since as far as I know no-one has tried making a new plague animation to replace those old circling vultures.

Anyway, put the fear of God into your poor Civ citizens with Azrael himself!

There are two versions - one smaller one, to be a bit less overwhelming in the game, and one larger one, to really make Pharaoh sit up and listen.

You can download both versions here.

 

[Yabanjin]

Like it... it certainly is different from the dear old vultures!

 

[Stormrage]

Woooooo... this is niiiiice

 

[Heretic_Cata]

OMG - this is so cool ...
(was it involuntarely based on my suggestion ? EDIT: i saw your post in the other thread just now /EDIT)
That giant cloak might block the view behind him ... if you could make the cloak more ripped and torn it would be perfect. But i figure that is extremley difficult and to make it move in the wind might be even harder ...

Anyway this goes into my mod. It's to cool to be left out.

Also (annoying subliminal massage):

Spoiler :

MAKE IT A UNIT !MAKE IT A UNIT !MAKE IT A UNIT !MAKE IT A UNIT !MAKE IT A UNIT !MAKE IT A UNIT !MAKE IT A UNIT !MAKE IT A UNIT !MAKE IT A UNIT !MAKE IT A UNIT !

 

[Plotinus]

Thanks, HT, and yes, it does tie in with your suggestion (although as soon as Rambuchan suggested replacing the plague animation, this is what popped into my mind).

The cloak is semi-transparent, so it doesn't entirely block the view behind it. I would have made it more transparent but it looked like he was wearing a fishnet dress, which wasn't really the look I was going for. Unfortunately I can't modify the look of the cloak - or at least I haven't worked out how to yet - so I couldn't go for the ragged look, much as I would have liked to.

Subliminal message: yes, perhaps. I'll think about it. But it would be hard, if only because it is not easy to get that cloak to animate, especially in cycling animations like those needed for a unit. It was difficult enough to get a halfway decent effect in this animation, and I'm still not really happy with it. But if I get a bit more practice it might be possible...

 

[Heretic_Cata]

The cloak is semi-transparent, so it doesn't entirely block the view behind it.

I didn't see that, just a sec while i squint a bit ... oooh so THAT is why the thing has a tint of pink in the pic.

I would have made it more transparent but it looked like he was wearing a fishnet dress, which wasn't really the look I was going for.

Unfortunately I can't modify the look of the cloak - or at least I haven't worked out how to yet - so I couldn't go for the ragged look, much as I would have liked to.

As long as there's a "yet" in that sentence i don't mind.

Subliminal message: yes, perhaps.

In the rate you are honing those unit making skills, i think it won't be long till we'll see it made.

 

[Storm Grunt]

One word....Amazing! I also agree with HC you should make that a unit.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

About the schyte:
The way i see it, it has to be held 2 handed, but this would completley change the cloak (among other things) ... if it would be just put instead of the sword i think it would look a bit strange ...

 

[Kyriakos]

Hey this isnt bad at all, however imo he is too huge; if he was smaller it might look cooler
Also there is very little movement in the wings

 

[utahjazz7]

Awesome work! You should have started working with Poser a long time ago . . . If I had any qualms at all it would be that it might be just a tad on the large size for my tastes.

Unfortunately I can't modify the look of the cloak - or at least I haven't worked out how to yet - so I couldn't go for the ragged look, much as I would have liked to.

I think a transparency map would probably do the trick. In case you aren't familiar with them, they work similarly to texture maps. In the transparency map, however, you'll be working with a gray scale. Anything black (R:, G:, B: 0) will be transparent. Anything white (R:, G:, B: 255) will be totally opaque. The gray values work in between.

 

[Plotinus]

That's fantastic, utah - thanks for the tip. I shall try to give it a go, and perhaps resize him too (I wanted him to be big and impressive, but possibly I went overboard!).

 

[NavyDawg]

Me likes. Can anyone give me a quick rundown of what the plague settings in the editor mean? I'll be incorporating plague into a mod w/ this new animation, but I'm not sure what all the value equate to. Thanks.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Nice, but I agree with the Baron that it's too large. I'd recommend shrinking it to about the size of an infantryman unit.

 

[Rambuchan]

I'll join in the chorus calling for it to be a bit smaller.

He's got a great look other than that. Very nice work indeed, especially on the transparent cloak. I reckon a scythe would be a more fitting replacement for the sword if possible. He also has quite a bit of a fantasy look about him. Perhaps disarming him altogether would make him more useful for historical scens?

 

[7ronin]

Holy Batmobile! That is one scary piece of work! And I was worried about a couple of crows.

Congratulations! You are quickly establishing yourself as a graphics maven of the first rank.

 

[Mithadan]

That is quite crazy, Plotinus. Plauge of the Firstborn more like it!

 

[Plotinus]

I don't really understand the settings in the plague window of the Editor either, and the Help screen is singularly unhelpful in that regard. It makes testing this a right pain, as I'm sure you can imagine.

I shall try to put utahjazz's tip to good use in the next few days and hopefully post an improved version, smaller and with ragged cloak. And yes, perhaps a scythe-wielding one too. I'm not sure there would be much point in having one without a weapon at all, since he'd look out of place in (say) a modern-era mod whatever he was holding.

Although now I have an image of the Angel of Death wielding a bazooka. Now that would be scary.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Plotinus, i used these settings and got the plague at 2500 BC once, and 1900 BC again in a second game.

Earliest start: -3500
Variance: 1
Duration: 100
Grace Period: 1
Max Occurances: 100

Also, i noticed that there must be some wierd hard-coded stuff about the plague ... it never starts if you only have 1 town , and there may be more stuff like this ... maybe it needs at least a unit in that town too... Not sure ...

But the way i see it, you only need to get to the plague once, then you save the game, exit it and change the animation pcx, and load the game.
This is how i tested units.

EDIT: i just tested the animation switching for the plague and it works...
And i don't think it is that big ... when you make it with a ragged cloak could you please release him in the original size too ? (i wanna test it to see which one i like more) ... if it's not much of a trouble...

 

[woodelf]

Awesome Plutonius. Very nice.

 

[Snorken]

Quite nice. I'm looking forward to the improved version.