ghostly fade

[bearded]

i'm working on ghost meshes at the moment.  basic idea:  thin male basic surrounded by a transparent grey cel shading based shell.  it works pretty good!
unkoman gave me some great ideas for animations, in progress.  head hanging, feet dragging, etc.

question:  is there a way to do a fade away without shrinking?  becoming more and more transparent till gone.  otherwise, sinking into the ground for ko would work.

i might do gentleman ghost.  has he been done?
thanks.

[Cyber Burn]

i'm working on ghost meshes at the moment.  basic idea:  thin male basic surrounded by a transparent grey cel shading based shell.  it works pretty good!
unkoman gave me some great ideas for animations, in progress.  head hanging, feet dragging, etc.

question:  is there a way to do a fade away without shrinking?  becoming more and more transparent till gone.  otherwise, sinking into the ground for ko would work.

i might do gentleman ghost.  has he been done?
thanks.

   I'm not sure if Gentleman GHost has been done, but the concept of a ghost mesh sounds really cool. Some of these animations might work for a dracula mesh as well.

[JKCarrier]

MikeB7 has a hex of Gentleman Ghost over at fxforce.com , but I don't think there's ever been a specific mesh made for him.

Renegade's Martian Manhunter mesh turns transparent during some animations, so it seems like it ought to be possible to make a mesh go completely invisible (not that I know anything about meshing!).

[bearded]

thanks guys.
i'm having a blast animating.  this is my first time totally animating by hand instead of relying on standard keyframes.
tommyboy helped me stumble on an idea.  with the cel shaded transparent outside, i can shrink the male basic inside for the ko.  i think that will work.  and maybe have the outside spin into the ground also.
thank you to vertex for poking me relentlessly till i meshed again!

[bearded]

i'm going to have a set of keyframes and several character nifs to go with it.  any ideas for ghost characters that could use these versions?
how many ghost characters are there?
is there a deadman skin i can use as a standard for one of the versions?

[Cyber Burn]

http://www.alexff.com/stuffFS-DC.php

[Jakew]

Ghostly characters?

Umm ... three spring to mind, although I'm sure there are heaps more.

DC hero Phantasmo (the guy on the right)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Youngalliesdcu0.jpg

DC villain The Spirit King

Marvel villain Ghost

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/62/Ghostthunderbolts.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/Ghost2.jpg

[TAP43]

Not exactaly a ghost, but there is DC's the Mist http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Mist_I_%28New_Earth%29
and Mist II the daughter of the first mist and foe of Starman IV.

[bearded]

thanks guys!  lots of inspiration for extra parts.
question for the experts:
is there a way to animate the rollouts?  for example; push normals, spherify, twist, melt, etc.  other than hiding shrunk meshes and expanding i mean.  it just seems like i'm missing something, there should be a way to animate a melt.

[docdelorean88]

Daglob did a gret Danny Phantom skin. I actually use it on the male_basic_effects mesh rather than the one he uses, just because i feel it is more teenager looking. Assuming these are male_basic Compatible, it is going to be ausome. While i'm thinking about it, would there be a way to get a flying effect that looks like this:

Spoiler

when he flies it it wiggles side to side at a fast pace.

[Valandar]

thanks guys!  lots of inspiration for extra parts.
question for the experts:
is there a way to animate the rollouts?  for example; push normals, spherify, twist, melt, etc.  other than hiding shrunk meshes and expanding i mean.  it just seems like i'm missing something, there should be a way to animate a melt.

There is no way to bring modifiers into the game, sorry.

As far as I know, the only way to 'fake' a melt would be with a hidden secondary mesh, whose individual polygons then slowly shrink. It wouldn't be perfect, and come to think of it would be pretty cool for a "de-res" animation... but it would add about 1k bones to the mesh. 

[bearded]

any ideas for a melee idle?  i'm almost done with them all.

[M25]

any ideas for a melee idle?  i'm almost done with them all.

I don't know anything about animating, but how about fading in and out?

[apfarmakis]

any ideas for a melee idle?  i'm almost done with them all.

How about the character floating around aimlessly?

EDIT:

Sorry, bearded, this idea was for the idle animation. For melee_idle, why not have the figure sink in and out of the earth (sort of like the burrow annimation)?

[bearded]

i can't do fading, unfortunately.  i'm looking for pose ideas mainly.  unkoman gave me some good stick figure sketches, but i'm at a loss for melee idle.

[doctorchallenger]

any ideas for a melee idle?  i'm almost done with them all.

The ghost character stands (perhaps floats just a bit off the ground), shoulders squared, feet in a strong stance (unless floating). Character's arms are off to the sides, bent up at the elbows, palms up. With each breath (I know he's a ghost, but work with me here), he clenches his hands into fists, as if he is summoning up all his energy to fight his foe.   It would be really cool if an FX could be added to this one animation, in which the particle emitters are pushing the energy into the character instead of away from him, as is normally the case.  It could also be used as a power up animation too.

I have an idea for an idle animation as well: character sinks below flor level, pops head up above floor level and looks around, rises to floating position above floor level, looks around, settles to floor level, looks around, then repeat.

[Champion 2 of 11]

any ideas for a melee idle?  i'm almost done with them all.

I have an idea for an idle animation as well: character sinks below flor level, pops head up above floor level and looks around, rises to floating position above floor level, looks around, settles to floor level, looks around, then repeat.

That's a dope idea!!!

[bearded]

any ideas for a melee idle?  i'm almost done with them all.

The ghost character stands (perhaps floats just a bit off the ground), shoulders squared, feet in a strong stance (unless floating). Character's arms are off to the sides, bent up at the elbows, palms up. With each breath (I know he's a ghost, but work with me here), he clenches his hands into fists, as if he is summoning up all his energy to fight his foe.   It would be really cool if an FX could be added to this one animation, in which the particle emitters are pushing the energy into the character instead of away from him, as is normally the case.  It could also be used as a power up animation too.
I have an idea for an idle animation as well: character sinks below flor level, pops head up above floor level and looks around, rises to floating position above floor level, looks around, settles to floor level, looks around, then repeat.

that's what i need, very strong descriptions.  got any ranged and melee ideas?

[daglob]

Melee scare, maybe? Raise his hands over his head and say "Boo!" Maybe do that one real fast, so as to be startling.

[Failed_Hero]

For a melee attacks

if it is possible,  he flashes (disappears) reappears behind or some where different and then hits the opponent with a shove (used alot on supernatural)

The ghost appears in different places hitting up three times. I like in front with a slap, to one side a kick, to the other side a haymaker.

for ranged

he summons all his strength and charges at his opponent (like flying towards him) makes contact and disappears reappearing in his prior place.

I think alot of struggling animations if a character is being used to be a polgergist for example his ranged weapons would be objects so him physically moving the object would be draining. (atleast in theory unless you are dealing with a particularly powerful or malevolent entity)

also depending on how funny or serious you want to make him using various movements from the Thriller dance would be awesome.

[herodad1]

what about making the skin for the fire_elemental mesh?would need better kf's but it doesnt have legs like the pic. example.

[Cyber Burn]

   Hey bearded, just wondering how this project was coming along?

[bearded]

   Hey bearded, just wondering how this project was coming along?

i'm 80 percent done.  i wish i could release it as is, but i just need to push through with the final animations.  thanks for asking!

[bearded]

it is done.  my yahoo group 3.
looking for critiques, suggestions, ideas for more animations.

[BentonGrey]

Awesome Bearded, I'll try and put this sucker through its paces tonight.

[Tomato]

Really good work here man. Love the Ghost animations, they're work the download on their own. 

[cmdrkoenig67]

Great Ghost mesh, B!

Dana

[detourne_me]

some really creepy animations in there man!  especially hover_area!
he looks really good.  i like the melee animations as well.
you got quite a few nifs in there too! i'll have fun checking them out!

[bearded]

hover area, that is the head spin, right?
when you look at the other nif's be sure to rotate them in the ctool, you'll see what i did.
for some reason, he became paralyzed on his left side for the run animation.  i totally animated it to flow, but it didn't stick.

[daglob]

for some reason, he became paralyzed on his left side for the run animation.  i totally animated it to flow, but it didn't stick.

If you could duplicate that and have it activate in the walk animation, it would be nice for a mummy's draging walk.

Maybe you could update Frankenstein, while you are at it...