Help a Hero in a Halfshell

[BentonGrey]

CB, that's a great notion!  Yeah, I just checked AA's Frog of Thunder skope out, and I think he'd be a pretty excellent base for the Punk Frogs.  The head is perfect, and best of all, he takes male_basic keys, so we can do pretty much anything with that base.  I'm wondering if we would want to keep the skinny body or trade it out for a regular male_basic one.  Most of these guys should be easy to skope with that as a base, but the bow wielding one might be a bit tough, keyframes-wise.
http://tmnt.wikia.com/wiki/Punk_Frogs

Hmm...as for Slash's pads, I'm not entirely sure.  Where could we find spikey elbow and knee pads?  Ohh, what about using Gren's Shredder's shoulder pads?

[Cyber Burn]

CB, that's a great notion!  Yeah, I just checked AA's Frog of Thunder skope out, and I think he'd be a pretty excellent base for the Punk Frogs.  The head is perfect, and best of all, he takes male_basic keys, so we can do pretty much anything with that base.  I'm wondering if we would want to keep the skinny body or trade it out for a regular male_basic one.  Most of these guys should be easy to skope with that as a base, but the bow wielding one might be a bit tough, keyframes-wise.
http://tmnt.wikia.com/wiki/Punk_Frogs

Hmm...as for Slash's pads, I'm not entirely sure.  Where could we find spikey elbow and knee pads?  Ohh, what about using Gren's Shredder's shoulder pads?

For the frogs, the head for the Frog of Thunder skope is a seperate piece from the body, and the feet are seperate as well, it could be feasable to move those pieces to character-specific meshes. I think the main issue would be hiding/shrinking/removing the original head. Unfortunately that's a bit above my skill level.

After looking at the Shredder mesh in Nifskope, that may be the best option for Slash.

The bad news is that unless someone else gets to it first, it may take a while for me to get around to skoping them. September's just a crappy month for me in general.

[BentonGrey]

Hey CB, I'm sorry to hear that September is bad for you, but don't worry about it man.  Maybe someone will pick it up, but if not, no worries.  I'm not in any big hurry.   Good ideas on the skope.  That way we could conceivably put the frog pieces on the Connor Hawke mesh or something to give one of our fellas a bow.

[Randomdays]

It was for another game mesh, but I had a blender tutorial on how to remove a head from a mesh (or a body from a head, not sure wish) and move it over. I'll look it up and post a link.

[oldmanwinters]

I found this piece of fan-art today which I think you'll really enjoy, Benton!
http://jorib.deviantart.com/art/Through-the-Swamp-256057924

It's got most of your favorite swamp creatures!  You really like water-based heroes/villains, don't you?  :-)

[Randomdays]

Unless you're totally locked in on the Thor-frog, there might be some other choices. I remembered I had a couple of other froggy meshes. Both are from Daredevil - one is a Leapfrog mesh by Kraven, and the other is Frogman - one of the Ani-men group - not sure by whom. If you want, I can send them your way.

[Cyber Burn]

If you wouldn't mind sending them my way, I'd love to take a look at them. I'll PM you my e-mail address.

[Randomdays]

Frogs are hopping your way.

[Cyber Burn]

Very cool! Thanks. 

[Dan]

Man, nice work CB!  That looks like a rock soldier to me!  That really is excellent.  He's got just the right build, and the Doomsday bones make for nice, rocky type features.  So, as you say, we need a skinner.  It would be awesome to have at least two or three versions, one for General Traag with brown "skin" and that little insignia on his chest, and another one or two for foot soldier grunts, perhaps just two different shades of rocky "skin."  Is anyone interested?  This would really come in handy!  Say, CB, would it be possible to get a rifle-bearing version?

But wouldn't Tragg need a different model? He was shorter and bulkier than the other Rock Soldiers.

I actually have 3 different versions of this skope to add variety. I do still need to find one with another weapon though.

I think they were like four versions of Rock Soldiers, General Traag, the tall grey one (Granitor), the tall skinny brown ones, and the average sized ones which sort of looked like grey versions of Traag.

[oldmanwinters]

Man, nice work CB!  That looks like a rock soldier to me!  That really is excellent.  He's got just the right build, and the Doomsday bones make for nice, rocky type features.  So, as you say, we need a skinner.  It would be awesome to have at least two or three versions, one for General Traag with brown "skin" and that little insignia on his chest, and another one or two for foot soldier grunts, perhaps just two different shades of rocky "skin."  Is anyone interested?  This would really come in handy!  Say, CB, would it be possible to get a rifle-bearing version?

But wouldn't Tragg need a different model? He was shorter and bulkier than the other Rock Soldiers.

I actually have 3 different versions of this skope to add variety. I do still need to find one with another weapon though.

I think they were like four versions of Rock Soldiers, General Traag, the tall grey one (Granitor), the tall skinny brown ones, and the average sized ones which sort of looked like grey versions of Traag.

You are correct, Dan.  There were at least four variations.  The "tall skinny brown ones" only appeared in the first season, however:


EDIT: Nevermind, I was totally wrong about that "only in the first season bit."
http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb328/tonmaster21/shredderapril1.jpg

[Amazo Version 2.2]

Unless you're totally locked in on the Thor-frog, there might be some other choices. I remembered I had a couple of other froggy meshes. Both are from Daredevil - one is a Leapfrog mesh by Kraven, and the other is Frogman - one of the Ani-men group - not sure by whom. If you want, I can send them your way.

if i remember right, the leapfrog mesh is based on the ninjia turtle mesh. but the frogman i don't have. is it the one by bevo? cyber, when you get it, can you forward it my way?

[Randomdays]

Leapfrog is a hexed turtle. The Frogman had no readme in it, so not sure wher I got it. Someone sent me a full set of ani-men last year when I requested them, all for FFVTTR - frog-man, bird-man, ape-man, cat-man. Might have a dragonfly as well.

[Dan]

EDIT: Nevermind, I was totally wrong about that "only in the first season bit."
http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb328/tonmaster21/shredderapril1.jpg

Eh is Shredder stealing April's birth control!?

[BentonGrey]

I found this piece of fan-art today which I think you'll really enjoy, Benton!
http://jorib.deviantart.com/art/Through-the-Swamp-256057924

It's got most of your favorite swamp creatures!  You really like water-based heroes/villains, don't you?  :-)

That is awesome Winters!  Ha, yeah, I'm a Coastal boy, and I guess there's a part of me that will always love the sea and associated subjects.  It also just so happens that the Frogs are southern, Armaggon is SUPER creepy and intimidating as a villain, and Leatherhead is super memorable.   

Thanks RD!  I think that the Frog of Thunder has the best head of these three, though the Leapfrog hex/skope might have the better body.  A simple male_basic body might be best though, I'm just not sure.  One thing that will really make a skope like this is the right keys.  What male_basic compatible keys would have the right kind of stance/movement for the Punk Frogs?  They were hunched over a bit, and, of course, they tended to hop.

[Randomdays]

I don't know about male basic compatible, but TJ's Toad kfs would fit well. Maybe scope the head onto that and just reskin the body. Maybe some of the other toad meshes out there too. His head is amost toadlike already, so maybe just a reskin of that as well.

[Cyber Burn]

I don't know about male basic compatible, but TJ's Toad kfs would fit well. Maybe scope the head onto that and just reskin the body. Maybe some of the other toad meshes out there too. His head is amost toadlike already, so maybe just a reskin of that as well.

That's a good thought there. My only concern with that would be whether or not they could be made to work with the weapons. If you switch Toad's body to another mesh, then you may not be able to get the hop animations, though I could be wrong.

[Randomdays]

This is a page for modding of "The Movies Game"

http://tmsexymaria.angelfire.com/tutorials.html

If you check about half way down, there is a tutorial on working with nifs in Blender.

"How to convert a Nif file to a Movies Game Costume"

It deals mainly with bringing Tommyboy's Black Panther into The Movies, but there is some useful info on working with meshes in blender, including removing a head and replacing it with another one, plus info on weight painting and rigging - replacing one skeleton with another

"How to weight paint an object to a bone" .

There are some pdfs to download and some videos to watch.

There's also some more help with Blender here

http://tmsexymaria.angelfire.com/introduction.html

Probably anyone really familiar with Blender won't need this, but useful for beginners like me.

[Cyber Burn]

I had actually tried messing around with Blender back when Ewwzy had posted his tutorial and felt like a complete dumb@$$ afterwards because I just couldn't get it. I've stuck to Nifskoping ever since.

I was having trouble getting the pads to line up correctly on the Slash skope I started, so I put that on hold for now.

For the Punk Frogs, Gren's Connor Hawk mesh may work for the archer (sorry, I never was a real turtle fan, so I don't know all the names), any of his sword carrying meshes could work for the axe swinger ( I just need to find a suitable axe), the other two though, with the whip and the mace, that's where I'm stuck.

[Randomdays]

Right now, I'm using Blender mainly for converting from other formats and finetuning the bounding boxes added from other meshes. The tutorial's (I think the tutorials above, though it might have been somewhere else) give a nice simple walkthough of changing a mesh. In one, they added horns to a head and another they pulled the chin down to make a beard. It seemed straightforward in the walkthrough, but finding certain things out, even with the blender "Noob to expert" tutorials on their home page, takes some digging.


For the mace, some of the Asgardian stuff might work. Hogan carries a mace, I think that Tommyboy or someone has a warrior versatile with lots of weapons to choose from. For the whip, there's a couple of ladies that have one, Thundra and maybe Lashina.
Not a big follower of the Serpent Squad, but I think Coachwhip or a couple of others may have double whips - I think LP has a lot of those.

[Cyber Burn]

The skope is still a WIP, the body is Ink's Toad mesh placed over Gren's Conner_Hawke mesh, with the pieces from AA's Thor_Frog skope. Still a bit to do though, but at least now, I have a slight idea on what I'm doing.

[BentonGrey]

Hey, excellent work CB!  That looks great.  You've got the right mix of body type and frog-ish features.  I wonder if we should try for a skoped-on shirt and shorts...hmm...where would we find pieces like that?  Do any meshes have an open shirt like that?
http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/71057_94862868781_1691489_n.jpg
http://media.photobucket.com/image/punk%20frogs/TNTSAdmin/Turtles%2520Talk/GenghisFront.jpg
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/301/1/1/two_punk_frogs_colored_b2p49_by_pedlag-d31pmnv.jpg

As for the other weapons, well Gren's Hogun does indeed have a nice mace, but Attila actually uses a flail...however, we may have to go with the mace instead of a flail, even if a one is available, for kf reasons.  I'm not sure.  I hope someone can provide some better insight on this point. 

As for Napoleon's whip, I think that Tommy's Catwoman mesh (either of them) would do nicely.  They have some pretty good whips, and if anyone can suggest a male_basic compatible mesh that has some "whipping" type animations, I'll port them onto the skope once it's done.

Genghis's axe shouldn't be too tough.  It's a nice, big axe, but there are a number of meshes out there who have them.  Tommy's or Gren's executioner mesh should fit the bill.

Anyway, that is a great skope CB.  It's so cool to see Rasputin the Mad Frog taking shape!

[oldmanwinters]

As for the other weapons, well Gren's Hogun does indeed have a nice mace, but Attila actually uses a flail...however, we may have to go with the mace instead of a flail, even if a one is available, for kf reasons.  I'm not sure.  I hope someone can provide some better insight on this point. 

As for Napoleon's whip, I think that Tommy's Catwoman mesh (either of them) would do nicely.  They have some pretty good whips, and if anyone can suggest a male_basic compatible mesh that has some "whipping" type animations, I'll port them onto the skope once it's done.

Genghis's axe shouldn't be too tough.  It's a nice, big axe, but there are a number of meshes out there who have them.  Tommy's or Gren's executioner mesh should fit the bill.

Anyway, that is a great skope CB.  It's so cool to see Rasputin the Mad Frog taking shape!

I'm really glad some people can remember how to correlate their names with their weapons!  It was so confusing to keep those Frogs straight.  :-)

[BentonGrey]

I cheated. 

[Cyber Burn]

Jeez, I made a big, long reply, hit the reply button, and lost the connection.

So ok, short version:

If I use the mace for Attila, then I can use that as a base for Ghengis, thereby using the same kf's. Tommy has a Blacklash_Tvlite with kf's similar to Catwoman_Tvlite that could be used for Napolean. Shirts and collars are possible if I can get them to fit correctly over the body of Ink's Toad mesh. Shorts, I need to find a template to try and figure something out.

Once I actually get the first one finished, the rest should be alot quicker (time depending of course), then all that would be needed is a skinner.

Still alot to do though and not alot of time to do it in, I hope I don't hold the mod up, but if it comes to that, I have no problem sending things to another skoper who can work withing a given time parameter.

Sorry if this post seems abrupt, but I feel my meds kicking in, and am getting really tired and unfocused.

[Amazo Version 2.2]

if you use grensadiers original hogun mesh, the weapon is in the right hand, which may work better for what you want

[BentonGrey]

Good suggestion Amazo.

CB, have no fear buddy, you certainly aren't holding up the mod.  I'm not in any huge hurry.  I'm hoping I can talk someone into whipping up a Turtle Blimp, and in any event, I'm pretty busy at the moment.  What you're doing, my friend, is putting me ahead of the game, giving me the tools that I'll need to race ahead and create missions, not being limited by art assets.  You, my friend, are the man, and I appreciate the heck out of all the effort you've been putting into this mod!

As for your suggestions, they sound pretty good to me.  It's a good idea to use Tommy's Blacklash.  I'll work on the skinner angle.  I have a couple of possibilities.

[Amazo Version 2.2]

If I use the mace for Attila, then I can use that as a base for Ghengis, thereby using the same kf's. Tommy has a Blacklash_Tvlite with kf's similar to Catwoman_Tvlite that could be used for Napolean. Shirts and collars are possible if I can get them to fit correctly over the body of Ink's Toad mesh. Shorts, I need to find a template to try and figure something out.

i seemed to remember an older mesh called male basic shorts or something?  that may be usable if the shorts could be scoped onto the toad mesh.

[Randomdays]

FR World has 2 meshes with shorts listed on their master Mesh List.

male_basic_shorts.zip = Interceptor

male_basic_shorts_glasses = Interceptor

They're listed as being found in Interceptor's yahoo group

[oldmanwinters]

Very excited to see the Frogs coming together.  Still, I'm a wee bit disappointed they won't be able to preserve that distinctive "two eyes close together on top of the head" look.  :-)