[SD/Modeling] Zerg Hippogryph Rider

[PiesOfNorth]

TLDR: Can someone make a model & icon for a Zerg Hydralisk riding a Hippogryph (using the Project Revolution hydralisk in the attached map, not the war3 one)

One of the features of the Zerg Campaign is the ability to Infest the War3 races and then integrate some of their abilities into your army. Infesting the Night Elves, for example, enables an infested strain of Hippogryph that can be mounted by Hydralisks so they can shoot from the air, as seen here:

Now, I'm by no means a modeler, so currently this is being faked by giving a flying Hydralisk an 'orb' ability that attaches the Hippogryph model to their origin point. This mostly does the job, but it looks a little funny since the Hydralisk is not moving with its mount the way the Archer does on the 'real' RiddenHippogryph model.

Recently, I tried another approach, editing the RiddenHippogryph model itself, alphaing out the Archer texture, and sticking the Hydralisk model onto its 'Chest Mount' attachment point. This looks pretty good! The Hydralisk moved very naturally with its mount. But I had a couple issues that I couldn't manage to crack.

Mainly, I couldn't get the attached Hydralisk to use its attack animation. I tried attaching a second Hydralisk model modified to only have attack animation (re-named to 'Stand'), and set its visibility to 1 during my modified RiddenHippogryph model's 'Attack' animation sequence. tbh I have no idea if I did that right, but regardless, the Hydralisk is stuck in its Stand animation in this approach, making it impractical for anything but a cutscene.

Also, I couldn't really manage to get rid of the Archer's cape, so the Hydralisk is wearing it. It looks better than I expected it to in motion though lol.

If anyone's interested, i've attached a test map containing the relevant assets in this request. Unlike the campaign, it doesn't require a mod or any specific version of the game.

The Request
So I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to hack together a 'proper' Hydralisk-riding-a-hippogryph model for my project, so that it both moves naturally and attacks properly.

Secondary Request
It'd be cool if someone could make a proper icon for the unit as well.

 

[biridius]

I've added the hydralisk directly into the hyppo model and made a copy of its skeleton, and re-attached the hydralisk's geosets to it.
Also transferred the hydralisk's attack animation and united it with the hyppo's attack animation, and added the acid splash particles.
You can now edit and animate the hydralisk as part of the hyppo's model if you wish.

 

[PiesOfNorth]

This is great! Thanks! The only issue is that I don't really know how to copy animations over from the Hydralisk, so he's stuck with his goop-splasher-hoses (whatever you call them) hanging out even when not attacking. Still, much better than what I had before!

 

[biridius]

Changed the hoses visibility to 0 for all animations other than attack.

 

[PiesOfNorth]

Sweet. Thanks a bunch!