Sun and Moon

[John.d.h]

I'd estimate that I'm a little under halfway done, I guess.  I think the biggest hurdle I have to overcome is learning to animate.  Other than that, I think I've got things pretty well under control.  Texturing just takes practice.  I'm not that good at it yet either (I mostly just put together different parts from other textures) but I'm learning pretty quickly.

[MadElf]

Animation is easier than you think, but I could be a Nithgmare sometimes...
The tutorial I learnd how to animate:

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Tutorials/Animation/BSoD/Character_Animation

[gameboy]

I'd estimate that I'm a little under halfway done, I guess.  I think the biggest hurdle I have to overcome is learning to animate.  Other than that, I think I've got things pretty well under control.  Texturing just takes practice.  I'm not that good at it yet either (I mostly just put together different parts from other textures) but I'm learning pretty quickly.

Thats how I started, I think a good way to an idea of how textures are created is to look at other games like AOE 3, AOM. All you need is the editor kit.

[Hectate]

If you'd like some help skinning (also known as texturing) I'd be glad to do one of the buildings for you. I'm laying out the UV right now on another unit for Eaglestone (a mod in progress), but doing one of your structures shouldn't be too difficult, the models look fairly straightforward.

If you'd like assurance that I know what I'm doing, here's a g3d viewer screenshot of my last structure completed.

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[img]http://www.netlate.com/img/shipyard2.jpg[/img]Please disregard the apparent scale discrepancies in the various doors as well as the unusual design. I have my reasons. Additionally, this one in particular uses actual alpha instead of teamcolor, but I know how teamcolor works just as easily. (all the other units have it instead)

All I would need is the .blend file and some direction of what you would like. I'd be glad to help, I'm interested in seeing your mod as it progresses.

[John.d.h]

Here's my first attempt at posing a character using Blender's armature system.  So far this is just a pose, but I plan on making it into an animation some time today or next week (if I go out of town this weekend).  As you can see, I also redid the texture on the character's clothes and added some oak leaf tattoos on his back.

Is there any way to take the armature from this model and use it on a different one so I don't have to remake it?  It was kind of a hassle to make.

Animation is easier than you think, but I could be a Nithgmare sometimes...
The tutorial I learnd how to animate:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Tutorials/Animation/BSoD/Character_Animation

Thanks for the tutorial.  I was up until about 5 in the morning working on it. 

If you'd like some help skinning (also known as texturing) I'd be glad to do one of the buildings for you. I'm laying out the UV right now on another unit for Eaglestone (a mod in progress), but doing one of your structures shouldn't be too difficult, the models look fairly straightforward.
<abridged>
All I would need is the .blend file and some direction of what you would like. I'd be glad to help, I'm interested in seeing your mod as it progresses.

Thanks for the offer, but since my modeling and texturing skills are rapidly improving, I'd like to continue improving my models a little before they're textured, which I'd kinda like to try myself first.  I'll let you know if I need any help, though.

[madmanntis]

Is there any way to take the armature from this model and use it on a different one so I don't have to remake it? It was kind of a hassle to make. 

I believe so. You should be able to "Append or Link" the armature object and the actions. You'll have to parent your new model to the newly appended armature though, but after that I believe it should be good.

[John.d.h]

Thanks, that helped.  I went ahead and saved my armature as its own *.blend to make things easier, and then appended the other model to it and it's working fine so far.

[John.d.h]

Okay, so I took a crack at animation and it's actually quite a bit less tedious than I expected.

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[img]http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1fdcd9fc26e52c26523f6198b81874cf4g.jpg[/img]
As a result, the Ghazi and Ancestral Warrior are now completely finished except for icons, but those are the very lowest of my priorities.

Edit: Actually, I lied.  I just did an icon for the Ghazi and one for the Laborer.  More to come later. /Edit

Here's the updated change log (stuff that wasn't on the last change log is highlighted).

• XML stats have been altered to make them make sense (like the Dire Wolf's attack range), correct command names, balance the factions, and correct cell maps.
• Construction models for several buildings have been added.
• The "produce unit" button icons should now match the units they produce.
• The Kern now has entirely original voice sounds.
• The Serf now has a few original voice sounds.
• Just about all the units should have their own non-Magitech particle effects now.
• Moon has a new unit: the Harpy.
• Sun has a new resource: Energy.
• Sun has a new unit, the Mana Stone, which produces Energy.
• Sun has a new unit, the Scorcher, which replaces the Air Ballista.
• Upgrades have been altered and rearranged for both factions.
• The Sun Maiden's name has been changed to Celestial Maiden and her stats have been altered substantially.
• The Bog and the Bladesman have been renamed to the Orchard and the Ghazi.
• The Sunglass now rotates.
• The Sun Well now glows at night.
• The Herder's Pillar now has a texture.  It still needs team color, though.
• The Solar Circle's model has been completely redone and its size and cell map have been altered.
• The Eunuch is now allowed to repair all of Sun's buildings, not just the ones he can build.
• The Fort has a new model.
• The Broch's model has been completely redone and its size and cell map have been altered.
• The Ancestral Warrior has been re-textured using a modified "character" model and completely animated.
  
• The Ghazi has been re-textured using a modified swordman model and completely animated.
  
• The Laborer has been re-textured using the Worker model.  I have no plans to change the model or animation.
  
• The Kern has been re-textured using a modified swordman model.

[assassin]

This is looking really good    . Keep up the good work.

[Omega]

Good work being done.

Can you cut out the red backgrounds to the text though? Its VERY annoying. Black on white will do perfectly fine.

[John.d.h]

Can you cut out the red backgrounds to the text though? Its VERY annoying. Black on white will do perfectly fine.

No problem, just trying to highlight what was new, but I suppose bold is a lot less obnoxious.

[-Archmage-]

wow i missed quite a bit

Nice to see that you have learned to animate!

I hope to learn some of these skills in the future

[John.d.h]

Okay, I'm running into a bit of a problem modifying my Kern's shield.  I select the shield (it's its own object) go into edit mode, select two vertices, and scale them symmetrically to make the shield look more like the second picture, but then when I switch back to object mode, the changes are undone!  I've tried a bunch of different times and it keeps doing this!  It's extremely frustrating.  Anyone know the problem here?  I'm running Blender 2.48 in case that helps.

[-Archmage-]

i had that problem too when i was modifying a model

the only solution i found was to delete vertices and then create new ones

hope this helps    

[John.d.h]

Yep, that worked.  Thanks.

[-Archmage-]

Glad to help

This looks like it is progressing nicely
need any ideas, and i will put some thought to it

[John.d.h]

Okay, I think I figured it out.  You just have to go to the Editing button in the button window, click on the tab that says Shapes, and delete all the shape keys.  Then you can do whatever you want.  No idea what these shape keys do, but it doesn't seem to be anything other than make it so you CAN'T DO ANYTHING, so it seems okay to delete them.

[gameboy]

the shape keys are for animating, its there because glest uses shape key and not bone animation.
Try downloading the original glest models, you won't have that problem.

[John.d.h]

Well, it's animating perfectly fine without them, so I guess it's okay.

[gameboy]

Hey, check out this banner I made for the moddb project, how do you like it?

Of course it could look better with some more work, but I just wanted some confirming.
If you want the GIMP file I could give it you.

[John.d.h]

I think it would look better if it was more metallic, kinda like the Glest logo.  Then there could be a half-sun half-moon sorta thing in the middle, with daytime on the solar side and night on the lunar side.  Kinda like this but without the face, and more blended together in the middle.  Then the day side of the text could be more bronze/gold colored while the night side could be more silvery.

Edit: I finished animating the Kern and did an animation for the Serf as well.  The Serf is Moon's worker unit, and he's using the same model and animations as Tech's Worker, but I had to make a new animation for "morphing".  I'd like to think I took a pretty creative approach to what I did with it.  The Kern was kind of a hassle to animate because he holds extra spears in his left hand (along with his shield) and he kept stabbing himself when he moved his shield.

[John.d.h]

New screenshot for Moon.  I put it in image form in the first post, but here it is if you're feeling lazy. 

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[url=http://www.moddb.com/mods/sun-and-moon/images/broch-et-al]http://www.moddb.com/mods/sun-and-moon/images/broch-et-al[/url]
Here you can see the newly-textured Broch (Moon's ultimate building) as well as the Ancestral Warrior, Kern, and Serf (morphing into a Kern).  Unit textures are currently WIP, but I'd say the Broch is just about done.  I just need to add a banner or something for team color.

What do you think?

[gameboy]

I'll make the banner for moon, just give me a few days.
My idea for the design will be two trees intertwined together, how about it?

[-Archmage-]

with i very large picture of the moon for a background 

[John.d.h]

I actually already made a flag for the Broch, but if you make a banner I'm sure I'll find a use for it.  Trees, a crescent moon, and maybe something to do with a wolf would be good, since those are three main symbols for Moon (like the wolf paw, crescent moon, and oak leaf tattoos on the Ancestral Warrior).  Also, if you could make it look kinda Celtic/Norse-looking, that would be even better.

Click here for the Broch (animated *.gif of the flag waving in the wind) and here for the Dun (which I accidentally made last night).  Note: The Dun is still a work in progress, but it's the first building I've made entirely in Blender (i.e. without starting out in AutoCAD) so that's a big step forward and I just thought I'd show it off!

Some unit icons I made a while ago:

I plan on redoing them when I make better textures for these units, but they'll work for now.  I could use a good icon background for Moon, though.