Battle Angel Alita
Rating: 9
baseq2/players/alita
Intro
The model is based on Gally or Alita as she has been translated from the original Japanese manga, Battle Angel Alita. The basic plot is that a kindly cybernetic doctor found her head in a junk yard and brought her back to life through his doctoring skills. She awakes without the memories of her past life, but with seemingly super human martial arts skills. She goes on a lifelong journey of self discovery. It goes across several books and is epic in length. The description I just gave is a gross abbreviation for the full story. It's like saying "Star Wars" is about people flying about space, saving the galaxy. IT IS about that, but there's a tad bit more character development. If you haven't seen this anime yet, the first manga is available in video form in most places that sell a decent selection of videos. Its a very brief introduction to the character if nothing else. A cute girl that can stomp some serious bootie, what else could you possible want?
The Model
The author is using a well known idea in the broad realm of 3D modeling, but seemingly a rare idea in Quake2 modeling. He reuses the model parts and pieces among different models to generate new models are a more efficient pace. If you jump over to the Devil Hunter Yohko model you'll find a lot of similarities between the two model, especially the torso, the arms and the legs. This makes it a little hard to judge, as the model still retains the high quality of the original base. One point should be made that doing models in this way is a good idea. This should not be seen as cheating or lazy. I don't think anyone would say that either of the two models resemble each other.
After looking at the Yohko review, I looked at this model to see if the few problems I found the first time remained. They do, but partially remedied. My two biggest problems were the knees and the feet. The knees are easily better with the addition of kneepads [ they seemed a bit thin before ], but the feet still remain the brick shaped stumps that Yohko had. I've spoken with the author on this and his opinion was something to the effect of "I like them that way. ;p" Since I'm the one doing the review, I get to grade on this :) The feet as he has them simply lack flexibility in the Z axis of the foot. It just cannot bend as it has no joint to bend on. Now is this important in Quake2 modeling? In some cases yes, some now, it depends how you react to the model that you create when animating. Evil does a pretty good job with his masonry units, but as he knows better, I'm going to dock him half a point. Mainly because the reviews are subjective in the end, so there ;p He can review mine when I finally release mine.
Score: Nine
The Animations
The animations are really a definite step up and back from Yohko. The author has obviously mastered the art of 3D art and animation. Now he's beginning to test himself and experiment with different ideas and motions. In most cases this has yielded some pretty exciting results. Some of the taunts, the model actually does a back flip and then lands on a single hand and flips herself back. A stellar acrobatic feat of animation in the limited frames sets that we're given. The one animation that just is probably not successful is the stand animation. It's even more unfortunate as this is probably one of the most prominent animations that you have in a Quake2 model. It's this animation that sets the mood and character for a model and Alita is dancing the box step in this one. She's way too active. This is after the author toned it down from a early beta version he showed me. He wanted to try this and see how it works, and in my opinion, it's just too much. Although campers will never choose this model, which might be a plus, it still seems excessive. On the other hand she is well animated and smooth as glass as she dances. The model over all is excellant besides this point and still a good reference for authors looking for different ideas in the taunt areas.
Score: Eight
The Skin
The skins and layout on this model is by far the best that the author has done to the date of his releasing this model. Ratamahatta may be a very close rival. In any case, this is a skin[s] that new model authors and skins should take notice of and try to emulate the quality. The skins are a bit more realistic than the cartoon shows. However I've stated it before and here again, characters should respond is some way to their context. The author has done this by really producing some believable metal skins on the arms and shins and the bodysuit has excellent folds and wrinkles in it. The illusion that this creates is of a well proportioned young female cyborg, that Japanese boys swoon over. :) The whole concept of using the texture map to portray details, instead of implicitly modeling each fold is shown here to work perfectly. Look at the comparison pic with the male model then at the skinned pics to the right. You'll see the illusion of rounder curves and forms were is easily seen to be angular and polygonal on the left. The author laid the skin out logically in such a way that additional skinners would have absolutely no problem figuring out what's what on the skin. He also used the double vert trick to skin the symmetrical areas of the model. The torso remains a single piece on the skin with front and back halves. Then the arms and legs are only painted on the skin once and the mapping is pulled of the model and over laid on top of each other to take advantage of the same pixels. This is the trick that the boys at id are using for some of the models for Quake3. This is actually becoming more poplar among model authors, but seeing it at this quality is very satisfying. New authors shouldn't think that this is a mandatory step in the modeling process. The standard id Quake2 models do not do this as well as a lot of other fine models. If you have a completely asymmetrical model, this approach just isn't going to work. However as most characters are symmetric biped humanoid chacrters, the potential for doing it is great.
Score: Ten
Sounds
No sounds were provided directly with the model.
Visible Weapons Support
There is no current VWep support built directly into the model.
I'd imagine that it would be rather straightforward to add it in, but I believe that the author is moving forward beyond the model, and you can probably expect it to not receive VWep support from the author.
Pack Inclusion
Easily, she's in an all accounts.
review by rogue13
author name EvilBastard
tris.md2
Vertices 355
Mapping Vertices 346
Polygons 688
Skin size 256x256
Skin Wasted Space 14%
weapon.md2
Vertices 38
Mapping Vertices 61
Polygons 56
Skin size 128x128
Skin Wasted Space ?
relevant links
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