The Alexander the Great Project!

[Ekmek]

i'm almost done...just want to touch up the texture slightly and maybe add some alphas to make the feathers a little frilly/transparancy....here is a pic of the progress so far....

you know i do my texturing with PSP 9.0 which is close to yours but there is no way my texturing can compete with you! incredible!

 

[bernie14]

you know i do my texturing with PSP 9.0 which is close to yours but there is no way my texturing can compete with you! incredible!

thanks Ekmek, check the post right before yours, we must have posted pretty close....the helm is pretty much ready

 

[The Capo]

Holy . .. .. .. .!

That's amazing. I can't believe how good that looks. I got my hand attended to, but its going to be a day or so before the swelling goes down. At which point I'll provide the base model to Ekmek so he can sculpt a face out of it and then we've just got to figure out what to do about the animations...

This is ridiculous. We may just outdo Hitler with this one boys!!!

 

[The Capo]

I'm sure you've noticed, but I'm all about previews. I tossed the helm on what I have for the model. Again, this is not finished at all, a lot of things need to be rescaled and shaped and of course the texture hasn't been done yet, but hey its looking pretty cool so far...

Now here is the issue we have to address eventually; his animations. I am envisioning that he approaches, he should probably look arrogant/self-assured and I think it would be cool if he actually removed the helmet using both hands on either side of it. And as Ekmek has mentioned a sword would be a nice touch as well. But, assuming all of that is impossible or beyond our abilities, should we do a version with and without a helmet?

 

[mechaerik]

I love the way this is coming out! I wish i could help in some way.

 

[Ekmek]

Now here is the issue we have to address eventually; his animations. I am envisioning that he approaches, he should probably look arrogant/self-assured and I think it would be cool if he actually removed the helmet using both hands on either side of it. And as Ekmek has mentioned a sword would be a nice touch as well. But, assuming all of that is impossible or beyond our abilities, should we do a version with and without a helmet?

I thought using pericles would be cool but thats the other greek leader so kind of boring. But I like the sword usage tehre and the removing of the helmet so it maybe easy to modify those especially if Coyote has the patience to giude me through that. The other option may be gilgamesh's animations. They look threatening enough. I think in the interim we'll use pericles and map to that (I can handle that) then when bernie is retexturing I can get smart on adding LH animations.

 

[The Capo]

I thought using pericles would be cool but thats the other greek leader so kind of boring. But I like the sword usage tehre and the removing of the helmet so it maybe easy to modify those especially if Coyote has the patience to giude me through that. The other option may be gilgamesh's animations. They look threatening enough. I think in the interim we'll use pericles and map to that (I can handle that) then when bernie is retexturing I can get smart on adding LH animations.

Should we keep the model I put together or ditch it and start over though?

 

[The_Coyote]

what will be the base nif of the leaderhead? [best to start would be sometbody with a similar facial expression] Did not really played with leaderhead animations so far, so no idea what is possible and if it is really possible [did nothing so far beside my quick test], but it´s worth a test.

after we know that we can change animations, we should discuss how they look like (if would see like to see a mixture of warmonger [if he doesn´t like you] and philosopher [friend of you])

and of course i will help as much as my time allows (and the EE units atm)

Edit: theoretical it´s possible, attached a small quick (40 min) greetings test (works with pericles - and yes i know the right eye is a bit strange). Changing a vanilla animation in Blender seems almost as much (or even more) work than creating from scratch and also pericles annoyed gave me some warnings and a slightly wrong imported animation - so much work to do if the shall be a custom animation. Also some trial and error is still needed how leaderhead animations work (and are linked together) - see the helm after the greetings animation

 

[Ekmek]

Should we keep the model I put together or ditch it and start over though?

I think the armor and hair are great. the face is decent but will need rework (chin too big). I'll start working on a new head.

what will be the base nif of the leaderhead? [best to start would be sometbody with a similar facial expression] Did not really played with leaderhead animations so far, so no idea what is possible and if it is really possible [did nothing so far beside my quick test], but it´s worth a test.

after we know that we can change animations, we should discuss how they look like (if would see like to see a mixture of warmonger [if he doesn´t like you] and philosopher [friend of you])

and of course i will help as much as my time allows (and the EE units atm)

Edit: theoretical it´s possible, attached a small quick (40 min) greetings test (works with pericles - and yes i know the right eye is a bit strange). Changing a vanilla animation in Blender seems almost as much (or even more) work than creating from scratch and also pericles annoyed gave me some warnings and a slightly wrong imported animation - so much work to do if the shall be a custom animation. Also some trial and error is still needed how leaderhead animations work (and are linked together) - see the helm after the greetings animation

good info Coyote. I think we really want to use that awesome helmet now. If we went with an animation different then pericles it would be a lot more work to add the helmet right? (new bone, b_helmet, and re working the anim to deal with it). I think gilgamesh would be another good one but pericles ahs a lot of the basic moves. Do you have a better recommendation Coyote?

 

[The Capo]

Pericles would be alright, but I think it would be better if he completely removed the helmet from his head rather than just let it rest on top. Firstly because I think it will clip with his hair (whether we gave him different hair or not, it would be "lion-manesque" and would probably result in clipping issues). And the only issue I had with using Pericles' animation is the obvious "repetativeness" of the LHs. Although really that isn't too noticeable since its doubtful you would encounter both of them in the same game.

So basically I sort of have a plan; doesn't Ramasses II start out by raising his hands (similar to a motion you'd make if removing a helmet with both hands)? And if so is there a way we can alter this and combine it with something like Churchill so he removes the helmet and it disappears?

 

[The Capo]

Another idea would be to add the sword in its hilt like in this image.

​

So he won't brandish it, which may help us with the animations, he will still have it so he'd appear in battle-array. Just an idea.

EDIT: Sort of like this.

 

[bernie14]

although i would very much like form him to be able to take his helmet off, it seems a difficult task.....we might consider this....rig the left arm as if he is holding the helmet (football-style) under the armpit, and rig the whole thing to the torso, so you will not get much movement on that side, but he can still gesture, greet, etc. with the right hand.....

 

[The Capo]

although i would very much like form him to be able to take his helmet off, it seems a difficult task.....we might consider this....rig the left arm as if he is holding the helmet (football-style) under the armpit, and rig the whole thing to the torso, so you will not get much movement on that side, but he can still gesture, greet, etc. with the right hand.....

That's not a bad idea. Perhaps if I leave his sword in the hilt I could have him hold it in his right hand, that way we can keep the sword and since his arm will be stationary we can ensure there will be no clipping there.

 

[Ekmek]

although i would very much like form him to be able to take his helmet off, it seems a difficult task.....we might consider this....rig the left arm as if he is holding the helmet (football-style) under the armpit, and rig the whole thing to the torso, so you will not get much movement on that side, but he can still gesture, greet, etc. with the right hand.....

good point. we can start with this. but who has good animations for this?

 

[The Capo]

Alright well, I put something together, doesn't look bad at all. But I'm not sure how stiff the LH might look with that arm stationary the entire time.

EDIT: Added Pericles' belt. Looks pretty decent, if not better, with the belt actually. I also cut the pic off at the bottom so you can get an idea as to what it might look like in the diplomacy screen.

 

[The Capo]

This might sound crazy, but what about Pacal?

EDIT: Also since that is the highest the arm can be holding the helmet and still look naturally we should extend the torso a bit more so you don't see the bottom of the model. In fact we can just add Pericles' belt or something which should buy us plenty of space.

 

[bernie14]

was alex right handed or lefty? i ask because as a lefty, i would proly hold the helm in my right and use my dominant hand to gesture....if he was a righty....you should switch hands.....which brings up an interesting question....if u X-mirrored the entire LH, bones and all, in blender, would you mirror the animations as well? or would it be some horrific beast of a mess??

 

[The Capo]

was alex right handed or lefty? i ask because as a lefty, i would proly hold the helm in my right and use my dominant hand to gesture....if he was a righty....you should switch hands.....which brings up an interesting question....if u X-mirrored the entire LH, bones and all, in blender, would you mirror the animations as well? or would it be some horrific beast of a mess??

I am pretty sure he was left handed actually. Because Hephastion was the alternate and they would sometimes ride at eachother's side and be a pretty bad ass force. Although it could be the other way around. I don't know if we should worry about it that much though, because with the placing of the sword in the hilt its better that he holds it in his right hand. Ultimately I think its best he holds the helmet on the same side as the sword. Since the hilt of the sword would be hanging from the strap coming from his neck (around his torso) as is shown in the mosiac posted above, this is the BEST placing for this IMO.

 

[The Capo]

Its weird that, despite the fact that they both were responsible for horrible slaughters of broad swaths of people, I feel much better about making this LH than I did about doing the Hitler one.... funny....

EDIT: Also he'd probably hold the helmet on the same side he has the sword anyway, that way he can pull out his sword at a moment's notice. What do you think of that?

 

[The Capo]

According to THIS WEBSITE he was left-handed.