Custom Characters (Read First Post)

[Korban3]

I'm going to manage this thread so that all of the fan-made characters for Overgrowth are in it. Here's the list of fan-made characters for Overgrowth.

Fox.zip

Working.

(647.98 KiB) Downloaded 666 times

Raptor.zip

Will fight, but crashes when run as player. Also has strange skinning error on tail during ragdoll.

(795.48 KiB) Downloaded 261 times

There were also two otters I made that crashed the engine when spawned. I'm going to revisit them one day and get them working.

Here is the tutorial on the OG Wiki. It's not done yet, but keep an eye on it.
http://wiki.wolfire.com/index.php/How_t ... Overgrowth

If you want more than one character installed to the spawner, you have to go into Data/UI/spawner/objects and add the spawner line in character.js.
Example spawner line:

Code: Select all

addItem('Character','Fox','Data/Objects/IGF_Characters/IGF_FoxActor.xml','fox.png');

The script character.js is replaced, so installing two separate characters sequentially will overwrite the spawner-code line from the first.

[Korban3]

Now, here's the code that I believe is causing the problem. When I load the plain object .xml in Pheonix, it shows up fine. But when I load the character.xml (fox_char.xml) it spits out that great error message: Abort Load:Generic type not recognized.

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<character>
    <appearance obj_path = "Data/Custom/Korban3/Characters/Objects/fox.xml"
                skeleton = "Data/Skeletons/r_fox.xml"/>
    <animations idle = "Data/Animations/r_idle.xml"
                jump = "Data/Animations/r_jump.xml"
                roll = "Data/Animations/r_roll.xml"
                movement = "Data/Animations/r_movement.xml"
                wall = "Data/Animations/r_wall.xml"
                ledge = "Data/Animations/r_ledge.anm"
                medrightblock = "Data/Animations/r_activeblockmedright.anm"
                medleftblock = "Data/Animations/r_activeblockmedleft.anm"
                highrightblock = "Data/Animations/r_activeblockhighright.anm"
                highleftblock = "Data/Animations/r_activeblockhighleft.anm"
                lowrightblock = "Data/Animations/r_activeblocklowright.anm"
                lowleftblock = "Data/Animations/r_activeblocklowleft.anm"/>
    <attacks moving_close = "Data/Attacks/haymaker.xml"
             stationary_close = "Data/Attacks/thrustpunch.xml"
             moving = "Data/Attacks/rightcross.xml"
             stationary = "Data/Attacks/jab.xml"
             moving_low = "Data/Attacks/soccerkick.xml"
             low = "Data/Attacks/sweep.xml"
             air = "Data/Attacks/legcannon.xml" />
 </character>

Now, the setup is thus: The first line contains the path for fox.xml, which works fine when spawned in the brower, so I conclude that that's not the issue. The next line is where I think the issue arrises, as the rest of the code is identical to rabbot's character .xml.
The skeleton that is used is where I believe my issue lies: It's the same skeleton used for Robbert. I've been wholey unable to the get the import/export phxbn scripts to run in Blender 2.8. There's no errors, I just can't get them to open a load/save window or to install into the addons. So I atuo-rigged my object to the gaurd rig, and used it in the character script with the vertex groups intact.
So what I need to know is either how to rig a new character to an old skeleton, or how to export my own phxbn files into the engine, which I speculate may repair my conundrum. Until then, I'm gonna work on that crappy texture, even though I suck at texturing, and even worse at picking good UV seams so that I've got something more to show.

[Korban3]

johndh mentioned using scultping to begin a new texture, so I'm gonna start on that until I can get the character actually working in the engine. Trying out Sculptris, thanks to Ninjas' old blog post about that sculpting tool. Anyone have a good alpha map for fur sculpting?

[Korban3]

Used Sculptris. Rather than sculpting out fur and such, and then figuring out how to bake the AO to a UV map, I just gave Sculptris' painting functionality a try. I have found a new love in life. Here's the results:

Retextured

So, I'm still going to attempt to get the character.xml working, but I'm gonna try the import/export codes for phxbn skeletons in Blender 2.53, as they don't produce an effect in 2.58, and don't function in 2.46.
I'm still not sure what kind of clothes to give him, but that's the next step in the texturing, along with using a higher res paint in Scultptris. This one is too low for good deatails.

[johndh]

If I were you, I'd try to make the face a little more tapered/triangular, and maybe make the body overall more lanky.



*sigh* If only Sculptris would work properly on Linux. The hotkeys don't work on WINE.

[Korban3]

Awww, sucks that it won't work for you. I really like it. I don't think I'm gonna setttle on this shape. Really, I just wnated to get an early success at importing a new character. The head and tail are transplants from the wolf model, and I, being a dork, used the one with a closed mouth. When I tried to work with the face too much, it really lost quality. I love how easy it was, compared to editing a UV map, to make that texture. There's a few little errors on some of the seams, that I couldn't fix, but that's because I suck at marking out a good UV.

[Korban3]

So, after 3 attempts, finally figuring out how to properly update my files in the engine, a lot of classic rock, and a head ache or two, here's the final draft of the fox texture before I add clothes.

Woomch!

There are some nasty grey area on the new seams, and the snout got stretched bad on the new UV, but it came out OK, but I think I'm gonna use the UVs that Sculptris makes, even if they are really ugly, because they look much better in engine. I'm going to paint over this image to get a concept of the clothes and then sculpt them on, and paint the UV in Sculptris. This is all just waiting for an e-mail to get the character working in engine.

[Starkiller2000]

When you figure out everything, could you make a tutorial on how to get a character model as a working actor? I would really like too do this but i dont have enough time figure it all out myself.

[Korban3]

Well, I e-mailed [email protected] with a request for help, so that's hopefully goiong to resolve the issue. I do plan on putting up my process as a tutorial, but I'd like to do a few test runs: I want to make sure that my process is working before I go telling people to try it. The first character I'm going to get working, because this WILL work some day, is this fox. I'm not sure about what I want to do for a second one, but it's just for fun, so maybe an otter? After that I want to do a third and final run to refine the process, and get the tutorial done with that. Ninjas mentioned in the fifth art asset video that he'd do a tutorial for this process later, but I figured that if I can get it working, then I'll just take a little load off his shoulders.

[Korban3]

Update + Randomness
Here's a crappy looking concept painted over the previous screenshot.

Mmm, dats hawt, yo!

fox_clothes_concept.png (253.75 KiB) Viewed 7936 times

I'm planning on putting this characters clothes on, getting the model put in the engine, and calling it a final. After that, I guess I could start another for a second run at importing a different character in the engine. But maybe that's getting a little too far ahead of myself, as I may screw something up in the making of the next model that's critical for characters... I really don't know.
Have I forgotten something... oooh geez, this always happens to me... Ah, yes! The randomness:
Careful, this doesn't open a new window! I hate it when you don't know, and then close the page...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S13mP_pfEc
And kids these days call scream-o "rock", so silly.

[johndh]

What's the concept you're going for with the fox? I.E., what niche/role does it fill? I'm mostly just curious, but it could make a difference in what kind of clothes, tools, weapons, etc. they should have.

Not sure if you've seen this yet:

http://blog.wolfire.com/2009/05/races-in-overgrowth/

[Korban3]

No, I haven't seen that, but thanks. That's a very cool picture, and I think that if I redo the model shape for the fox (Not really likely) then I'd use that. I think that the niche, as a race, that they'd fill is something of a nomadic folk who travel about. They're main job/purpose in the Overgrowth universe is cartography. They explore the world, and chart down what they see, smell, hear, and touch (EDIT And taste ). Any maps you would encounter were either drawn by a fox, or was copied from a fox's map. This character, specifically, is an adventurer. I think I'll name him something epic, like Frank... or Vrael. Yeah. I'm not sure how much I'm going to actually develop any races I eventually create, but I don't think Vrael will be typical of his people. Maybe an outcast, I dunno. But he's going to look something like that crappy paint-over concept. He'll use a lot of hand techniques, and I may even have to make a new move for him, if I could get him actually in the engine and working. I'm still working on his new clothed model, and texture. The clothing looks kinda bad as is, since I haven't sculpted clothing before, but it'll be ok. How does an otter race sound for after this character is working?

[Korban3]

Ok, it's really late, I'm really tired, and my first try at scultping clothing on was a mixed batch in the way of success. Here is the picture of what I'm calling the final texturing of it.

Final

fox_clothed_final.png (284.97 KiB) Viewed 7921 times

Now, my pride an djoy of this character is those bracers. I love how they came out.

Mmmmm

fox_clothed_bracer1.png (81.94 KiB) Viewed 7921 times

And another

fox_clothed_bracer2.png (79.23 KiB) Viewed 7921 times

I cannot wait to see a few punches thrown with those bracers... Now all I have to do is eventually get the character in the engine.
I'm not really happy with the rest of it, except for the little fox brooch, and how the belts came out. The rest was a trial and error. My clothes will get better the more I make them. Anyone have suggestions for the next character? I was thinking an otter, but I'll listen to ideas.

[johndh]

Hmm... I think "cartographer" is a pretty narrow occupation for an entire species (venturing into Planet of Hats territory), but if you're not very concerned with fluff, I won't bug you about it.

As for further races, the current theme (if there is one) seems to be "species that would survive and flourish in the absence of humanity". I recall an old description of OG making it a post-human setting where we've all wiped ourselves out and other animals have risen to take our place. Cats, dogs (some breeds at least), rats, rabbits, and wolves would all certainly survive and propagate if we suddenly disappeared. Otters would be a bit out of place in OG, since we don't have water anywhere.

[Korban3]

Hahaha Planet of Hats. Never seen that either. I see what you mean, though. Well, I may develop them a bit more, what with that new perspective. Hm, I might work on that later.
As for the otters, I was going to make them for fun mostly, but I also want to have some other characters to do runs on the process for adding new ones, to refine it. I just thought that otters might be fun; I wasn't considering integration into Overgrowth quite so much. But there was that art video where Aubrey showed a drawing of a monolith that overlooked the ocean, so maybe the otters can be, primarily, sailors and fisherman, maybe merchants.
I also want some more practice doing the apparel, because that didn't go as well as I would have liked on the fox. And, I won't be able to just transplant a head from an old model if I do otters, or bears (which I've heard are a popular want), or I dunno, Chuck Norris? John Graham? John Lennon?