02/27/10: I'm not able to work on this mod right now, I will get back on it next Summer. Here is why (please pay attention to the date of the message):



And here are the latest screens of the meshes and textures as of 2009:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/parrot02-09_01.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/parrot02-09_02.jpg

End of the 02/27/10 update. What follows is the original post from 2008. Thank you all for your patience





:wave: everyone ! Been a while since I last made a thread here !

In fact I had already made a thread for this wip last year, but it seems to have disappeared, so here is a new one...

What I want to do is bring parrots to Vvardenfell. I had started working on a parrot mesh in 3dsmax last year, but I never quite finished it and lost interest in modding after that. However now I'd like to try another time and see if I can make releas-able (?) parrots for everyone to enjoy. These last few days I have been working on a new mesh which in my opinion looks way better than the one from last year (for those of you who remember how it looked like). I'm done modeling and texturing it, and I am quite happy with how it turned out. It is not animated yet though. Here are some pictures of the parrot in-game (assigned as a torch to make him sit on the PC's arm) :

inside pictures :
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=inside01.jpg
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=inside02.jpg
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=inside04.jpg
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=inside05.jpg
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=inside06.jpg
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=inside07.jpg
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=inside08.jpg
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=inside03.jpg

outside pictures :
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=outside01.jpg
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=outside02.jpg
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=outside03.jpg
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=outside04.jpg
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=outside05.jpg

Sorry for posting so many pictures, it's just that I'm very happy with how it turned out and I think the little guy is very photogenic, I wanted to share these pics with you ^^

What I'm planning to do next :
- animate the mesh if possible. I'm not very good at animating creatures (I find it very hard) so I can't promise anything. I'll do my best though.
- more textures. The texture is as good as I think I can make it to be with my own texturing skills, but I'd like to make some alternative textures to make a red parrot and possibly a green one.
- make a parrot that can sit on the player's shoulder !

Oh, and I have a few questions that I hope you will have answers for :
-does anyone know if it is possible to make an animated pauldron ? In my case, it would be to make the parrot move a little on the shoulder, to make him more "alive".
- same question about a torch, to have an animated parrot streching his wings while sitting on the player's arm !


Last but not least, would you be interested in a parrot companion ? I'm not promising anything, just testing the waters. I don't how to script, but I could still try to find a scripter to help me if people were interested. Again, I'm not promising anything, I just want to know if there would be an interest for this. And don't forget, I still have to animate the mesh.

That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed the pics (and sorry for my broken English ). I welcome suggestions, thoughts, and if you can answer my technical questions please let me know. I know parrots are not the most lore-friendly creatures I could come up with, but I hope I'm not the only one who would like to have some of them in Vvardenfell.

Wow, it looks great! I love parrots. ^_^
This is a great idea, though I would be only using it for screenies (seeing a parrot companion get killed kinda freaks me out tbh :unsure: ) so I personally don't care if it's animated or not.

I'll certainly keep an eye on this mod.

Looks awesome! Can it talk?

Your parrot looks amazing! Even if you should not succeed at animating it, it should be a great addition to many people's Morrowind installs (among which mine!) .

* Swiveller *

Looks absolutely awesome And I would like to have a companionable one (hope the companionable dogs and cats won't eat it ). Not sure how the warping would work with a levitating creature - I recall some bad experiences Grumpy and I had with trying to make a good fairy companion - but if you can carry it on your shoulder as an alternative, that shouldn't be a major problem.

Thank you. Yes, I wouldn't see it as a fighting companion, more like a pet !


Thank you. Well, no, it can't talk yet. I have been thinking about it, and maybe if it was a pet you could teach it some simple sentences and words. It would be made through the dialogue window. As for sounds, I don't think it would be a good idea. Players would soon want to kill the poor animal if it kept saying "Hi I'm Polly"


Thank you

Thank you I think the levitating problem could be solved if I didn't animate the parrot as a flying creature (which I know from past experiences tend to get stuck into halls or stop moving altogether) but as a walking creature, only I would give it flying like animations, but it would technically be considered as a walking animal. I'm not sure I'm being clear here... It would be like Lady Eternity's floating skulls, for instance.
As for the cats and dogs, you're right they seem indeed http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=inside08.jpg

:drool: I CAN HAS?

This looks fantastic! I'd love to have a parrot nibbling on my armor (I had a macaw on my shoulder once, it tried to eat the button on my overalls). Maybe he can talk during combat and stuff? Have you ever played The Longest Journey? I'd love a parrot version of Crow! :hehe: Does anyone remember that really old windows program (like, windows 3.1) that had this parrot, and you speak into a microphone and it repeats your words back to you? Fun stuff.

Wow this looks great!!

Good to see you back Mandmus

Looks great but they are macaws not parrots.

http://www.wallpaperbase.com/wallpapers/animals/parrot/parrot_1.jpg = parrot

(But I really don't think it matters things like that gets mixed up all the time.)

Thank you. About a talking parrot, I just gave my thoughts about it in my last post. I haven't played The Longest Journey, who is Crow exactly ? Maybe you could give me more details ? Might give me some ideas. But remember, I'm not sure I'll make a parrot companion yet, it will depend of the time I can spare for this project, my motivation, wether I can get the mesh animated, etc.

Thank you ! I'm glad to be back !

Thank you.
Well from what I know macaws are parrots (and according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaw). But as you said, it doesn't really matter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Longest_Journey#Characters. Wait, don't click it, there are spoilers! Here:

Arg, I can't find a picture of him. Anyway, he's the protagonist's side kick (sort of). Initially, he's very cowardly. It's a great game, I highly recommend it.

Wonderful work, Mandamus!
I was hoping that you would come back to these (as I love having
pets for my characters; almost as much as I love my pets in real life [ but not quite ] ).

Great Job!

Wow - what a fantastic mesh you have created! He/she is very photogenic ...hmmm wonder why parrots are taught to say Polly whether they are male or female...?

They might not be lore friendly but then they could of been introduced to Vvardenfell from another island - where I live we have parakeets nesting although they are not native birds.

I would love one as a pet - though would probably want to keep it on a perch rather than carry it around - unless it has great cliff racer hunting capabilities - it has good potential as a modder's resource - instead of picking up a piece of paper to initiate the quest you could get it from the parrot's dialogue i.e. something it heard it's former owner repeat many times

thanks for sharing the pics it will be great to see the final result.

Welcome back Mandamus!:wave: Beautiful parrots! Are you planning them as pets only. or will we see a few flying around in some areas? Or perhaps perched on the shoulders of some shipmasters and gondoliers?

:ooo:

That would be so cool! Arr, matey, got a cracker for me Polly?

I kinda associate parrots (macaws) with the jungle, so maybe the Argonian HQ over in Ebonheart can have a few -- the Black Marsh Ambassadors/emissaries brought their favorite pets up to Vvardenfell.

I think, rather than their favorite pets, they might be their favorite snacks. :hehe:

Whoa! your parrot/macaw looks most excellent Mandamus

I love it and welcome back!

It is beautiful and would be a fun thing to have it do 'impressions' of regular npc sayings. "Move along, Scum" "Seen any ... elves?"

So glad you are back and so hope you are in a modding frenzy for us fans of yours!

Maria

Impressive job of detailing the photogenic little critter. I could picture a couple of them in the Bitter Coast region, especially flitting back and forth among Vality's trees. Maybe it would make a good addition to the Tamriel Rebuilt project on one of the southern maps bordering Black Marsh?

I don't think the parrots would be too concerned about dogs and cats, I understand that they're quite capable of handling themselves in those situations. Nature generally paints things in vivid colors as a clear warning: "Do Not Touch!"

Magnifique Mandamus! Superbe travail! B)

The mesh is very beautiful as the texture! It would be great if you success to animate it and to transform it as companion! Great coming back!

Ok, here is an answer to each person who's been posting, thank you guys

To Alaisiagae : Crow seems like an interesting character ; maybe one of the parrot companions (if I make parrot companions that is) could be named after him as a hommage ? I guess you prebably aren't the only one around to have played this game, and it would be more original than Polly or Coco (that's how parrots are always called in French). Also, the idea of Argonians having parrots is great ! I had totally forgotten the existence of this building in Ebonheart.

To Westly : thank you ! I hope this time I'll be able to finish this wip ! And I'm looking forward to seeing your own animals released (I remember some pics of one gorgeous tiger !)

To Illuminiel : hey thanks for the suggestions, you are right one could imagine parrots aren't native but were introduced to Vvardenfell the way you describe it As for a parrot on a perch I might just do one, would be cool to see some in the house of rich, excentric people like telvanni mages and nobles ! And yes, I guess they could be used as a way to start some new quests. Once they are released they'll probably be modders resource anyway, so everyone will be able to add them to their own mods.

To ElvisX3K : thank you for the kind post and the welcome back ! Well to be honest I don't know exactly what I'm planning to do with this project, for now I'm working on 3d and 2d stuff. Of course a complete mod would have add some wild parrots ingame in some areas, some domestic parrots belonging to npcs, and the possibility to get his own pet. But frankly I don't know if I'll do all of this myself, I know at least that I couldn't do the companion part on my own though. I'll worry about all this later ; for now, I'm doing the creative part

To poonfisher69 : You know I believe someone had already referred to my parrots as snacks (but for cliffracers, not for Argonians) in the thread I had made last year, was it you by chance ?

To Faylynn and Maria of Morrowind : thank you !

To Kovacius : thank you. I'm not sure the TR team would be interested in my parrots (as they probably don't fit in the lore) but they'll be free to add them in their mod if they want once I've released them.

To OraNN : hey hello, nice to see you ! I'm glad you like what I'm working on, I'm not as talented nor experienced as you when it comes to modeling but I'm doing my best to improve my skills !

----------------------------

I've not been able to work much on the wip these last two days, as I have spent some time doing other stuff and also because I needed to track down on the internet the animation tutorials I had been using in the past and that I didn't have anymore. b

But here is some progress. As you could see from the various screenshots, the mesh needed some tweaking to set the parrot in a good flying position, before starting animating it. That's what I've been doing, here is a quick pic to anyone interested, nothing amazing :
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h91/Mandamus_TES/parrots%202008/?action=view¤t=readyforanimating.jpg
This will be the position the parrot will have at the beginning and the end of each animation sequence (like idle1, attack1, walkfforward, etc). Hopefully it is a realistic enough position, as I have been studying the positions of flying parrots on some real pictures to get it right (something I hadn't done last year, now wonder it didn't look very good !). Next step : physiquing ! Yeah ! :meh:

By the way, does anyone know where I could find some good videos of flying parrots ? I've tried youtube but all I've found were vids of talking parrots. Also, does anyone know a good place for free parrot sounds ? I don't know where to look and the ones I found were not free.

I don't know if this might help I found this. http://www.avianvideos.com/play.php?vid=401

Wow thank you I didn't find that site on google, probably wasn't using the right keywords. There seem to be a lot of promising videos on that website, the one you linked to specifically is really good ! I had only found very low res videos of small parrots, it was so blurry it was hard to tell what was going on.
Thank you Qawsed Asap ! :foodndrink:

Oh, just see this thread.
Parrot is awesome. Great work! Good luck.

It's been awhile, is Mandamus still working on this? I hope so I was looking forward to it.