Tom's Unit Factory

[bigdog5994]

can you make a version without the migic?

 

[tom2050]

Sure can... I have the red version (magog.. Atlantica calls it a Yama), and I am doing a brown version now for the Gog.

Would you prefer the red over brown? A non-fireball version should be pretty easy to recolor if any additional colors are wanted later.

I can do it today since I am doing these as we speak.

 

[bigdog5994]

im looking for something as close to this as possible

maybe you can take the tail off and add a sword?

 

[tom2050]

Yes, I can rid the tail and add a sword... I cannot make the horns larger though, because I am still in the dark about actually adding pieces to the skin of a unit, which would require making new texture maps and doing a bunch of other stuff I don't know about.

I'll use a sword that falls close to the one in your pic.

EDIT: first I will finish a unit for Balthasar. I have my Gog, Magog, and Ballista done now.. so that was much quicker than I expected... Back to conversions

 

[bigdog5994]

your so awesome Tom

 

[tom2050]

Magog (Yama) (unit conversion)

Civ color has been added. I have added Fire Particle Effects to the original model.

Download here... YamaM1.rar

Unit32, Large/Small pcx, and Sound Files included. Is an Atlantica Online unit (called a Yama in the game).

 

[tom2050]

@Balthasar:

Here is the steam as it is now... let me know what you think. I can shorten how far the steam goes out, or make any type of change to it. Too white? Want it more grey? Let me know.

White may work better if it is used with the 2nd row of transparency colors in the palette...

<previews removed>

Also, I am going to take the pointed ears off the guy so he doesn't look like a gremlin His skin came out too white, so I need to tan him a little more.
The blue cone (right attack arm) will also be made to change during frames... so it brightens during attack and dims when idle.

EDIT: The steam can also be made to puff out, can be made to have less steam, etc. The steam will be made to stop during the fortify animation (when the unit is powering down, the steam will stop pumping out).

Now if you are considering changing it from SteamPunk to PollutionPunk, I could make one like this:
<previews removed>

 

[nick0515]

Whoa...

That is fricken awesome. I think the steam could be a little grayer and perhaps a little less off it. Looks cool though as is.

I imagined the steam would kind puff out like on the old steam trains rather than the continuous blast of steam you have. Yours is way more extreme than what I imagined when you first brought it up.

Cheers,

Nick

EDIT: If it's not too much trouble a pointy eared version could be useful to for Goblin-fantsay type mods. Don't need it myself though so up to you.

 

[Plotinus]

I would definitely vote for puffs of steam rather than the continuous streams there - I think it would look more obviously like steam and less like a solid, rubbery object sticking out of the back (I'm caricaturing a bit here - it still looks great). Obviously you don't want it being cut off by the frame of the unit too, but I'm guessing these previews do not show the final size/frame size/etc. anyway.

 

[The Guardian]

absolutely awesome. I agree tho, puffs of steam might be better.

 

[Vuldacon]

Cool Unit.
I absolutely would not allow the animation of anything to be cut off by any Frame because that appears as an invisible Line in game and ruins the effect

 

[tom2050]

With most of the animations being in the realm of 30 frames, having distinguishable puffs allows for only a couple at most anyways. With the speed the animations will play out, it will be easier for me to make a single puff per animation.

Making the puffs hang around for a while in the air would require me to setup a Blowing Wind emitter (as far as I know), which probably isn't worth it.

So with most animations around 1 second, seeing puffs like this will give the same impression. In fact this puff should be shortened somewhat. I'll play around with it and see if I can get a better more dynamic result like the steam from the train. Of course, this gif is at approx correct size, so it's probably not noticable in game anyways. Steam really isn't transparent in big puffs, so perhaps a gray color mixed in to the white would work best.

<previews removed>

 

[Vuldacon]

It's Good that the frames do not cut off parts of the unit animation
Not sure the "Layers" Effect concerning the Steam will look as desired though.

 

[tom2050]

It's Good that the frames do not cut off parts of the unit animation
Not sure the "Layers" Effect concerning the Steam will look as desired though.

You are correct on that front. I tested 1 animation of it in game and the transparency colors make it look layered and awful. In fact, the transparency blends the steam together, since there are only 16 colors of it, and it looks completely different than it does in the gif (like a big layered blob). I will make it non-transparent for sure!

 

[bigdog5994]

oh my gosh what the heck is that thing? it looks awesome!!!

 

[Amadan]

I think the individual puffs look better than the continuous stream. What you've been able to do is amazing!

 

[Balthasar]

What you need are steam puffs like the ones Plotinus put on the Steampunk Commando....

 

[tom2050]

We are the same track Balthasar... I changed the particle type earlier today to more of a Cloud base. I didn't like the other too much because it did not look like steam (looked like a bunch of snow-air blowing out). This is probably more of a steam look that fits much more nicely.

<previews removed>

Something like this:
<previews removed>

Adjustments will be made, this was first go and I only had short time tonight to work on it.

 

[nick0515]

That steam looks way more realistic. I think you are on the right track now. It really is an exceptional unit, Tom!

Cheers,

Nick

 

[Plotinus]

That is a big improvement. This sort of thing is always a nightmare, and often what looks good in previews looks a lot less good in game, which is really frustrating. You are lucky, though, to be able to use particle effects in your initial renders; with Poser this isn't possible. My clouds of steam were images pasted onto flat planes and cycled in rotation (the images and the method itself were actually devised by Kinboat to use as a puff of smoke effect for old-fashioned fire-arms). Poser is really bad at this kind of thing, hence the need for such laborious work-arounds (and believe me, it's a hassle having to rotate and re-position the images for each direction too).