What've you skoped lately?

[Podmark]

The swing animation would be appropriate for the Turtles. Do hover and jump get used at the same time? I don't remember.
I love this project.

[SickAlice]

I don't remember either, coding isn't my thing. I mostly make stock models for other people to skope with or whatever. In this case I'm making a base keyframe set as opposed to just dropping them on random nifs like I did before. Starting with Batroc keys as a base and working from there.

I don't "think" they do (hover and leap at the same time)? But I was thinking about how the Turtles move in any media I've seen. They leap and the climb either by hand or rope. I've never seen them fly of their own accord nor rope swing for that matter. More as a placeholder since the keyframe set needs a fly animation of course. I'm looking at INK and Gren's Batmans here, both of which have rope swinging fly animations but no mesh of a rope contained in them. My other thought of course is a rope hover would throw off the leaping. Other hover anims are likewise going to be there as placeholders. But a flying like Superman animation looked lame to me here. And again this is for people to skope on to whatever else, just they have a nice model and not that old turtle we used for ever or some swap. I think it's overdue in the Turtles case and of course maybe to put a smile on Benton's face when he gets back (I'm working on of his standing requests on the side too).

And cranlox, something I've said here before. I don't cater to obsolete PC's. As it is even if I had intended to put every part into a single nif this thing would still have less polys overall than say Gren's Taskmaster does. And I actually remove my backfaces on my models. I lurk here a lot and have been around since before this forum itself existed and what I see are these game model swaps everywhere. I also see my own handcrafted models in use, some of the most high poly ones I did and even a case where someone is claiming they actually made that model themselves and/or a model that a friend of mine out here in the world did. I don't care, I made a point when I came back to say all things are permitted but profit with me. The point is for you to kitbash what I put out, I won't be around forever anyways and the only point here imo is for people to have fun with this stuff. It's not a paying career or something. I did have it out here once, I knew it was someone's model and it was swiped using a sort of 3d capture software from the web. They made that model to earn some extra money to pay for their spouses cancer treatment so I wasn't okay seeing it distributed freely. We lost people here and likewise I'm coping with it myself so I'm not cool when it comes to stuff like that. That said I've loaded a few of the model swaps in circulation lately into my 3d programs and I had to wait for the load. And I have a Ryzen 5. So if a person's PC can't load less than Taskmaster? I think they need to consider asking us to fundraise for them to have a better set-up (I literally tried doing this for daglob back when, he had so many issues with that junker unit of his, he was obstinate towards it though) if they are going to be working with media and video games. At least something beyond XP capacity these days. I'm actually mindful but still I'm not going to go as far as to try and drop it down to N64 standards. That's asking too much of me I think. Just to get that out of the way.

[detourne_me]

Hey SA,
I hope you weren't talking about some of my model swaps there. I know I was pretty indiscriminate in taking 3D models I found on the web and importing them to FF. I apolohize if I didnt properly credit the sources.

As for the hover/jump issue. The 'hover' keyframe will play between the 'jump' and 'land' keyframes for characters with the jumper attribute as they leap to and from a building. You may want to put a rope swinging animation into 'hover' rather than a rope-hanging one, as it would appear more dynamic. And would only appear for a split second as a turtle is jumping.
If you are looking at Gren's batman for a rope swinging animation, I added a rope into the keyframes in a number of my imported Batman meshes (like the DCU online or other mobile games)

[SickAlice]

@detourne_me: No it was someone else, I had it out with them in private. I have some model swaps myself and I obviously violated the way too high poly model rule multiple times both in import and my own models, that's how I learned not to do it. I also check though the legal end when I do model swaps and make sure it's something that's allowed under the GNU law. I do worry for some people when I see them taking large parts of entire games and from certain companies. Like Warner Bros. for example, you want to be cautious with them. I've had friends in real life who have been sued for copyright infringement over fan art, it wasn't pretty. One by LucasArts for example. But the model in question was someone else, likewise the person claiming my models as their own work. I never spoke up on the latter, like I said ultimately that doesn't matter to me and the point is for any of you to use my stuff. Else if I have an issue with you you would know, I'm not afraid to confront people but I'd never do it publicly for the sake of the forum.

But you know, in this case the model was displayed online but not for download, like most hosting services like Sketchfab or Cults yeah? And if a person then uses screen capture programs to take the model and then redistributes it, which I could see they had done that by how the model was organized? Well that's knowing breaking the lock on a door and entering so to speak right? I mean they know they are doing something they shouldn't be at that point. Anyways the point was about high end models and what people appear to typically use here and why what I'm making isn't an issue.

So back to animations then, I went with the hover standard myself. The only altered to rope swinging is fly. I sort of thought the same as you were thinking and I wanted leaping since that's the Turtles whole deal. Again though these are made for skopers mostly so a person can do whatever keyframes they want. I'm just building a generic Ninja Turtle for starters and then doing some of the versions in separate sets for fun. Right now where I have it on the generic is Batroc keys, swapped out some melee for martial arts ones, moved out energy blaster and psychic ranged keys, swapped the flight for Gren's Batman rope swing (INK's wasn't very cumbersome, a lot of oddball strings in the animations), added a few other keys for presentation. Next, today probably a set of weapon melee animations and ranged to the generic (Generic is using Kama, this acts as a placeholder for me for other nifs).

Not sure I'm following the why on the hover swapped with rope swinging hover/unable to visualize this? So Batroc keys as a base like I said right? So right now all the hover animations are what matches that normally minus the ranged I said I deleted. And the difference in the Gren's hover is I think one of the arms is lifted up in the air? I guess I'm not following but I can try and insert the Batman one and maybe name it "hover_2" so I can look at them and compare them. Mind you I am trying to keep the file size down here as well. I want it to be as easy as possible for users here who maybe don't know much including about keyframes to jump into it. Kind of like how I made an animation in the Spider-Mobile that teaches people how to do a simple model rotation in a keyframe.

Otherwise I'm not adding a rope to this one but I get where you are going with that. It'll throw off the display on this and the Turtles don't really use them anyways. Inconsistent, sometimes they climb, use Tekkō-kagi, themed (because you got to sell those action figures lol) suction cups, so on. The only time a rope/grapple is used standard is Mike will in every series at some point as a weapon, even happens in the IDW series. It's kind of unusual actually because in the original cartoon they had themed grappling hooks designed and then they weren't a regular feature. My though was the toys never came with the grappling hooks so they weren't prominently displayed in the cartoon. Anyways to that end I am "thinking" of adding that when it comes to Mikes individual nif and animations. However I already have my work cut out for me when it comes to making his nunchacku animations so I dunno, I guess I'll see when I get to that point.

Anyways thanks for the input everyone. Finishing up the skateboard today. I had a very long work day and didn't have much time for it yesterday and that one is otherwise a bit tricky to make models for. It's that tiny model so it isn't easy to scale and line up to the models feet, and remember I'm changing the feet position and size too. But it's going to be in there, I had numerous requests over the years for a skateboarding Ninja Turtle so this a no-brainer.

[SickAlice]

Wow I'm chatty then? Sorry about that. I'm typing fast while in the middle of work, also I feel like I'm implying things here with bad composition or something so trying to explain it away. Anyways I tried that Batman hover DM. I like it, sort of a Mario Bros looking leap. However the Turtles signature leap at least since the intro of the 1987 cartoon is a leap with both hands by the hips and one knee raised so I'm going to pass in this case on that. Might keep it for some other project though. That is a creative idea though, I never considered it. Most of my keyframe time is put into trying to make animations from scratch (in this case I tried to have the Turtles eat a slice of pizza of course), it looking terrible and scrapping it tbh.

Speaking of anyone seen that Nick All Star Brawl game and the Turtles in it? I came across it while doing character study for this and wow, those are some wonderful looking animations speaking of. Right out of that 1987 (more it's past 1990 era look, the "Toon Turtle" look) cartoon. Right down to Mikes aforementioned themed grapple (Manriki-gusari) attack.

[SickAlice]

A skateboard for it. Like the Turtles it's one model, I'm just using some optical tricks here. The Cheapskate part is being a pain. I remade the fan box three times now and I still have overlap/ginching. I think I can pull some faces forward and it might fix it. I made the weird orange handle thing as well, I just shut it off for display. And the fan is on it's model so it can rotate. Tis the season so I have work, not a great deal of time to put in other than when it storms out.

[detourne_me]

Looks amazing SA!
Ive been knee deep in playing Shredder's Revenge lately, but that Cheapskate is making me want to load up FF again!

Glad you got the keyframes sorted out! I remember I based some Raph keyframes on ren's Wolverine, and used the power animation for eating pizza. I can see how tough it would be making new ones from scrath for eating pizza, since the arm bends in a really different way,with the elbow tucked in.

[mac402]

After many years of inaction I started tinkering with FF again. My understanding of keyframes is a bit better now. I've managed to put together a transforming Batmobile with jet mode for flight. Pretty much finished except I have to figure out how to fix its shadow.

[spydermann93]

That looks sick!

[SickAlice]

mac402: That's awesome. I love when people come up with Batmobiles for us and the transforming idea is impressive. Are those actual lights or a mesh piece? I've seen the latter on a Batmobile, the one by Syn I think. I've researched how to make an actual light source/spotlight in a nif, fireplaces and so on though I never managed to understand the process.

detourne_me: I'm way out of the loop when it comes to games, movies, so on. Haven't tried that one, in fact I only tried Re-Shelled about two months ago now. Life of work I suppose. I tried that same Wolverine idea, where he drinks a beer right? It just looked awful when I tried it though I'm working with male-basic-effects as a base (gives me a larger range of options) and Ren's don't play well with those.

Glad you like the models, makes it worth the time I put in. Here's all the completed decks with their proper shapes. Playmates Skateboardin' Mike's, 1987 animated (Leo Loosens Up) x4, 2003 Mike's deck, Ninja Turtles Arcade x4, some IDW ones based on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 x4, a custom Santa Cruz, Turtles In Time (Sewer Surfin') x4, Playmates Sewer Surfer Mike's fish style surfboard (I added another animation where the deck and player drop lower to the ground for surfing), 2012 Nick x4, the deck from the 1990 movie, 1987 animated Cheapskate (Season 1, Hot-Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X aka That Big Long Toy Advert) and Playmates Cheapskate. Now to finish the fan placement then I move on to the Turtles various weapons.

[mac402]

The lights use the same method as in Syn's mesh.
That TMNT stuff is awesome though, I'll be keeping an eye on it! Especially the van.

[SickAlice]

If your into animations I think you'll like the van then. I'm working out some ideas on that one. That's what I thought about the lights, it's a nice effect mind you. Just curious because I've been working on and off to get a real working light source into a nif, in fact it came up with this van again. My understanding is the route uses BSHelpers though I'm missing something about the settings there?

[mac402]

My understanding is the route uses BSHelpers though I'm missing something about the settings there?

I hope you succeed in this but I wonder if FF games support this? I always thought properties with a BS prefix were only for Bethesda games.

[SickAlice]

That's the other question on my mind right away, if  engine supports it. But I like taking things apart and learning them regardless. I know our levels in the second game do have in stage illumination sources. Lamps and such. It's pretty basic 3d game programming to have that. Then again so are fly through cameras and yet we are without. But the idea interests me and it doesn't mean the BSHelper route is the go to either, just pointing you to the conversation keyword. There was some argument there about the proper way using Nifskope for that matter. Here was some reading in question, I found at least ten different sources about in game light sources in Nif (seriously it used to be just simple to just drop a light node in and be done with it. I must be old).
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/articles/127/

So speaking of I couldn't let my Turtles go without pizza so I manually created the animation blind by doing the math. And I pulled it off. It was exhausting to say the least. I also finished some kama, a katar, a fist dagger and the TurtleComm phones as well the tweaked animations to go with that stuff. Now a LOT more typing strings and values in keyframes to go. The weather has been terrible so my work is on pause and I have the downtime though.

[deanjo2000]

Turtle power!!!!! Amazing really. I pull off a skin and think I?ve done good, this is the real magic.

[spydermann93]

Daaamn, those look so good!

Awesome stuff!

[SickAlice]

Thanks. And nah Dean, you stuff actually made my day. You're doing fine. Also this stuff like other things I'm slowly creaking out are things I've worked on for years, usually I did part of this project in something else along the way. I got a little more done, a defensive type animation where the head drops inside the shell. I tried making the "Wheel Of Fortune" move, the one from the movie and a line of figures. I know how to do it but I would be at that alone for a week so I'm going to scrap that idea. I'll have enough tedious work with the nunchakus'.

Since I brought up the subject here are all the in game light sources from  that I'm taking apart and studying if anyone else wants in. Some use that mesh trick the Batmobile does, some have authentic sources of light including directional. I'm noting the pumpkin lanterns and bases especially here.

http://catman.freedomforceforever.com/temp/_ffvttr_light.rar

[naitvalis]

I am not a particular turtle fan but this are cool meshs ! my favourite skin is the more dark green congratulations S.A. !

[SickAlice]

Thanks. That's intentional, the palette I mean yes. There's going to be a handful of variations. This one is based on the 1986 Season 1 palette. Likewise the variations I'm going to tweak bits like the shell design, eyes, mouths, so on as they did in the show. There's a different palette and style in each season, sometimes within episodes though I'm focusing on the memorable ones, whichever version people grew up with, right? And I count Season 1, 1990's, Europe and Red Sky for the stand out versions. Of course at this point again these are just bases so I can make the 3d models, work on scale and positioning, texture coordinates, yadda yadda. Not the polished work, that will come at the end. So that's cool to hear then.

Oh yeah Dean, if you have any requests or want to collaborate I'm up for it. This thing already is a long standing collab with Pod and Benton. The forecast isn't looking great so I have a lot of down time from work.

[Podmark]

Those Turtles are coming along great! Love the pizza and communicator.

[SickAlice]

I got lucky and pulled off the nunchaku animation for Mike nifs in the second try. Really wiping my forehead on that one and thankful for the wisdom of Gren and all the content he made to study. Also the wisdom of having both separate animations for your weapon attacks (so you don't have to adjust every position for every animation like I do with that big belt buckle I made) and for holstered weapons that save more time. I'd mentioned before that was going to be the hardest part so that's all good. I hadn't noted I'm doing the keyframes fully, meaning I am reorganizing every keyframe myself. The reason is this is meant to be as convenient as possible and part of that is if someone wants the animations for any other male basic they can use them for it. I figure that was something I should do since I'm creating animations that don't exist yet here. However as you know the string reorganizing in Nifskope is broken. You have for example 40 strings, you remove 2 that you aren't using anymore, you add say another 1 for something new, you're at 39. So you change it to 39 and update the array right? Nope because instead of scanning and deleting the empty stub like it should and does with anything else Nifskope just takes the difference off the end of the list, even if that is stuff you need for the character to work in game and CTool. And obviously no one is going to be able to use these keys on Nifs that have no Pizza or TComm node and it is a pain to rifle through each keyframe and find that certain string that isn't a basic essential. So what I've done, most of the animations are finished now for this is I manually went through each keyframe and moved each remaining string up the empty slots and then anything new is in order at the end. So now when I wrap all this up the Basic Turtle comes with an a bonus "Turtle4MaleBasicMeshes.kf" that I just easily deleted all the extra nodes from again.

Thanks Pod. Weapons are done now, at least the base models. Again mind you what your looking at are just bases for now. Like maybe you notice the kama is not the correct shape for Playmates. That's because like much else Playmates gets a re-sculpted model of it's own for it's nif that looks more like the Playmates one (rounded edges, no sharp points). Same goes for the rest. That's the fun part of doing this and why I'm doing this the way I am. Everything is about prep and having the parts ready to be tweaked for each nif/kf set. It also means I'm taking steps along the way for texture coordinating. I screwed up there on the katana blade for example so I'm going to retexture that model today. The way I textured it if you move vertices and faces around to change the shape the texture stretches and bleeds and looks all terrible. Not what we want of course, we want an easy to work with flush texturing that each piece shares. Something a skinner can just go in and make a straight rectangle for and then recycle their own texture for the other versions. My skateboards for example needed to have sculpted texturing, no way around that but I did the service of fitting each texturing into the other on the skin to save anyone time.

Edit: Just for thought, I'm THAT uber a nerd that I walk around with trivia in my brain about what palettes animators in the 90's used in what season of the show they worked on (ironically I was pitched the assistant storyboard job on the Nick version myself while in Malibu). I actually just research the things I work on, it's how I was taught to do art. In fact it tends to be the part that's the most enjoyable about this, going on adventures and sitting and learning new things. Like for example I noticed the sai in most games are wrong and only that due to a self defense instructor who tried to teach me to use them. I ended up severing a nerve in my arm lol. But my hands and mind are intimate with what that mold is actually supposed to look like thus I applied it to the models I made.

[BentonGrey]

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!! 

I can't believe all of this, SA!  You've done AMAZING work!  I really loved seeing your progress as I caught up on your posts here.  What an incredible eye for detail, what incredible dedication!  Also, I want to say, your work is just getting better and better.  There's a sharpness to these Turtle skins that is really impressive.  I love so much about these new meshes.  I love that you included the Turtle Communicators!  Ha!  That's wild!  I also am really excited about that Turtle Van!  I'm going to have to rework my TMNT mod using all of these amazing new toys you're making, man!

Mac, that is too cool!  It actually transforms?  I can't wait to see that!

[SickAlice]

Oh there's much more, I'm just previewing the WIP here. And thanks. This is partly for you, like I said earlier here Metalhead is in the que too. Also Slash will get updated as well. I saw your threads, hard times understandable these days (juggling something on my end this morning but I'm too tired to make phone calls and want to think about Ninja Turtles instead). And I figure you've done more for this community and deserve your requests answered. Plus it's a subject I have a good knowledge of and enjoy so that works, keeps me from thinking about whatever horror show is on the cable news.

On topic a few things since last night. Working on placement, well much of this is that over and again right now. I'm at the weapon placement part of where I look at holstered weapons. Typically an easy animation of course but I have an odd shaped body here. So I finished the mentioned sculpted variations last night, the 1987 animated ones, the Playmates, the basics so I can look at how they fall on the body mesh. Some call for actually holsters like Playmates which is nice, makes it easy. Others like the cartoon call for the weapon to rest behind the belt which is not as easy. Leonardo's katanas were a chore with the shape of the shell for example but I managed.

Mike's slung nunchaku: I made this animation several times. I'm a long time student and have a pair of exercise chucks in the drawer of the night stand next to me so I get the physics. I also know of course there's a difference in fiction and art when it comes to physics and then how it applies in this game engine. "Slungchucks" is what I call it when one holds the bar under the armpit and the handle in hand. Gren did this animation. I also studied it in several TMNT games. They avoid it all together, in fact more game devs than not don't even use rotating animations for weapons at all, they use an FX with a spinning texture. I get that, P rotation in particular is a time consuming nightmare on an individual axis (and I tried it here anyways). I can see where Gren had issues too, he was able to establish the right pose though for it. He also had a rope piece which looks weird but it evens out in game. My own chuck spinning animations are like that, often the chain does not meet with the handle and rather spins around the circumference of the top. And if you're staring at it in CTool it's an issue of course. Fast moving in game though it vanishes, like issues of the solar plexus do to the eye there.

So weighted is the way this is done, I did about seven different ones using different methods. The rope, which is just a single row cylinder, keeping it low poly works well. The chain not so much. I am not using a conventional chain, that's bad form and no offense to anyone that did it here. I mean individual modelled links. For one speaking of things that are taxing on the system that one is up there. Then you have to animated the individual links, you'll see this in some authors nifs here. The correct method is an alpha channel stencil cutout, like Irrational uses for the chickens wing feathering and that's what mine is. It's an optical illusion that makes it look like there is a chain even though it's not there. Same method I used to give the Cheapskate a moving fanblade. That's just a flat plane with a rotating texture. But here's the issue, model or plane metal links are not meant to stretch and bend and that is exactly what happened here, and I mean it looked horrible no matter what method I used. Like "yeesh" bad. Luckily going through reference this literally is not Mike's visual, instead he has a relaxed chain visual even in the original Mirage comics. So Slungchucks were scrapped.

And that brings me to Raph and any ideas any of you have. These sai are a problem physically. Over time different artists will change how these are hung and for a good reason, they realized what I did and it's that it would impossible for him to lift his legs without getting stabbed in the thighs. Playmates had a sculpt so they could get away with it. The cartoon hangs them inside that space created by the shell in the crotch and simple does not animate them, like when he leaps they just don't draw the blades in, the go to the No Zone. Moving up artists moved the sai to the sides of the thighs hung back, which is the proper way. Nothing as painful as nailing yourself with an iron sai. But I have this to work with and our male basic body and animations and every way I am looking at it the blades will fall into the thighs, I don't see any way out. I did work the big buckle as I said before in animations where the body hunches, most of the melee animations in otherwords and adjusted the rotations in the keyframes so it wouldn't sink in the model or fall away from it (not that it matters in game, you won't be looking behind the buckle there but I'm retentive). And that's a thing I'm going to apply to these as well the Playmates holsters. But that tip of the sai is still there. So the question is is there anything I am missing here that anyone can think of to fix that? Mind you my model also has that shell crotch space, I made that early so I don't put anything in the wrong place from the start and end up having to fix it later. Likewise I can cross them into it, even pull off a bit off an angled illusion for Playmates. Then add the sai are as short as his fictional counterparts are as opposed to real life ones (I also figured out the correct sculpt on the center). Yet this will still happen and as of now the option is just to let it ride. We don't spend much time looking at the front of a character in game anyways, the backside is more important. But maybe one of you came across a thing in your time that resolves this.

I have work today and am driving about two hundred miles and won't have to come back to this until way late tonight, still have to do chores and taxes when I get back. So there's time to idea shop here, no rush I mean. But I do want this placement done by Friday, the rest are all complete and this is holding me up.

*Edit: Yeah so right after typing all that and reading it I did exactly what I did with the pizza eating and just did all the math and created this animation manually. I need to stop looking in apple trees for acorns, really.

[BentonGrey]

Wow, SA, I don't know what to say.  That is really kind, man.  I am very grateful for the generous intention behind all of this awesome art, especially given the challenges you yourself have faced these last few years.  Thank you, my friend.

The amount of work and research that has gone into these is incredible, man!  Your description really captures the complexity of those animations.  And it's hilarious that, after all of that, you went and did it anyway!    It looks great!

I see what you mean about the sais.  I suppose the IDW, modern version, with the sais on the sides (say that five times fast!) would work best, but I say go with whatever is going to give you the least headaches.

[SickAlice]

As saying elsewhere this is a coping mechanism for said challenges, current ones on my plate as well so it isn't an issue. Earlier in this thread as well I've been working on this stuff for years on and off, it's just how I was trained to set up workflow. But it is true, you have put a LOT into this community and game. Like when Bill passed I still honored my standing requests of his, same with CB and mutual projects we worked on. I only wish I would have finished them while they were still here with us.

And thanks on the research part too. That's also part of how I was trained and educated for that matter, art going back to when I was a single digit age. It's also another fun part, going around and learning all these things. Like when I made a penguin I researched penguin biology which was fun because, well, looking at stock video of penguins playing. Here one of the bits aside the history of this franchise itself (the palette and artistic changes per series from the Murakami-Wolf-Swenson series to the Archie's comics and so on) was also researching the biology of turtles, especially their shells and how they work then cross-referencing with Grey's Anatomy to make that shell work in a 3d model. But for me and I bet likewise you I grew up with the Ninja Turtles and they are a happy place for me so I love doing this one. The original Breakfighting Raph sans accessories is is sitting right next to my bed on my nightstand. He has seen more than many people have, having travelled as my good luck charm from the Rocky Mountains to the Warner Bros. studios to The Badlands to the Playboy Mansion in his plastic life. Needless to say looking at the Turtles makes me smile and try and think positive. And it's probably an easy guess to know I did pursue martial arts (acrobatics as well though my body isn't that good anymore) because of the Turtles.

For animations, I think I should do a tutorial on this because I noted some misunderstandings of the process it's just Nifskope. Nif and keyframe are mirrors essentially, whatever is in the values in a Nif is also the same in a KF. So you can just as well open your Nif, move things into a desired position (I usually save a copy in the finally position to work with), and open the KF in another window. Then you just run the math and check over and over until you have the right look. After time and taking notes eventually you have a list of common value sets that you just quickly refer to. You will find rotation to be problematic but anything is doable with enough patience. It's a matter of how much time you can devote and want to to that specific animation and also how much your wrist can take. With this, and I have a few other long running projects to be released that are related I'm going all the way because I want to give the people some keyframes they can use for whatever they want to make that I know they have wanted for years now. Stuff that is legacy and will show up in game of course. For example I'm working on an expanded Taskmaster keyframe set that finally includes Area animations as well corrects any bugs and adds proper holstering speaking of that one too.

It does fail some times. I made a "retromutating" animation for example where the Ninja Turtle turns into a baby turtle. First attempt I did this to the actually model, the polygons of course warp and it looks horrible. Second method, imported baby turtle I made myself in 3d and worked the keyframes. Problem is that old standing issue about Shrinking where Freedom Force does not cover the gap correctly and you see if for a split second one object shrink and the other grow. If you can overlap them of course you step away from that problem, in this case when dealing with the entire Biped that means the model "moves up" from the ground level axis as it shrinks which is terrible looking. Of course it means I need to input the values to move the Biped 01 south the correct amount during each step but? That's way too much work and I am just not going to do that lol. Not for something I don't consider essential to recreating the authentic look of the characters and was just trying for kicks and to experiment. I did manage to get the precise values for where male_basic's feet touch the ground doing this and create a vanilla model to act as a marker, something that will come in handy in future projects as a result of it though so it was worth the time spent.

And Raph yes. My mind is saying it can't be avoided and there will have to be clipping. My hopes is do to being located in that part of the model and so small it won't be an annoying thing in game. Again we barely ever see that part of a model/nif in game, CTool is otherwise like television: It adds ten pounds. I also had a thought process with the sai's he holds. Gren made Bengal, a perfected sai character but I avoided that last time. My reason was inconsistency in how Raph is depicted holding them and using them. In a lot of media he holds them by the handle vertically, improperly and swings them about so I went with that. But not all versions do this, the 1990 movie and 2003 for example depict him using a sai proper. This time I'm just using Gren's Bengal since I didn't care for how my version looked last time. And that is why I had to create new animations for Mike for that matter, I didn't like and I wasn't the only one my previous animations for him at all. Not as a person trained to use and actually make by hand since childhood I couldn't. As it is the common stance where Mike is depicted with the chains/ropes in a relaxed hanging position bothers me enough, what I had going on in that Nightwing skope was far worse.

Anyways the weather is bad here, on July 1st I know? So I'll be working on more holsters today. I already finished the needed 3d models and texturing so it's all placement, most of which I only need to do these Raph ones like I said and otherwise already worked out the weapons holstered on the carapace.

Oh and making a blimp too, forgot to mention that one. The model for that and the Technodrome are still just bland stubs so I have been comfortable sharing but in time. I'm working to wrap my TMNT stuff up by the end of this year. Same with some other stuff like Lady Death. MOTU set through 2023.

[style]

Pretty dope stuff, pretty dope stuff!!!

[WyldFyre]

For animations, I think I should do a tutorial on this because I noted some misunderstandings of the process it's just Nifskope. Nif and keyframe are mirrors essentially, whatever is in the values in a Nif is also the same in a KF. So you can just as well open your Nif, move things into a desired position (I usually save a copy in the finally position to work with), and open the KF in another window. Then you just run the math and check over and over until you have the right look. After time and taking notes eventually you have a list of common value sets that you just quickly refer to. You will find rotation to be problematic but anything is doable with enough patience. It's a matter of how much time you can devote and want to to that specific animation and also how much your wrist can take. With this, and I have a few other long running projects to be released that are related I'm going all the way because I want to give the people some keyframes they can use for whatever they want to make that I know they have wanted for years now. Stuff that is legacy and will show up in game of course. For example I'm working on an expanded Taskmaster keyframe set that finally includes Area animations as well corrects any bugs and adds proper holstering speaking of that one too.

This is interesting. So basically, if you have both open in nifskope, you can manually set the character and copy the information to the kf. A long process but very doable. I haven't played with kf at all, but this may be something I try. I have always wanted some different hover animations.

And I agree. Pretty dope stuff!

[BentonGrey]

As saying elsewhere this is a coping mechanism for said challenges, current ones on my plate as well so it isn't an issue. Earlier in this thread as well I've been working on this stuff for years on and off, it's just how I was trained to set up workflow. But it is true, you have put a LOT into this community and game. Like when Bill passed I still honored my standing requests of his, same with CB and mutual projects we worked on. I only wish I would have finished them while they were still here with us.

I know what you mean.  FF can be a nice escape.  Thanks man.  I know what you mean about Bill and CB.  I actually just today came across an old message from CB on one of my DCUG videos, and I was thinking how sorry I was that he didn't get to see it finished.  I miss them both.

And thanks on the research part too. That's also part of how I was trained and educated for that matter, art going back to when I was a single digit age. It's also another fun part, going around and learning all these things. Like when I made a penguin I researched penguin biology which was fun because, well, looking at stock video of penguins playing. Here one of the bits aside the history of this franchise itself (the palette and artistic changes per series from the Murakami-Wolf-Swenson series to the Archie's comics and so on) was also researching the biology of turtles, especially their shells and how they work then cross-referencing with Grey's Anatomy to make that shell work in a 3d model. But for me and I bet likewise you I grew up with the Ninja Turtles and they are a happy place for me so I love doing this one. The original Breakfighting Raph sans accessories is is sitting right next to my bed on my nightstand. He has seen more than many people have, having travelled as my good luck charm from the Rocky Mountains to the Warner Bros. studios to The Badlands to the Playboy Mansion in his plastic life. Needless to say looking at the Turtles makes me smile and try and think positive. And it's probably an easy guess to know I did pursue martial arts (acrobatics as well though my body isn't that good anymore) because of the Turtles.

That's really cool!  Yeah, I grew up with the Turtles too, and they will always have a special place in my heart and my imagination.  Not only did I love the cartoon, but it was also through the Archie comic that I was first exposed to "serious" stories and the idea that comics could be at least a little substantive.  And that's awesome about Raph there.  I have a few souvenirs from my childhood as well, though they don't usually travel with me.  Here's a bit of my bookshelf, with a few of my childhood favorites who help keep me from taking life too seriously:

With this, and I have a few other long running projects to be released that are related I'm going all the way because I want to give the people some keyframes they can use for whatever they want to make that I know they have wanted for years now. Stuff that is legacy and will show up in game of course. For example I'm working on an expanded Taskmaster keyframe set that finally includes Area animations as well corrects any bugs and adds proper holstering speaking of that one too.

That is awesome, SA!  I had no idea you could do so much with Nifskope!

Whew, you are certainly going all-out for these pieces, SA!  That all sounds nuts!

Anyways the weather is bad here, on July 1st I know? So I'll be working on more holsters today. I already finished the needed 3d models and texturing so it's all placement, most of which I only need to do these Raph ones like I said and otherwise already worked out the weapons holstered on the carapace.

Oh and making a blimp too, forgot to mention that one. The model for that and the Technodrome are still just bland stubs so I have been comfortable sharing but in time. I'm working to wrap my TMNT stuff up by the end of this year. Same with some other stuff like Lady Death. MOTU set through 2023.

Awesome!  Have you seen the Blimp Daglob made for the mod?  That might be useful to you.  I think I remember you showing something about the Technodrome a while back, but maybe I'm making that up.  I can't wait to see all of this, SA!

Your Playmates versions of the Turtles look so awesome and authentic, I think I'm going to have to include an alternate build of the mod that switches the Turtles to that version.  I'm sorry there aren't any of the great mappers around any more, because I would love to include a "kid's room" map where you could have the Turtle-figures fight it out with their enemies among the imaginative detritus of toys and giant furniture, Toystory style.

[SickAlice]

Thanks for the compliments. Better when I actually release them of course but if nothing goes to pot I'll make my schedule easily.

@BentonGrey: I miss them both too, particularly Bill. We chatted a lot outside of here about life stuff. I don't have many old friends like that left these days. Nice collection, I can't say I have one. I donated the weight of it to a welfare home about a decade ago in Montana. Only a handful of items stayed with me. And no I haven't seen the Blimp. I wanted to but your updated download link wasn't working and you were on the trip and I didn't want to bug you about it. I lost my copy of your mod on my laptop when it went down.

Anyways more later, I have to go get a tree stump out of my beach before the thunderstorm rolls in and I still have daylight. Like I said, weird weather here. I have two new drums of roof seal sitting by the garage for example. I was supposed to do that two weeks ago but there has never been a long enough dry spell to do it. Next thing I know it will be Fall right?

@WyldFyre and BentonGrey: Before I go work and while I have you here looking at the other images I'll just show. It's straightforward and pretty easy to explain:

1.) Here's the original character.nif I am working with in Nifskope. I selected the left Nunchaku piece for an example, right click and Edit to bring up the position of it's node as you see here.


2.) In another window I opened the keyframes.kf. The window I opened in the other instance will follow you over. You see here these are the same values. That is the resting position of the node and thus it's 3d model/mesh.


3.) This is another version of the character.nif. I will not be using this in game and it saved as a copy with a unique name. This is not essential, just the way I like to do this. Here I moved the pieces into the position I want to achieve. This allows me to see exactly what the new relative position of those pieces needs to be. It also allowed me while moving them to see and write down the steps between the idle position and new one to use as animations.


4.) Like before, this carries over to the keyframes. Here I have copied the new positions into the new animation I am making.


5.) Which brings us back to this screenshot in CTool then.

[oktokels]

Very valuable info, keyframes is the next step in the modding evolution.
Beautiful work, just beautiful.