I guess there are 2 reasons for that missy ...

I was quite tired by the time I got to the wing texture, and didn't really put too much effort into it - I just wanted to get it to a state where I could put something up onto the forums!

And I don't really have any drawing artistic talent!  I can model fair enough (I think ) and if I can find a good reference photo I can use GIMP to get it to fit the model (ref. lion and elephant!) ... but creating from scratch is not my strong point.

I could really do with finding a good tutorial page on how to use GIMP properly ...

Anyway - here is a suggestion ... below is a link to the GIMP file I used to texture the wings - you will see it is very crude!  I would love it if someone could have a go and come up with something better ...

http://screamingflower.dontexist.org/daimonin/media/graphic/temp/torchwood/scorpicore/scorpicore_wing_uvlayout.xcf

I cant even view that :[ im a photoshopper

im a little new to textures (i wish i would have known how to make good textures back when i made all those skins :[ it would have made things SOOO much easier...)

I can try to do something with it :] but is it possible to get it as a jpeg or png or something? photoshop doesnt read .xcf unfortunately :{

~missy

Nice manticore.

Re tail and wings: I think both should be the sandy colour the tail is now but should also get redder as they join with the body..

Subaru: http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/743/scorpicorewinguvlayoutxr6.jpg

But the original had layers, which jpg doesn't support. Still, you get the idea.

Cheers,
Unislash

I don't know how that texture thing works. I think you should just apply some sort of red gradient to the wings, here's an example:


I really like the fleshy look, so I'd like it if you keep some of it .

Cheers,
Anich

Thanks all for the feedback - much appreciated as always!

@Uni - thanks - was just going to do that, so you've saved me a job!

@Subaru - I think you'll also need this:
http://screamingflower.dontexist.org/daimonin/media/graphic/temp/torchwood/scorpicore/scorpicore_wing_uvlayout_faces.png

This is the UV face layout for the wing - so you can see which areas of the texture that Uni linked to are used on which bits of the wing.  Have a look here for an explanation of how UV face layout works - you don't need to worry about the Blender stuff, just see how I used GIMP to create a texture using the face layout as a guide.

@Anich - I hope the above will help you to understand the texture stuff?

I like the fleshy look as well, but I like your image.  It seems to me that you've kept some of the colour variation but toned it down a bit so its more blended together?  Have you made the front of the wings a bit darker?  Which way are you suggesting the gradient goes - front-to-back or middle-to-edge?

@Smacky - disagree I think - I prefer the overall 'red' look.  If you search for 'scorpicore' in Google Images, the first couple of hits show an image I used as inspiration:



However, maybe this mob is a Demon Scorpicore, and I could also create a Normal 'un-demon' (?) version that keeps the lion colouration for body and mane and then adds the black tail (got to be dark I think) and maybe tan/dark tan wings?

Anyway, lets see if anyone comes up with a good wing texture ... for now I'm going to do some animating!

Ah, the scorpicore from Heroes Of Might And Magic III - though the scorpicore is not an original mythical creature (derived from the "manticore").

Anyway back to hte subject. Thanks for the explenation, I understand how the texture thing works now .

Yes, for the gradient, the front of the wing is darker and gets lighter towards the back. Keep some of the "fleshy" texture, we could try for some veins but I'm not sure if minor details like that would be visible on a small scale object.

If its alright, I want to work off from the current texture (any copyright/plagiarism issues there?) and just make some adjustments and add a the gradient. I think its really juicy . Unfortunately its late at night, I'll have to do this tomorrow.

Actually we could try for a sandy colored one. Maybe get this fleshy one done first, and then we can change the overall tone of the texture to get more orange/brown, and adjust the wings and tail - then we have another scoripicore suit. You know, MOB's don't have to look the same everywhere.

Cheers,
Anich

Ah - HOMM3!  I didn't realise that - which is bad of me as my wife plays that game (still) all the time.  No ... my original inspiration came from the cover illustration of this book:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Spell_for_Chameleon

A book I first read a long time (20 years?) before HOMM3 was ever invented!!!

No problem with current texture copyright issues - its 100% my own work just using some of the tools in GIMP - no source images from the web at all, so free for anyone in Daimonin to use and modify as they wish.  So, see what you can come up with ...

Agreed though - Red Scorpicore first ... Sandy one later.

EDIT:  Animated (although I didn't bother with a lying down pose, and some of the frames need adjusting - don't like the what's happening to the wings when he's walking) ... and made face a bit bigger and tail blacker ...

EDIT2:  Improved some of the animation a bit ...

Scorpicore - RGBA


Scorpicore - Indexed

Hmmm ... had a thought ... I just went and looked at a 2x2 mob (actually, my Roc, on the mob-test map).  I examined each of the 4 sections of the mob and I found the different parts of the mob (part a, b and c) always stay in the same position, no matter which way the mob is actually facing.

In other words, the server does not actually "rotate" the mob when it faces in different directions - the mob is always positioned in the same manner, it is just the image used to display the mob that is changed to give the appearance of the mob facing in a different direction.

With square mobs or objects (1x1, 2x2, 3x3, etc.) this makes no difference.  But with rectangular mobs or objects such as 2x1 it obviously does!  In other words, the way the server/client/gridarta are set up at the moment, we can only have square objects.

I suspect there would be quite a few changes required to enable 2x1 mobs - so Mr. and Mrs. Lion will need to remain as 2x2 mobs for now.  Not really a great problem I don't suppose ...

Yup... that's the roadblock to 2X1 mobs i'm afraid. It's much more complex indeed.

Torch, i'm curious as to how well you can animate/model at a higher res level. If you ever are bored (ha!), i would be veeery interested to see if you could come up with a warrior or something on the level of guild wars or requiem.  A lot of it is textures, a lot of it is bumpmapping, and a lot of it is lighting. But that's really all that you have to work on, i think. You're fully equipped otherwise.

Cheers,
Unislash

Yes, mobs must be on a square pattern to rotate in 8 directions.
If the server could rotate a 1x2 mob through 8 directions there would be a serious game play problem.
Because of the diamond shape tiles, in 4 of those directions a player could walk through the middle of the mob.

/chuckle ... that aspect didn't occur to me!  Settles that one then ...

@Uni - 6 months ago I would have laughed out loud at your suggestion I could create a Requiem-quality level mob ... today I think I'll only chuckle!  I've surprised myself at what I've created recently, but I think I've a way to go yet before I can approach anything like you are suggesting.

The basic problem I think I'll have is I can't draw - and I suspect making decent textures requires some skill in that area.  I don't know - I really need to find a good set of GIMP tutorials (I guess there are lots out there, but I haven't really looked yet), and then maybe I'll figure out how to create good textures.

After that, we'll see.  Ask me again in another 6 months!

(I guess with the fully zoomable 3D client I'm going to need to figure this aspect out if any of my mobs are going to make it into the 3D version of Daimonin)

Just going through some of my older mobs ... did a bit of work on the tentacle ...

Tentacle


Triple Tentacle


(Ignore the blank row in each set ... I didn't bother with a separate set of images for 'walking' - only standing and attacking)

Yes - I know this is another non-mythological creature but ...

When doing my Blender mobs there are basically 3 stages ... (1) build the 3D mesh, (2) animate it and (3) colour it in.

Obviously, steps 1 and 2 are really the same for a lion and a tiger, so doing the below images took me about an hour ... hence I thought I'd do it.  I might also try a leopard and a panther at some stage in the future ...

Tiger




Just a note on image sizes ... Tigers are a bit bigger than lions - and both are really very large if you ever see one up close.  So I'm proposing to leave the tiger as shown above, but I will scale down the lion a bit (and the lioness a bit more).  They will still be too big for a 1x1 mob, so will need to have a 2x2 arch definition.  I think that should be about right.

Hopefully the test server will get updated to MT's latest code one day, and at this point I can add all of my mobs to it - I will then create a full set of mob-test maps, so you can go and visit and see them all for yourself.  At that point, if we decide any images are too big or too small, it won't be too much effort to scale them in Blender and redo the images.

EDIT:  No time like the present ... I've done the size changes for the 2 lions.  I overlaid the tiger, lion, lioness and timber wolf, and they show a nice progression of sizes from big to small, so I'm quite happy.  Note I figured out a bit more about particle shading so the lions mane looks better IMO.

Lion


Lioness

That lion actually looks very realistic and detailed for such a relatively small image. Nice work

Cheers,
Anich