Borak riding beast...

#1 Is this made with the "free" version of Truespace? I used quotes as I don't know what the licensing is for it.

It looks good - I'd like to see the skin for this puppy though!

#2 LOL, nah...I've been using tS for like 7-8 years now(since version 1/SE came out), though I'm refusing to upgrade past 5.1 due to the fact that there's nothing new and little good in the newer versions. I'm trying to cover that with some plugins I've made, though, hopefully to turn tS into a *real* game creation tool without the pain of exporting into other apps. Right now, tS severely lacks in a lot of relevant areas, and they don't care that much about this part of the industry. About the borak... I'll be skinning this puppy soon :) He needs toes first...

#3 Someone should make a Truespace Plugin for torque... That'd be nice =)

#4 Don't know Ted, it is a bit of a very early wip, not much to see yet =O)

I would definitly give it some specific elements like some horns or something. The anatomy looks a bit wierd but that could be the viewing angle, the missing leg and the missing foot =O)

All i wanted to say that it looks a bit plain at this moment, there is not much to see yet, work on it some more and keep us informed..

#5 Yeah, yeah... Make fun now, but when he grows toes and the other half of his body... ;)

#6 Okay, he's got four limbs now... The anatomy is indeed a bit odd, and I'll have to shift the placement of the limbs to fix that(hind legs are a bit too hind). He's also got tusks and something of a face now. Poly count is 948 so far, so it's doing well in that area. Here's the links:

www.DigitalFlux.com/lab/rw11.jpg
www.DigitalFlux.com/lab/rw12.jpg
www.DigitalFlux.com/lab/rw13.jpg

#7 Perhaps you can make it more well-balanced (legs are really strange). Anyway that's not bad, I want to see a skin on that...
Perhaps you can add a place to sit... (don't know the english word)

#8 Gotta ask...sorry about sidetracking the thread.

I'm also a TS user (love it) wishing to make it more valuable for games dev. So, I gathered the source for max2dts and the TS API SDK. I intend on writing a dts exporter for TS.

Anyway, how are you getting your models into Torque? I imagine you are tossing them over the fence to someone with Max.

#9 Yes, I export the models in 3ds format, which preserves most of the data. The stuff it won't preserve is skinned animation, probably because the exporter was in there before tS got bones. However, if you can convert from x format to dts, then it's much less of a problem, due to the True-X plugin that does export skinned animation. I'd be willing to beta test it of course ;)

#10 The legs are placed too far back. Perhaps it's meant to be that way, I'm not sure...

But the only time its legs should be that far back is when its other leg is fully stretched out whilst walking. Try slunching it over more so that it looks more like a walking ball. Right now it looks unnatural.

#11 I wish I could model like that :/

About the only thing I can do is extrude a box, lol :(

#12 Don't know if this was what you were going for, but I think of the Tauntaun from Empire Strikes Back when I look at this model. If so, that image might help you balance out the body proportions a little bit.

#13 I agree about the rear legs, looks like it is about to fall on its face. Very nice though.

#14 Looks great. As you said before, you'll want to bring the center of gravity back under the animal. You may want to look at reversing the leg construction. Much like that of a horse's rear legs:


Or like that of a dinosaur (T-Rex):


This will bring the center of gravity back under the animal and the feet will be able to reach further forward while it's hunched over. As is now, it'll have to walk almost fully erect since it has such a short counter-balance. Unless that's what you have planned for it? But at any rate, very nice and I can't wait to see the final product. :)

#15 I did fix the center of balance somewhat on it(not perfect, but getting there). Also, if anyone wants to see what I'm aiming for, the concept for it is in the Gallery section here. Here's three more shots of him:


Not skinned yet, but working on that...

#16 You may want to rotate and bend the front arms some. Right now it looks like it has a stick up its butt and is throwing its arms out in surprise. :D

On the back legs (which are much better), try making the calf a little longer, extending the thigh more to the front and drawing the calf and foot further to the back, which should place the foot where it is now, but with more stability. Right now, the legs look sort of stretched, as though it's straining to reach its legs to the floor while it's suspended in mid-air.

#17 Didn't know you were going off a concept piece, sorry. Now that I've seen Greg's version in the gallery:


I'd say the thigh needs to be greatly increased in size (almost as big as the head), moved outward slightly, and up toward the spine. The hip joint in the concept piece seems to be riding high, about 1-2 feet from the spine.

Not trying to bring down your work, Ted. Please don't take it as such. ;) Just making observations to help out.

#18 Nah, it's not bringing my work down at all. If you're going to be doing this, you need the constructive criticism, or else you never get good at it. I really am greatful at all the critiques from everyone here. It's getting me closer to what it needs to look like, and sometimes people don't always see everything the same way.

#19 I'm not sure if gregg's concept is actually anatomically feasable.

It looks like the center of gravity would be far too forward.

I'd extend the tail of your mode, bring the back legs further underneath the main body. That should balance it.

Ideally you want the center point of the rider in line with the center of gravity of the monster.

Phil.