I would love to see what it would look like if it had normal but chubbier (white) gloves on its paws. That or id detail in the paws more for a better hold on the wheel. Like a thumb nub at least., but i would try the chubby gloves first. Also id add a bit more detail on the feet.
One more suggestion for it : You might want to play with the black shapes on the head a little. I think a big part of real life pandas personality comes from these black surfaces around the eyes... shaped as eyes! Since they tilt down , they make the pandas look a bit hound-dog like in expression because our brain reads this as a socket shadow.
So you could maybe explore SuperDeformed manga graphical codes for sadness, hapiness aso and maybe shape these black surfaces accordingly? It would add a great range of expression.
also I think the white of the eye is a bit too apparent atm (thats closely related to the above)
Miles : was thinking about starting one for it haha Yeah I know the tools are not out yet but we could make this the first (and indie!) game to have a modding community *before* beta release!
I am still getting comfortable character modeling as these are the first time I have taken my shot at doing characters. I am getting more confident with each new character now. That is one of my favorite thing about doing everything myself, if there is something we want to do I just have to learn how to do it myself which is cool becuase I love learning new things.
Everyone wants a platypus! I think there is some kind of secret platypus agenda. One problem with that or any character with a bill is that it would stick out and intersect with all the swappable hats and items. Thats why I have been trying to only do characters that I can represent by just slightly modifying a sphere, to insure all the swappable stuff still fits.
We are having a small test tonight, I will be furiously fraps-ing it ( lol ) and hopefully I will edit together a new video for you guys very soon. It will be showing off a new level and gameplay mode, as well as our first basic implementation of 3 items.
Miles : was thinking about starting one for it haha Yeah I know the tools are not out yet but we could make this the first (and indie!) game to have a modding community *before* beta release!
That would be the most awesome thing ever. I think I could probably throw together a "sdk" sometime soon of a character with skeleton ( although now that I am more familiar with animating and rigging I am kind of embarrassed with my setup ) but it would probably be all you need to make something that could be put into the game. I could even include some of the hats and accessories so that you could verify it would work with those things
That would be the most awesome thing ever. I think I could probably throw together a "sdk" sometime soon of a character with skeleton ( although now that I am more familiar with animating and rigging I am kind of embarrassed with my setup ) but it would probably be all you need to make something that could be put into the game. I could even include some of the hats and accessories so that you could verify it would work with those things
*edit* I could do the same thing with a kart too
*Pior:
*Marsh: SDK - would be very generous and simply awesome
Hehe I was just about to put a blank character sheet together, based on the images you already released of all the little characters :P Damn I have like tons of ideas for this!
(including, females)
(and, sculpted toys)
Hehe I was just about to put a blank character sheet together, based on the images you already released of all the little characters :P Damn I have like tons of ideas for this!
(including, females)
(and, sculpted toys)
Included files:
-rider_SDK.mb
-kart_SDK.mb
-TextureSDK (dir)
both .mb files have sample objects in layers in order to help scale.
Notes:
-For the hats and accessories, each can be snapped to the headanchor bone to represent in-game appearance.
-Positioning the character to get hands to line up on the steering wheel (steering wheel position is the same across all karts) can be a little tricky, feel free to move the character root skeleton around to compensate.
-Polycounts should be under 3,000 tris for characters and karts
- For a sample of how to construct textures to be color customizeable, see the TextureSDK folder. For areas that will be customizeable, the base lum texture needs to be grayscale, and a transparent .png mask created to define where the custom color should be multiplied on top.
Sad, couldn't open the files in Maya8.0... Maybe a .ma would be easier, or even a .obj? If you have the rig as boxes it should be rather easy to tell where to put the joints.
well I spent an hour trying to get anything to export to FPX but it would always hang up while exporting, I tried getting the latest exporter and everything. So no FBX unless someone else wants to try, I have also included .ma as well as some static obj's this time.
Sad, couldn't open the files in Maya8.0... Maybe a .ma would be easier, or even a .obj? If you have the rig as boxes it should be rather easy to tell where to put the joints.
I am actually currently only using the same skeleton on all my characters so far becuase it saves time, there is no reason why any custom character can't have a unique or even completely non-humanoid skeleton - as long as it has the same anims that are the same length and they physically fit into the kart and other wearable items.
When this thread first started, I didn't think much of it, just thought it was some kinda neat micro-kart stuff, and now with every update, i have have to pick my jaw up off the floor because its unbelievable how far this has gotten, and how much it kicks ass. Much props, and for the love of god, don't stop-
Save trees, recycle polygons!
Still have to rearrange the UVs, repaint some areas a little and do some cooler hair.
Plus made a quick Michelle Tanner female base
Also put together a little static template skeleton in .obj flavour. The zip has a Maya8 .ma version of the original template too - to make it work under older Mayas simply textedit the few '8.0's at the beginning to the desired version.
pior you rock!!!! that helmet would look so awesome on other characters as well! I can't wait to see this in game! Also, you know you are going to make a kart and wheels that are just as awesome, right?
thats ace
couple of tiny meany minor crits,
from the video its difficult to make out which were glass and which were holes, maybe a little more opacity, or some streaks across it?
the other was that the names are low res and dont really fit the style, sure thats temp though
yea, the names are temp, they will be spiced up to be much prettier in time. The glass is something I have been struggling with for awhile, I have yet to find the right blending mode in the ogre material system that always looks like glass. I will have to keep working on it!
why not try a normal mapped pattern like hexagons or sommit, or you could go traditional and add a streak in the diffuse texture? never used ogres materials but theyre supposed to be quite powerfull?
Marsh I think Shepeiro meant that you could maybe add some simple normalmapped hexagon patterns (honeycomb) on the glass surfaces to differentiate them from the voids.
Another thing you can do is to make these sheets of glass slightly opaque at the edges where they connect to the frame (could be vertex based..) to suggest dust accumulated there. A great example can be seen on screenshots of the last Devil May Cry game on the PS3
Marsh I think Shepeiro meant that you could maybe add some simple normalmapped hexagon patterns (honeycomb) on the glass surfaces to differentiate them from the voids.
Another thing you can do is to make these sheets of glass slightly opaque at the edges where they connect to the frame (could be vertex based..) to suggest dust accumulated there. A great example can be seen on screenshots of the last Devil May Cry game on the PS3
Gonna have my female bunny done soon :P
ah, yea I see. The vertex opacity is a good idea too. I'm excited about your space bunny! Is it going to be separated into a character and a helmet so the helmet could be swapped to different characters as well?
Me and my partner were just discussing yesterday about possibly releasing the garage character / kart customization section of the game stand-alone for people to play with and also to load custom stuff like you are making to see how well it fits together with everything else.
added some new screenshots to our media page. Most of them are yanked from the video we released monday. Click on the happy family enjoying Zero Gear to check them out!
don't know if this is mentioned earlier in this thread, haven't read it all but i have a suggestion that would be kind of cool to see:
after watching the latest vid i noticed that the karts still fell downward when knocked off the map. It would be cool to see them float off into space with less gravity and maybe run into a satillite. . or the kart sign.
-my 2 cents! keep it up!! good work!!
there is an effect that you don't see much of in the video where when it is detected that you have fallen off the camera stops and you see yourself falling into space while you wave your arms about.
Replies
Now, surely its only a matter of time.....
I would love to see what it would look like if it had normal but chubbier (white) gloves on its paws. That or id detail in the paws more for a better hold on the wheel. Like a thumb nub at least., but i would try the chubby gloves first. Also id add a bit more detail on the feet.
One more suggestion for it : You might want to play with the black shapes on the head a little. I think a big part of real life pandas personality comes from these black surfaces around the eyes... shaped as eyes! Since they tilt down , they make the pandas look a bit hound-dog like in expression because our brain reads this as a socket shadow.
Okay that was unclear. Pics :
This one looks sad-ish at first sight, even if hes not.
http://www.motherjones.com/blue_marble_blog/panda01.jpg
And then you can play :
http://caswell.blogspot.com/china/images/20040907.Panda.jpg
So you could maybe explore SuperDeformed manga graphical codes for sadness, hapiness aso and maybe shape these black surfaces accordingly? It would add a great range of expression.
also I think the white of the eye is a bit too apparent atm (thats closely related to the above)
good luck! Keep them coming!
I sense that TGZ would love to get his hands on an SDK of that Panda
here are a few short clips of 2 of the 3 items we hope to have working in the next video:
http://myzerogear.com/mine.mov
http://myzerogear.com/punch.mov
also, I like turtles.
You know you just have to include a platypus! No game would be complete, without. (Yes there are thousands of incomplete games on shelves).
wow, this means a lot coming from you! Thanks!!!
I am still getting comfortable character modeling as these are the first time I have taken my shot at doing characters. I am getting more confident with each new character now. That is one of my favorite thing about doing everything myself, if there is something we want to do I just have to learn how to do it myself which is cool becuase I love learning new things.
Everyone wants a platypus! I think there is some kind of secret platypus agenda. One problem with that or any character with a bill is that it would stick out and intersect with all the swappable hats and items. Thats why I have been trying to only do characters that I can represent by just slightly modifying a sphere, to insure all the swappable stuff still fits.
We are having a small test tonight, I will be furiously fraps-ing it ( lol ) and hopefully I will edit together a new video for you guys very soon. It will be showing off a new level and gameplay mode, as well as our first basic implementation of 3 items.
That would be the most awesome thing ever. I think I could probably throw together a "sdk" sometime soon of a character with skeleton ( although now that I am more familiar with animating and rigging I am kind of embarrassed with my setup ) but it would probably be all you need to make something that could be put into the game. I could even include some of the hats and accessories so that you could verify it would work with those things
*edit* I could do the same thing with a kart too
*Pior:
*Marsh: SDK - would be very generous and simply awesome
(including, females)
(and, sculpted toys)
They will be Maya files, maybe once I post them someone can make .max versions. Does .obj save skeletal info?
do it
http://myzerogear.com/ZeroGearModelSDK_v1.00.zip
from the readme.txt
awesome work man, one of my most anticipated titles
And Nimblebit looks like Gir from Invader Zim with a Viking hat on!
If you need playtesters let me know
Seriously though man, this is just getting better and better. Opening it up to the community is a great idea.
but what about the king of the animals?... the AARDVARK?!?
...oh. maybe not.
well I spent an hour trying to get anything to export to FPX but it would always hang up while exporting, I tried getting the latest exporter and everything. So no FBX unless someone else wants to try, I have also included .ma as well as some static obj's this time.
http://myzerogear.com/ZeroGearModelSDK_v1.01.zip
forgot to edit the readme in there but oh well, I'm busy!
I am actually currently only using the same skeleton on all my characters so far becuase it saves time, there is no reason why any custom character can't have a unique or even completely non-humanoid skeleton - as long as it has the same anims that are the same length and they physically fit into the kart and other wearable items.
Still have to rearrange the UVs, repaint some areas a little and do some cooler hair.
Plus made a quick Michelle Tanner female base
Also put together a little static template skeleton in .obj flavour. The zip has a Maya8 .ma version of the original template too - to make it work under older Mayas simply textedit the few '8.0's at the beginning to the desired version.
www.pioroberson.com/files/ZG_driverrig_obj.zip
Platypus's next!
I'm so glad thats a maya file... otherwise i wouldn't be able to keep myself from making one.
http://nimblebit.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-video-fallout-gameplay-mode-and-3.html
couple of tiny meany minor crits,
from the video its difficult to make out which were glass and which were holes, maybe a little more opacity, or some streaks across it?
the other was that the names are low res and dont really fit the style, sure thats temp though
Just not simply falling down. Maybe dissolve in many peaces or ...
if you have a chumby you can use this Steam Group widget my brother made, it features the Zero Gear steam group as the default!
http://www.chumby.com/guide/widget/Steam+Friends
Another thing you can do is to make these sheets of glass slightly opaque at the edges where they connect to the frame (could be vertex based..) to suggest dust accumulated there. A great example can be seen on screenshots of the last Devil May Cry game on the PS3
Gonna have my female bunny done soon :P
ah, yea I see. The vertex opacity is a good idea too. I'm excited about your space bunny! Is it going to be separated into a character and a helmet so the helmet could be swapped to different characters as well?
Me and my partner were just discussing yesterday about possibly releasing the garage character / kart customization section of the game stand-alone for people to play with and also to load custom stuff like you are making to see how well it fits together with everything else.
love the idea of a racer with an open source garage, i feel a tiny f-zero racer coming on
after watching the latest vid i noticed that the karts still fell downward when knocked off the map. It would be cool to see them float off into space with less gravity and maybe run into a satillite. . or the kart sign.
-my 2 cents! keep it up!! good work!!