Wolf Lords MOD - In Need of An Animator!

[Mephistoned]

Well it's easy in the sense there is little animation required. And easy in the sense I have very good and experienced support (aka iron priests). But export is...fiddly and at the moment is crashing my Max. You really need to be very careful with all paths and texture folders - and unfortunately when I started these models I simply didn't know, so they all have inbuilt errors from the word go. Hopefully I'll figure ways to dodge these in future.

Next there's working out FX to finish it off, and the small matter of team coloring...

[runner12326]

awesome. I've been following this for a while, nice to see progress.

[Mephistoned]

A little update - my experiment with placing the logo on a transparent layer to 'cheat' the size restrictions on the size of a banner background failed miserably since it seems the banner logo can only appear on a colored background. So this is take 2. The addition of a wolf body will allow Great Company banner designs to 'swap' the heads, and the body is team colorable.

[matthew]

Nice to see alot of preogress with this mod.. i pop on once a week to see whats new! keep up the good work.

[Mephistoned]

Games Workshop finally released the official fenrisian wolves and thunderwolf riders

A few interesting things of note. First that the fenrisian wolves just look like normal wolves - they did not go the way the illustrator in the codex or for Prospero burns did with creating semi-human faces for the wolves (in line with the idea the wolves are devolved wulfen). Secondly the thunderwolves, though not bad models per se, share the same problems the many conversions out there had, which was that the wolves just look like larger wolves and yet too spindly and small to really support the mass of an armored marine on the back (and at speed).

So the influence these models will have on mine? Well, zero to be honest. I think they are a seriously wasted opportunity by GW. I'm just finishing texturing my cyberwolf so I will have that to show shortly. But my thunderwolf as you can see from the post has more in common with a rhinocerous or bear (which actually was noted in the codex as well) and really dwarfs the marine on its back - it will also be heavily armored and enhanced. Stay tuned...

[Mephistoned]

Just a little note to everyone because there are friends waiting for banners, models and updates. We're not dead, but I have built a new supercomputer (it is beautiful) and am still transferring everything over from my deadbeat ex-super laptop which is literally hanging onto life by a fingernail (I'm talking carwreck, broken keyboard, flickering screen, Vista, viruses the whole shebang). Also RL has raised its ugly head with some long forgotten financial shenanigans coming back to bite me on my ex-pat ass (partly also the result of the recent UK financial crisis - and I thought I'd outrun it...). Oh and then there's the small matter of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Skyrim taking over the remainder of my life (well I do have to PLAY games sometimes as well as MAKE them). Throw in the ongoing matter of my crazy gypsy gf and I'm on holiday for April to May in Venice. And I have two books to write. So that puts some often-needed color into the bland RL acronym.

But never fear, because the Wolf in me is growling and I'm just itching to finish the cyberwolf and banners I'd nearly done. So expect a brief sejourn and then a rampant return!

[Gambit]

....(I'm talking carwreck, broken keyboard, flickering screen, Vista, viruses the whole shebang)....

... with "Vista" being the WORST malady

But never fear, because the Wolf in me is growling and I'm just itching to finish the cyberwolf and banners I'd nearly done. So expect a brief sejourn and then a rampant return!

YES!!!!! (I am good at playtesting by the way, so I volunteer whenever you want).

[Mephistoned]

Haha I am glad someone made that comment on Vista as I forgot to! I still remember the day I took out my shiny new laptop from its box, booted it up and...fail. But at least it ran 3D Max 2008 so all the lovely models thus far were creatable...

[Warhammerfug]

Looking good Mephistoned, still cant wait for that BETA haven't played DOW in ages, but when I do, I'll be playing your beautiful mod..

[Mephistoned]

Just a hi to say I'm back from holiday (ah Venice!) and once unpacked and tidied shall be carrying on with the work on the mod. Thanks to my team and other mod leaders for their patience waiting for banners, cyberwolves, buildings, grey hunters and all the other stuff that is so near yet so far from export. We will get there. I've been missing the modelling and texturing awfully. The only irritating hill to climb first is installing all the necessary programs over again on my new supercomputer, but it's gotta happen shortly (sigh).

Just hoping windows 7 doesn't throw up some unknown issues. Does anyone know of any windows 7 problems with max 8, the plugins mod tools - Dark Crusade or anything else? Please let me know if you do!

Ta.

[jONES1979]

Just install games far from the default "program files" folder. Use [for example] c:\games\Dawn of War - Dark Crusade\ instead

Also, always run 3D Max as admin-user.

[Danimator]

Everything I've read has said that Max 8 does not run well (if at all) on Win7. Some have had sucess but have said it's buggy at best.

I use a VM running XP but it struggles for memory to run it properly.

[Mephistoned]

Thanks Jones. How will that affect export paths etc?

[xhunkx]

this mod really gto something special ! just can t w8 more....but i must^^

[Mephistoned]

The rumors of our death are greatly exaggerated. Apologies for no updates as RL has taken over in the middle of my machine transfer of the mod which requires a decent amount of time to accomplish before I can even continue to work on what I was doing. A lot of stuff was nearly finished before so expect lots to happen when it happens, which really must be soon. I'm feeling like doing voices soon too which I'm going to do all (yes all) myself. I am really looking forward to the challenge of creating a unique voice for each of the characters - the actor in me can't wait!

And yes the sign above is still valid. I have had some offers for animation (you know who you are!) so thanks for that and I fully intend to take you up on those offers - I don't mind at all if finished models from this mod appear in other people's mods before ours is finished. That's just good use of assets as far as I am concerned and I am not at all possessive of my 'property'. Others have been generous, why not I?

[Mephistoned]

Just realized how many months since an update, so I thought I'd poke my head in. RL has come crashing in over the last year. I am the victim of my own success and ambition, too in demand as a teacher, and writing increasing numbers of books on the side. I'm also building up my own business and projects on the side. Add to that the end of one relationship, the start of another, with marriage this year looking likely and kids soon to follow (hopefully). It's all a bit frantic right now, and modding, as everyone knows here, requires a serious amount of time devoting to it. You can't really chip away with the odd hour (well, I can't). When I start painting a model, I have to finish it -so that's a good 20 hours odd needed in blocks. Anyway, little has been achieved recently, and I apologize to those waiting and helping.

That said, it's not dead. The landing pad is being animated, and as soon as my workload lets up (one of these days) I will get back on the wagon. Who knows, maybe if I'm successful, I'll be rich enough to pay people to help me with animations etc soon (as I believe the demonhunters mod did). I'd still prefer modelling and painting the models myself though - ha! It's my great love! Meph out.