[FfH II Art Team Blog]

OK I will try to find my 3ds max 6 and check it, however I was able to copy a helmet branch from the "broken" model on working and it works and helmet shows texture.

What I cannot get is why. Both branches seem to be totally identical. One was directly imported from OBJ, another one was imported in 3ds max and exported as NIF, but nothing else was changed. And final result seems to be the same. I am really confused, help meh :D.
 
Hey, masterminds, I need some help.
I've attached custom meshes to a unit but they are black in the game. That's strange because they all use the same texture and material.

Hey Deon. If you post up your unit files, I will try and see if I can find what the problem is.

Alternatively, you could add some clothing, like some Cloth Sleeves, or a silk dress, for the Brunette, and make her the Mage.

Then it would go from simple clothes -> see through Silk -> Golden Armor

I quite like this idea. I'll see if I can do it for a final release.
 
I don't know why but I can't attach any mesh (weapons/staffs/etc) and particle effects to my Lamias.

I guess you normally cut and paste stuff in using NifSkope. This should still work, it's just that the Kohan II conversions are generally 15-20 times smaller than standard Civ 4 units. There is probably a way to scale up the units themselves so there is less of a discrepancy. To attach the wand I just positioned it using Blender and then rigged it to the hand bone - this can be less effort than positioning in NifSkope and the end result is the same.
 
Well I think I solved the problem, it looks like exports from Wings3d do not contain a proper material information (although nothing says the opposite).

Now it's working, yay. My first unit with animations :D.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=357541

Spoiler :
 
@ Deliverator:
Yes, I always copy-and-paste in nifscope from various nifs. I found easier to do that rather than studying Blender. :lol:

On Lamia animations, I wonder if you could make the fidget animation and idle animation more extravagant. Something like the Lamia rise her hand and conjure flame, or she moves her tail back-and-forth or slithers or something else. The current one (only idle, no fidget) is rather too simple IMHO.

Thanks!
 
Hey, I have a question. I'm starting to get into 3D modeling, and I was wondering what programs are commonly used to work on Civ IV models? Any that have polygon/vertex manipulation?
 
Or Paint.NET for .dds and other image editing. I dislike Gimp but Paint.NET seems pretty good to me.
Good thing with Gimp is it's available for Linux.
 
I tried both GIMP and Paint.NET, and I really don't like either of them, though I'm using GIMP for now. I'm waiting for Adobe CS5 to come out so I can buy the student edition and get Photoshop and Flash.

Anyway, I started messing around with Blender, but it's horribly confusing. I don't even know where to start. I checked the modding subform, but I didn't see any tutorials. You guys know of any good ones?

Also, how do you make FX? Like for spells and stuff?
 
Anyway, I started messing around with Blender, but it's horribly confusing. I don't even know where to start. I checked the modding subform, but I didn't see any tutorials. You guys know of any good ones?

I think what makes the learning curve so steep for Blender is also what makes it quick to use once you know what you are doing. The best resource for getting started in my opinion are the Super3boy blender tutorials on Youtube.

Also, how do you make FX? Like for spells and stuff?

Existing effects can be modified quite dramatically using NifSkope. If you look at the Lightning Breath I made for the Storm Drake I converted from Kohan II, that was done by hacking away in NifSkope, but also using Scene Viewer to view the resulting effect. Scene Viewer is basically a CivIV specific tool for viewing NIFs, but you have to have 3DS Max unfortunately as it is built on the back of it.
 
Am I the only one thinking, the Bannor could use a new musketman? ;)

I thought about a lighter armored version of the bannor champion (i really love that style) :D

Is there someone who thinks the same and has the ability to create this unit?
 
Could you not just take one of the Spanish Conquistador themed unit sets? Maybe swap out the helmets.
 
Will the Lamia units be added into the last patch for FFH?

I hope so. Art that was made recently that I hope makes it into the final patch (assuming they didn't already sneak in while I wasn't looking):

1) Lamia (pg. 136 of this thread)
2) Sidar Mages (pg. 134)
3) "I think this rejected proposal for the Vampire model could work much better as a vampiric Phalanx. The Calabim don't have unique art for that unit yet." (pg. 133)
4) Seasonal skins for the druid (ex: winter for Doviello, pg. 133)
 
Ok, here is a reskin from tesb's Holy Avenger. I reskinned him into...Mardero :lol:



Sphener vs Mardero







Download here

And a little bit of problem : how can I change the flame in Mardero's sword into somekind of blue? I tried changing the color in nifscope, and it worked in the preview (the flame already blue). But sadly, it still red in the game. Any advice?
 
Very nice. Mardero's been needing a reskin for quite some time. However the helmet seems a bit odd. It is a bit, large.

Why do you want to change the flame color to blue? It looks very nice in red. I can't remember Marderos lineage but isn't he only a couple relations removed from Agares, whos 'Arch-Angel', Hyborem, is also red and black?
 
The helmet does not look right. I think you left the wings the same as in the old Mardero, but they were the worst part of that model, the only part I thought really needed changing. I don't suppose it would be possible to scale down and use Abashi's wings, would it?



Mardero is the youngest and strongest of the Cambions born of Lita the Witch and the demon who captured her when the people of Alexandria threw her off the Cliffs of Hastur. That demon's name was never given, but I like to think it could have been Hastur himself, the Lord of Nightmares and Archangel of Mammon who now torments Danalin's dreams. Hastur may not exactly be the most loyal archangel though, as he seems aligned with Ceridwen in wanting to destroy creation rather than Mammon in merely wanting to control it. Condatis implied that Hastur arranged for Tebryn to destroy the world just so that she would be too busy to free her God from his influence.

I think that Green (like the so called green eyed monster of envy) would fit a descendant of Mammon's servant well, but red and black work fine for demons in general. If Hyborem took after Agares color scheme then he would be black and gold instead of red.










Spoiler Mardero's pedia entry :
The basilica was flooded with screaming, a mob calling for the death of Lita. Long suspected of witchcraft, she was found with crow's blood on her forehead and eyelids, evidence of her attempts at clairvoyance through dark rites.

The adjudicator listened to the guardsman's retelling of her capture. A neighbor claimed to have seen a cat walking backwards from her house and a pigeon handing upside down from the eaves like a bat. The guards had been called to check it out, not an uncommon occurrence for Lita. But this time she didn't open the door, and when the guardsman entered, they found her in her basement deep in a trance, with the crow's broken body beside her.

"What are the names of these demons you say I follow?" Lita argued, "Hate, suspicion, fear, weakness, pride. Do you believe these are my demons or your own? You scream because I killed a bird, yet you will return to your mutton dinner tonight and see no hypocrisy. You claim that what I have done is evil, yet the temple diviners perform the same acts with oils and burnt incense."

She shook with rage, her voice carried an authority far beyond her 24 years. She turned and glared at the townspeople, most she had known her entire life, and each one quieted under her gaze, but then picked the screaming back up when her eyes were off of them.

The adjudicator was Goroff Grist and he had served in this role for nearly 30 years. He wasn't concerned with Lita's pagan ritual but he was very concerned with the effect she had on the city. This kind of disharmony could not be tolerated in a cultured society; she had been warned before about her questionable behavior and refused to become a good citizen. He had known the outcome of this trial the second she was dragged into the basilica.

Goroff opened the large tome before him. The hall went quiet as he scribed Lita's name and the verdict. Everyone strained to gain some clue from the stroke of his quill as to the final decision. Goroff sprinkled find sand on the ink and blew on it, then he closed the tome.

"The testimony has been heard and a just decision has been made. Lita of Alexandria will be exiled from the Empire. This exile will be initiated by throwing her from the Cliffs of Hastur. We will see if she will follow the crow's fate and have her body broken, or gain the crow's gift and be saved from the rocks below."

]The crowd cheered the decision, Lita screamed and attacked the guardsmen that held her. They wrestled her into submission and began the march to the edge of the cliffs. By the time they reached them, the crowd had grown and hundreds of townspeople were there to witness her death.

It was an early spring day and the mists common to cliffs still hung around its base. Lita had stopped struggling and stood unmoving at the cliffs edge. She told herself that she would die without weakness and step over the edge on her own, but she found herself unable to do so. She sensed something much worse than death over the cliff's edge. Then the guardsman pushed her.

She fell. Her life passed before her, pain inflicted by her and on her, actions performed both good and evil. She considered her own regret, had she become something she didn't intend? She pushed the thoughts from her mind, she was not the one at fault, but the people of Alexandria. She fed off of her own hate, wished only that they would suffer for what they had done to her.

She passed into the mists and heard the snap of thick leather, like the crack of a whip all around her. A dark form slammed into her and at first she though it was the ground, but her direction changed and she felt herself being carried along the cliff's edge. A beast held her, and she struggled to see its face. It had thick hide wings and skin that felt like a serpents, but hard and warm. The face was a man's, horrible and beautiful, horns and smaller bones pierced his skin and thick iron pins were inserted into the inside curve of his eye, just where tears are formed.

He took her to a dark place, Hell or some hidden cave, it was the same to Lita. She became his unwilling concubine, mother of his half-demonic children. His spells kept the many pregnancies from killing her, but they did nothing for the pain which was so intense that she wished for the times when she wasn't pregnant and had only to suffer the brutal rapes. And during the periods of the rapes she wished for the times she was pregnant.

Mardero was the last of these children. His birth was so traumatic that even his father's considerable power couldn't keep Lita alive through it. His first act in this world was to join his siblings in consuming his mothers flesh, the first of many human victims his father would bring them as they grew.

Now Mardero roams the land, unbound by the Compact because of his human heritage but as destructive and loyal to the forces of Entropy as any demon.
 
Have an art question.... Will just summarize, but basically I've added an effect to a feature, and have it displaying in nifskope, but not in game. Which is fairly aggravating.

Anyone know what's wrong?

Thread on the subject, with attached files and screenshot: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=369772
 
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