Troll Raptor Rider

PROXY · Apr 2, 2013

Been working on a troll raptor rider model for Kyrbi_0's project: Custom Race Creation.

The raptor model gave Kyrbi_0 to me, I don't remember how made it ^^ The troll model is by me, the animations for the raptor are from the wow raptor, the troll rider animations are from Lord_T (still waiting for permission).

I gave the raptor wow animations (and rigged it) then added with Reteras tool Lord_T's bones/animations, made them fit with MDlvis and so on.

Critics and stuff is welcome

Kyrbi0 · Apr 2, 2013

Glad you took the initiative (also, feel free to post it up in the Custom Races Topic). I'm interested to see what people think. Free publicity can't hurt either.

I think it would be cool to see pics of the WIP shots of the first few versions, just to show the direction it's taken.

paladinjst · Apr 13, 2013

maybe u can use the in-game textures for the raptor instead of customs ...such as dragon spawn , naga royal guard or naga watcher (the building)
and that could reduce the whole model size and suit for game style ...

rcshaggy · Apr 13, 2013

That raptor is kickass to.

PROXY · Apr 13, 2013

I've tried every single fitting ingame texture. And they all look horrible on it

Linaze · Apr 13, 2013

I think it looks lovely. What's he going to have for a weapon?

PROXY · Apr 13, 2013

This.

TaShadan · Apr 13, 2013

awesome!
Will there be a forest troll version too?

Linaze · Apr 13, 2013

PROXY said:
This.

View attachment 124466

Lovely.

paladinjst · Apr 13, 2013

PROXY said:
I've tried every single fitting ingame texture. And they all look horrible on it

the dragon spawn textures are close to WOW's origin quailty ... and more close to the style of wc3 ...
you can't wish the wc3 in-game textures are better than WOW Raptor's ...
but it has lower size for the model , closer style for the game .
the WOW Raptor have more details and more realistically, that's good - but not good enough for the WC3 game style .
i think maybe you can made two versions of this , one has original textures - the other has no custom textures .
if you have no time to do this , i wish u give me the permission to do this when u release the resource . :ogre_haosis:

PROXY · Apr 13, 2013

Linaze said:
Lovely.

paladinjst said:
the dragon spawn textures are close to WOW's origin quailty ... and more close to the style of wc3 ...
you can't wish the wc3 in-game textures are better than WOW Raptor's ...
but it has lower size for the model , closer style for the game .
the WOW Raptor have more details and more realistically, that's good - but not good enough for the WC3 game style .
i think maybe you can made two versions of this , one has original textures - the other has no custom textures .
if you have no time to do this , i wish u give me the permission to do this when u release the resource .

I didn't mean the textures qualites themself, but rather how they made the model look not raptor like anymore. It made them look like a some weird reptile fuckers ^^

Kyrbi0 · Apr 13, 2013

Wow! This topic really exploded recently. Glad to see people taking an interest in PROXY's great work. Feel free to jump on over here with ~~praise and~~ thoughts!

Tashadan said:
Will there be a forest troll version too?

NO WAI
Well ok, there might be. All depends on if PROXY wants to release one, I guess. However, Forest Trolls really don't ride Raptors; more like Bears & other forest denizens.

paladinjst said:
the WOW Raptor have more details and more realistically, that's good - but not good enough for the WC3 game style .
...
if you have no time to do this , i wish u give me the permission to do this when u release the resource .

You've struck upon the one big thing holding this guy back, in my opinion (good eye

). It's just got a skin (and somewhat a mesh) designed for something waaay nicer than Wc3 (technically for an old Total Conversion, but near-WoW-quality, you're right). That being said, while it looks nice alone, with a rider that fits so well in Wc3, it kinda clashes.

However,

PROXY said:
I've tried every single fitting ingame texture. And they all look horrible on it
...I didn't mean the textures qualites themself, but rather how they made the model look not raptor like anymore. It made them look like a some weird reptile...

This is news to me. :< That's unfortunate. I'd be interested to see some of your attempts. Is it just a matter of the UVWrap being difficult to work with? Because I've got some skinner friend(s) that might be able to help out with that particular issue. I can understand the problem, though, and can say I rather expected that to be the most difficult part of this request; making this guy 'simple' enough for a basic, massable unit.

~

Glad you guys like it so far; I'm pretty jazzed! Though I was originally looking for a bit more of a Aztec-y weapon, I'm really impressed with PROXY's take on a warrior-like melee-range Spear-thing.

chr2 · Apr 13, 2013

This is pretty amazing. I just don't think the gray clothing fits too well. Maybe brown would look better?

takakenji · Apr 13, 2013

the raptor looks good but really wierd when put in contrast with the warcraft-quality rider

AwzomeWulfzz · Apr 15, 2013

Lookin' good. That is all.

Uncle Fester · May 10, 2013

wow. Nice idea and good looking execution. Have you tried using the Hydra or Dragonspawn textures? :wink:

Especially the Hydra is well suited for raptors. I've started making lizard men too, and found the hydra skin the best fitting for them. The Naga skins are overused already and they don't offer the best possibilities, the dragonspawns are good for reptilian mounts, but IMO a bit too undeatailed/crude for lizard men themselves and the dragon skins simply don't fit that much for a humanoid creature. :vw_sad:

Kyrbi0 · May 10, 2013

Uncle Fester said:
wow. Nice idea and good looking execution. Have you tried using the Hydra or Dragonspawn textures? Especially the Hydra is well suited for raptors. I've started making lizard men too, and found the hydra skin the best fitting for them. The Naga skins are overused already and they don't offer the best possibilities, the dragonspawns are good for reptilian mounts, but IMO a bit too undeatailed/crude for lizard men themselves and the dragon skins simply don't fit that much for a humanoid creature.

Wow... That's really insightful. Pretty much the only thing I don't prefer on that is how blue it is (rather prefer a more green-ish toned scales on our reptilian friend

), but... Wow, that just looks really smooth. And like you said, Naga's overused, Dragons just don't work, and Dragonspawn/Hydra are too crude for units, but perfect for mounts...

PROXY, you gettin' all this? Might be something worth trying. (also, is it possible to tint certain parts of a texture, or a mesh?)

Uncle Fester · May 10, 2013

Yes, you can make it appear greenish by using either a geoset animation or by adding another layer over it and make it add alpha or modulate. It's not very effective, bt still better than nothing. :wink:

PROXY · May 10, 2013

That's really impressive Uncle, I guess I give it another try.

By the way, I tried to fix the death animation all day yesterday, but it's a pain in the ass to edit EVERY SINGLE F* FRAME of 15000.

Kyrbi0 · May 10, 2013

PROXY said:
That's really impressive Uncle, I guess I give it another try.

By the way, I tried to fix the death animation all day yesterday, but it's a pain in the ass to edit EVERY SINGLE F* FRAME of 15000.

Glad to hear I'm still in your thoughts.

Dang, that much hassle, eh? I wonder why it's so messed up; does it have something to do with the source material (raptor)?

PROXY · May 11, 2013

Well, it's because the death animation of the raptor is much more "detailled" animated, e. g. much more frames, and to make the animation of the troll fit it I have to move his body in every frame again.. and again.. and again..

I hope I have some time in the next days, got much to do for school and have a request to finish for Kobas too.

Kyrbi0 · May 12, 2013

PROXY said:
Well, it's because the death animation of the raptor is much more "detailled" animated, e. g. much more frames, and to make the animation of the troll fit it I have to move his body in every frame again.. and again.. and again..

I hope I have some time in the next days, got much to do for school and have a request to finish for Kobas too.

Ahh, that makes a lot of sense. I figured the two models might (in putting them together) not play nice. I'd like to alleviate that... Is there any way to 'simplify' the Raptor's death (make him just fall over, like the Knight's horse/Raider's wolf)? Or perhaps... Nah, having him explode only makes sense if it's an air unit. :<

Well, that's rough. Let me know. I certainly don't mind ~~a little~~ less detail on the Raptor, though, if that helps. Heck, that's the whole point of the "re-texture" part of the request; more simplicity.

~

Not a problem; thanks for letting me know. Believe me, I get school-work concerns.

PROXY · May 12, 2013

I might try do make a new death animation, or ask someone to do it for me. It looks horrible just by now

I'm sure I'll be able to find a way :3

Kyrbi0 · May 13, 2013

Cool cool. Let me know.

PROXY · May 21, 2013

I guess we are getting somewhere

Notice that it's only a rough work, the transitions yet have to be fixed somehow, the wrapping is to be made better etc.

Edit: Oh and hands, don't forget the hands, or else it's going to be a t-rex raptor lol ^^.

AndrewOverload519 · May 21, 2013

Now that Raptor looks a lot more fitting for the WC3 than the original and I think it still looks great. Oh, and you've managed to cut down all the KB's too! Good job! I just wish I had a use for it...

Kyrbi0 · May 21, 2013

AndrewOverload said:
Now that Raptor looks a lot more fitting for the WC3 than the original and I think it still looks great. Oh, and you've managed to cut down all the KB's too! Good job! I just wish I had a use for it...

Woah, you're fast...

Feel free to join in the fun. Almost got that Pastebin filled up. : )

PROXY said:
View attachment 125754

I guess we are getting somewhere Notice that it's only a rough work, the transitions yet have to be fixed somehow, the wrapping is to be made better etc.

Edit: Oh and hands, don't forget the hands, or else it's going to be a t-rex raptor lol ^^.

Bwaha! I knew jumping on the computer would be a good idea.

Can I... just kiss you? This wrap is devilishly perfect, insidiously ideal. You've managed to capture the iconic raptor brow, the sinister raptor grimace... Aside from the transitions (as you mentioned) the scales are all in the right places... My (2nd?) favorite part is something I didn't even realize was wrong with the original: you've made the mount less 'human'. I think it's mainly the eyes, but seriously making them TeamColor (?) instead of 'pupil-led' really robs it of character & humanity... Which is exactly what the model as a whole needed. The mount isn't supposed to be the focus, the rider (or the whole) is! As it was earlier, the raptor drew too much attention to himself. As it is now, he really just fits in. Muchas gracias.

(Dang, now I have to find/make a new icon for him >

...)

Y'know, forget the hands, the wonky death animation... Just go ahead and release him. Out into the wild, yonder & free... *ahem* err, never mind. I wouldn't mind seeing him 'up close & personal', though.

~~~

TL;DR - Excellent. : )

Deolrin · May 21, 2013

Oh my god, I'm LOVING that new raptor. You are amazing at wrapping stuff. What program are you using?

TaShadan · May 21, 2013

pretty good and wc3ish

PROXY · May 22, 2013

Lol thanks guys

It was actually, a job of a few minutes haha

I just used to use Mdlvis, sperate the geosets which might cause problems when wrapping so I don't have to uncouple them which results in fucked up rigging. Then I just wrapped everything quite sketchy on the naga texture. The head had an awesome wrap before, nothing really to do there. I just took it and placed it on the naga royal guard

Kyrbi0 · May 22, 2013

"Few minutes", eh? Well, forget all my praise then.

...

j/k, I guess it's just nice to see such beautiful progress after a couple weeks. Really the texture was the one biggest thing I had a problem with, so it's kinda coming all together in my head now.

Uncle Fester · May 27, 2013

PROXY said:
Lol thanks guys It was actually, a job of a few minutes haha

I just used to use Mdlvis, sperate the geosets which might cause problems when wrapping so I don't have to uncouple them which results in fucked up rigging. Then I just wrapped everything quite sketchy on the naga texture. The head had an awesome wrap before, nothing really to do there. I just took it and placed it on the naga royal guard

My advise would be to use the wolf rider or magnataur skeleton & anims for your model and just reposition a few bones. The centaur or Dragonspawn skeleton might also do. :wink:

The troll's body and the Raptor's head look somewhat.....unfittingly skinned in some way :eekani:

I guess it would be easier to use the Hydra, Thunderlizard or Dragonspawn textures for the Raptor, but the decision is yours. IMO, it's approvable as is. I must say, i rly love the rider's weapon. Fits extremely well to Trolls. :thumbs_up:

Kyrbi0 · May 27, 2013

Uncle Fester said:
My advise would be to use the wolf rider or magnataur skeleton & anims for your model and just reposition a few bones. The centaur or Dragonspawn skeleton might also do.

I dunno, every other Raptor I've seen around here involved either sketchy custom anims or a wolf/horse mount that has been stretched to look like a raptor... I think these fit almost perfectly, though (raptor anims from WoW). As long as it doesn't make fixing the death anim. too difficult for him, it shouldn't be a problem.

PROXY · May 27, 2013

Uncle Fester said:
My advise would be to use the wolf rider or magnataur skeleton & anims for your model and just reposition a few bones. The centaur or Dragonspawn skeleton might also do. The troll's body and the Raptor's head look somewhat.....unfittingly skinned in some way I guess it would be easier to use the Hydra, Thunderlizard or Dragonspawn textures for the Raptor, but the decision is yours. IMO, it's approvable as is. I must say, i rly love the rider's weapon. Fits extremely well to Trolls.

Well, the reason I don't do it is because - it looks horrible. The anatomy of every single mount in wc3 does not look like ANYTHING like the body or movement of a raptor. It will look much more unnatural then now. I think I've done a pretty solide job mixing the two animation sets and when I tested it ingame, it also worked out pretty well.

Tried other texture sets, but they didn't just have that... "raptor" like feeling, you know, the evil intelligence hidden under the brute force of a dinosaur

SpasMaster · Jun 13, 2013

Jeez, that's a badass model! Can't wait to see it released. As usual, high quality stuff from PROXY.

Troll Raptor Rider

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