New 3D Artist (Kwama Forager)

[Razorwing]

SaidenStorm is a god :yes:

It would be terrific to have the kwama back and I'd support that pitch over any I could think of. Pity it takes so much Nifskope mojo to get it to work. I would have thought for sure Bethesda would have released the official exporter by now... it definitely hurt mod development compared to the old Morrowind scene in my opinion. The unofficial exporter and Nifskope are great tools of course, I'm grateful they're there, it's just unfair we can't export everything straight from the modelling program.

I wouldn't know how to answer your question The Modax Jago but if you haven't read them before perhaps these tutorials can shine some light on the general subject; if you've already read them, sorry I didn't know:
Exporting rigged models
Custom creatures
Creature Meshes 101

You can download the kwama creatures from Morrowind -here-. for reference (they can be viewed through Nifskope). Here's a video of the forager's animation:

[youtube=center]http://www.youtube.com/v/xBYArxS6uBQ[/youtube]

[TheImperialDragon]

I am definitely looking forward to having Kwama creatures to work with.

I'm not sure if this link will help you at all, but it has some basic information about Kwama creatures on Morrowind and the different types that there are:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Kwama

[The Modax Jago]

I've started with the Kwama Larva.

This is the high res model.

I already have the low res game model and am having the dammest bastard time trying to extract a normal map of the high res from zbrush. Did I mention I hate Zbrush. Talk about an assinie interface.

Tried mudbox (far better at regular SubD scultping) but the normals are fudged up from the ZB export! And of course MAX wont open a file with 300,000+ polys.

Either way I'll keep you posted. Hope you guys enjoy.

[SACarrow]

At the risk of gushing.

I hope you can get that normal map from the high-poly model. That would look outstanding!

Great work,
Steve

[Hidden]

That looks great.

By the way, I sent you a PM.

[Moryal]

If you're still stuck will vanilla animations, the rat might do the trick... It's attack is to lunge at the target and it almost moves like the larva would.

Not sure if that'll work but it can't hurt to fire it out there. Crazy good models by the way :goodjob:

[VABG]

Since I'm a honest guy, I'll say it straight out. It doesn't really look like a kwama and there is a lack of sharpness in the model (but I very much assume that you're not done)...
The face... looks like a face. The kwama feels more like a blob with a teethed hole for mouth...

...and ZBrush is much better than mudbox, but only generally. I personally hate mudbox instead, it's almost always one way or another. I must agree that ZBrush has a horrible interface, but it's okay after using it for some months/weeks(depends on how much you use it).

Those are my opinions.

[SACarrow]

Since we are sharing opinions here, and I'm occasionally an honest guy, let me say that I believe the points mentioned above regarding the sharpness of the MW model and the absence of a definable face there as well were, as the English saying goes, "making virtues out of necessities."

In other words, the forager had sharp lines and no face 'cause that's what 2002 tech would support.

Once we see a colored texture, much more will become clear. I personally am quite happy with the progress so far; YMMV.

Steve

[The Modax Jago]

Well I was finally able to wrestle a normal map from ZB, it's barely noticable in 3dsmax's scanline render. It seems the ZB-3dsmax pipeline is not very good for game content, at least not as far as I have it set up, its more geared towards high poly geometry.

Ok as the last guy said, much of the models from morrowind are a study in "efficeiancy" to put it nicely.

I'm trying to get as much detail as possible in these models, so far the Forager is at 9,000 polys.

Let me know what you guys think,

[SACarrow]

When you feel this model is ready, I'd love to try to get it in the game even as a static right now. I was also thinking about trying Saiden's custom skeleton tutorial to try to set up a simple set of anims. Judging from the video it looks to me that a set of 4 to 5 linear bones would work nicely.

Thoughts are welcome,
Steve