Kwama Worker

[nick_op]

Originally posted by The Modax Jago
Possible solutions;


1) Remove the head from the Kwama Worker.

2) Remove the "tail" from the kwama Warrior

I'd say remove the head and tail from the worker, but nothing from the warrior.

3) Reverse the back?/front? legs of all the Kwama models so far.

Yes, one set of legs reversed. The leg goemetry might need changing a bit to acomodate this - I'm thinking it should be slightly straighter to make it look more natural.

4) "New" Kwama Warrior will be Kwama worker shell reversed, with the forgarer sticking out it's arse.

5) Current Warriror, with a few modifications, will be THE Guardian Kwama ( a new type I've been wanting to make ). Consider it like a powered up "armor suit", +10

By 'new' Kwama Warrior, do you mean the concept that Gez posted that we're now following? The current warrior fits fine for it. The Guardian could perhaps be more like the current Worker - low to the ground and built like a tank.

6) Skrimmer and Queen will be whats left to work on.

I think that about sums it up. Let me know guys.

Thanks for the lore ref. some of it is kindof esoteric and hard to know.

As always we want to keep original to the ES spirit.

I think the Kwama Queen and the Scrib will be the least amount of work (i.e. Queen has no movement anims, scrib is a simple model).

If we're agreed on these point I'll get to work on the mentioned modification and skeletons for the Worker and Warrior.

[SACarrow]

One suggestion for the worker, based on this picture: if the forager head is removed, the shell cavity that houses it should be remodeled slightly to be more "face-like". Maybe pulling out the bottom to give that vaguely ceratopsian appearance and adding some variety to that part of the texture might help.

Another drachma from me,
Steve

[The Modax Jago]

Ok. This is what I think.

1) Let us be as loyal to ES lore as possible. I dont mind doing more work, as long as its original to ES.

2) Frist the worker. It needs to have the Forager head removed, and some remodeling work done on it to make a more face like opening. Also it needs to have it's back legs reversed, which will inculde some geometry modification.

3) There needs to be a spilt between the front and back of the worker so like in the ES Referance workers can be split into two separate parts upon death.

4) A Kwama Warroir will be the product of a forager entering the body of a dead kwama Worker, in the quadroped AND/OR in bi-pedal types. (Please review the original ES design draft). The body will be reversed as the forager enters through the mouth and exits from the arse. This was a very cool "original" Bethesda idea and I'd like to be authentic to the creativity of the ES dudes.

5) What is right now the Kwama warrior model will be instead modified a little and turned into what would be a specifcally designed Kwama Guardian with large tusks. I will remove the forager head and tail.

6) The queen will large and slow, will have movement animation. It should be able to shiveal about the egg attachement pivot, so it wont just sit there and let you attack it. Its model will derive from a modified worker.

[Gez]

Seems like a good plan.

[nick_op]

@Steve

I agree with the suggestion.

Originally posted by The Modax Jago
Ok. This is what I think.

1) Let us be as loyal to ES lore as possible. I dont mind doing more work, as long as its original to ES.

2) Frist the worker. It needs to have the Forager head removed, and some remodeling work done on it to make a more face like opening. Also it needs to have it's back legs reversed, which will inculde some geometry modification.

Agreed. Ideally for animation, the legs would be very similar to those on the Morrowind models (i.e. knee is a spherical pivot) and have them less digitigrade and more straight legged. It would be easier to rig them, and the bends in the leg would be reintroduced into the animations.

If the knees were a separate sphere mesh that would make things incredibly easy.

3) There needs to be a spilt between the front and back of the worker so like in the ES Referance workers can be split into two separate parts upon death.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. The worker body you have at the moment is ideal as it is, only the head area needs some modification (and perhaps the texture and UV mapping could be revised in that area).

4) A Kwama Warroir will be the product of a forager entering the body of a dead kwama Worker, in the quadroped AND/OR in bi-pedal types. (Please review the original ES design draft). The body will be reversed as the forager enters through the mouth and exits from the arse. This was a very cool "original" Bethesda idea and I'd like to be authentic to the creativity of the ES dudes.

Agreed. I'm sure I remember them being both bipedal and quadroped depending on the situation. I'll have to investigate an Eggmine.

5) What is right now the Kwama warrior model will be instead modified a little and turned into what would be a specifcally designed Kwama Guardian with large tusks. I will remove the forager head and tail.

I like the sound of this. :goodjob:

6) The queen will large and slow, will have movement animation. It should be able to shiveal about the egg attachement pivot, so it wont just sit there and let you attack it. Its model will derive from a modified worker.

It from a lore basis that I say that the queen should not be able to move. See here. They can defend themselves up close, but it's the job of the warriors (and now guardians to protect the queen. Perhaps give it ranged speels so it has some chance against a ranged opponent. Perhaps it could be scripted to send out a distress cry if attacked - have all Kwama in the same cell converge on the queen's location.

Just my take on things,

Nick

[nick_op]

Here's an image of the geometry changes to the legs.

I did this for a couple of reasons:

1. So that one set of legs couls be turned round and still fit on the body.

2. To make the animation quite a lot easier.

I'm in the process of optimising it down to about 10k polys. After that I'll build the skeleton and rig it.

[nick_op]

Right, since no one has replied, I'll take it that no one has any issues with the geometry change.

I've just built the skeleton and I'm about to start rigging, so if you disagree with the change, please let me know before I've rigged too much of it.

[SACarrow]

Just to drown out the chirping of crickets, I'm OK with the geometry changes. I forget; since the worker is now faceless, he body should be rigid, so no morphs, right?

Just curious,
Steve

[nick_op]

Originally posted by SACarrow
Just to drown out the chirping of crickets, I'm OK with the geometry changes. I forget; since the worker is now faceless, he body should be rigid, so no morphs, right?

Just curious,
Steve

Correct, I'm allowing the body to bend slightly in the middle, but that will be normal skeletal animation. I figure that it shouldn't bend much or appear to breath as the body is covered in a hard carapace.

[nick_op]

So, since I've now finished my work for Project Windfall I've decided to start looking at getting this thing animated (while I figure out some animation stuff for a FO3 mod project I'm part of). I've learnt a lot over the past couple of days about setting up a decent rig (being ill will do that to you ), so I'm in the process of getting the rig for the worker built.

Once I've got that sorted I'll start with the process of rigging the mesh to the skeleton. After that I'll play around with it a bit to make sure I'm satisfied with how the mesh deforms.

This should leave me with a good base from which to start animating. Since it shouldn't take me that long to get the previous stuff done, I'm going to start creating a personality for this guy. Having a solid 'personality' should add flavour and life to the animations.

I'll be drawing inspiration from Morrowind but I may deviate slightly. At the moment I'm thinking that since he's a worker, he should hardy and strong. Perhaps have some behaviour a bit like a bull (scraping feet on floor before charging?). I'll think about this in more detail, just thought I'd give you all a heads up.

Discuss.