Looking for man power for a project on justice (Cross post)
Learning to demo edit would probably help you a lot, its not too complicated. Some good walkthroughs in the guides section of the boards I think.
Someone on Beta server said that demorecord is broken.
Might wanna ask Samuraiko about it.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
I already know how to demo edit. That's how I'm going to replace the player toons with NPCs and the other characters. I used demo editing, or rather demo-creation, on those two pages I already posted. It works pretty well when you're doing simple replacements. But full out creation is rather tedious and more then a little frustrating. If I get 7 people to work with me on this in game I figure it should take no more then an hour and hour to get all the shots I need and then half an hour to 45 minutes to finish the demo editing and screen grabs I need for the shots. So total time should be around 2.5 hours. It took me 6 and half to make those first two pages by myself with demo editing.
Hm. My understanding is people usually just make a bunch of demos of the stuff they want, then copy/paste the parts together, rather than try to do everything from scratch. At least, that is how I did it, and it wasn't too bad, outside the time fiddling with the costume creator.
Quote:
if you can find objects in the game that are already in the possition and location you want a character in, it's a simple matter to replace the object with the intended character. lets say I wanted to replace the Miss Liberty contact npc with Lord Recluse.|
Originally Posted by Quatermain
Hm. My understanding is people usually just make a bunch of demos of the stuff they want, then copy/paste the parts together, rather than try to do everything from scratch. At least, that is how I did it, and it wasn't too bad, outside the time fiddling with the costume creator.
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You find the line of the demo that references the object for Ms Liberty:
0 128 NPC miss_liberty
and replace the model with that for lord recluse:
0 128 NPC signature_model_lord_recluse.
And there ya go. You now have a demo of Lord Recluse standing where Ms. Liberty stands.
Real simply. it's a little bit more involved when you want to use a player created character, but same basic concept.
It becomes tricky when you get into movement of multiple objects. If you look at the first three frames of the two pages I posted, I'll explain.
That was a demo of 8 characters walking a straight line past the camera in a sewer. Since there's no place in the game where this happens automatically (At least no place I can think of), I had to create a demo of it.
Getting the map data was easy enough. Then I marked out the starting location for the characters walking (11.54822 0.0 110.212692) and then marked the ending location 20 feet further down the sewer (30.745584 0.14 118.745584). But if I just set an beginning and end the characters don't move, they just blink. First they're at the one location then they're at the other. So I have to step it out, small incriments of change in the location data spread over a period of time. I figured that 40 seconds from start to finish would be sufficiently slow enough to show that the group wasn't running, but fast enough to show that they are a single group. And then I figure that it will take 10 steps per second to give a nice smooth transition of location.
So, the distance the character traverses: 20 feet, over a period of 40 seconds at 10 steps per second. so 400 steps at a change in position of 0.05 feet per step.
So I have to make a demo file of a character moving from:
11.54822 0.0 110.212692
to
30.745584 0.14 118.745584 and going through a series of 400 changes.
so that goes like so:
0 128 POS 11.54822 0.0 110.212692
100 128 POS 12.44822 0.0 111.212792
100 128 POS 12.64822 0.0 110.712792
100 128 POS 12.94822 0.0 110.712792
100 128 POS 13.04822 0.0 110.712792
100 128 POS 13.24822 0.0 110.713492
...
all the way till the first character reaches that ending point of the walk.
and then I had to that 7 more times for the other 7 toons in the demo.
Like I said, I know demo editing. I know how to accomplish it and I know how to trouble shoot problems in it when they arise. The reason I can't use a simple model substitution in this instance is because there are no locations with people/replaceable objects in it that matches the setting I'm using. And since I'm dealing with toons of differing heights, I'll need to deal with orientation angles, which are a little counter-intuitive due to how the game engine handles them.
It's kind of like dealing with CGI in movies. Since the dinosaurs/giant robot/alien monster isn't actually there when they shoot the film they have to give some sort of reference point for actors to look at. So you have stage hands running around with Card board cut outs and big head on top of their heads and all. It gives the actors something to look at so they have an eye line to where the thing will be when they edit it in later. Same problem here. If I want to look at the face of a character that isn't actually there, I need something for reference. Hence why I want toons that are approximately the same height of the characters they're standing in for. If I have someone who's 5 feet tall standing in for a crab spider, who is 8 feet tall, and I look at the head of the character that is 5 feet tall, and then replace that character with the model for the crab spider, I won't be looking at the head of the Crab spider. I'll be looking at it's stomach.
So I want stand ins that are about the same height of the character that will be in the final comic.
I am aware.
I still need a couple people for the project. As a reminder, I want to try and coordinate all of this through team speak so you should have the team speak client set up. I'll contact you with the connection details.
I still need someone to stand in for Trivolt, The Longbow Spec Ops, and the Miner.
It would be helpful if you have a costume that is the same approximate height of the character you are standing in for.
Longbow Spec Ops: 6 feet tall
Enraged Miner: Under 6 feet tall
Trivolt: 6 ½ feet tall
If you make a new costume to match the height of the character, please let me know. I will reimburse you up to 1.5m Inf for the tailor costs.
If you have any questions, either post 'em here or toss me a PM
I'm fully down for this. Id love to be a part of this, especially, my main character longboard. Im home all weekend brosef
Quote:
DOH! sorry Longboard, I finished that project. I managed to get enough people to get it done. You can check out the finished product here:|
Originally Posted by Longboard
I'm fully down for this. Id love to be a part of this, especially, my main character longboard. Im home all weekend brosef
|
City of Heroes: A Legacy of Sin
Greetings from your local insane... well.. whatever I happen to be right now. Anyway, As some of you are undoubtedly aware I have in the past attempted to make a series of fan based comics using City of Heroes as the back drop. Well, I'm at it again. And I'm running into a problem, namely man power. I'm only one person, and even with a mastermind I have difficulty doing what I'm trying to do (I'm not that good with pet commands), so here I am asking for some help.
Now, I'm sure you're asking "What do you us to do?" Well, the good news is I've learned a lot of tricks that I can use to make this waaaaay easier for you. Literally all you will have to do is be online, stand where I tell you to stand, and push a button when I tell you to push a button. I have built a bind file that I will send you. When you push the button associated with the bind your toon will perform an emote and say something in the local channel. I will demo record it. That's literally all there is to it.
So what do I need for this? I need 7 people online at the same time. Each player will represent a particular character in my comic and the binds for that character will be set accordingly. We will go into a mission I made in the AE, clear out an area of enemies, and perform the actions I need performed while I demo record each piece. That's all there is to it.
I'll be upfront and tell you all that this is a test run of this process. So the scene I'm making will be short and honestly will seem like it's a part out of a larger story, which it is. But So far the script I'm writing is about 6 pages long of text.
I did a bit of a test on with it last night, and turned this:
The miner turns with the flash light to investigate a corner.
He sighs
Miner: Alright, this is stupid!
So you can see how a little bit of text in word amounts to a lot of space in a comic and that if I were to try and do a test of a full 18-24 page issue you all would probably make a special trip to Virginia just to hang me.
Once I have a better idea of time and effort required based on 5-6 of script I'll be in a better position to break it down into more manageable chunks. That way I can try and do more work with fewer people standing around.
So, who's willing to help me out here?
Here's the entire passage I want to do on this test run:
A group made of up Scarlet Thundress, Torroes Prime, Tri-volt, a Long Bow Spec Op, 2 Arachnos Wolf Spiders, a Miner and a Crab Spider trudge through the knee-deep sludge
*The miner turns with the flash light to investigate a corner.*
*He sighs*
Miner: Alright, this is stupid!
Longbow: What?
Miner: The fact that were down here, playing Hide and go seek.
Wolf Spider 1: And what would you recommend we do?
Miner: Get up there and fight!
Crab Spider: Yeah, the Rikti bombed the whole damned planet. The least we can do is actually put up a fight.
Wolf Spider 2: You dont get it, we already lost the planet.
Miner: So what? You saying we cant take it back? That it mr. Spider man?
Torroes Prime: No. We WILL fight to take back the planet. But not now.
Miner: And why not? Whats stopping us?!
Scarlet Thundress: Organization.
Crab Spider: huh?
*Torroes points to the Longbow Spec Ops*
Torroes: When was the last time you heard from Longbow HQ?
Longbow: *Shrugs* About a month ago, I guess. Probably a little more.
*Torroes points to the Crab Spider*
Torroes: What about Arachnos? What kind of support and man power can they bring?
Crab Spider: um well I mean Lord Recluse disappeared into the portal, and Scorpion and Mako went at it so . I guess theres something that Lord Scirroco could bring, maybe.
Scarlet Thundress: Recluse is gone, and whatever stabilizing effect he had on Arachnos has also vanished. It is doubtful that Ghost Widow still lives, and the infighting between Mako and Scorpion has crippled the whole of the Arachnos Organization.
Trivolt: Yeah, aint like the Rikti could have picked a better time to attack. The only folks that could stand up to em were Vanguard. Not that they did so great.
*Torroes Grunts*
Torroes: With Arachnos, Longbow, and Vanguard out of commission we are at a major disadvantage and we need both organization and man power before we can do anything.
Thundress: Which is why we are going to rescue Wicked Blue. She is a capable fighter and an accomplished leader.
*Torroes looks at the group*
Torroes: Lets take a break.
Longbow Spec Ops: Ill scout ahead.
*Longbow cloaks*
Torroes: Be careful. Were here to rescue Wicked Blue. We dont need a second person to rescue.
*Trivolt leans against the wall*
Trivolt: Wouldnt bother me any to have a second person to person to pull out.
Scarlet Thundress: And why would that be, Trivolt?
Trivolt: Simple. You and bull man there are paying me to pull your girl out. Second target, second fee.
*Torroes rises to his full height and turns to face Trivolt*
Torroes: Trivolt, I am only going to say this once. These people may just be potential marks for your next paycheck, but they are my allies. If I think for even one second that you are deliberating hindering our progress just to raise your profits, I will kill you. Is that clear?
Trivolt: Yeah, bull. Its clear.
Trivolts thoughts: At least as long as youre paying me its clear.
*Torroes walks by Thundress*
Torroes: (Whispering to Thundress) I dont trust Trivolt. Watch him closely.
*Thundress nods*
I would like to try use Team Speak or some similar form of Voip to direct this. I think that will be easier then using the chat system in the game.
I need your toon to have a costume that is comparable in size to the character you're representing during shooting. I'm working on compiling a set of approximate heights for each character now. How you accomplish your toon having the proper height is entirely up to you. If you want to a roll a throw away toon just for this to make him the right size, that's fine. if you want to make a new costume for your toon I'll reimburse you up to 1.5m inf for the tailor charge.
height of the respective characters:
Longbow Spec Ops: 6 feet tall
Wolf Spiders: between 5 and 7 feet tall
Crab Spider: Max height.
Enraged Miner: Under 6 feet tall
Trivolt: 6 ½ feet tall
I already have 3 other people who have volunteered to help me out that will be standing in for the Crab Spider, Scarlet Thundress and one wolf spider. So I just need people for the other characters.
If you have any questions, please post them here.
So, who's willing to help me with this?
If you're interested you can check out my previous efforts here:
http://www.student.nvcc.edu/home/mci...23/comics.html
View my Deviant Art Gallery