The Alexander the Great Project!

[bernie14]

PERFECT!!!, so can anyone think of any LH that uses the left hand to gesture?....i think it would be ok if the LH "originally" used both hands, but since alex is holding the helmet (the right arm and helm rigged to the torso) only the left hand gestures...it may actually look like a "new" animation.....

 

[IgorS]

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....

Well, you can't really compare Alexander to Hitler... Starting with the fact they both lived in completely different eras...
Looks like your project goes well so far. I hope this LH will make me look for ways to use the Firaxis Alexander as some other leader for Greece!

 

[phungus420]

I really think you guys should go for it, and put the effort into making a take helmet off and hold it animation. You all are going to put in lots of hours building this leaderhead, and have assembled another elite team of Civ Graphics Modders, might as well go all out on this and make it perfect.

 

[MadmanOfALeader]

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....

Well, Alexander slaughtered a lot of people... but at least he was a friend of the Jews.

 

[The Capo]

I knew I shouldn't have said anything. And despite the desire to explain how Alexander massacred people left, right and center, and killed infants by throwing them from the walls of Tyre (PERSONALLY), I will hold back.

Anyway, end of discussion about Alexander/Hitler. That has no place here. I do believe that Zara Yaqob uses his left hand to gesture. At least in Ekmek's LH gallery Akbar appears to be gesturing with his left hand in the image, which I think would look good with Alexander holding the helmet. I am not sure how possible this is but I think that is certainly an option.

@ Phungus; I agree that the removal of the helmet would be ideal. But I don't think either one of the three of us (Bernie14, Ekmek and myself) have capabilites at that level, if I am wrong I will be happy to be proven so. I did ask The_Coyote to help, but he has been animating a huge collection of future units so he may be busy at the moment, or even uninterested. So I guess my point is - while it would be awesome, it probably won't happen.

 

[The Capo]

PERFECT!!!, so can anyone think of any LH that uses the left hand to gesture?....i think it would be ok if the LH "originally" used both hands, but since alex is holding the helmet (the right arm and helm rigged to the torso) only the left hand gestures...it may actually look like a "new" animation.....

Or, if we can find a few leaders that are compatible we might be able to make it look really different by mixing up their animations.

 

[Ekmek]

I'll test run Zara Yacob's anim and see what they have. Maybe we start ther and as we practice custom anims we can alwasy come back.

 

[Lone Wolf]

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....

All conquerors are responsible for slaughters of broad swaths of people. Hitler's ideology, the fact that he murdered citizens of his nation that would pose no threat to him en masse and his (relatively) enlightened times is what makes him more remarkable then any other conqueror.

 

[IgorS]

his (relatively) enlightened times

This is the main factor! Lets not forget Alexander lived in ancient times, when people didn't really value life and even wanted to be killed in the most glorious way possible. So lives of other people from other places weren't important at all. Alexander wasn't the only one, after all, who did cruel things. Those things seem awful to us in the 21-st century, but didn't really seem out of the ordinary in ancient and medieval times.

Anyway, back to the reason why we're here. I really hope you can figure out a good solution to the LH's animations. It will be really great to have something new. I really hope you know what you are doing. Still, you don't have to make custom animations- look at the Nefertiti LH by Pencilgod- not only it is based on Isabella, but also uses her animations, but who cares??? Good luck!

 

[The Capo]

I really hope you know what you are doing.

I think between the three of us we collectively know what we are doing.

 

[IgorS]

I think between the three of us we collectively know what we are doing.

That's good. As far as I know custom animations were never done before, or am I wrong here?

 

[The_Coyote]

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?

unfortunally i don´t know the differents leaderhead animations very well (not much time to play), so no idea which will fit, but adding a helmet bone (or two or three for the tail) to the nif could be also done outside Blender.

Also normally the greetings are shorter (~2s = ~60 frames) than the different idle animations (~10 =~300 frames), so if we know the base idle animation and the corresponding greetings (to avoid my pericles problem with the flying helmet, and this animation can be imported relativ error free), we could try to alter the arms to change the animation so that he doff (?) of his helmet and bring him to the idle position. [We could also try to create a custom greetings with an fixed (the original) end frame] Should be still much work to make this animations looking natural, but imo it would be worth the effort and also a good first custom leaderhead animation attempt

@ The Capo

don´t overestimate my animation skills (i wouldn´t call me more than still an amateur after my 7 custom units animation)

 

[Ekmek]

don´t overestimate my animation skills (i wouldn´t call me more than still an amateur after my 7 custom units animation)

Thats 7 more than any of us. So that makes you the master

 

[The_Coyote]

Thats 7 more than any of us. So that makes you the master

a bit more serious, i can start to really help here first next week

 

[The Capo]

Well if that is the case, for now I'll put it on hold. I would hate to go through and put everything together only to find I wasted my time. I think a week is a relatively short period of time to wait for an LH (I still have LH requests still on my docket that I told people I'd make months ago).

 

[phungus420]

Well if that is the case, for now I'll put it on hold. I would hate to go through and put everything together only to find I wasted my time. I think a week is a relatively short period of time to wait for an LH (I still have LH requests still on my docket that I told people I'd make months ago).

To clarify, you personally are going into a holding pattern, and tossing the ball to The_Coyote this week?

 

[The Capo]

To clarify, you personally are going into a holding pattern, and tossing the ball to The_Coyote this week?

Not really, as far as I understand The_Coyote said he is too busy to do anything for the next week, and after that he'd see what he can do. So nothing is set in stone. I just don't want to put the model together only to find out that we CAN animate it the way we envision. If that were to happen I would have wasted my time, and I don't like wasting my time. So basically I am personally stopping what I am working on (which was basically just putting the model together to pass off to Ekmek who is supposed to sculpt the face and maybe rerig it, depending on what happens with The_Coyote) until I figure out which animations we are using and what exactly I have to do on my end.

EDIT: Its important to note that with Hitler and Hiawatha there were already pre-established models that we just had to "fix" or edit, whereas in this case it is basically being created out of thin air. Which means it's probably going to take quite a bit longer than the other two (perhaps even combined).

 

[Ekmek]

Just to show that I haven't been slacking on this. here is my rough work on the head. The nose and hair need to be reworked. I'll try to put as much as i can into making it a good head but I know bernie will out do what ever i try

EDIT: this is the head I was trying to get albeit mine is a bit meaner looking

 

[bernie14]

Just to show that I haven't been slacking on this. here is my rough work on the head. The nose and hair need to be reworked. I'll try to put as much as i can into making it a good head but I know bernie will out do what ever i try

EDIT: this is the head I was trying to get albeit mine is a bit meaner looking

very nice..., but yes, i agree the nose and hair need some work and the texture definitively needs some work, a more youthful look.....that hair looks quite nightmarish to work with ....in any case, i know u will give me an excellent base to work with, u did with reagan, as The Capo did with the helmet

 

[achilleszero]

I agree with bernie, you should really concentrate on a more youthful look. Even though what you have now is probably a good representation of someone that spent 10 straight years in hand to hand combat without any healthcare. He is really remembered as the "boy" king that conquered most the known world.

Have any of you guys put any thought into the background yet? Capo had mentioned that having the a scene of greece in the BG bugged him since he left in his early 20's and never returned. But I dont think that any other locale would really be any more fitting. Having Babylon or persepolis wouldnt really do, he was still carving out a greek empire. The one place that I feel was a constant for him would be a battle field or a siege/burning city. If any one should have a background that screams "conqueror", it would be Alexander.