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Free company militia

"Take a peasant. Give him a gun. Tell him that with it he'll serve the Emperor and Sigmar in battle. Promise him great honor and rewards. Does this make him a soldier? Too many young men have died like this... Pour me another, Birgitte!" - Eckart Stählmann, former captain of the Empire

Light renaissance-themed infantry armed with a pistol in addition to a sword. This model was made after a request; it uses only in-game textures; animations are linear; portrait is incorporated. Anyone can use or modify it so long as credit is given to those who have contributed making it. This includes the authors in the credits list.

Credits:
HerrDave : he made the hat's plumes
HappyCockroach : he made the hat itself


Special thanks to HerrDave because of the great help he's provided me with during development.

Changelog:
1. changed animation "Attack Slam" to "Attack Spell Slam". Thanks Kyrbi0 !
2. tweaked the walk cycle. Again thanks Kyrbi0, and MogulKhan!
3. (1.2) Multiple tweakings to animations, trying to get them flow better.
4. (1.3) Removed a minuscule geoset still present during Decay Bone.
5. (1.4.3) Rework of Stand Ready and all the Attack animations, which are not imports from the optimized bandit by Ujimasa Hojo anymore, and are instead now fully hand-made. Many thanks to Wark, and especially to TheBronze for their feedback and comments.
6. (added variant 2 with morph) As many users would find useful having this unit being able to switch between melee and ranged stances, a second version of the unit has been added, that features melee animations in the default sequences and ranged animations in a set of alternate sequences. This variation has been called version 2.1. Version 1 is being preserved for those who want to take advantage of a (minimally) lower filesize.
7. Added related icons.
8. Added proper collision shapes. Thanks to General Frank for pointing that out!!!

Other infos:
- I discovered that a similar model was made long ago. If you are interested in this model, you might also like Privateer and Pirate made by Lord_T.

Tags: renaissance, gun, infantry, militia, empire, warhammer, germany, holy roman empire
Contents

Free company militia (v1) (Model)

Free company militia with morph (v2) (Model)

Related icons (Icon)

Reviews
General Frank
A very nice, original model with in-game textures. Works in-game. Good job.

Kyrbi0

Arena Moderator
Level 44
Joined
Jul 29, 2008
Messages
9,487
"Take a peasant. Give him a gun. Does it make him a soldier?" - Eckart Stählmann, former captain of the Empire
and you used the Peasant texture for the face. Lawl!


Noice stuff, mate. Seems you're definitely taking it easy from buildings with some cool unit models. ; )
My only issue would be the Attack Slam; it's a fine animation, but it generally only/always plays on Critical Strike/Pulverize-type abilities, which it's not possible to turn into Ranged abilities (i.e. him shooting with his gun). Might just be better renamed to "Spell" for a gun-shooting ability.
 
Level 13
Joined
Jul 2, 2015
Messages
872
I used that texture. Or did I? ;)

Naming it Attack Slam was specifically requested. I agree that it makes much more sense to name it Spell something tho.
Cuore you can make 2 copies just change animation names, or simply rename it to spell, its your choice. Becuase i have thought of making a custom critical strike called "Gun?" Which buffs attack and its 40 or 50 % of happening or i might just give a spell similar to firebolt that makes the dude fire his gun
(And yes i am the requester for others info)
And cuore thank you for your hard work :)
 
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Level 15
Joined
Sep 24, 2009
Messages
1,523
His walking animations are too... robotic? He is running in a strange way. I don't know how to describe it, but put it next to a Warcraft 3 model and you gonna see the difference.
 
Level 14
Joined
Mar 11, 2017
Messages
587
This model doesn't jump as much up and down, and the keyframes to animate its walk animation are reduced to a minimum but it's not something I perceive like a flaw, nor I see any particular robotic character. I'll run some tests with walk cycles imported from the vanilla game.

Edit: I've been watching various models patrol alongside this one: the difference is evident but it doesn't really disturb me; on the contrary I like my model's walk cycle more.
At this point I'm not really sure that the walk cycle needs to be altered tbh. I'd really like to hear more opinions from viewers and reviewers before I modify it.
Thank you very much for the feedback you've given in any case!
 
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Kyrbi0

Arena Moderator
Level 44
Joined
Jul 29, 2008
Messages
9,487
I think I see a little of what he's saying (whether it's intentional and/or good/bad is another question entirely, but) in my non-artist opinion, what it lacks is 'weight'. He just sort of seems to be 'floating', in a way?

From what little I have heard of animation, that can be a symptom of the "intervals being too evenly spaced"; that is to say, the time it takes for him to raise one leg is too similar to the time it takes to lower that leg (planting the foot for the step).

I don't remember which way is preferred, but one should be longer than the other to give a sense of weight/urgency/speed/force/etc (IIRC, the 'fall' should be faster than the 'rise'?)

$0.02
 
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Level 14
Joined
Mar 11, 2017
Messages
587
That's a grat suggestion thanks Kyrbi0!
I've tried doing what you've suggested: I slightly made faster the portions of animations in which one leg raises while the other is being stretched backwards, let's see if it got any better.

(I'll be looking into it some more. I suspect that the impression of the guy floating comes from using too few keyframes and from jumping too little up&down during the sequence)
 
Last edited:
Level 2
Joined
Sep 2, 2017
Messages
9
The model is good... add a skin that replaces the texture that doesn't look like pirate... like a 17th century militia or something... anyways, it's cool and the most awesome model I downloaded.
 
Level 14
Joined
Mar 11, 2017
Messages
587
I'll be trying to give more fluidity to the sequences by adding keyframes, and at the same time adding accompanying motions of the peripheral bones.
Thank you guys for the comments!

@WTFliio I would like you to see some of the most important concept pictures:
Wh_dlc04_emp_free_company_militia.png
M8RJvuA.png

Hoping that you like it better, I made two separate versions without the eyepatch (one uses the other villager's skin). Note that it still has the same stiffness problems of the main model though.
 

Attachments

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Last edited:
Level 13
Joined
Jul 2, 2015
Messages
872
and you used the Peasant texture for the face. Lawl!


Noice stuff, mate. Seems you're definitely taking it easy from buildings with some cool unit models. ; )
My only issue would be the Attack Slam; it's a fine animation, but it generally only/always plays on Critical Strike/Pulverize-type abilities, which it's not possible to turn into Ranged abilities (i.e. him shooting with his gun). Might just be better renamed to "Spell" for a gun-shooting ability.
Were you? you said Peasant Texture.
 
Level 13
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
Messages
769
Dang, I could actually use this with the "attack slam" being the pistol shot. My idea was to morph it between a ranged and melee version, and put a 100% chance to crit on the ranged version with attack slam.
 
Level 13
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
Messages
769
Naw, I don't think it needs a morph animation. That would increase the file size, which is desirable now.
The stand animation is enough. Although, I could also trigger the animation when needed. Hm.
 
Level 13
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
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769
I think what The Bronze is getting at: this militia is too wimpy.
It looks like he's putting no effort into slashing someone, like he has no combat prowess whatsoever.

This is kind of why it appeals to me, since I need an incompetent combatant model.
But, the animation is too extreme. It's like he's too incompetent.
In other words, it could possibly use either:
A) A wimpy thrust.
B) An overhand swing.
or:
C) Maybe bend the elbow some more vertically on the swings? It's like he's just leaning on a wall then standing back up.
 
Level 8
Joined
Jan 16, 2008
Messages
156
Alright. How would you propose to improve the quality of animation? What work would you like to see done on the attack sequences exactly? That would be helpful to know :)

I don't know much about animations unfortunately, but maybe you could use the Footman attack animations as a reference? He just looks really unnatural when he swings his sword, his arms and legs move strangely, he doesn't bring his sword back enough, follow through, plant his feet or stand up straight.

The animations he has would be good for a zombie.
 
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Level 2
Joined
Sep 2, 2017
Messages
9
I'll be trying to give more fluidity to the sequences by adding keyframes, and at the same time adding accompanying motions of the peripheral bones.
Thank you guys for the comments!

@WTFliio I would like you to see some of the most important concept pictures:
Wh_dlc04_emp_free_company_militia.png
M8RJvuA.png

Hoping that you like it better, I made two separate versions without the eyepatch (one uses the other villager's skin). Note that it still has the same stiffness problems of the main model though.
Awesome!!!
 
Level 14
Joined
Mar 11, 2017
Messages
587
Naw, I don't think it needs a morph animation. That would increase the file size, which is desirable now.
The stand animation is enough. Although, I could also trigger the animation when needed. Hm.
You can always change the sequence names on Magos Model Editor to fit what you need, I do it all the time.
Hey @_Guhun_ thank you for the comment!
Unfortunately you can't just transform a free company millitia without morph into one with morph simply by renaming animations. Small keyframe tweaking has to be made, the resulting models aren't really identical and therefore the two versions of this model are uploaded simultaneously: so people can choose the one that best fits their map.
 
Level 17
Joined
Apr 5, 2011
Messages
323
Great one!
Special thanks for uploading both versions, this is really useful.
My only small concern is that his proportions are a bit strange compared to ordinary models (say Footman or Militia), so scaling him proved to be slightly challenging (in other words, he's tall and slim while others are shorter and bulkier). But this is very minor and doesn't detract from the awesomeness of this model. Maybe a 9/10, but 5/5 definitely!
 
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