[Black Wolf]

[EDIT] Full set of six released  - Download Here

So, awhile ago, we all pooled some money together and paid for a Vasudan to be modelled. It's a pretty cool mesh, and it's going to serve very well when Mjn redoes the cutscenes, but unfortnately there haven't really been too many concrete bonuses to FREDders or modders from it. Yet. Well, having been prodded by mjn as part of a deal we did, I finally got around to rigging the mesh up for poser and getting it animatable. The results look like this (so far):


So, for those who want it, here's (as far as I know) the first new set of Vasudan head animations that have been made since FS2 was released: https://www.mediafire.com/?a4o8dmdc7tf45ma

Now, this first set, I want to emphasize, is very primitive. They will improve over time - I will probably need to go back and fix some of my grouping, probably reconvert the mesh into Poser, make some other changes, but I wanted to release this one because:

A) Vasudans are ridiculously, insanely underrepresented in the head anis, especially if you're using any of my Terran ones - dozens of terrans, two Vasudans (command type, a couple of fighters in there too). For a whole species. 2. Frankly, I would have released something half as good as this just to start to redress that balance, but also,
B) Given that the community as a whole paid for the model, it felt wrong to hold on to something like this, even if it's not technically at the level I want it to be at.

So, here everyone goes then. I promise this is only the beginning for this endeavour. The zods, just by their nature (and the nature of the available material) are going to be kind kind of samey in a setting like this, so I probably wont do as many as I've done the Terrans. But expect more over the coming weeks and months anyway, if only to redress that imbalance a little bit. Feel free to give feedback and make comments, but remember that I'm kind of feeling my way through here, so I can;t promise I'll be able to do anything about even the good ideas. But I will read them all and take them on board as much as possible.

[EDIT]For the record, the second head ani will look like this:



Note the slightly different head shape, more pronounced horns, better lighting and more contrast in the texture, more detail in the BG. Overall, it'll be a better set, although the movements may still be a tad meh. I'll sort them out soon enough though.

[EDIT2]Now animated!



FPS is faster ingame, can't find a decent GIF program to change it in.

[Lepanto]

Yes! YES! Thank you!  You'll probably be making a lot of modders happy with new Zod headanis! Yeah, they might not be the best-quality, but even these are still quite useable.

[Shivan Hunter]

bup bup bup-bup bup bup bup

these are awesome

[Nyctaeus]

You are great

[Black Wolf]

Second set of anis done.

Second set only

One and Two combined

[Luis Dias]

Pretty cool although slightly awkward to communicate with naked aliens...!

[Oddgrim]

bubububububu, good stuff!

[T-Man]

Oh I remember seeing pics of him. Nice job here Wolf and Mjn!

[Black Wolf]

Thanks everyone! I'm glad people are happy so far. I'll probably do one more set with this model and then go ahead and rebuild it. Probably have the next one done in the next day or two, and then not sure when the next lot will come through, but hopefully a matter of weeks rather than months. Still, I'll have tripled the number of available head anis by then, so I'm going to be pretty happy with it I think. Anyway, without further ado, set number 3!



All three sets
Just the third set

[Black Wolf]

All Four sets
Just the fourth set

And, while it might be somewhat masturbatory to self-highlight a thread, I reckon these are pretty cool (even if I do say so myself), and that's all the justification I need. Besides, I'll justify it by saying I want modders to know about these so they can get the maximum utility out of them,. No ego stroking whatsoever.

[Lorric]

So, awhile ago, we all pooled some money together and paid for a Vasudan to be modelled.

I am curious about this. Was there a thread?

[swashmebuckle]

Any chance you could do one where the camera is off to the side a bit like some of the pilot anis? I like that look, and I find it easier to distinguish between them at a glance when they aren't all viewed from the same angle. Awesome work.

[coffeesoft]

Nice job, looks good 

[Black Wolf]

I am curious about this. Was there a thread?

There was, but I can't find it for the life of me. Mjn may know where it was.

Any chance you could do one where the camera is off to the side a bit like some of the pilot anis? I like that look, and I find it easier to distinguish between them at a glance when they aren't all viewed from the same angle. Awesome work.

I only realized after the third one that I hadn't been tweaking the angles the way I should have been, which is a bit annoying. All future ones will have varied angles, but in all likelihood they'll stay face-on, more or less, just because this has been the convention for all of [V]s anis and all of my anis - one of them with a different angle would be somewhat jarring. That said, if it were intentionally like that, used for a specific characters or something, it might work.

[swashmebuckle]

Yeah I didn't mean full profile or anything like that (though it could be pretty amusing), just a small but noticeable offset like the second vasudan pilot in the stock anis.

[0rph3u5]

Great job! Thank you very much!

This has me wanting to make a Zod campaign right now ... but RL first, INF second, then personal projects...

[InsaneBaron]

Nice! I needed these!

Odd request, but... any chance of a head that could represnt he Vasudan emperor?

[mjn.mixael]

I am curious about this. Was there a thread?

There was, but I can't find it for the life of me. Mjn may know where it was.

I think this is the relevant thread.

Any chance you could do one where the camera is off to the side a bit like some of the pilot anis? I like that look, and I find it easier to distinguish between them at a glance when they aren't all viewed from the same angle. Awesome work.

I only realized after the third one that I hadn't been tweaking the angles the way I should have been, which is a bit annoying. All future ones will have varied angles, but in all likelihood they'll stay face-on, more or less, just because this has been the convention for all of [V]s anis and all of my anis - one of them with a different angle would be somewhat jarring. That said, if it were intentionally like that, used for a specific characters or something, it might work.

I suspect they did that to differentiate the vasudan pilots slightly better as they realized the same problems you did.

[Lorric]

I am curious about this. Was there a thread?

There was, but I can't find it for the life of me. Mjn may know where it was.

I think this is the relevant thread.

Ah, thanks. Shivan model? Did you get a Shivan head ani?

[mjn.mixael]

I have detailed meshes of all the FS characters (Terrain: pilot, engineer, scientist, commander, marine... And the vasudan) except the Shivan. I have been working on the Shivan slowly on my own.