The Undead Rising (Download Here) *Pic Heavy*

Very cool!  I love the undead.

That would make you a necrophyliac.

That pic looks awesome! Would be really cool with undead in the game. Great work! 

Thanks

Correct.

Thanks again

gj man, I love it

more undead is always good! I assume the robes are required because it doesn't include ribs and things yet? not too much of a problem...
Q: do hats/armour ruin/remove the effect?

I'd love to have other types of undead with associated traits... ghosts, zombies and things... although I'm not sure if they would require a particle aura effect and 3D modelling skeletons and meshs to work best...add some white mist for ghosts + translucency, yellow haze for plague zombies and missing bits/gore... I assume it would be easy enough just to change the colour of units to make a quick and easy undead version of most creatures... I'd like to see skeletal horses and wargs though... I think you could just reskin those sorts of models? I'm not so arty... sadly... so I don't know if a reskin would look strange up close or if you need the more difficult skeletal frame.

I'm working on the rib cage and stuff now. I found you can use the skin color for various effects with this. If I go with a white skin color like I did there it highlights the skull because that was just a test and I didn't do the whole skull yet. If you make the skin total black then I can put in other bones. Keep in mind, it's just a skin change, not a model change, so the guy/girl's body is still actually there. It's taking a lot of skinning talent to make the skeleton look 3D but I'm pulling it off slowly using the body as a black skin base-plate. It looks pretty awesome either way though until they actually come out with a 3D skeleton model.

Hat's and armor don't ruin it, that pic there is with a in game robe and hood and not part of the skin. Put him in armor and add a helmet and it looks like a skeletal unit. Pulls it off real nice in fact .

More soon...

Updated, thanks everyone

Looks awesome Raven; I look forward to (eventually) marching forth with armies of the unliving.

Excellent!  That armored one is my favorite.  I will model Bruce Campbell and people can make an Army of Darkness mod....

"Shop smart, shop S-Mart!" 

"Hail to the king, baby!"

"This is my BOOM-stick!"

If I keep going at the rate I am now I'll have it up before morning. You know me and my "perfectionism", I want the completed skeleton to look as complete as possible. I don't want to be responsible for any flawed skeletal half and halfs running around out there. lol.

Oh, I just got a bad ass idea for my next version which will have chunks of bloody flesh on it.

More soon, very soon.

Thanks again bro.

Nice work there Raven! Looks pretty freaky! :o

very, very impressive already... I wonder... if you made an 'undead' ability... then use the magic editor for particle effects to make certain undead troops have special visual differences in tactical combat... like a dark mist around the feet or similar? just a thought

+having some rusty or battered armour would look good, love the armoured skellie though so any armour would work

I believe I saw some rusty armor skins while browsing the GFX folder, really nice idea Franknfurter!

It's probably pretty easy to do actually. I need a lot of practice with the particle cauldron though before I try spell like effects. I want to be good at it like a few others on the forums here who have posted using it. Once I get to that level and I'm happy with the effects I can make then I'll start applying them to stuff. At that point, watch out!!! LoL, because I'll be making Flaming swords, Electrical swords, Ice swords (any effect any weapon) and rings of eternal mist and all kinds of cool stuff.

As for the Undead, I'm starting on the arm bones and hands now so not much longer and I'll have them up for everyone to enjoy.

Stay Tuned Undead lovers!!!

As for chunks of gore on the model... I think that'd look totally wicked.

Lookin' forward to getting my undead on soon.

Here's the last update before I finish. Just some last minute screen tests. One of the arms and hands are done as well.

Notice the hands. Finger bones for each finger so griping objects looks natural.

The back side of the rib cage is hard to do and to get "just right" so I may save that for an update if I can't bring it together soon.

The neck bones connect and look good but you can't see them from the back....yet. (Note: ask SD to put in the ability to rotate our view in the in game tools so we can see our creations, Sovs, Units, etc, from all angles.)

The tops of the shoulders look a little...odd. Skeletons don't exactly have a lot of "mass" and the model is still 3D with a piece of 2D artwork (the skin) wrapped around it. The top arm part looks fine but the bones where the clavicle should be can't be seen from that angle. I'm worried if I put them in it might complicate the skin too much and make it look less like a skeleton from certain angles. Then again I don't imagine most players will be running around naked. They'll have a shirt or armor of some kind on as will the units they make using this skin.

It's 1 AM now. I'm going to see what I can do in the next few hours to see if I can get some more detail into it. Also as it is now you still have to make the skin color Dark Black for the bones to show properly. Then again maybe you just want a soldier or Sov who has a skull painted on his face in which case it looks cool for that as well. I also have no idea what the offspring of these characters would look like. That should be...interesting heh. I'm not going to spend much longer on version 1.0 so you'll all be able to find out first hand here shortly. I'll put it up by 5 AM so people can download it and start a fresh new game with them tomorrow morning (Saturday) and have Undead in their game for weekend.

Stay tuned...

That is some awesome work my friend..

Regarding some of the oddness in the images: Some of the poses they give us mess up all the displays. For example, that last one of him bending over will mess up normal armor and clothing too.

And, I second the whole rotation thing.

Excellent work Raven!

All done everyone, DL at top of the page. Enjoy!!!

Yay that's the good stuff! Really like em.

But I think I might wait until we have a chance to actually put in 3D model based undead into the game till I'll start playing with undead in MY Elemental

Thanks. You might be waiting a while on that one though. I got the skin looking as 3D as possible though so it works for now. I figured a "Skeleton" model would be something Elemental couldn't ship without. Even without an undead "Race" I figured there would be summon-able undead or something...but...no such luck, so, here we are .

People can also use that skin to make a truly Undead Unit in game by defining it in XML and telling it to use that skin. Eventually I'm going to do a spell that summons a squad of them. Maybe in the next few days if I have time.

Enjoy

Awesome stuff!

Sweet!

I will build and altar and make you my patron Elemental deity if you can make an 'Army of Darkness' mod.

Bruce Campbell could kick Chuck Norris's butt any day! (Because he cheats... )