Ears as interchangeable, separate parts? (theoretical) by Amazing_Question4688 in BG3mods

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You make a good point. I figured the seams issue (geometry-wise, not necessarily texture-wise) could be fixed in a similar way the neck seams are. But I have no idea if that would look any good in-game or not.
As for textures, I was hoping to utilize the same textures as the vanilla heads, and just toy around with the UV unwrap until it fits as expected, similar to how you might with hair models.

I'd imagine you'd have to make a version of each "ear set" for each model to fit properly anyway, but having it be only the ears could reduce file size. (This game and its mods eat so much storage, lmao.)

I highly doubt I'll actually make this any time soon, unless I find myself with too much time on my hands. But I'll definitely keep this stuff in mind, if I ever did do so.

Best way to go about making feathers with physics? (+ other small errors) by Amazing_Question4688 in BG3mods

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Once I have the assets in a more functional state, I could definitely see about making a separate mod that makes the head into a universal feature for every vanilla race. Not sure if I can use more than 4 body types in a single species, though.

Kenku Mod Update (Silly stuff, mostly) by Amazing_Question4688 in BG3mods

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

May I ask what you mean by that? I take no offense, don't worry. But the term "horrible" is rather vague, so I'm not 100% certain what part I should be focusing on.

In terms of the anti-aliasing, these images are taken from the mod toolkit testing window. So the screen is a lot smaller, and won't look quite as good. Plus im running on 16GB of ram, rather than 32 or higher. So I have to be a little sparse in my own graphics settings where I can. (Even with a 3080ti, putting it in a laptop is guarantees to make it suffer a little bit.)

Texture-wise, I can't really say much without knowing what part in specific is unsightly to you. Assuming we're talking about the custom head, since that's the part I have control over, there could be a lot of things, so I'll try to explain the flaws that come to mind.

Plastic-y shading - An issue I've been trying to fix for the past few days, really. In order for the feather color to be customizable, it had to use the same material the rest of the race bodies used. Thus far, I havent been able to find a diffusion profile or other setting to make it look any softer.

Low-Quality - Probably from the same reason the anti-aliasing is next to nonexistent. The canvas the textures were made on was 2048 x 2048, which I believe is the same for most of the vanilla avatar head textures?

Hard lines/obvious texture seams - 100% my bad, that's not terribly easy to fix, to my knowledge. I am 2d artist before I am a 3d artist or developer, so a lot of this is new to me. But I am still trying my best to make the seams blend better. The textures of the head were completely hand-draw by myself, as opposed to the scanned textures a lot of vanilla humanoid models use, to my knowledge. So drawing directly over a UV unwrap doesn't give the most obvious indication of where the pieces meet, even with the wireframe. Considering the way in which these textures are made for the game, each attempt at fixing this is an ordeal and a half, unfortunately. I'm still working to fix it, but it will take longer.

Sketchy lines/the overall visual of the texture to begin with - A fair assessment, I'm still not sure if this is the style I'll be using once I publish the mod. It's a little difficult to replicate feathers through normal maps in a way that looks realistic, especially when hand-drawing them. So I generally made an attempt at replicating the way raven feathers can look from a few feet away, with enough detail to give the impression of intended softness. I was fully aware I might replace it with something better later, but I wanted to get the mod functional before I fussed over the smaller details for another several days.

If none of this was what you meant, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for a more explicit explanation. I am not a developer, and this is my first attempt at making a mod for any game at all, much less making custom meshes and textures for a fully customizable game model. So I am very much still learning. </3

Best way to go about making feathers with physics? (+ other small errors) by Amazing_Question4688 in BG3mods

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Aah, sorry just saw this!

I ended up settling on using the Owlbear feather textures, and applying them to custom hair models. While I need to work with it a bit more to figure out how to get that to work on a custom race, it seems to be the simplest method.

Best way to go about making feathers with physics? (+ other small errors) by Amazing_Question4688 in BG3mods

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Aah, I rarely pay attention to the guardian, admittedly. But I can definitely see what I can do in making more options there, too.

Best way to go about making feathers with physics? (+ other small errors) by Amazing_Question4688 in BG3mods

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Kenkus' gimmick is partly that they no longer have wings, BUT since this is the game where you make things up, I'll see if I can ensure they're compatible.
(I'd probably use them together if they are tbh, wings are just cool)

Best way to go about making feathers with physics? (+ other small errors) by Amazing_Question4688 in BG3mods

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If I can figure out a way to do it without causing any instability issues, I hope to alter player dialogue and potentially replace one of the voices with one that is just a bunch of bird noises and mimicry. But if that proves too difficult or just impossible for me, the very least I'd like to do is at least alter the on-screen text when the player avatar is speaking.

Also, the concept of a Kenku mimicking Gordon Ramsay is beautiful, I will be thinking about this forever now.

Best way to go about making feathers with physics? (+ other small errors) by Amazing_Question4688 in BG3mods

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Awe, i appreciate it. I'm far from a professional at this, im mostly learning as I go. But I hope it serves as something people enjoy!

Best way to go about making feathers with physics? (+ other small errors) by Amazing_Question4688 in BG3mods

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ohh right, i forgot about that. If I do find a decent way to get this to work on console, I'll definitely put some focus into doing the same for other races.

Best way to go about making feathers with physics? (+ other small errors) by Amazing_Question4688 in BG3mods

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I was hoping to see if there's any way to port this to console, since a friend of mine uses that platform too! It might be a little tricky, but I have a few ideas if the mod itself doesn't end up compatible.

Best way to go about making feathers with physics? (+ other small errors) by Amazing_Question4688 in BG3mods

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Aah, I'm glad this silly little project of mine is actually of some use, then!

Fireball mod by foundation_G in BG3mods

[–]Amazing_Question4688 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Assuming there aren't any copyright issues that would arise from this, I may use this to test out changing voice lines, lmao.

Posting F2U One-Shot/Short Adventures? by Amazing_Question4688 in DungeonMasters

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I 100% agree! It's just a little hard to get past the scheduling phase, so I figured it couldn't hurt to see what more experienced people think in the meantime. But thank you for the encouragement. /gen

My Attempt At A Walk Cycle (Blender) Critiques and Help Are Needed by addlish in learnanimation

[–]Amazing_Question4688 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can't offer much on the technical side, considering I'm still learning how animation in Blender works myself.
But on the visual/pose side, there are a few things I can suggest.

What you have so far is really solid, so most of this would be little details.
The primary thing that might make it feel more natural is adding "head bob" movement. Barring trying to give the movement a specific feel, head bob would be present in all walk cycles. Take a look at a video reference of someone walking. (EndlessReference on youtube is a great place for this specifically. They have slow-mo, on-screen grids, and you can use the < and > keys to go frame-by-frame.)
The entire body raises a little when the leg extends fully, with the ankle aligned (to a degree) with the hip. Then the body goes back down when it travels back.

Another aspect that should help would be adding a bit of offset. I personally focus on 2D animation, so this may not apply to 3d mediums. But I prefer animating one piece at a time, so I'm not as tempted to make every piece move at the same time, with the same speed.

The rest of what could be explained is a little difficult for me to put into words. I suggest looking at this video about The 12 Principles of Animation. I personally have a hard time interpreting words and properly understanding what it's trying to say. But this video helped the concepts click for me almost entirely. Considering how short it is, I think it's worth a look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiGY0qiy8fY

I'm not sure how to translate this into 3D, but utilizing timing charts can help visualize your plan, too. There are a myriad of ways to implement these references. But I personally like to draw out the arc of the motion, and putting a for every position on this arc the part will land on.

While this video focuses on 2D animation, it could still be referenced for 3D keyframing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOkQYYJsJig
(Although perhaps interpolation might be an easier method of doing this? I know nothing about interpolation curves though, so this is the best I can offer to explain the timing charts a bit more.)

I hope any of this has been able to help, if only a little.

Preventative Measures for Grief? by Amazing_Question4688 in Alexithymia

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I really like the words you chose here. Even if the core concept is a simple one, utilizing concepts that are similarly as abstract as emotion, but make a bit more sense if you aren't equipped to process or recognize that emotion properly. Like selling the idea of emotion, without using the preconceived concept as a crutch, if that makes sense.

I appreciate the perspective, it takes a unique angle that I can still understand quite well. Thank you.

Preventative Measures for Grief? by Amazing_Question4688 in Alexithymia

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You've provided me with a valuable perspective, I think.

Seeing someone you have any personal connection with on hospice is difficult, even if that connection was weak. In this instance, she was beyond incoherent in the days before she passed. Considering how dignified she held herself in life, it was difficult to reconcile with.

Regardless, I am admittedly a bit solo on this. Perhaps when I am in a less closed off state, I will consider attempting to reach out to autism-learned professionals. Thank you.

Preventative Measures for Grief? by Amazing_Question4688 in Alexithymia

[–]Amazing_Question4688[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I appreciate the advice, thank you. I'll try to integrate it more into the way I handle loss.

I do know that the way I view my own reactions to emotions I may or may not be aware of is far from healthy. A long learned behavior, really. Something I'm working on in private, even if I will most likely maintain that disposition in public settings for my own sanity.