Intro Furry pants have always been a curiosity of nature. So have the Undead. Now both are combined in an amalgamation of fur and bone to make the Undead Warrior. There's no special background information for the gallivanting carcass, it's simply an Undead Warrior. Anymore explanation of this point would involve textbooks and a major's degree in Necromancy. I'm just not going there today...... The Model
I am however going here.....
The model contains a quite beefy 782 polygons, quite high considering that the model appears less complex than the male model which sports a total of 590. It has a built in gun model [Chaingun - ID's Original Popcorn Special] and most of the polygons are taken up by this weapon of war and the bloke's rather spherical head. The model has a simple spherical construction and is okay, especially as it's his first attempt. He assures us though that his talent has increased so we can expect better in the future.
The model has a simple segmented construction - no detail - no fuss, rounded cylinders and such are used to construct the body and limbs. The model's construction is sound. No Back faces, wasted polys or anything along those lines. I'm not to keen of the whole very segmented feel of the model. The site of polygons shearing through polygons is very strange but makes the whole process of animation easier in the long run. An effort could have been made to join the limbs to the body, he could have probably pulled it off quite well judging by the knee and elbow joints. But I'm not going to be too pedantic as it is the guy's first model after all.
I wasn't sure where I should bring this point up, it's an issue of our dear friend the bounding box - so it should be one of the model surely? The problem could have been remedied through the model's positioning and animation though. Both of the Warriors arms stick wide from the edges of the box, causing the mysterious undead phenomenon of arms going into walls. This maybe an Undead trait but shouldn't be present in a player model.
The model, without a skin, doesn't convey the undead theme very convincingly. This is due to the aforementioned lack of detail in the model, with the right skin it could be made to look like a number of things [General Army Guy, Skin head rocker etc.], there is however a noticeable 'bony' feel to the whole thing. I must though draw point to 'the lone vertice', it's a niggling point to the model - there is a single vertice projecting from the head slightly to left of it's conformist brethren. It makes no great impact but is a point I should make [It's pedantic of me shouting 'bout one little vertice that looks out of place] The model's okay but nothing inherently special - but against it also the lies the case of the model's arms. The Animations
The animations are well executed, but are nothing special but they are mostly, decent lifelike animations. The jump animation is especially good. There technical standing is good but they loose out on the imaginative side of things. The Flip-Off animation is just bonsy here spinning his head and there's a standard gun flipping taunt menoverure. None of the animations are special and all the death animations are the corpse of yore falling to bit's before your eyes. This act of collapsing is executed in 4 not all that elegant styles, but what you have to remember is - 'What can you really do with a pile of bones anyhow?'
You should also look again to the point about the warrior's arms above. They could have been moved into the bounding box during animations.
I feel as though I'm leaving this part of the review a little blank, but what more can I say. The animations are good but lack the creative spark of divine vertice-shifting intervention.
I like the skin made for the model by Skizot, especially the furry undergarments. As the model is comprised mainly of flat faces and has no in-depth detail of it's own you'd expect bone designs as far as the eye can see. This however is not the case, corpse on legs here is sent headlong into the field donning arm 'n' leg combat armour, bover boots and accessories. His face depicts a rather off-putting grimace and his complexion is bony/rotting flesh tone. The shading and detail is good but the skin has it's flaws, the speckles of a rich light blue on the right hand side of the body look slightly odd and out of place.
The main flaw with the skin lies basically in it's mapping. It's not the 45% wasted space which is a bit high - this is counterbalanced by the fact he's used the friendly 256x256 format for the skin. No, the problem lies in the skin mapping, this leaves unsightly black blotches on the head and parts of the skin don't line up with each other. A good example of this is where the front of the head's skin can clearly be seen to be apart from the skin of the back of the head. They look similar, yet different but the showing seam remains. The same is present on the back. Differing colours also affect the neck join to the body and the left arm's join to the body.
The gun skin is too large for something you can't see and has an atroschoious amount of wasted space on it. Nuff said.
The unfortunate skin mapping and mismatched shading will knock the score down. In 3dfx and other graphics enhancement-bells-and-whistles modes these may not be obvious. I've looked at the model in the unblurring visage of what can only be described as 'software mode'. Sounds
Nope. Just the boring male grunts. This however can be remedied by making strange zombie burbling noises yourself. Visible Weapons Support Nope. Could be added, Blood Red says he might added. WHY ISN'T IT ADDED!!!! Pack Inclusion
Let's see... a 3, a 3 and a 2 + 1/2. I guess that's a 3 overall then.
The model's good - But basic and with arms that escape the confines of the bounding box.
The animation's good - But lacks imagination.
The skin's good - But not without it's glitches.
I'd say the model's in the pack. The model doesn't look spectacular in style and animations but has a good underlying technical construction and animation. The skin mapping does however makes the skin the big down point of the model, the skin detail would've been very good if it wasn't for the vast differences between adjoining pieces. The model will always have it's furry pants.....
As I leave this review and go off to plan my own scary creations it has dawned on me that the pants may not be furry. I'm sorry if there metalic or the kind that used to be on the backs of animals. I'll just always think of them as furry.
review by Citrus Frog
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