Taking Ideas for sea units

[Voltron81]

Okay I have been doing alot of tutorials for 3ds max. (A friend email me alot of cool pdfs stuff like 3ds max bible, a set of quicktime movie tutorials, etc) I think i am ready to try and tackle my first project.

I have a general idea of what i want. For my mod I need a unit for water. It would be under a technology called "AquaMorphs" Basically a biological unit for the water, using genetic manipulation.

The problem i see with this is not the model itself but with animation. Also i have a problem with the logic of a giant squid being able to take on a battleship. Most of the "biomorphs" i am creating have a good withdraw prob and regeneration ability, more movement but low strength (bonus against mechs though) so they would be good for hit and run tactics. also cannot capture cities.
I was thinking of a modification of either squid or whale. (the idea of whale i like because it can make whale a required resource for producing this)

Currently i am going to work on the idea of the whale (some sort of genetic alteration making it a lot more volatile), but I want get some ideas from the community and if some can think of something cool. Or if they have seen something from some fantasy show or a book they read etc...

Also which is considered the "front" of the model. X, y, or z?

 

[Refar]

The ships front points in the negative direction on the Y axis (in other words you are looking at the ships front in the front viewport).
The guns should turn and fire to the left (port side) - the positive orientation on the X axis to make the side-by-side combat animations work right.
The water level corresponds to 0 on the Z axis.

 

[Voltron81]

Thanks Refar. Wouldnt you know it my front view is staring straight at my creature's rear. Now i am just trying to decide what an animal's "guns" should be. I started out with a whale as a base. (blue whale) and just altered it as i drew splines. Then extruded. Was turning out great until i realized it was backwards.

 

[Refar]

Having it backwards is not a big deal - you can just spin it around, then realighn the pivot to world. Just do it before you start animating, as it is a bit of a hassle afterwards.

You can also allways export a un-animated preview version and check the alighnment/position in the game, before continuing.

Perhaps a whale would hit stuff with it's tail ?
You must not make it fire (attack) the side - the comment on the firing direction only matters if you want your unit fire broadsides - like many naval units do.
There are also units that will move in and/or attack frontal (melee, submarines).

 

[Voltron81]

I was thinking a bit about the frontal attack. Animating the the head to biting perhaps. (you have to remember this a genetic alteration of a whale so some wiggle room is allowable bigger than a whale and altered head) Using the tail and fins for moving animations if possible.

 

[Voltron81]

okay the model is done(unless i think i need something), need to work on animation now though.

 

[Voltron81]

I sure someone knows this because i have seen this but i cannot find in the forums again. Point me to or tell me where i can get the animation flow charts. I need to know the amount of frames i get to work with per each animation state. Also if one of states has to be certain amount of frames etc...

 

[Refar]

The flowcharts are with of the Example files released by Firaxis - http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=159481

You can allways make sequences shorter than the flowcharts suggest. Making them longer will cause minor glitches. It samples with 30 fps btw.