Animated leaderheads

[Rob (R8XFT)]

In terms of new civs, are we still in the realms of static or reskinned leaderheads only for Civ IV - or has anyone figured out how we can put our own animated artwork in there?

As far as I can determine, it's now possible to do, but only if you have 3D Studio Max - is this correct?

I'm sure when we can do this, you'll see quite a few new 3D animated leaderheads from CivArmy and myself (I know he's already brought out a lorryload of static ones - I'm waiting until we can put in animated leaderheads).

 

[Tyranausaurus]

Why Hello Rob! I've been waiting anxiously for you to start modding the game! As I'm a big fan of your amazing work in Civ3 .

I'm currently learning Blender, a free yet good program that somewhat supports Civ4. With blender you can't animate units, but I *think* you could animate leaderheads.
See what you can do...

 

[DonStamos]

From what I understand, you can only 'edit' the current leaderheads with a .nif editor. I haven't heard about any more leader-making ability with the SDK, and I don't know enough coding to even try anything beyond basic XML modding.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I share your frustration about XML modding. I do have the technique and know-how to create artwork through Poser as well as a couple of other applications; the game that was said to be the most moddable ever is proving (to me) to be extremely difficult to add things I could virtually add in my sleep when modding civ 3 - for example, leaderheads. I'd be able to create some artwork I feel would look good in Civ 4 - but apparently not in a format Civ 4 accepts .

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

The good news is that I now have 3D Studio Max 8. I now need to learn how to use it!! Any news on the ability to create new animated leaderheads rather than editing the existing ones (btw, great work on those, guys!)?

I'm hoping to bring out a Civ IV version of some of my Civ III ancient era leaderheads - such as Boudicca, Hector and Agis - once it's possible for me to bring original animated leaderheads into the game. A Civ IV version of Anno Domini wouldn't be far behind .

The other thing I hope to do in the near future is create some units for Civ IV to make Anno Domini loaded with original civ-specific units.

 

[Killamike718]

Just wanted to give a heads up that the polycount on your heads were pretty high and unless you can optimize it and decrease the polycount, then it will be playable. here is a link if you can create meshes, rig and animate them in 3ds max, then your of to a good start, personally I had big problems importing into 3ds max from maya, soo unless they get some plugin for other 3d applications, we can only export from 3DS max. I would recommend you read the firaxis document on how to export into civ, heres link :
On first post called documentation dont forget example files.
This will teach you how to export a unit but a unit is similar to a leaderhead in many ways. forinstance a unit has a strike1, heal, idle, and so on. A leaderhead has furious, cautious, greacious and so on. well when you read the doc it wil teach you how to do that, but seeing you have lots of EXP, you shouldnt have any trouble with this.
Ohh forgot, don forget the tutorials section, they have some great tut's about everything you need.

Remeber the hardest things to mod are always the most easiest to work with, they werent lying when they said this will be the most moddable ever, you just have to learn the tools.

 

[Amra]

The good news is that I now have 3D Studio Max 8. I now need to learn how to use it!! Any news on the ability to create new animated leaderheads rather than editing the existing ones (btw, great work on those, guys!)?

I'm hoping to bring out a Civ IV version of some of my Civ III ancient era leaderheads - such as Boudicca, Hector and Agis - once it's possible for me to bring original animated leaderheads into the game. A Civ IV version of Anno Domini wouldn't be far behind .

The other thing I hope to do in the near future is create some units for Civ IV to make Anno Domini loaded with original civ-specific units.

I would love to see some new animated leaderheads! I have no 3D modeling skills (just now starting to play with the NIF viewer) and have only been able to reskin the existing models but there is only so much I, and others, can do before they all look the same & we are tired of the same 3d models.

I hope, and trust, that some of the great modders in this community are able to figure it out. Hopefully, it's only a matter of time.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I have the facility to export poser files into 3ds max, but these don't then seem to want to export into .nif format (using the tools available from this site). Attached, as an example, is Boudicca in 3ds format. I hope I can fathom it out (I'm experienced with Poser, but not with other programs).

 

[Amra]

Very nice Boudicca

 

[The Great Apple]

Hmmm - it may even be possible to get era-specific leaderheads working with a small SDK tweak. That would be even more funky.

 

[Ploeperpengel]

Hmmm - it may even be possible to get era-specific leaderheads working with a small SDK tweak. That would be even more funky.

Yeah I'd like that. Would be awesome for Settra in WH. The egypt from Warlords as soon it's there switching to undead. Pretty please work on it someone!

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Hmmm - it may even be possible to get era-specific leaderheads working with a small SDK tweak. That would be even more funky.

The question is whether or not a small SDK tweak would allow animated leaderheads in other formats - such as .flc files . If that were possible, there'd be plenty of new creations made in a short space of time .

 

[Killamike718]

THATS AN AMAZING IDEA! never thought of it, if someone is willing to program something of this sort, well be able to use from the Civ 3 library! good idea! we can even see a lot of mods with better leaderheads, until we fully understand the way Civ 4 leader heads work.

 

[The Great Apple]

The question is whether or not a small SDK tweak would allow animated leaderheads in other formats - such as .flc files . If that were possible, there'd be plenty of new creations made in a short space of time .

If the diplomacy screen is controlled in python, than I think this should be possible. However, I can't seem to find the diplomacy screen in the python directory.

The GFX engine is completely out of the hands of the SDK unfortunetly. There are a few hacks that you can do to get manipulate it, but none of them are very pretty.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

THATS AN AMAZING IDEA! never thought of it, if someone is willing to program something of this sort, well be able to use from the Civ 3 library! good idea! we can even see a lot of mods with better leaderheads, until we fully understand the way Civ 4 leader heads work.

We wouldn't be able to use them from the Civ III library, as the flcs are essentially one animation that goes from happy to angry in the same flc. However, as more people are able to create flc files, it would make leaderheads with the animations required by Civ IV do-able by the Civ III modders...er, like me .

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I hope we work it out soon as I have characters standing around waiting to get into Civ IV!!

 

[woodelf]

Good to see you in Civ4 Rob!

Fantastic LH above.

 

[dalek master]

who is she?

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

he is she?

Nope, I'm Rob, a bloke. She (the image in the woods) is based on my Gladys of the Coritani leaderhead for Civ III .

 

[The Great Apple]

I wouldn't suggest you get your hopes too high on the 2D animation thing. Unless I'm missing something obvious the diplomacy screen isn't handled in python, and so it'll probably be impossbile.