Did not expect to see this back on the first page :shocking: I was talking with Kalian via pms at another forum and I mentioned this wip of mine in one of my pms, that's why he posted to show his support on this thread (quite a surprise!). Thank you Kalian.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time to work on this right now. I don't even have access to the max scene and the psp texture on this computer. Hopefully I'll be able to make some more progress on this at the end of the year after Christmas, but I can't promise anything. However, this is a project that I really want to finish, so don't worry it will be released sooner... or later

I am just sorry for all the persons who posted on this topic to show their interest. Thank you all for your patience, I'll try not to disappoint you! I'll post when I have something new to show.

Wonderful, I for one will patiently continue to wait, after all I have waited longer for others.

same here

Big fan of your work Mandamus

Thanks you two! (and sorry for the late reply...)

Time for an update!

I've been working on this wip today: I've updated the texture for the blue and gold parrot, I think it looks better than before, and will fit in the game much better:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/parrot02-09_01.jpg

Aaaand I've made a red parrot (perfect for pirates who want a pet!). Check it out:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/parrot02-09_02.jpg

I may make another texture to make a green and red parrot, but I'm not sure yet. Apart from that, I think the texturing part is more or less finished.

In other news, I'm done physiquing the mesh! ^_^ Now to animate it!

I'm still looking for free parrot sounds, if someone here knows where I could find some please let me know! As I've had no luck so far. Anyone helping will get an icecream >> :icecream:

That is all for now, as I said in the first post I welcome suggestions, thoughts, and I hope you'll enjoy the new pictures!

First time I've seen this thread, and I have to say your parrot images floored me. Very lifelike and colorful! I sincerely wish you the best of luck animating your parrots, as well as acquiring appropriate sounds. (I've done a bit of checking around, but haven't found anything free, yet.)

Complete agreement on keeping them as pets, not as fighting creatures. They add some much color and life! Please keep up the good work.

The images are stunning!

As for the sound - here is one file I found on Freesound.org: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=56552.

Best,

Swiveller

This looks great! Will there be permissions for use in other mods?

Woohoo - love the pics Mandamus - I'm so glad you have been able to return to this mod

Here are some http://www.freeparrots.net/parrots/Sound.html

Thanks Yes I think they would be best used as pets, the only problem is that I don't know how to script... I'm making the meshes and the animations first, then I think I'll be asking for help about that!
I'll probably add a few parrots in the wilderness, to see them fly in the sky (and not among the trees as you would expect, since they would probably get stuck against the trunks )
Oh, and fable2, you get an icecream for looking around for sounds > :icecream:

Sure there will! I think it is best for creatures to be freely usable in other mods, plus all the people who wrote creature making tutorials put no restrictions on their own creatures, so I would feel bad doing it!


Thank you you two, I'll check them out later in the day! Here are your icecreams : :icecream: and :icecream: (I'm sure they will be of your favorite flavor!) Free sounds related to parrots are pretty hard to find, so thank you! You are better google users than I am!

I'll post again when I have some news!

Oh haven?t seen this thread before, you have some good looking parrots there . Can?t wait to see them in motion, I hope you?re able to bring out some nice animations. I imagine this to be a lot harder than building a model.

You're most welcome! Freesound is an amazing site; you will likely find other parrot sounds there too.

Best,

Swiveller

Awesome, I didn't know this mod was still being continued! So cool! I cannot wait to see what you come up with for this. It will be awesomating to have a parrot in Morrowind

And the textures look great by the way :goodjob:

Great! I'm working on a Mesoamerican-influenced mod, and these will be BEAUTIFUL in that!

Thanks Coleman and Melchior!

I'll have to look there for more sounds then! Thanks again!

I hope you'll be posting a new thread about that, sounds very interesting! :tops:


Update!!!!!

Woohoo! It's done! The parrot is animated! :celebration: :celebration:
I spent yesterday afternoon, evening+a part of the night to do it, but it's done! And it works in Nifskope and the CS! I can't believe I did it! I didn't even have a single error message during all the process! I'd like to thank AcidBasick, DarkIllusion, Lady Eternity and Elrihn for their excellent tutorials that prevented that from happening!
A picture of the parrot in the preview window in the construction set:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/animationparrot01.jpg
(btw, Nifskope has been very useful to check if the animations worked as I did them, much more useful than the preview window from the cs!)
The list of animations I made for it:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/animationparrot02.jpg
I'll have to test it ingame later in the day. I've not made a lot of idles because you can't make a flying creature do a lot of different things. I thought about making him do some loopings, but that would have been kind of ridiculous

Now I have to give the animal some sounds. Do you think the wings should make some kind of noise, like the cliffracers do? Personally I think it would quickly become annoying, but I'd like to know what you all think about it.


Now to test it ingame... Will post screenies later if it works!

PS. I thought animating it would be a difficult and annoying task, but I actually had fun doing it! Maybe I should make other creatures after the parrots are done...

That is absolutely incredible looking Mandamus, looks real. :tops:

:) I like the idea of wings making noises - but just as they are is gorgeous - have you thought of a story or quest that introduces them into the game? Maybe Jiub discovers that the parrots enjoy collecting cliffracer eggs and thus replace some of the more annoying spawning points with friendly parrots - am so glad you didn't make magpies i hate being dive bombed by them

When I have something more to show for it, I certainly will be.

And that parrot looks better than some Poser models I've seen.

*sneaking through a dark daedric rune, sees a couple of Dremora Lords chatting away with eachother, starts sneaking around, trying to avoid them...* "HI IM POLLY!!!"... oh yeah, i can see that happening to me instantly... lol. but i would actualy want it to be able to talk but probably just speak its dialog lines, if thats possible, because it just randomly saying things would drive me insane lol.
when it gets relzed, i might try to play around with the animations, if thats ok with you. i wouldnt be able to promise anything, but i think it would be a fun expierence for me

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v236/Archeopterix/NothingToSeeHereMoveAlong/PteriAndCinniAndAll/PteriLaptop.jpg :hehe:

PS I can get you lots of high res detail textures if you like, of the feet scales and so on.

I'd been working on a flamingo and I was having trouble getting the wings to fold properly without major collision issues, so if you get any ideas I'd love to brainstorm.

If you are working in 3DS max maybe we can learn together. I have some animals that I just can't seem to get working. I have Max 8 and 2009. Random crap http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v236/Archeopterix/Max/OblivionCS/

Send me a PM if you like

Have you tried animating armour? The basic idea is that the keyframes on the armour correspond to various PC animations, a la the shield in Phijama's http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=4320...

Thanks!

To be honest I have given it some thought, but not much. For now I'm mainly interested in getting the parrots working into the game, fully animated and with sounds. When this is done, I'll think more about how to introduce them. Your idea is funny though, I'll keep it in mind!

Thank you

Sure, play around them all you want, I don't mind. I won't release the max files though, so you'll have to work with the nif files only.
As for speaking, I don't know if they'll be able to talk yet. I was thinking of using the dialogue box, which would a)not require hard to make sound files and b)not be annoying at all... But I'm not sure of anything yet.

Aww, Pteri is cute! :wub:
Will send you pm just after this post!

Thanks for the suggestion! I think however, correct me if I'm wrong, that Phijama's animations are using the morph modifier from Max, which I can't use since I have 3dsmax5 and not 3dsmax4 I have seen TDW's new thread for his armor with animated tentacles though, and was wondering if he used morphed animations?
What I'd really like to know is wether you can use physiqued animations on a mesh that will be used as a pauldron/torch, and if so how. (I'm really not an animation expert and don't think experimenting by myself would bring any interesting results). Do you have any idea about this Alphax? I still have some icecreams to offer in exchange for help/information




Now, an update.
Some bad news. I've tried the animations in game, and they mainly work, except for the walking forward animation that is a bit jerky, but that could be corrected ; when they are in the sky, the parrots "work". However, when you attack them and they fly down to strike back, they will fly on the same level as your feet, just above the ground, which is completely ridiculous. This comes from the fact that the mesh is at 0 on the vertical axis in 3dsmax, I positioned it like that because I followed the instructions from AcidBasick's tutorial. What I failed to realize, though, is that the tutorial was mainly designed for walking creatures, not flying ones. So when the birds comes down down to attack you, it flies just above the ground, and not on the level of the player's face. I'm guessing it would also fly that low if I scripted it to follow the player.

Bottom line is... I need to move the mesh further up the z axis in max, and redo the animations from scratch (probably also redo the skeleton and the physiquing). But I'm not frustrated or anything ; I learned something from this, and hopefully I will make better animations Plus, apart from that, the animations did work ingame.

I will not be working on this before at least next monday ; my holidays are supposed to come to an end this weekend, and my courses to resume at the university (and I don't mod when I study). However, since my professors were all on strike just before the holidays, it is very possible that they refuse to give course next week ; if that is the case, then I'll be able to work on the parrot and redo the animations next week. If not, then I'll put this on hold until my next holidays. Until monday, though, I won't do anything ; I don't want to start animating something and not being able to work on it for months.
>> I just said all that to let you now of the situation of this project. As I said before, it will be released sonner... or later

Sorry to hear your modelling frustration mandamus - there is no rush - though if you wanted to do a beta release you could perhaps do a blink out script like Emma did with her children - so that if they were attacked they would teleport to safety - are they particullary aggressive parrots? As in likely to move into aggro mode when you get too close?

Great companion mod though I prefer a hawk that'll be awesome

Poor guy, that svcks . You must have a very positive attitude if this doesn?t frustrates you, I would certainly need a week until I would get back to this. But you?re right, at least you will know it better next time. Take your time, I?m pretty sure, when this comes out I will still be playing MW even if it takes a little longer .

wow you managed to animate it - thats awsome!!!


i cant wait for this to be released!!!


good luck M,

=MA=