I agree, the "toes" may be little retractable tentacles developed for easier forward manouvering and climbing...Hmm, seeing as I'm recognized as a maker of skinned, gutted and skeleton or generally "broken" versions of a lot of stuff in the Wormhole, maybe I can start making a Sload skeleton sometime :laugh:

There would probably be 'something' akin to a toe on the 'feet' of the Sload, but the model as it stands now has something more like a birds feet/talons, which the Sload most certainly would not have, given that it shouldn't have an actual bone structure (being something more like a slug or Celaphod). http://www.silgradtower.net/Websites/Thras/index.htm

But what about that transparent support structure that squids have that I mentioned? Those have evolved from swim bladders...so maybe Sload internal support can be a series of transparent semirigid tubular float bladders that act as bones when inflated They may be like thin glassy fibrous bones that are pumped full of air to provide supporting pressure. You clearly know what you're talking about so you might be able to say if this contradicts Lore or not I'd hate another excuse that it's just magic responsible :laugh:

No that sounds about right and makes sense, I'm just saying they wouldn't have bones in the traditional sense, like what mammals, birds, fish, amphibians or reptiles have -because Sload don't fit into any of those categories.

Coolio, I can start thinking about a wicked glassy skeleton (even if it's just made of weak fiberglass bones) But can you say what's the Sloads' relationship with the dreugh? Here's an idea, the Sload are so interested in Necromancy because they are fascinated by the skeletal structure of other organisms and can't do much of interest amongst just themselves. :ph34r:

So would it be good enough if the toes were made more fat and stubbier, and not as pointy and long? I know the concept art pic can be a little murky, so maybe if you drew a simple black and white line drawing of the sload's feet/toes, so we know better how you are envisioning it?

Koniption

Something between the http://blogs.knoxnews.com/balsom/2008/08/14/Sea_pig_before_dissection_reduced.jpg and the http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3602/3391234436_6eb3e4fe50.jpg. Have to start getting ready for work in a few mins, so not enough time for making a proper concept, though I think those pics should explain what I mean nicely.

Hmm, and I'm guessing that under those lips, instead of teeth there are two curved cutting edges like a really flat beak. Fits with the screenshots of N'gasta, even if it's vague. Don't mind the round lips, he just cut them off, or they dried and receded.

Aren't Sload more... red?

http://www.imperial-library.info/bestiaries/redguard_large_sload-1.jpg

I think that's just the lighting.

Yeah that's just the lighting...Okay, according to this screenshot, it appears to have little teeth, or maybe the beak edge is just really jagged. Or maybe N'gasta just made himself a really weird set of necromantic dentures...It's possible

Guess I could change the feet a bit. I don't care either way, lol. Should I add teeth? Btw, about how tall are sloads compared to Imperials? Oh, and when I am done who gets the files?

well if the mouth opens at all, as looking at the in game wip screen shot it does, maybe yes.

Depending on knowing what they eat (i have no idea) i might try to find the balance between, the redgaurd sload,
an octo beak
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1203/534080665_1662ad45b7.jpg?v=0
and a lamprey eel
http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~youson/images/lamprey.jpg
that was the first things that pot into my head

A flat jagged beak, definitely :goodjob: And maybe some lamprey teeth on the inside.

Yeah, go ahead and add teeth. I don't know how tall sload really are, tbh.

Please send the files to me and Deeza, when you are done. I know other people will want the sload files too, besides us at Blackmarsh. But I'll need to get together with the others at Blackmarsh, first. Lastly, I'd appreciate it if you can package the sload files in a mod form (with esp, etc).

Are you using the sload mesh like a clothing item? Or other?

Thanks,
Koniption

Right now it is clothing, but the NPC must be set to use a special skeleton.

The Sload Head should be set up as a race head file, so then it can be Facegen'd (so it'll work with animations -including talking).

That would probably be hard, the head shape is way warped compared to a regular head. I've tried making a minotaur head morphable on the basis of a khajiit head...completely insane.

Dominick is right. Currently, even attempting to make a custom head morph with facegen requires a hex editor and a lot of tedious steps (in order to make it work without using FaceGen program). I don't have the FaceGen program, neither.

That's why I was hoping that a generic head morph with looping talking motions could be used for when the sload is in dialogue. That looping talking morph could be called via specialidle animation that only plays when the sload in in dialogue and is actually the person talking at that time. Another specialidle could be used to stop the talking animation, when its the players turn to talk or dialogue has ended. Thing is, I don't know if OBSE has functions that detect an NPC in actual talking mode, vs. not talking mode. I think I will ask the OBSE team about this today.

I know a generic looping talking animation is not the most realistic thing ever, but it beats talking to an NPC whose face doesn't move at all.

Koniption

Apparel can have toggleable animations too? Probably, otherwise we wouldn't have animated wings. Maybe this can be used to make NPC skeleton jaws move while speaking, that would absolutely rock.. :blink:

Actually, I don't know if apparel can be animated, unless they used looping morph animations. Otherwise the apparel would need a NPC skeleton with extra bones for the apparel parts that animate, since clothing is rigged to the NPC skeleton.

Talking skeletons with jaws that rotate up and down would be most cool.

I just posted my query in the OBSE thread. It's just a matter of waiting for an answer.

KP

Well in any case maybe you can show me a thing or two, so I can try some stuff out. I still haven't gotten that loose jawed skull to animate, not to mention all the other skulls, but it's a matter of time. You're probably quite busy with Da Mage on that Centaur, so there's no hurry, I have to work on releasing SurReal Necromancy too right now Okay enough hijacking the Sload thread You'll be working on the Sloads in the Black Marsh thingamajing after the model is set up?

For this matter I'm waiting for the Blender NIF Scripts to get TRI file support. We already have EGM file support in them, TRIs aren't that much different, but as long as this is missing, EGM file support only doesn't help much for custom head meshes. However, when it's added creating custom head meshes will be a lot easier. No need to fiddle around with OBJ files anymore only to not hurt the vertex order, no need for hex-editing to get the data into the EGM and TRI files. Even using Scanti's very helpful tool collection to this purpose, getting rid of hex-editing at least, was still a bit much of fiddling around.
Just creating the base mesh, then reshaping it into all the necessary morphs for CharGen and facial animations by the simple use of Shape Blend Modifiers or what they're called in Blender... granted, it will still be a big workload doing all those many morphs one after the other... but when you're done and click export and you'll end up with a fully functional NIF plus fitting EGM and TRI files... won't that be like heaven compared to now? :drool:

Uhm, anyways, sorry for interrupting.

Why, not interrupting at all, that is very relevant to the matter at hand ^_^ I'm having difficulty imagining handling all those morphs in blender tho. But as with everything, it's just a matter of time.

Hi Corthian,

Zaneeba got in contact with me, and he read this thread. He took it upon himself to make a new sload model that takes into consideration the feedback gotten from various people, but I told him you were too far into rigging and tweaking the original sload model, to start over. But zaneeba did link me to some pics of the new sload model he made, and if you choose, you can take inspiration from it for your mesh changes (not mandatory, though):

http://img243.imageshack.us/i/sloads.gif/

Koniption