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| Thread: New animated 3D graphics of units for VCMI | |
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mikkelgro
Adventuring Hero
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posted July 13, 2011 10:48 PM |
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Idea: Create new animated 3D graphics of units for VCMI
Hi there, I'm fairly new to this community and since this is my first started thread/topic I'll start with a hello to all of you kindred fans.
Some of you may have read in another thread that I have been thinking of adding my 16 years of professional animation & rigging knowledge and skills to this modding community. My idea is to revamp majorly the creatures/units of H3, with new ones made in Autodesk Maya and rendered using mental ray. This idea hatched initially after discovering the VCMI engine that will support 32 bits graphics and HD resolution to its new H3 engine.
As an animator, my dream is playing H3 with a full set of shiny new animated units, 24 fps with improved transparency edges. However, as you all obviously understand, this would take a while to do and I do have a life like most people. Therefore I was thinking of gathering a team of people/artists liking the sound of my idea and whom I can share the skills and techniques I have from the industry with so we can get this going efficiently together. I have led teams of animators and riggers before on various projects, and also know my way around 2D tools like Adobe Photoshop which I plan on using extensively with Actions and other kinds of scripting.
Let me know what you think and if anyone would be interested in joining a project like this.
If you would like to see some of my professional work (not updated since july last year alas), here's the link to my online reel : http://mikkelgro.com
M
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted July 14, 2011 02:46 PM |
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Too many fps will not work, because the game is hardcoded to play sounds and visual hit/defend on a precise frame, so too many will create delay between effects. Does VCMI intents to make this more flexible?
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Era II mods and utilities
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Warmonger
Promising
Legendary Hero
fallen artist
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posted July 14, 2011 03:06 PM |
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Current animations are not perfect anyway, so I guess it can be handled by occasion. Trigger can be always time-based rather than frame-based. Still, that's a good point.
I was rather worried by capacities and limitations of .def format, if any.
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mikkelgro
Adventuring Hero
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posted July 14, 2011 09:52 PM |
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Please correct me if I'm dreaming beyond the scopes of reality, but I was actually hoping for VCMI to be the catalyst for an openHeroes3 project, built as a collaboration by all of us fans. Even though I know my way around Python coding (used frequently for rigging and tools for animators), my greatest contribution to this would obviously be within animation & graphics, using 3D software. But considering the potential possibilities given by an open source project like VCMI, I would gather rather archaic file formats like .def could be rendered utterly obsolete by now? How about using something that would implement attributes like transparency (.png?), lighting info (maybe?) and frame rate in the video/animation file format. The engine could use this info to skip frames where needed, without affecting playback speed. Or, just something already open source out there, which would be supported by various software thus not requiring custom plugins/standalones to be used? Not sure what to suggest, but not quicktime since it's got too much 'Apple' all over it. You probably get my drift with this.
Good point regarding moving on from frame number-triggered sounds or other events. I would say VCMI should be thought of as a 2011 version of a Heroes 3 engine, just leaving the game in the same 2D style we enjoy so much. This is also why I'm not as worried about the scope of work in recreating all units in 3D, since all animations & renders are limited by the fact that the game is 2D, without zoom or any other fanciness. There's a max pixel res needed for all unit (and buildings/map eye candy) graphics, by the percentage it takes of the screen in 1080P HD screen size. Animations can be reused by clever scripting for all bipeds, and likewise for quadrupeds. Wing flapping anims can also be recycled. It all requires a bit of clever planning.
Anyway, I guess I started this thread mostly as a way of saying "I'm in on participating on a community openHeroes3 collaboration". My contribution would be animated graphics using 3D software, and I would be more than happy to teach/guide/tutor those interested in learning more about what I do.
Cheers,
M
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