No disrespect intended to Kinja or Team Yoda, yet I've been wanting for a Yoda model with a few aesthetic changes just not possible with skins. This is the product of that desire.
http://home.earthlink.net/~kaiasowapit/images/yoda.jpg)
I'm relatively competent in modeling, however it's beyond my ability to make the proper conversions to bring this into the game. I need someone to help me skin, weight the mesh, apply a skeleton, as well as make the final conversion to a glm file. Whew, I'm asking alot! :p
Currently the robe (as seen in these pics) is just a quick mock-up. I think it resembles a lab coat more than what I'm shooting for, so I intend to make alterations to improve accuracy. I also need to add eye balls and a few polys for hair. Any feedback on proportions, etc. is welcome.
Anyone interested in helping me bring this model into the game (preferably someone with previous experience), please drop me a private message.
Thanks!
Wow this is some great work, this is something I will be emailing/pming you about :)
Anakin
I would GLADLY help out with skins in any way I can. I did the skin for the Jerec model (
http://www.jk2files.com/file.info?ID=8532) ) and the Jedi and racer skins for the Sebulba model (
http://www.jk2files.com/file.info?ID=9556) ), among others.
Let me know if you're interested! :)
I can't help in any way possible, so im just going to say: EXCELLENT WORK!!!!!!!!:D
That does look extremely good. Even the "lab coat" is excellent, though Yoda's (in EP2 at least) was frayed at the bottom and all over, now that I think about it. That's something that could be done more easily with the skin, so I'll wait to see how it looks!
This is a Yoda model I will actually download. :)
Wow, looks awesome! what's the polycount??? he seems very "smooth" ;).
I can provide help if you have questions, im working on other projects at the moment so i cant do much, but i'll try.
Nice work man!, If you need help setting up the model for jedi (segmenting, capping, linking, weighting and compiling into .glm) I'd be happy to help. I've gone through the process so many times (at least 25) that I'm very fast at it and could get your model in game in less than 2 hours. If you want my assistance e-mail me at KevinCoyle@nc.rr.com
Thanks everyone for the compliments - it's very encouraging.
The current polygon count (without the robe) stands at 3,014 (the head alone is 1024). This is just after I added the faces for the eyes and a base mesh under the collar (so you can't peek down into the hollow of Yoda's body).
I haven't added caps yet, so that will increase the poly count somewhat as well.
Admittedly I'm ignorant as to the poly count limit. I vaguely recall reading somewhere it was 4000, in which case even with the robe I should be okay. If it's more like 2000, well then I'm screwed. :p There's still room for trimming... though I really don't want to drop a single poly from the head if I can avoid it.
I think the "smoothness" can just be attributed to Maya's rendering engine - it does a fairly handy job especially with anti-aliasing fully cranked.
Anakin - I've sent an email your way; any help would be greatly appreciated and I'd love to contribute to AOTC:TC.
inbredyokel - I'd love your help in skinning... that would be great. I've got AOTC on dvd and can screen grab it silly to get some great textures. Assuming someone will help me in converting the model to a glm, I'll let you know as soon as it's ready to skin.
Aru-Wen - frayed? Hmm... sure you're not thinking of Empire Strikes Back? My eyes aren't what they used to be, but Yoda's robe looks almost too new and clean to me. Either way, you're right... skinning is definitely the best way to address things like that.
Psyk0Sith - you may remember me as one of your biggest fans. :) I'm the "Maya guy" who was looking for help in another thread. Unfortunately I still don't have access to 3dMax, so until I find someone who does (and is enthusiastic in taking on the burden of compiling the glm) the model is stuck in Maya land. :(
Wow, for once I'm actually happy my ISP dropped my connection!
KevinCoyle - hot diggity dog! Two of my heros posting on my humble little model! If you don't mind, your help in getting my little Yoda in game form would be HUGELY appreciated! I'm firing you off an email right now...
Anyhow, I'll try to keep you all posted and get some new screen grabs up as soon as I can.
Thanks again, and may the Schwartz Be With Ya All!
OMG ITS ITS..... Absolutley beatiful!
No offense to Kinja and the Yoda Team, but their skin + model seemed too childish, I didn't get the Yoda feel when I viewed and played with the little guy. This new model captured the very essence of Yoda, it's so crazy. I'm going to constantly check this thread for sure :)
KaiaSowapit we sure could use talent like yours.
Looks really nice, again no offence to Kinja and the Yoda Team but I didn't like their skin and model at all, this model its absolutley amazing! Great job! :thumbsup:
Are you going to make it so he can move his mouth? Yoda is a popular mod character but it's not good without the mouth moving. Please make it move.
Excellent! :)
As Bart said, facial animation would be great to see added to the model.
I personally like the 'lab-coat' as it is. It just needs some tweaks and then you can skin that puppy. ;)
Although I cannot model, I'll still try to help with the production in mysterious ways. :D
Originally posted by KaiaSowapit
inbredyokel - I'd love your help in skinning... that would be great. I've got AOTC on dvd and can screen grab it silly to get some great textures. Assuming someone will help me in converting the model to a glm, I'll let you know as soon as it's ready to skin.
Sounds good. I have the DVD also, which I'll probably use to get a good load of reference. I'd rather avoid photoskinning though, I'm pretty sure I can get a better fit and resemblance if I just duplicate what I see from scratch.
Maybe you can get a range of skinners to do a variations for the model. Include them as a seperate PK3 skinpack.
I would love to see 'Hawaiian Yoda.' :D
Facial Animations??? ARe those Possible even? BTW your model freaking owns man!!! /me likes very mucho....Im trying to learn how to model somewehat. Ive been swamped helping a friend with a super-cool mod that will be coming out soon,but Im learning from one of THE Best Modelers. Some of his work can be seen HERE (
http://www.roleplayersinc.com/ganphoto.jpg) and he even remodeled the old yoda to work without the size command by combining him with his hover chair or whatever a pic found HERE (
http://www.roleplayersinc.com/yoda.jpg) Hes helping me remake my model now its going to have upside down saber mode :) Dont know what upside down saber mode is check ... HERE (
http://www.roleplayersinc.com/downsaber.jpg)
Downsaber works without mods or anything to cause its done a diff way I can use it on any server muahahaha... I can also use normal saber mode too switching back and forth at the touch of a button (all without any mod plus it will work in any mod!!!)
So Using his tutorials and stuff and his giudance Im going to try my hand at modeling.
yoda... in spandex...... naughty;) lol no man thats looking awesome but the poly count looks too high for JK2, im pretty sure the 'around limit' for JK2 is 3000 thats what i read anyway:)
That's a REALLY good looking model of Yoda you have going there! He looks really wicked. The model seems to flow together like liquid. Extremely COOL!! Have you pondered the idea of modeling the TMNT? :D
[grunt] very good....very good...[grunt]
Thanks again everyone for the encouragement. It's always nice to hear. I've been a bit busy the past couple of days, but hopefully Yoda will be in the pipeline soon.
Bart Skywalker - sorry, I'm not currently adopting the model for facial animation. I agree it would be very cool indeed, but I'm pushing the limit on polycount as is. Besides, correct me if I'm wrong, but none of the models in MP take advantage of facial animation anyhow (least none I have seen).
Hиkx Nтxъ - Hawaiian Yoda? I think I'd need to visit for sake of "reference" first... care to front me a plane ticket? :D
inbredyokel - Yup you're prolly right about "phototexturing" - even on DVD the resolution is too low to really be functional. Plus with all the varied lighting and camera distortion, I imagine it would be more trouble than it's worth to reconstruct properly. As you pointed out, it's still a great tool for reference though, and I'd be happy to share with you the screen grabs I made to help inspire me.
SupremePain - latest polycount is just a scootch over 3200 (what's an 200 extra polys between friends?)... that's with the robe and extra poly's for hair. Hopefully you all can live with that.
And spandex? I got your spandex right here! :p
MustangMatt302 - TMNT? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Sorry, though I'm a fan, my main interest is in Star Wars. Maybe next time. ;)
the MP engine does not use facial anims, but the obi-wan, qui-gon, mace, sidious, kitfisto, mara jade, and han solo models all use facial support for improved SP performances.
I'm not a modeler myself, but I'm told facial animation is actually way easier than most people think. The only thing is polycount consideration, as you said.
Yeah facial anims are easy, you just have to weight a few bones.
The head has to line up roughly with the bone structure and it should work fine.
hhrrrrmmm new yoda i like heerrrrr yeeesss.
Great model, looks amazing. but... I'm the only one that see facial animations on MP, kyle, all defaults and suported ones does funny faces constantly (funny with low res) I'm think you need first person or sniper zoon to see them but yes, there are facial animations on MP. (not asking to add them, just clarifying(?)).
KaiaSowapit- great, we can help, you already have three members off staff on here asking to help out :p
If you need some help email me again and we shall get you sorted with the staff so that we can help finish off Yoda with you :)
Anakin
Bart Skywalker - sorry, I'm not currently adopting the model for facial animation. I agree it would be very cool indeed, but I'm pushing the limit on polycount as is. Besides, correct me if I'm wrong, but none of the models in MP take advantage of facial animation anyhow (least none I have seen).
facial animation takes no more polys ( at least not much if it does ), and models do use facial animation in multi, its just that you only see from behind a model and never see it.
I need to make some alterations in the mesh to allow for facial animations, but I can't promise they'll be in the first release. (I still don't see any in MP - and I looked - maybe someone could tell me specifically what they did to get a facial anim to play?)
Psyk0Sith - any general tips on weighting? There's some concern that since Yoda's proportions don't exactly correspond to the standard humanoid mesh that there may be some deformation issues. Did you learn anything with Yarael Poof that may apply here?
Also, is anyone here friends with Dest or Tchouky? I'm somewhat obsessive about scaling and have a radical idea. If possible, I'd like to include with this model a "mini-mod" to insure it scales properly - one that works for those without mods as well as those with existing mods. I'm not a coder, so perhaps I'm asking the impossible. It would be nice however to see consistency across all servers on how this model scales. (And yes, for those of you wondering, I'd make him .66 meters in height as specified on the official Lucas website.)
Lastly, in regards to skinning and shading...
First, does anyone know of a site where I can learn more about shaders? I've retro-engineered a few, but it would be nice if I had some documentation.
Secondly, and more importantly, I need to get going on UV maps for ya inbredyokel - any requests, tips or suggestions in this area?
Thanks everyone!
P.S. Anakin - did Toonces drop off the planet? Any idea how he's coming along on Plo Koon? (Yoda needs a sparring partner! :))
As far as UV maps go, I'd recommend taking a look at the texture files for anything Kman has UV mapped (the Dooku model is a good example). I'd say his are by far the absolute best I've ever worked on, and the models practically skin themselves.
Originally posted by KaiaSowapit
Psyk0Sith - any general tips on weighting? There's some concern that since Yoda's proportions don't exactly correspond to the standard humanoid mesh that there may be some deformation issues. Did you learn anything with Yarael Poof that may apply here?
Things i have learned from weird proportions: NEVER move any bones out of place.
The "closer" you mesh is to the bone, the better...it wont tear or do freaky things. As long as your mesh is well distributed along the bones joints (where two bones meet) you should be ok.
*When i say closer, it doesnt mean that it should touch the bone or anything like that...just make sure the bone is well centered within the mesh.*
Its a good idea to use Kyle's mesh for proportions. In your case the proportions will not be the same of course but it should help
Yarael's neck/head was pretty easy to weight, because only 1 bone controls the verts, problems will occur when two+ bones share the mesh's deformation.
As for scaling, it is possible to scale the model in the .glm file itself, the main problem is the floor plane. When scaled up the player will walk through the ground, when scaled down, he will obviously walk above.
Ive not tried it, but there's an option in carcass to move the model along the XYZ axis...maybe a mod is better, but i will experiment on that.
Scaling mini mods included would be a great idea. Although when running other mods it my not be compatible and cause problems.
That is one sweet lookin Yoda! Good job, ill have to go buy JK2 now so i can play with him when hes done
(eww you sicko, not THAT play with!!)
lol.
Originally posted by Ronin_Medjai
Im learning from one of THE Best Modelers. Some of his work can be seen HERE (
http://www.roleplayersinc.com/ganphoto.jpg) and he even remodeled the old yoda to work without the size command by combining him with his hover chair or whatever a pic found HERE (
http://www.roleplayersinc.com/yoda.jpg) Hes helping me remake my model now its going to have upside down saber mode :) Dont know what upside down saber mode is check ... HERE (
http://www.roleplayersinc.com/downsaber.jpg)
Downsaber works without mods or anything to cause its done a diff way I can use it on any server muahahaha... I can also use normal saber mode too switching back and forth at the touch of a button (all without any mod plus it will work in any mod!!!)
So Using his tutorials and stuff and his giudance Im going to try my hand at modeling.
You dont need a mod to have Yoda Scaled ;) Just make him with a Hover Chair Like I previously stated
I don' think that would simulate the Yoda fighting experience in the best way possible. People are going to want the Yoda they saw kicking Dooku's ass, not a Yoda confined to a floating hoverchair. Besides..there are so many mods that resize out there (and the Attack of the Clones multiplayer conversion will be one of them), it shouldn't really be a big deal if a perfect resizing solution isn't available.
First, does anyone know of a site where I can learn more about shaders? I've retro-engineered a few, but it would be nice if I had some documentation.
You really need to hop on to our site mate, I can hook you up with Wudan and a few others as well you can chat to Indy and Phsyco in greater detail.
"Nice it is yes hmm" hehehehe:D
Did you get my email BTW?
KevinCoyle - you still alive out there? :)
inbredyokel - I've tried to compromise getting the most surface area with least amount of distortion for the UV maps. My next big question is do you have the means to extract the UV's from a model directly, or will you need this done for you?
Psyk0Sith - Thanks! I'll pass the word on to Kevin if he has any problems (assuming he speaks to me again ;)). I'd also be very interested to hear about your scaling experiments with carcass.
More on scaling; I spoke briefly with both Tchouky and Darth Syrup (great guys, btw) - unfortunately it sounds likely any "mini-mod" included with this model would interfere with existing mods. I guess you all are going to have to be on the honor system to edit your own tckmodel.cfg's.
Ronin_Medjai - Hover Chair? Cute idea, but no. :)
Anakin - I've been to your site (and quite excited about the TC) - awesome news Syrup is working with you guys (ForceMod rocks). Anyone working on Super Battle Droids btw? I didn't get an email from you, but I did get a private message (which I responded to) - did you get mine?
http://home.earthlink.net/~kaiasowapit/images/ksyoda.jpg)
Originally posted by KaiaSowapit
KevinCoyle - you still alive out there? :)
inbredyokel - I've tried to compromise getting the most surface area with least amount of distortion for the UV maps. My next big question is do you have the means to extract the UV's from a model directly, or will you need this done for you?
In 3D studio max there's a plugin called texporter to take a "screenshot" of the UVW layout to a bitmap (jpg, tga...whatever). Your software should also have something similar...if not, you can export your model to .3ds (or anything supported by max) and ask someone to export the maps for you, in theory that should work.
One little thing i should mention: since Yoda is wearing a robe, you might want to turn the sleeves to about a 35 degree angle...cuz the skeleton's arms are not fully rotated towards the bottom (if that makes any sense...)
And i will let you know about my scaling experiments...
Originally posted by KaiaSowapit
inbredyokel - I've tried to compromise getting the most surface area with least amount of distortion for the UV maps. My next big question is do you have the means to extract the UV's from a model directly, or will you need this done for you?
Yeah, I'll need jpegs of the UV maps. And I don't know if you're doing this already, but it's generally a good idea to just have half the head, half the torso, one arm, one leg, etc., and just mirror everything over. That way more detail can be put into the texture files without increasing the actual file size.
::edit:: Btw, I can't tell from that angle, but Yoda still has a hood, right? The robe just looks a little different since the first screenie :)
Indy is right, i forgot about that...
Ill re-send the email.
Looking better and better it is yes, ummmm
Lookin real good mate, cant wait to see it skinned and evrythin, im sure inbredyokel will do an excellent job.
Ah man I cant wait for this!
...it's generally a good idea to just have half the head, half the torso, one arm, one leg, etc., and just mirror everything over.
This is problematic for a couple things... for example, the robe mesh isn't symmetrical. Also, though the torso is geometrically symmetrical, the skin for it shouldn't be (Yoda's sash or "belt" skews higher on his left side). I did make objects like his hands/feet/etc. mirror though.
Btw, I can't tell from that angle, but Yoda still has a hood, right? The robe just looks a little different since the first screenie
Hehee, yup his hood is still there (I'll take another screenie when I get a chance) - I did have to simplify the robe quite a bit though to keep the poly count within reason. Little extras like the transition from his robe's opening to the back of the hood (and all the little folds in-between) I'm leaving to your skinning prowess. ;)
The torso is not a big deal, but the head should definitely be mirrored over if its at all possible.
Well the lil fella is still somewhat in a holding pattern, but he's about as far along as I can get him - it's just a matter of having the model skinned, rigged, and converted to GLM.
BTW, for all those who asked, facial animation parts n' pieces have been put into place.
The model currently stands just shy of 3200 polygons; still a bit over the ideal, but hopefully within reason. Special thanks go out to Psyk0Sith for his tremendous help and support.
Here's a flat-shaded pic to tide everyone over in the meantime...
http://home.earthlink.net/~kaiasowapit/images/final_yoda.jpg)