Velvet Jackson
Rating: 7
baseq2/players/velvet
Intro
Finally, somebody added the life and times of a hippy into Quake 2. When I laid my eyes on this model, I laughed so hard I nearly cough my lungs up. It brought back those memories of when my dad was a hippy, with an afro, and would go around saying "peace!" to the cops who would then beat the hell out of him (True story!) I just want to know how a guy from the 70's (or 80's, or 60's... whatever) got into the year of Quake 2 ;) As the readme puts it, he's one bad mutha, out to protect the galaxy from The Man (who exactly is that, anyway?) He even sports the happenin' platform shoes, bell bottoms, and the star-shaped sunglasses! This is definitely no ordinary hippy. This is no hippy that wants peace. This... is Velvet Jackson. Maybe now my dad will like Quake 2, I got to show him this... :) Seriously though, I thoroughly enjoyed this model, and wish that more people like Oddjob could do such original and surprising things (Wink wink Citrus Frog... the first guy to put a plant and a penguin into Quake 2) So I guess now we can finally get funky and groovin' in Quake 2, so bust out your old disco cds, your bell bottoms, your glittery disco balls, and "Staying Alive" tapes and get ready to groove, baby, because the funk of Quake 2 finally has arrived. Well then, having that said, let's get started with the real thing and see how good this model REALLY is, technically, shall we?
The Model
I'm going to try something new this time. First I'll list the pros, then I'll list the cons.
Pros: Everything in this model is well proportioned, from the head, to the afro, to the bell bottoms. It is well constructed, and gives the afro the perfect look but still under a low poly count. Speaking of the low poly count, it's 572, which is pretty low for what it looks like in the editor (without knowing I would've guessed it had around 700) I cant really think of much else, so on to the
Cons: There are some polygons in the model that could have easily been removed without removing detail, especially in the torso area. This could have made the already low poly count even lower. The feet are pointy at the toes, which look quite strange if you ask me (Name one person with pointy feet :P) Once again like with HubCap, I was never very fond of models with balls for hands. It disables any hand animation or movement, and looks plain weird, if you ask me. Also he's got some strange meshing around the waist, causing certain polygons to stretch and poke outwards. He's also got some minor bounding box issues with his afro... but that's a whole different story. This model deserves... 3 and a half stars.
Score: Seven
The Animations
The animations were just lovely. They were very well thought up and hippy-like. Such as for the stand he bobs his head back and forth and dances, and for the point he plain out dances. Oddjob really put some detail into these, he even made the afro move, bounce, and wiggle, and he made the fabric in the bell bottoms stretch out or be pushed, etc. I must comment on the jump. Among the best of the jumps I've seen, for numerous reasons. The afro bounces of and down, they body positioning looks just right, etc. And yet I noticed something else very odd looking... I don't know if Oddjob noticed this or not, but in the Run animation his left leg looks broken. The shin is bent left, so it looks kinda funny when his right leg is straight yet his left looks broken, don't you think? Also the neck splits open in some frames, because the head and neck is a separate object from the body. Another slight mishap is in the crouch animations, there is some polygonal interference with the fabric at the knees, but this is no biggy. Overall these animations deserve four stars.
Score: Eight
The Skin
First off, I'd like to say this model comes with four skins. Two CTF skins, and the two you see in the pic at the intro. Okay, now on with the detail. The skins themselves could have used A LOT more shading. Especially in the vest, which is 1 solid color. I must say though that the face is much well done than the rest of the skin, and it makes me wonder why he didn't do so good for the rest of it. For the 2d layout: it's arranged quite well, doing a good job with getting rid of wasted space, etc. But it will be quite hard for someone who wants to make a new skin for Velvet. I say so because the vertices are arranged all wrong, and stretched this way and that. On other issues, The CTF skins are done fairly well, changing the color of Velvet's outfit, and they have a picture of Velvet on the back of the vest, too! (Don't we feel special now?) Well anyway the skins deserve a ranking of three stars.
Score: Six
Sounds
The sounds in general are kinda funny. Most of them (all exceot the death sounds) take the normal Quake 2 male sounds but add disco music in the background. This I found funny. Yet one of them (I'll leave it up to you to see which one) sounds like it was ripped off of a porno flick :) I was playing Velvet Jackson with Eraser Bots, and it's funny to be walking around in Base1 with a double barreled shotgun and suddenly hear disco sounds coming from the left. You immediately know it's him :) These sounds go very well with the model and the whole hippy afro-man idea. Very funny and unusual ideas for the sounds, but they could have used more change. Four stars.
Score: Eight
Visible Weapons Support
As of now there IS VWep for Velvet Jackson. It is the normal ID models, but they go perfectly with Velvet and line up perfectly with his hands in each frame. Although in some frames the gun doesn't PERFECTLY line up (crouch attack, etc.) and in the stand his left hand goes through the gun, but this is minor. I guess VWep for Velvet deserves four and a half stars.
[r13 note: There is also VWep support for Action Quake 2 available. Grab it from the link below.]
Velvet Jackson Action Quake VWep Pack
Score: Nine
Pack Inclusion
He's fully eligible. His hair is a bit tall, but I've found that its not too bad in actual game play.
You're not so funky NOW, are you?.
Just dancin' in the corner.
The Groovy Wars!
review by BloodRedJack
author name Oddjob
tris.md2
Vertices 426
Mapping Vertices 490
Polygons 572
Skin size 256x256
Skin Wasted Space ???
weapon.md2
Vertices ???
Mapping Vertices ???
Polygons ???
Skin size 128x128
Skin Wasted Space ???
Are there problems with this model information? Bad formatting? Typos? Broken links? Check out the original content, and post a description of the problem in this thread. Thanks!