Open jobs for modellers

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Thanks. I've done that very thing just now. Hopefully, this will lead to us recruiting someone on a more long-term basis as well.

btw, I just finished the sound set for Anaster. I'll keep people informed in the acoustic thread about when it is released as part of the 'Oblivion Sound Sets' mod.

[blackbird]

It"s not urgent, but I was thinking about something like the ar set from mw. it should be modified a bit, so this set can be used for caves and mountain passes.
The textures could be like those one the ropebrigde.
One could also start with dunmer boats.

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by blackbird
It"s not urgent, but I was thinking about something like the ar set from mw. it should be modified a bit, so this set can be used for caves and mountain passes.
The textures could be like those one the ropebrigde.
One could also start with dunmer boats.

Could you write a copy-paste-friendly version of your requests that would negate the need for me to do it?

[blackbird]

It's not easy to describe what I mean, but if you open the cs of mw or play mw and then going to ald ruhn and entering the interior of the skar (big shell building), you'll notice the bridges. Those bridges are not common and are called in_ar in the mw constr. set. I was thinking about some brigde because they could be handy for caves with a large interior, for cliffs, for steep mountains.
To describe one of my ideas: it's like that ropebridge which has been made, but it has a vertical factor. The brigde goes also down or up (depending from which angle you view it). Here is also a wooden platform which takes a 90° turn.
I think that those 2 pieces will be a good start and if they could be snapgridded or added together, you can make some nice combinations.
I do not have the mw cs available (for the whole week), so I can't show you a screen.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I just noticed that I was probably adopting the wrong strategy in asking modders for stuff for Anaster. I should probably be able to mod a basic Redguard myself but what I need is the following:

* A Top Hat (dark, dusty and dishevelled, please)

* A Trench-coat or similar full-length garment (again - dark, dusty and dishevelled but with a very open collar so as to maximise the chances of seeing the bone tattoo on his chest).

* A pair of boots (dark, dusty and dishevelled again, methinks and, if possible, with a hole in one toe or lifting up from the sole).

* A Skeleton Tattoo displaying the rib-cage over flesh (particularly Redguard flesh colour if this makes any difference).

* Dreadlocks (although Anaster would mostly be wearing his top hat, something like this would be good to experiment with, especially if the dreadlocks were short enough so that they didn't interfere too much with the top hat).

* A ceremonial necklace or mwabe used in voodoo. As quoted in the diary, it has "subtly shifting colours" and a "cluster of three central gems" but interpretations of the modellers own making for such an object would be interesting.

* A Snake or Bone Ring (perhaps two).

* A Snake Staff - used in various necromantic rituals slightly dissimilar from the voodoo practiced in the Black Marsh.

* Bony, claw-like hands.

I will post this up on TesNexus as well. With it broken down like this, it should make things more manageable and bring out those with particular talents.

[nick_op]

I'll give my thoughts on these:

Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
* A Top Hat (dark, dusty and dishevelled, please)

* A Trench-coat or similar full-length garment (again - dark, dusty and dishevelled but with a very open collar so as to maximise the chances of seeing the bone tattoo on his chest).

The top hat could be modelled with dreadlocks in mind, perhaps something designed around them.

I think a robe would suit the setting better than a trench coat, the front could be cut open fairly low to allow the tatoo as much visibilty as possible.

* A Skeleton Tattoo displaying the rib-cage over flesh (particularly Redguard flesh colour if this makes any difference).

Is this the chest tatoo? If so, you wouldn't need to worry about the skin colour. This would likely work best if you set him up as a "unique" Redguard race so that you can have the tatoo be part of the skin texture as opposed to and item.

* Dreadlocks (although Anaster would mostly be wearing his top hat, something like this would be good to experiment with, especially if the dreadlocks were short enough so that they didn't interfere too much with the top hat).

This is probably the trickiest bit, certain hair styles are easy to do but draedlocks are one of the harder ones. throttlekitty over at the Bethsoft forums was making some for his second hair pack, it might be worth checking if he'd be willing to let us use them.

* A ceremonial necklace or mwabe used in voodoo. As quoted in the diary, it has "subtly shifting colours" and a "cluster of three central gems" but interpretations of the modellers own making for such an object would be interesting.

Animated textures could be used to make the colours shift subtly. From that description, I picture the three central gems as being distinctly different colours (e.g. red, yellow and blue), with each one shifting towards neighbouring colours (i.e. blue would shift towards purple or green).

* A Snake Staff - used in various necromantic rituals slightly dissimilar from the voodoo practiced in the Black Marsh.

Would this be used as the staff weapon type in game, or maybe a torch style item?

* Bony, claw-like hands.

These would have to be done as gloves or gauntlets due to Oblivion only allowing one body type per gender.

I see no problems with any of the things you need, and certainly look forward to seeing such a unique, memorable character in game. Unfortunately I don't have the time to pick any of these up due to the other things I'm working on.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Thanks a lot for your response nick_op :goodjob:

I need to go checking through the tutorials to find out how to set up a new race. Would that be an appropriate starting point for creating a new NPC, btw? I have almost absolutely no experience with the CS so I'll need to take things step-by-step.

To respond to your points:

* Top Hat & Trenchcoat - Yes, this should be a fairly easy part. Some modders I spoke to are happy about lending me certain garments from their own mods provided I give them credit.

* Skeleton Tattoo - Yes, that is the chest tattoo. It's just that only the chest would be showing with the coat fitted. Plus I thought it might make a good tattoo for some of the indigenous races of Black Marsh, too.

* Dreadlocks - Thanks for the tip-off. I'll go looking for throttlekitty then.

* Ceremonial Necklace - I actually wasn't planning on it actually being animated. That was just how it was in the diary. I guess I should have already had that idea since one of the first people I contacted was J3X who's created a lot of animated weapons, besides tons of other cool stuff. If anyone can give it the animated touch, that would be great.

* Snake Staff - I particularly need this one in order to put into action some of the spells that Dephenistrator said he could help me with. It's meant to be a staff weapon type but I wondered if J3X's 'Staff Bashing' mod could be put into operation, thus making it a club/staff combination.

* Bony, Claw-like Hands - You couldn't just alter these through the process of creating a new race then? If that's possible, does anyone know anyone whose handled such a thing? Mind you, it's one of the least important of the modifications I was planning so it's probably not worth pursuing if it's going to cause difficulties.

[nick_op]

Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
Thanks a lot for your response nick_op :goodjob:

I need to go checking through the tutorials to find out how to set up a new race. Would that be an appropriate starting point for creating a new NPC, btw? I have almost absolutely no experience with the CS so I'll need to take things step-by-step.

You'll need a new race if you want the tattoo to be part of the body texture. An alternate method would be to have a clothing or armour item that had the appearance of the torso with a tattoo, but that's a bit roundabout, the new race is probably the best idea.

* Ceremonial Necklace - I actually wasn't planning on it actually being animated. That was just how it was in the diary. I guess I should have already had that idea since one of the first people I contacted was J3X who's created a lot of animated weapons, besides tons of other cool stuff. If anyone can give it the animated touch, that would be great.

It would be the texture that was animated rather than the mesh, could be used to make them pulsate, change colour, stuff like that. I think a limitation of animated textures is that they can't use a normal map but that's not so much a problem.

* Snake Staff - I particularly need this one in order to put into action some of the spells that Dephenistrator said he could help me with. It's meant to be a staff weapon type but I wondered if J3X's 'Staff Bashing' mod could be put into operation, thus making it a club/staff combination.

It should be fairly easy if it's going to be a weapon, it'l just require a new mesh/texture. I'm not familiar with that Staff Bashing mod you mention, what does it do?

* Bony, Claw-like Hands - You couldn't just alter these through the process of creating a new race then? If that's possible, does anyone know anyone whose handled such a thing? Mind you, it's one of the least important of the modifications I was planning so it's probably not worth pursuing if it's going to cause difficulties.

Here's one of the big limitations of Oblivion - all of the races share one male and one female model, which means that if you change something for one race, it changes for all. You could have bony hands, they'd just have to be equippable clothing/armour made unplayable so that the player can't get his/her hands on them (no pun intended )

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Originally posted by nick_opYou'll need a new race if you want the tattoo to be part of the body texture. An alternate method would be to have a clothing or armour item that had the appearance of the torso with a tattoo, but that's a bit roundabout, the new race is probably the best idea.

I see. So I take it this would be a priority before I go about designing anything because I'll need that body texture to begin with?

* Ceremonial Necklace - It would be the texture that was animated rather than the mesh...

I'd need a texture artist for that then...

* Snake Staff - I'm not familiar with that Staff Bashing mod you mention, what does it do?

You can hit with it once the magic effect has worn off and needs recharging: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ONHjrlk70w . I was actually wondering at the possibility of having the staff store about 2-3 spells inside it that it could choose from, each with a different drain factor on the staff's charged-up power.

* Bony, Claw-like Hands - You could have bony hands, they'd just have to be equippable clothing/armour made unplayable so that the player can't get his/her hands on them.

I see. There's a mod that I've been looking for for ages now that offers ugly textures for faces such as scars and so on. It does exist because I've mentioned it before but I can't find it. I wondered if the uploader would have been able to help me with this one.

[nick_op]

Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
I see. So I take it this would be a priority before I go about designing anything because I'll need that body texture to begin with?

You could use the vanilla redguard texture as a placeholder until you get a custom one made, at which point you'd simply point the race to the new texture.

I see. There's a mod that I've been looking for for ages now that offers ugly textures for faces such as scars and so on. It does exist because I've mentioned it before but I can't find it. I wondered if the uploader would have been able to help me with this one.

Perhaps this one? - the age slider in Oblivion works by overlaying special textures onto the main one, but it only uses some of the possible slots it can use (e.g. 10, 20 , 30 etc.). The linked mod uses some of the free texture slots to create it's effects. As far as I know, the body doesn't use these, otherwise things could be a lot easier.

Edit: For clarity