I Like Lizards:

Morrowind

2011-03-01T22:04:00.002+13:00

Yes, I picked up a nine-year-old game purely because its successor's successor is coming out in November. And because I wanted to see how the Argonians looked there. Totally different faces (this I've seen by a few screenshots and renders before), claws and leg structure from Oblivion. They and the Khajiit share a really weird looking gait with the legs almost splaying sideways, something like watching a dog walk on its back legs.

I found myself wondering why it was so much more enjoyable than - not Oblivion, I'll get to that - but Aion, an MMO I've been trying out recently.

Morrowind feels pretty arcane, and the combat system isn't wonderful. The environments barely feel like environments as opposed to arcade game levels, reminding me of what I did to A Road That Leads from the last Descent 2 mission I worked on with Wolf and Sirius. Combat just doesn't feel visceral at all and there's way too much whiffing at air for my tastes, until you get to higher levels. I wound up specialising in unarmed combat purely because I could hit something with it. It's really not ideal to have to finish off multiple targets temporarily dazed on the ground, but it's better than doing no damage at all. So it's safe to say I'm no great fan of Morrowind's combat.

Compared to Aion, though, I've been doing far less of it. There's things to explore, quests aren't just "kill ten rats" but actually require you to do a bit of problem-solving. Levels be damned, I find exploring the towns to be far more satisfying.

Doing something that's not a grind for once is quite nice. Aion is beautiful, but the gameplay doesn't lend itself to enjoying that. Were it not for the interesting people in my guild I wouldn't have stuck with it. Still won't after this billing cycle ends, sadly - I'd love to stick with them but I'm not doing it in Aion. Online pictionary clones, however...

But back to Morrowind, it's mostly not better than Oblivion. The combat system of Oblivion was a big improvement, even if I don't generally enjoy combat-centred games in the same way as endless fights turn me off anime. Oblivion didn't have as many weapons, but what it did have was better constructed and animated. Quests between the two games were much the same. The inventory system in Oblivion was slightly more intuitive if nowhere near as tidy.

Two big pluses for Morrowind though: the interface looks more polished (strange for a game five years older) and the game in general has way more character, particularly the environments. I'd heard rumours about that, and they're entirely right. Oblivion's NPCs wandered around pretending to do things, but the places they lived were just generic medieval towns. Even though the art was actually different between towns, they felt like more of the same. Morrowind's Vivec City was pretty dead on the outside but the actual design of it was more inspired.

Naturally, I'm hoping for the best of both worlds in Skyrim, and more besides. But for the most part, I'll be happy if the Argonians look better.

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2010-03-21T20:33:00.001+13:00

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2009-12-01T08:21:00.003+13:00

I've been putting together a clip of work from 2009 to add to the gallery in the next few days. It's tricky to get anything out of a scene with only subtle animation that's made to be a background for 30 seconds plus. But then, a 30 second HD clip would be huge.

This is one of those models I wish I'd paid more attention while I was sculpting it. Textures mostly work but the highlights look a little plastic. The biggest problem is just that the ice is far too smooth. Everything else is just about there.

There's a surprising amount of work that never made it to air in my collection. The simpler graphics always do - 3D balls just turn up again and again. It's the backgrounds or transitions that someone decides not to use that you can't just repurpose elsewhere, because they're very specific.

All done!

2009-10-08T08:37:00.002+13:00

So I finally finished something. The deformer method proved to be the quickest and most effective. Some of my implementations have the potential to break things with careless use, but it does appear I have a working model here.

Maybe I won't do that.

2009-09-20T12:08:00.003+12:00

The very first time I use nCloth to do something it was meant for, I discover it's not so good at it.

There's a couple fixes I can think of. I'll either have to rig the armour attached to the body, or perhaps cheat it with a deformer. Either way, I'll have to re-rig her hands again anyway; I just discovered that her fingers won't move at the first joint, which makes sense considering how I rigged it, but it looks really strange.

Maya's FBIK solvers aren't totally solid either, but they do the job most of the time. Lips and eyelids I'm using spline deformers rather than blend shapes, and her tail is a IK spline solver. No problems there.

All dressed up in leather!

2009-09-06T22:45:00.002+12:00

I think it needs something more. Grease and mud. And I need to fix the 'collar' too; it's a bit dull now.

Armour

2009-09-03T23:24:00.002+12:00

I'm going to paint this up as well. I don't think this model is going to be brilliant, but it should be alright considering how many times I have (not) done this before.

Doodles

2009-09-01T08:38:00.001+12:00

Just preparing to draw a decent avian character while I figure out how I want to finish off the lizard's armour.

Skinned!

2009-07-09T22:51:00.001+12:00

I am a little surprised to discover that a more detailed colour map doesn't show through as much as I thought it would. Still, I'll run with this for the meanwhile and do some armour now.

More lizard (2)

2009-06-28T19:48:00.003+12:00

Next up is some finer colour detail. She needs some patterning.

I'd say I'm getting close to done... well, good enough, with this model. Next I'll have to do some armour which hopefully I'll be a little less picky with. I know how to deal with leather and iron.

More lizard

2009-06-12T21:21:00.001+12:00

Bump bump.

2009-06-12T00:24:00.003+12:00

This is getting closer. I think I should knock down the height on the bigger scales and give the eye area another go over with the pen though.

Bump map forward!

2009-06-11T10:41:00.003+12:00

Scale pattern is done now. As expected it only took me a few hours, even though it took me months to take those few hours! Well, I should be proceeding on this apace now. I'm just starting to refine the scales around her eye. Looks like I'm going to need to watch the contrast.

Ideally I want to slap a couple filters on the outlines and have them do 90% of the work in defining the scales for me. First, I need to figure out what kind of profile I want them to have.

I shall draw more! I shall draw more!

2009-05-26T09:36:00.005+12:00

Okay, although right now my ability with pen and paper is a bit lacking, I need to get it sorted out, and this year. Can't just carry on working, studying, and leaving well enough alone, and I can't just blame it on lack of talent. If I have enough attention to detail to put lifelike 3D models together, I can figure out how to draw, and later paint, properly too. Just need to put some time into it.

My idea right now is to take two hours, at least three times a week, just drawing. First hour sketching, second hour picking any sketches I like and working them into something better. Perhaps at the end of it, I'll have more of a sketchbook than just a dozen pages!

Here; I suck at drawing.

2009-05-15T21:00:00.002+12:00

By request for my more unfinished (to put it mildly) pieces, I've put together this place to show some WIPs when appropriate.

We'll see how much use it gets. I don't spend enough time on non-work-related 3D art, and my drawing needs a lot of work.

Here, Ken. Yes, I have progressed slightly further than stick-figure drawings, but as soon as I start trying to draw things at angles, I die a little inside.

On the other hand, Mai is looking alright, though apart from slowly painting in scales (which having a Wacom tablet now is helping with greatly) she hasn't progressed much in the last few months. I need to get back to work on her.

Testing FTP upload

2009-05-15T20:12:00.003+12:00

OK, so I had to actually add an article to publish before it published anything at all. Curious.