Unit Requests: Steampunk

[Balthasar]

Just to be clear on this... the Thoat is more like a 4-legged horse, like the pic you have shown?

Spoiler :

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That's a very accurate rendition of a Thoat. This is how they're described by Burroughs in .A Princess of Mars:

And his mount! How can earthly words describe it! It towered ten feet at the shoulder; had four legs on either side; a broad flat tail, larger at the tip than at the root, and which it held straight out behind while running; a gaping mouth which split its head from its snout to its long, massive neck.

Like its master, it was entirely devoid of hair, but was of a dark slate color and exceeding smooth and glossy. Its belly was white, and its legs shaded from the slate of its shoulders and hips to a vivid yellow at the feet. The feet themselves were heavily padded and nailless, which fact had also contributed to the noiselessness of their approach, and, in common with a multiplicity of legs, is a characteristic feature of the fauna of Mars. The highest type of man and one other animal, the only mammal existing on Mars, alone have well-formed nails, and there are absolutely no hoofed animals in existence there.

I'm going to try to do Thoat by itself first... and then I can add riders later. IIRC, you needed 2 sizes of them? BIG and small?

They are described as coming in two distinct sizes, owing to the fact that the Tharks, being very tall themselves, required larger Thoats to accomodate them. The smaller thoats used by the red martians are no doubt bred to be faster, and surer-footed. You'll be glad you have a large Thoat when you try to put one of your Tharks on one.

I might make the Calot today since I have something that I think I can use and complete it quickly.

Nice idea.

 

[tom2050]

Thanks for the info. Calot might take a bit longer, because there are a few unexpected issues that arose. But nevertheless, final Dejah is about complete, I scrapped the last one, didn't really like it that much.

I'm still messing around with the hair, to get it a bit more 'wavy'. Might remove high heels. Otherwise I think it's good enough to be done.

Dejah:

Spoiler :

EDIT: BTW, what does a shot from a radium pistol look like? Do you want just a normal gun flash, or something else (green gun flash, laserbeam-like, etc?)... Armed Dejah is finished except for the radium gun FLC, so I'll wait till I hear from you and post her up. Unarmed Dejah will be complete/posted today.

 

[Balthasar]

I'm still messing around with the hair, to get it a bit more 'wavy'. Might remove high heels. Otherwise I think it's good enough to be done.

EDIT: BTW, what does a shot from a radium pistol look like? Do you want just a normal gun flash, or something else (green gun flash, laserbeam-like, etc?) Unarmed Dejah will be complete/posted today.

My vote: wavy: no heels. And I pick green muzzle flash for the radium gun effect, because they are described as shooting Radium bullets, not shooting lasers.

 

[tom2050]

Couldn't get the hair as wavy as I would have liked, so the waves are more in the back and some on the sides, but you can't notice it on LG pcx, so alls okay; and the FLC's looks like wavy hair IMO. Was fun making her, finally coming to a close at the 4th version . I actually did the high heel version as well, so will be included in case others want (can't tell much of a difference anyway in the FLC's).

EDIT: Both have been uploaded.

 

[tom2050]

This is the best I can get a Calot out of the model I'm using. Just need to fit the other 6 legs in now.

It's legs might be a bit tall, but when I render I can 'squash' the render height to make it's legs shorter (doing a similar thing with all the Tharks to make them taller). This will also have the side-effect of making it look a little plumper.

 

[Takhisis]

I think the body needs to be longer for ten legs to fit in.

 

[tom2050]

What! Longer?! You don't think this works?

 

[Supa]

Who are YOU? said the Caterpillar. ^^

 

[Balthasar]

The legs look great, Tom, but now you might want to consider making the head much larger to make up for the longer-looking body. It's described in the books as sort of a big, really ugly puppy with heroic tendencies, so I'd think you can feel free to use puppy proportions (i.e., big head, eyes, wagging tail).

Don't forget that man is the only creature on Barsoom with nails, perhaps owing to a lack of natural protein sources in the environment which caused that planet's creatures to evolve extra limbs and huge mouths full of teeth for defense instead. Barsoomian humans, on the other hand, are omnivores, and so able to obtain protein from multiple sources - which accounts for their different evolutionary path. Thark women and White Gorillas also have rudimentary nails, and are also omnivore species. There is another theory about that presented >here<, but I think it takes Barsoomian mythology too much into account to describe what is otherwise a fairly straightforward case of environmental determinism.

Supa: It's the Tharks that would remind me of Giant catarpillars. I could imagine a Thark with a Hookah.

 

[Takhisis]

What! Longer?! You don't think this works?

The eyes are too small and it's a bit hairless too IMHO.
(Yes, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to such things)

 

[Blue Monkey]

OP updated with more kudos & current requests.

 

[Supa]

Great, some Frankenstein's Monsters found a home!

I don't think there is any new request, though.

 

[Moosezilla]

I know you are working on a reorganization of the Steampunk Scenario sub-forum, but being impatient as I am; any news of new units? I saw Balam-Agab was on the forum a couple days ago.

 

[Balthasar]

I know you are working on a reorganization of the Steampunk Scenario sub-forum, but being impatient as I am; any news of new units? I saw Bag-Alam (?) was on the forum a couple days ago.

Tom reports that he's working on the completing the Thark line, which is an amazing project in which he's animating each of four separate arms on each one. Virote Considon surprised me recently with news that he's working on a Gentleman Settler, as well.

I'm hoping to hear from Balam-Agab about Alice. I do need to reach him, and haven't had any success with PMs.

Our most pressing need, aside from the Barsoom Units, are Leaderheads. We have a few that need to be done, and as soon as our reorganization is done, I'm adding another one to the list that I'd overlooked in our previous requests: King Luud of the Kaldanes.

King Luud could be an interesting leaderhead. The Kaldanes are a race that resemble large heads on spider bodies. They control the headless Rykors (Plotinus made a set of wonderful Rykors for the Kaldanes to boss around). In fact, it might be interesting to somehow have one of Plot's Rykors in the background of the leaderhead flic...

I also have requests on the first page for two other leaderheads: a Cthulhu, and a Pterodactdyl. Also: the pterodactly leaderhead would ideally have a 'red sky' background version, as well as a standard prehistoric 'Lost Worlds' version. I have my reasons.

I'm hoping everyone will like the revamped Steampunk forum. I've been working on a new 'Lost Worlds' thread with new screenshots and full Civilization descriptions. Stay tuned..

 

[Blue Monkey]

And let's keep this thread strictly for unit requests. If anyone can't stand the suspense, PM one of us.

 

[Balthasar]

Aw jeez! we wuz discussing units an' leaderheads an' stuff...

 

[Blue Monkey]

Aw jeez! we wuz discussing units an' leaderheads an' stuff...

The prescription is prophylactic rather than remedial, as John H. W. would say.

 

[Blue Monkey]

The steampunk forum is reorganized & reopened.

Check the directory if you're not sure where to find things. Make any general posts (not related to a specific scenario) here.

 

[tom2050]

The eyes are too small and it's a bit hairless too IMHO.
(Yes, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to such things)

The legs look great, Tom, but now you might want to consider making the head much larger to make up for the longer-looking body.

Don't forget that man is the only creature on Barsoom with nails, perhaps owing to a lack of natural protein sources in the environment which caused that planet's creatures to evolve extra limbs and huge mouths full of teeth for defense instead.

I think the body needs to be longer for ten legs to fit in.

Okay, I haven't been successful in extending the body for a couple reasons... I am able to 'stretch' the spine bone, but cannot limit the stretch to include only the body, it effects the whole unit (body and tail also). The mesh is 'skinned' to the bones; this is why it happens. You cannot just stretch the mesh, because odd things happen in the animation.

So if I understand correctly how this stuff works, I would have to remove the current skin; then modify the bone structure to lengthen it, modify the mesh to lengthen it, and then reapply the skin to the modified bone structure. Of course, having said that, I would need to apply all the skin weights and so forth, and I'm just not good enough in doing that at this time.

Therefore; to avoid all that which I don't completely understand (not that I don't want to learn, I don't have the time to learn), I can make the head larger, the legs smaller, and give it some more fur/hair on it's neck area (it doesn't have any on the body according to the picture), and I think the Calot should be good enough for what I am able to do.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Agreed, tom2050. To the list of what you would need to redo add that the animations would need to be completely redone because the math is different because of the now different relationships between skeleton & mesh. Far too much time involved. Your second solution makes a lot more sense.