[REQ] Mammoth and War Mammoth units

[Yang Liu]

Looks good with the african Typ.

H.Balck

 

[Balthasar]

Regarding Fair Use: I hate to be pedantic*, but I also don't want us to be democrats** about it, and just lay down and declare defeat because some other self-interested party objects to what we do.

Both of these are cases where common sense would say that "fair use" would apply.

Agreed. I repeat: just because someone sues, it doesn't make them right.

Since it was offered as a commodity, with reasonable expectation of financial gain, distributing copies gratis would violate the owner's control of their intellectual property - and might even be prosecutable as theft.

..and since it was sold as a commodity, the maker has made his buck and should go away; the "owner" is now the person who purchased the mesh. This doesn't fall into the intellectual property category in the sense that a book or movie does, because it's not really a finished product - the modeler has to significantly change it in order to make it useful at all - this is more like a maker of oil paints wanting compensation for the sale of (or in this case the creation of) a Van Gogh. Sending a copy of it to a friend doesn't come anywhere close to any reasonable definition of "distribution" - it doesn't even approach the threshold that the professors did by "distributing" printed copies of the book passage to their students (reaching more than one recipient at the same time). As far as a digital copy not being the same as the original (digital copy); well, that's a red herring, and an attempt to put a genie back into a bottle from which it has long escaped. I'm sure the Kommissars of intellectual property will continue to try to split increasingly thin hairs on this one, but they're fighting history and reality - if they keep trying to squeeze modelers (and music lovers) for bucks, they'll find more and more of their stuff simply stolen and distributed in ways that are less than legal. They'd be better off raising the price of the original, settling for what they can get at the point of origin, and asking (nicely) for credit for their contribution to the final product.

That someone would worry so much about a mesh-maker's rights and not about the intellectual property problems with the Star Wars Mod, the Star Trek Mod, the Warhammer Mod, etc. is just mind-boggling to me. If it's not sold, we can be bold. That's the only defensible "fair use" theory as far as I'm concerned.
That's my final rant on the subject, and as much as I'll beat this horse right now.

* Actually, I love to be pedantic.
**I'm a democrat.

 

[Madeira]

As the person who originally started this request, let me say thank you all for your efforts in working on it! Good luck with finishing it Plotinus, please show us your progresses

And good luck to Yang Liu with the other units you're working on, they all look excellent! Those Indian Chariots and Elephant will be very usefull to me. I also want to request a pedia graphic with white background for the Mycenean Chariot, I believe it wasnt made yet. I use those graphics with white background for the units32 graphic as well since they're much better quality and also have civ color in the city screen if I change the blue civ color to red.

 

[Yang Liu]

This one is useful for an new texture (many detail work !) over the old african typ texture.

Also take a look at this links:
http://www.cmivfx.com/Blender3D_Training_Tutorials/Blender_Organic_Modeling_Techniques/default.aspx
http://www.lutmananimation.co.uk/Rigging_WS/Rig_intro_1.htm

H.Balck

 

[Blue Monkey]

Regarding Fair Use: I hate to be pedantic. ...That's the only defensible "fair use" theory as far as I'm concerned.
That's my final rant on the subject, and as much as I'll beat this horse right now.

The key issue is how much heat the forum staff & the owner of the forum can bear before throwing in the towel. Being in Law you ought to understand the idea of being litigated to death. Not likely to invest a lot of kaash & time for a hobby site. So we need to be strict enough to keep the whole crowd from losing a place congregate.

 

[Plotinus]

A quick update: I have run into a bit of a problem, namely that my mammoth file now causes Poser to crash. I think I made it so hairy that the system cannot cope! This is not an insuperable problem as it just means, at worst, I will have to start again, which is a pain but I know it can be done. Hence the lack of previews for now. Don't worry though, I will do it.

 

[Blue Monkey]

A quick update: I have run into a bit of a problem, namely that my mammoth file now causes Poser to crash. I think I made it so hairy that the system cannot cope! This is not an insuperable problem as it just means, at worst, I will have to start again, which is a pain but I know it can be done. Hence the lack of previews for now. Don't worry though, I will do it.

Would my vague idea of a recolorized texture + sparser hair assist with this problem?

 

[Plotinus]

Yes, it might do, and in fact that's dead easy to do within Poser. YL's texture looks like it might be good too.

 

[Blue Monkey]

So is that something you will do, or do you want me to take a crack at brownifying the elephant texture?

 

[Plotinus]

The offer is much appreciated but I think I should be OK in this case. I'll let you know if not though - it is very handy to have someone around who can do textures, since as I've mentioned they are not my strong point.

 

[Yang Liu]

Plotinus: here is a good overview for the different size of an mammoth.

I hope, you bring up an first preview on sunday !!!

H.Balck

 

[Yang Liu]

Example Mammoth Death flc:

H.Balck

 

[Madeira]

Looks great!

 

[Yang Liu]

5 days later and no previews. Plotinus - Whats going on ? Do you have problems ?

H.Balck

 

[Plotinus]

Yes, as I said, I had problems with the file and I want to complete the unit I'm working on at the moment first before getting to grips with this one. Also there are some real-life crises that I am currently dealing with. As I have said, I will do this, but don't expect immediate results.

 

[Gojira54]

The Woolly Mammoth upgrades ti the Snuffaluffagus with the Radio tech and PBS resource.

 

[Plotinus]

All right, after much delay here is a Walk preview:

The little man is in there for a size comparison. I tried to make this roughly to the same scale as the standard horse units. The two main questions are: is this the right size overall, and is it the right size compared to the human figure? This mammoth actually has roughly the same bulk as an African elephant - he just looks a lot bigger because (a) the arms are longer and the head is higher, making him taller, and (b) he's covered in hair, which bulks him out.

You will notice a slight shimmering effect on his back, which I think is caused by the movement of the dynamic hair. I might make the hair in this area non-dynamic to remove this effect.

Also, I made the hair on top of his head a bit lighter than the rest, to add some contrast, but now I see the rendered preview I think this might not look so good. I'm not changing any of the rest of the colour, though, because it was exceptionally difficult to get the skin texture and the colour of the dynamic hair to match.

 

[Pounder]

OMG!, I can't wait, looks perfect.

The shimmer of the hair may not be that bad of an effect, I don't mind it personally, but I'm sure you will make make the right choice as per normal.

 

[Takhisis]

The hair on his forehead is, well, odd... it reminds me of Manfred in Ice Age.

 

[tom2050]

I think it looks great... size looks good compared to the ancient barbarian right there. Is that a forehead hair roll he's got going on? If it was the hair style back then for mammoth's, so be it!

Tom