Nexuiz 'Nexus' player model.

To start things off, I've renamed this player model from Ivan to Nexus. The reasoning is that this model is supposed to replace the old one (which was the intention from the very beginning).
Now, there are some stuff that has happened, oh where to start, where to start?

I've continued with the animations and have created several new ones and even posted links to videos for people to see. However, it may turn out that I will have to redo everything again (I'm not sure I wanna go there). The thing is, Nexuiz is using a format called .zym for player models, but the devs wants to get rid of this format and introduce another .dpm. They are essentially the same and the workflow is very similar, however, dpm-format can have several influences (4) while zym only can have 1.
What this means is that zym can only have rather rigid animations, each vertex has to have it's own bone to 100%. The dpm format allows for smoother transformations for it's animations, resulting in a nicer look. Because I've animated with 1 influence I would need to re-paint the weights for the skeleton, and the animations will probably change some.

I've I'm lucky and find a good way to paint and distribute or copy those weights to other meshes I won't have to reanimate everything but just tweak the current animations so they fit better.
If I'm however unsuccessful I either will have to redo all of them or just let everything be 1 influence for this particular model, then in the future use 4 influences.

Only time will tell what will happen. I will probably step back a bit from this and while I re-evaluate the situation and the procedures I may work on something else in the meantime.

Animation test 3:


Animation test 2:

Finished high poly version of weapon model.

Here's the high poly version of the designed Nex model. Going soon to start on the low poly version, UV mapping and texturing. What else can be said?

Cheers!

Possible weapon model for Nexuiz (Nex).

I've always wanted to create a new Nex model for Nexuiz ever since the current one got in, I never really fancied it. Recently a dude named 'NightRage' on the Nexuiz forums came along and posted some amazing weapon concepts, including a concept for the Nex.
The image planes he provided didn't fully lign up but I made adjustments as best I could. This is what I've done for today (made in a couple of hours), and hoping to finish it up tomorrow, that means the model, not talking about bones, animation and textures yet. This is the high poly version (I have started a bit on the low poly version but the rest will have to wait) which will be used as a normal map.

That's it for tonight, now I'm going to bed.
Cheers!

Nexuiz player model update.

I believe that I now have fully understood the process or creating player models for Nexuiz, at least in theory. I have spent a lot of time orienting and reorienting the joints of the player model so that the weapon (and animation of the model) will correspond to the world of Nexuiz.
It was a agonizing process where I basically had to orient the joints, export it, compile it and test it out in-game. It took a long time (around 2 days) to finally get the perfect base position.
Note that this is my first serious rigging and animation project (I'm a modeler mostly) so I did learn about skeletons and stuff that you have to keep in mind. I of course had some basic knowledge, but now I understand this even more.

So, where am I at now? With the base pose done I am now creating animations, in this particular case the 'idle' animation. This is the animation that is played when you enter the game and don't move at all, so while your player is standing still it 'idles' and moves a little.
This is a fun process, I like animation. I'm almost done with this 'idle' animation and will soon try it out in-game.

Cheers.

PS. I might later (when it's done, might be a few days, depending how much time I get) upload a video or something to show the animation in-game, mostly to get feedback and such.

On approach to Nexuiz player models!

Yay, I finally am starting to master that art! Unfortunately, the people able to create player models for Nexuiz wasn't that helpful. Sure, they helped occasionally but I had to pretty much go for a 'trail and error' approach.
However, in recent days I got a new energy boost from 'glennxserge' (on the Nexuiz forums) aka Joshua Mills (I think that's his name). He is also an experienced Maya user and popped in on the forums wanting to create player models. He also knows perl and thanks to that, he created a script which apparently is necessary for Maya users in order to get the bones correct for each vertices. The 'Valve SMD Exporter' for Maya messes that up :/

Anyway, Joshua shared his script with me and thanks to that I have been able to make progress. I will post up some images here but if you wanna read a more thourought explanation as to what I did you can go here (Nexuiz forums, that specific post).

BIG thanks to Joshua, I wouldn't have done this without his help!

PS. This model is not mine, it's not me who created it. A guy named 'Ivan' (from Nexuiz forums) created it and donated it to Nexuiz, he also created the textures, he's a great 2D artist as well as 3D.
However, at that time no one was able to rig it. Now it's been collecting dust on the forums but I always thought that that model was too good to not be included in Nexuiz. I personally took it upon me to somehow get it into the game. Now I'm finally making progress!

I tried getting into contact with Ivan to see if he wanted to give out some personal info so I could credit him properly. But I haven't succeed yet, for now he's only known as Ivan. :)

DOM Points finished

The domination points are finished. They have actually been finished for a while now I just haven't had time to post it here yet. But, that's what I'm doing now. They are also animated, logo rotates and hover up and down slightly and the rings also hover up and down but more radically, above and below the logo borders.

Cheers.

Team DOM point logos

Here are the different teams DOM point logos. These logos were already appointed in Nexuiz meaning I didn't just make them up but they've been in the game since the very first release.

DOM points for Nexuiz

I've started to create DOM (Domination) points for Nexuiz (next project will be Runes). Posted these up for feedback over at the Nexuiz forums (Alientrap.org/forum). We'll see if people have anything to say.
My favorite concept is concept nr4. Those rings will be transparent and hovering slowly up and down to give a nicer look to it. If there won't be much of feedback then I'm going to go with that concept.

Domination has 4 different teams and each team have different logos. The thing in the middle in concept for is for the blue team, it will be a different symbol for the other three teams.

PS. Domination and Runes are two different gameplay modes, in domination you capture as many points as possible and try to protect them from the enemy to capture.
Runes is where you collect different 'runes' which give you different abilites, some might even cripple your abilites. Like one can make you do increased damage to enemies, while another one might slow you down if you pick it up.

Cheers.

Nexuiz ammo models.

So I've created a few ammo models for Nexuiz, mainly the rocket ammo and machinegun ammo. Sorry I didn't keep you updated, things tend to go one way then the other the next second and time just runs away. These will be included in the next release which will be 2.5 (somewhere in mid-March I hear if everything goes accordingly).

I am doing a few more projects here and there but for now I will keep it to myself as I don't know if I am allowed to publish it just yet.

Cheers folks.

Updates

Wow, if feels like it's been since forever I posted here but now that I actually come here I see the last post was just a little than 2 weeks ago, which isn't such a long time. I've totally become time impaired.
Anyway, that's the the reason why I post here now, but in fact I just want to show some things I've been working on.
Firstly, I have finished the flags for Nexuiz, actually they have been finished for a long time now I just haven't said anything here. The official design will be a flag with 2 cloths, then people wanting 1 flag and people wanting 3 flags both compromise.
Secondly, I've made a quick thing for Kojn/Kojak (a Nexuiz player) to include in his movie. The Nexuiz 'chikara' character along with some 30 sec countdown in numbers.
Lastly, I've created a skeleton model for Cubeowl (Brutail, another player and helper with Nexuiz) to use in a map that he is creating. He had a skull that I also had to reduce the poly count for as it was way too much. But I won't bring that up here as I didn't do that other skull model.

I am also working with machine gun ammo for Nexuiz currently, as well as documenting it (by recording my steps on video) so that other people might learn something hopefully.

Well, that's what I have been doing. Kojn wants another little thing for his movie which I will make today if I have time. I need to UV unwrap that skeletong model first which I anticipate won't take too long.

Cheers folks.

Flag model update

Yes, I've finally found a way to animate those stupid flags. After weeks and weeks of trail and error I finally found a way.
Of course I'm talking about the flags for the open source game Nexuiz. The animations are pretty much done, there's still a bit more things to be done but overall the hardest part is over. Now there's just a 'semi'-hard part left. But before I talk about that I need to know if that will be done or even can be done.
However, I don't believe it will be long now until I release these flags for everyone to see and enjoy. So till then I'm just going to keep you guys in suspense about the animations. Of course, you can still download the static flags and follow the thread I have over at Nexuiz forums but I'm not going to upload these half-done animated flags just yet. You'd have to settle for the static.

Cheers.

Portals model done.

I believe at least. Unless someone has any comments regarding the texturing the models are done. I've put them up on the Nexuiz official forums. So now I'll just have to wait.

Nexuiz Portals model and DAC

Hi there people.
Long time no talk here. At least if feels like that for me, and I bet it is. Will have to check the last date I posted something here after this.
But anyway, just to fill you guys in whats been happening. I've started to model a Nexuiz portals model. What this actually is is the following: Nexuiz has a gun which created two portals, one 'start' and one 'end' portal. I even think 'teleporters' are a better word but they are called portals in Nexuiz. You step into the 'start' portal and you're teleported to the 'end' portal. Now this works only one way, so you cannot step into the 'end' portal and come out from the 'start' portal.

Now that's the actual description. But be sure to check that portal gun out in game. It's actually called 'Port-O-Launch' that gun.

Aside from that, I also have updated the 3D Buzz competition scene, unfortunately Maya kept crashing when I was only halfdone with my entry due to insufficient memory. So I wasn't able to submit anything as I wasn't even finished with my entry. This latest image shows how far I actually got into the competition. But I will still finish this piece in my spare time. I don't want to give up on this yet :)

That's it for today guys. Hope my next post won't be so far along into the future.

Continuing on

Ok, an update.
I've been working on the Nexuiz flag for a while now and I have a new concept and made it ingame. I'm currently asking for feedback back at those forums. We'll see how it turns out.
Of course, it if I succeed in creating a good flag is still doesn't mean it will be included in a official release. It would be cool, but I won't count on it. It's just a model for those who like to replace their flags.



Now, I also have started to work on the character guy model. I'm going to post it on CGSociety forums to ask for feedback about the topology. I think the body topology could be better for animation purposes. But I'll see if what I get and if I can get by what I already have.