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Giant Mantis

Well here we are, finally. a big ol' mantis good enough to eat. Requested by Trillium, and i hope he enjoys it. Uses ingame textures and custom anims, 484 polys. Don't bother pointing out the terrible uv mapping, it was the best i could do with ingame textures that i could find. However if you have any suggestions about how to improve it, or would like to reskin it for me, or could find some appreciation for the job i actually did, i would be very happy in that case.
ENJOOOI. Credits would be nooice as it took some time to make.

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EDIT: Recalculated normals and fixed up the uv.
Special thanks to HappyCockroach and Zerox for explaining normals to me, and Cavman for vital feedback. THUNK YUS xoxo.
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EDIT2: Attachment points. (Hands right + left, Head, Overhead, Chest, Origin)
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EDIT3: Recalculated normals again, added an additive green texture over the eyes like thrikodius recommended, certainly looks better. THUNK YUW xoxo.
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EDIT4: Used oinkerwinkle's mdl-finalizer to recalculate normals this time, fixed the hole in the neck, and optimized using ghostwolf's optimizer.

Keywords:
Mantis, Insect, Giant, Green, Camouflage, Delicious, Scary, Praying, Prey, Religious, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Rayquaza.
Contents

Giant Mantis (Model)

Reviews
21:09, 7th Oct 2009 Pyritie: Lovely. Just recalculate the normals. 16th Oct 2009 Pyritie: The normals still look the same to me. What are you using to recalculate them? Also it looks like you accidentally welded the wrong vertices here...

Moderator

M

Moderator

21:09, 7th Oct 2009
Pyritie: Lovely. Just recalculate the normals.

16th Oct 2009
Pyritie: The normals still look the same to me. What are you using to recalculate them?
Also it looks like you accidentally welded the wrong vertices here.

DonDustin: awesome model. Your textures choice is phenomenal, the mesh is great and the animations are very creative.
 
I love this. Totally. Not only because I love insects... xD
Really, that animations are so great! I love all of them. Stand - 3 is so cute!!! Not to mention how it walks! Absolutely cute...oh god, I don't have anything else to say but; excellent model, 5/5 and +rep.

EDIT: You asked about normals. I guess I know what they are. They indicate what is the 'facing angle' of the polies. Since the Warcraft engine uses backface culling, faces can't be viewed from behind. The only side you can view is the one where the normal goes. In addition, shading will be calculated depending on the normal's angle.
It doesn't mean that normals will always point to the perpendicular direction with the face. They can point elsewhere, making the shading behave differently. This may have some uses, but usually it just fucks things up. If a normal is pointing to the opposite direction it should, or somewhere near it, the face won't show from most angles it should show.
Hope you understood...
 
Level 15
Joined
Jan 25, 2008
Messages
450
I love this. Totally. Not only because I love insects... xD
Really, that animations are so great! I love all of them. Stand - 3 is so cute!!! Not to mention how it walks! Absolutely cute...oh god, I don't have anything else to say but; excellent model, 5/5 and +rep.

EDIT: You asked about normals. I guess I know what they are. They indicate what is the 'facing angle' of the polies. Since the Warcraft engine uses backface culling, faces can't be viewed from behind. The only side you can view is the one where the normal goes. In addition, shading will be calculated depending on the normal's angle.
It doesn't mean that normals will always point to the perpendicular direction with the face. They can point elsewhere, making the shading behave differently. This may have some uses, but usually it just fucks things up. If a normal is pointing to the opposite direction it should, or somewhere near it, the face won't show from most angles it should show.
Hope you understood...

ahh legend, thank you so much! i'm assuming the normals are fucked on the end of the tail, but how do i recalculate them? i've looked in milkshape, notepad and model editor and can't seem to figure it out myself. someone ought to write a tutorial on it. thanks again for the info!
 
Level 14
Joined
Jul 1, 2008
Messages
1,314
lol guys! A matnis IS NOT a bug :D

But wow, its amazing how the animations show the behavior of a real matnis, only the attack 1+2 animations look a bit unreal, but still ok.

Maybe you could try to improve the proportions of the legs and lenghten the feelers a bit? Like here: http://beatcrave.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/pm_brm_022609.jpg
Cause the "attack" legs of a mantis are the biggest ones...
 
First comment and first download. I think this is a very nice model. I don't think the UV wrap is that bad to be honest. It looks fine to me. I think the animations are very fitting and I especially love how it curls up like a real bug upon death. Very cool model you have here.

Wow you got the first comment & download, you are awesome! O_O

Congratulations Zerox !!!1111!1!1one!!11
 
Level 13
Joined
Apr 15, 2008
Messages
854
Whoa, this reminds me of that PS1 Game "War of the Monsters"!
It's an awesome game, so is this model.
Maybe... a red one too :D?

Wow you got the first comment & download, you are awesome! O_O

Congratulations Zerox !!!1111!1!1one!!11

Gratz, you have just posted something useless and off topic!
Ask a reward for it.
 
Level 3
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
Messages
25
Yet to try it in game, but looks pretty nice from the picture! Now I just need a fujian white crane, southern china tiger, a yellowish monkey, and a green snake and Ill be all set!

Yes I'm obsessed with implied movie XD
 
Level 14
Joined
Jul 1, 2008
Messages
1,314
Dont know why exactly the mantis is a single group, but you can search for it, it doesnt belong to the "bugs" Maybe a 16S-Rna Thing. They arent the only insects with this "hard cover". Also the Hymenoptera, (sry dont know the english word for it) and a few others have it...
 
Level 14
Joined
Jul 1, 2008
Messages
1,314
IMO, a bug is a small critter that is an insect or arachnid, or for more open-minded folks, lizard or bird, or even a small cat. But you seem to know your stuff so i'll take bug off the list :D SMOOOOILES.

Haha i laughed when i read your comment xD

*g* i hope this was sarcastic, dont take it off!!!
Im sure that, if people search for "bug", they could find use of your model!

Well, lets end this "bug"-discussion :cool: really good model overall. As i said, i think its great, that it shows a quite real behaviour!
 
Level 2
Joined
May 24, 2009
Messages
10
He walks a bit fast but the movements are perfect and the ones who have already seen a real mantis may agree that the attack animations match perfectly what a real mantis would do, attack slam is a perfect mantis catching an unaware insect.
 
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