creature modeling and animation Spore style
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/creature modeling and animation Spore style
I was just thinking, this community has quite a talented bunch of people. Is there anyone in here who feels confident he could pull of some of the procedural stuff they pulled of in Spore.
I'm mostly talking about creature modeling and animation and texturing. It seems like you can build any kind of creature in Spore. You start with already premade parts and then attach them to the creature, that's not all since you are allowed to strech and shape the creature just pulling on the mesh. It's seems quite natural the way that they have done it.
So are there any experts in here who are confident they could have something simple like seen in Spore running in 2-3 months or less or more? Let me know here :)
Not to do anyone on this forum down but I think the Spore developers have probably spent many, many 1000's of professional man hours to get to where they are. I doubt their achievements can be replicated by a group of hobbiests in a couple of months.
The clever part of Spore to me is that they have taken a lot of things that are very difficult to do and technically challenging and made them very accessable and intutive. I'm betting that wasn't easy at all.
Darkheart
I recon with good use of ODE and some decent hard work, you could be able to create something *similar* although way more basic.
Spore's been in development for yonks and it's not going to be something, as Darkheart says, that we would be able to chuck together in a few weeks/months.
guys I'm not talking about making entire spore, there is part of spore where you do modeling, even that part without animations would be interesting, combine different premade parts and be able to pull/strech on them would be a cool application.
If one is also able then to do some algorithms to make simple animations like in spore then that doesn't mean you have made Spore.
Spore is MUCH more then modeling/texturing part and animation it like 10 different games in one...
I know there are guys in this community who could pull off what I ask in few months for sure...
I was also only talking about the animation bit too ;)
It may be easier to do this with mechanical / robotic creatures . I guess that is stating the obvious but it would be far easier than creating organic looking objects (and keep the polycount low as well).
It wouldn't be too complicated - just time consuming - certainly a lot more than a couple of months.
"PaceMaker Pro" - my next planned project - will have features very similar to those you mention and much more in the way of animation.
I estimate that it will take about 1-2 years going solo - but I'm hoping to get at least another couple of programmers to work on this with me which should reduce development time.
Well Smiff I hope you find some talented guys to help you, don't be afraid to invest in your software development, I think it has big potential, you could be ZBrush of 3d animation, since I see that you have interesting ideas and concepts and if you are able to throw in some Spore inspired technology your software would be good seller for sure.
3D modelling is in dire need of a new software package that has the power of a maya of 3dsm but isn't designed by programmers for programmers.
3D modelling programs at this time are akin to carving with a spoon... sure... it is possible to make the statue of david... It just isn't natural.
these programs force artists to learn the software.. which is why there are few good 3d modellers.. and in general, what you see in 3d is hardly ever as good as what you see in 2d when it comes to animation. Or when it comes to sculpting. The learning curve and prices prevent a lot of great artists from being about to do it.... In fact... in all the pro 3d animation studios they have the 3D modellers and the concept artists. Where the concept artists draw in 2D or make clay models, and then the model guys make those drawings, simply because they don't have the talent to think up great character art themselves.
I want to see a very easy system, which can be tweeked at the level of a maya... but can be roughed in when it comes to geometry and materials... Like you should be able to tell it you want glass... and make pick from a few kinds of glass.. then if it still doesn't look exectly right to your picky eyes, you can go in and tweek the stats (which are all renamed to make sense)
No artist should even be forced to know what the difference between a Lambert and the Blinn is....
At some point I think you need to hire a marketing specialist, paid by sales participation only. Cause it doesn't matter how good your product is, selling it is a seperate discipline. There are only a few exceptions from this tendence, Blitz3D may be one of them, but usually you won't reach the main market without professional marketing.
This, or you may heavily utilize "guerilla advertisment". Like
<img src='nothin' onerror='document.location="http://www.pacemaker.com"'> ;)
there are bound to be a few SPORE clones popping up all over the place... ya know, ride the wave SPORE is making... and also, there are genuinely a few people who had the idea to do something like this for a long time as well...
modeling wise, didn't someone make an organic type game not too far back... with basic physics and stuff...
well, at least it looked like amoebas and zygotes and stuff :) that would be a start...
--Mike