Gary's Poser Unit Creation Thread and Workshop

[Gary Childress]

Thanks Greg. I have BatchGen set up for tonight to run all the animations so that they are ready tomorrow morning. Tomorrow when I wake up I'll try to tweak the Victory/Default position either by pasting some images over them or else running a new Victory. I'll have to see What I can do to fix it up.

For now I'm beat. I've been at this almost all day.

 

[Steph]

A remark: African colonial infantry was usually wearing tank clothes, not white. That's at least the case for Tirailleurs in French colonies, or Askaris in German colonies.

However, he would make a nice Egyptian rifleman.

Could we see a pedia preview?

 

[Gary Childress]

I actually modeled him roughly after a rifleman of the Italian Colonial Army, circa 1940. He's more of a caricature of many different African Colonial soldiers from many nationalities. I plan on doing another soldier in Khai Khai and shorts to model the Belgian Colonial Army.

My renderings are still going from last night so I can't generate any civpedia pics yet until BatchGen has finished.

 

[Gary Childress]

OK. Here is the smoothed over, finished product. I've been working all evening ironing out the sudden jerk from the victory pose to the default pose. I ended up having to create an all new victory from scratch. But I think it was worth it.

Run/Default/Fidget/Default/Fortify/Attack/Victory/Default/Fortify/Attack/Death

And here is the Civpedia for Steph...

EDIT: African Colonial Infantry is now in the downloads database. I think I owe a thank you to everyone who kept after me to keep refinning this unit. I'm much happier with the finished product than if I had simply gone with my first rederings. Thanks for the push!

 

[Vuldacon]

Excellent Work Gary... The Victory works perfectly.
Top Shelf Unit you can be proud of and that many will use.

It is and can be a Real Chore with the many things that can go wrong with Unit Making but now you are better prepared to look for and take the necessary steps to gain what you want for your Units easier the first time and I am sure it will be easier than all the extra work you did for this one.

As time goes on, you will no doubt get into more advanced techniques and try many new things to gain more and more abilities to add Special Effects and what ever you can think of concerning units. All can be gained by doing it much the same as you have done for this current Fine Unit.
Yes, it is worth it Congratulations on this Unit.

 

[Gary Childress]

OK. Next project: British paratrooper of the famous 1st Airborne Division the "Red Devils" of Arnhem.

I'm going to give a paradrop a try here. I have a parachute. Just need to figure out how to manipulate the figure the way I want without going insane.

If I'm not mistaken the paradrop animation is only in a single direction so I should only need to do one pass at it.

 

[Vuldacon]

British paratrooper sounds good. For variety, you could change the Color for the Rifle Darker for instance.
Yes, Just one Direction for the Paradrop is all that is needed. Look at the Paratrooper in the Game to see how the Unit Body and position was handled to make it easier. Change what you want such as the Landing. As Long as the Last Frame of the Paradrop matches or goes smoothly into the Default 1st Frame Unit Position (Especially the Feet), you will be good to go. You can also play with the Scale of the Model to alter the illusion as it falls from the highest point to the Ground. Set Up a few Key Frames and have Fun with it because it is just one direction.

 

[Gary Childress]

The first part of the paradrop is easy. The hard part is ending in the default pose. I've broken the animation down into sections to accomplish what I want in each section. That makes it a little easier to manipulate the model.


What is the maximum number frames that can be used in game, namely for a paradrop? Does anyone know?

 

[Quinzy]

It's massive, that's all I know. Having 30, say, isn't going to reach it.

 

[Gary Childress]

Good. I may need to expand the # of frames. As it is now everything happens a little too quick. Plus I just now notice the strings of the parachute are red! Also there is a hitch in the collapsing of the chute that I need to work out.

Here's Drop/Default

EDIT: The next animation on the right has had the chute collapse tweaked.

 

[TopGun]

Looks promising!
One question, is that the type of gun they used? I'd imagine that a paratrooper wouldn't carry a rifle with him, rather a sub-machine gun, like the STEN?

 

[Quinzy]

http://www.1stairborne.com/webgear.html

Enfield Rifle or a Bren gun.

 

[Gary Childress]

Another option in place of the unit's paradrop is to use my generic paradrop in conjunction with a transport plane to simulate an airdrop.

 

[Gary Childress]

The average paratrooper carried a rifle. I plan on doing a royal marine commando using very similar props except his beret will be green and I'll probably equip him with a sten. When I get around to it I may do a paratrooper with a sten as well. I have a lot of stuff to work with. The possibilities are numerous.

 

[BadKharma]

Looks promising!
One question, is that the type of gun they used? I'd imagine that a paratrooper wouldn't carry a rifle with him, rather a sub-machine gun, like the STEN?

They were armed with enfields, stens, and the bren http://www.1stairborne.com/webgear.html

 

[Blue Monkey]

Don't know about the British, but a problem the Americans (101st) had in WWII was getting their rifles out of the case at landing. While it kept their hands free during descent, landing off-target amidst combat presented some "minor difficulties".

 

[Gary Childress]

I think I have the paradrop nailed. I slowed down the initial part of the drop so that it looks more fluid and changed the parachute cords from tacky red to the standard white. I have enough here to make a FLC from.

Drop/Default

 

[Stormrage]

The rifle swinging into the grip of his left hand looks unnatural. Make him lift it with his right arm.,

 

[Gary Childress]

Looking closer, I think you're right Stormrage. I'll try to get his rifle into his left hand a little more naturally. Gotta do things right when you're working on a "Red Devil".

In the meantime how does this look for a run animation? Since this is an elite unit he sort of jogs toward the battle where the Colonial infantry just marched.

 

[Stormrage]

Looks nice