Corthian's Naga

[Deeza]

Thanks to Corthian we now have an excellent candidate for the Naga. Check out the two snake guys in this group picture:

http://img203.imageshack.us/i/akavirraces.jpg/

All that needs to be done would be to swap out the human-like head for an Argonian one and apply a retexture. All of the bits that are necessary are include in the .rar file hosted below:

http://www.filefront.com/15797513/Naga-stuff.rar/

Unfortunately I failed epically when I tried to insert this into the CS. Could someone else do this and organise a retexture? In lore they are described as "black and glistening, with black eyes."

As for sizing, they are supposed to be between 7 and 8 feet tall.

[sHAdowgAme]

NICE! I would help with the retex, but I am kind of busy with the hist stuff at the moment.

[Deeza]

No worries. I think the Hist stuff is actually more important to be honest.

[Koniption]

I took a break from my break (bad joke in there somewhere...), and tried my hand at retexturing the naga. I downloaded the files, too, and will try to make up an esp at some point where the naga are properly entered in the CS.

Here are WIP pics of my retexturing attempt:

http://img26.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=nagafemback.jpg

I haven't finished retexturing all of the body parts - I've only textured the naga tail and upperbody torso so far, and even those need to be tweaked slightly.

Any feedback?

I tried to avoid obvious seams where the different body parts meet each other, but I don't think it's gonna be perfect anyway. Hard to make the same snake "scale" on one body part seamlessly go into the other body part, as if one uniform scale...it's just really, really hard.

Koniption

[Xae]

It's a tad harder to say with the texture being only in black and white, but form these pics it looks believable. The irregularities really bring out the texture, in my opinion, and you've really added plenty.

One thing that might need tweaking is the lower end of the levels. The darker parts of the front give a sense of depth, which is nice, but the sharp transition from the dark depths to the uniform scales on the back isn't that seamless, which I think is what you were hinting at yourself.

Have you tried putting both textures next to each other in Photoshop (or whatever software you're using) and drawing some overlap; back scales on the front? I think if you lit up the darker parts on the front ever so slightly and gave them that back scale texture, it'd help with the transition.

[Deeza]

I think it looks very good so far. Would it be possible to tweak the head mesh so as to give it a more pointed reptilian face, or would that be too much? I also have a mesh for larger teeth which I could give you, if you think that helps.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Yes, larger teeth and perhaps a larger head would be good but I think the effects are excellent.

Before he left us for his new industry job, Lore_Naga pointed out pictures like these: http://www.wow-europe.com/shared/wow-com...s/naga.jpg , http://www.ffcompendium.com/art/1-naga-a.jpg and http://images.elfwood.com/fanq/m/a/maelt...rident.jpg . Most of these are from other games, strangely but then there's also this dreadlocked guy: http://www.cerealart.com/controlpanel/im...1986-1.jpg .

What this shows us is a promising idea with respect to the hair. As we already have a 'dreadlocks' hair-type for Argonians then I certainly think it's something we should be using. You should be able to check it out in the CS. However, it's not very long hair. I was just wondering if we could use that same hair type and make the hair longer...? Alternatively, attach 'tendril-like' objects to the head as shown in the third link...?

This, to me, would complete the Naga. Good job btw, KP but don't feel obliged to work on this further during your break...you deserve it...

[Koniption]

Originally posted by Xaeaix
It's a tad harder to say with the texture being only in black and white, but form these pics it looks believable. The irregularities really bring out the texture, in my opinion, and you've really added plenty.

One thing that might need tweaking is the lower end of the levels. The darker parts of the front give a sense of depth, which is nice, but the sharp transition from the dark depths to the uniform scales on the back isn't that seamless, which I think is what you were hinting at yourself.

Have you tried putting both textures next to each other in Photoshop (or whatever software you're using) and drawing some overlap; back scales on the front? I think if you lit up the darker parts on the front ever so slightly and gave them that back scale texture, it'd help with the transition.

I can make the front of the upper chest area appear to the have the silhouette of the back scales, by using a normal map (made from a texture where I actually put the back scales on the front). I kind of like the texture on the upper chest area, so I don't want to take away from it by adding actual black scales textured on it, like the back has. I do plan to make the back and dark tail scales, even darker, to try to match up with the darkness of the texture on the upper chest. Right now the textures look silvery-ish on my monitor, and not black enough.

@ Deeza - No, I don't think remodeling the Argonian head is a good idea. I mean, I can try, but no guarantees that facegen will act ok with it. If I remodeled the head, I'd have to be careful. I'll think about it. I did make Argonian versions of the "fanged teeth", though, for the upper teeth. I have not tested the Naga in the game nor entered it in the CS. Only in retexturing stages right now.

I had another idea for the Naga - do you think I should make a "Hair" option for them that looks like a Cobra's opened "hood"??

Koniption

PS - btw, I really am still on break, despite me breaking it a little on my own.

[Deeza]

Haha, it seems you just can't stay away... Still, I guess this is a one-off.

Seriously, though, it's great work so far. I like the idea of the teeth.

Now that you've explained it, I agree it would be a very bad idea to alter the head.

The hooded cobra idea is awesome though!

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Yeah, that should work nicely...and it can be entered as a hair type which, AFAIK should be easier to do than remodelling the head.

As for entering this in the CS...then perhaps Corthian himself can enlighten us. He's often found around the Akavir forums...