I'm done with most of the rigging, which brings me to a close on the art front (Yay!). All that's left to rig is the green alien and the white alien. When that's done - tomorrow? - I can get back into programmy world.

Below are two mock-ups of the rigged models. What's happening in them I can't say. Why are they throwing their comrade into the cracks of doom? Was it a tragic skipping accident - all but avoidable if they'd just taken the proper precautions? We'll probably never know.


This next screenie is going to be the briefing/mission select room. Hopefully with less lounging around next time ;)


I've also done a bit of works on my object database. Durable file writing in transactions actually work now. Not nearly as interesting as the above but ...

Anyway, that's enough of that.

Later!

I'm declaring myself done with the modelling now. The last three enemies are in. In Space Crusade terms they are:

Red Alien: Soulsucker
Green Armour Alien: Chaos Marine
Red Armour Alien: Chaos Marine Commander
Android: Android (duh!)
Big Mech: Dreadnought

The other two aliens not in the screen shot are the Gretchin and the Orc (The purple eyed green thing is the Gretchin).


Now all I have to do is rig everything. *sigh* there's no rest for the wicked. Having said that I'm off to do some coding instead. I've almost fixed my database transactions (again).

Later!

All the level blocks are in now: ceilings, floors, walls and doors. I quite liked how the brass lockers turned out; much better than I expected and it breaks the boring monotonous grey.


The whole level is shown below. The wall 'caps' and 'replacers' are in. The caps are the yellowy things on top of the walls and the replacers replace the walls which would otherwise hide the characters.


The characters are still faked and I'm not sure I like the transition between real walls and replaced walls. Anyway...

Later!

Today I've found myself in a rather strange situation. I've got to much stuffs too post! I've been tearing through the art assests and an end is actually in sight.

I've redone all the ceiling caps (the bits on top of the walls) they look *much* better than the previous set. I've modelled and rigged a funky little crab alien beastie - probably not going to go into Abandon Wars because it's to flat to see.

I've added another fourteen wall pieces. And the first major prop - the generator in the screenshot below.


To get that look I'm using all eight lights - the maximum I currently allow - and I still had to fudge the contrast a bit. For those who care the original reference looks as below. (Somehow I was shooting and hit print screen at the same time - special).


See, it's Space Gun which is providing all the graphical inspiration (for those who didn't realise that from my last post).

I've also modelled all the marinettes weapons though I don't particularly like how any of them look. And lastly I've started modelling the other mechanical unit (the android equivalent).

Later!

A quick update I've put in four of the enemies. I'm still missing the Soul-sucker equivalent and the Chaos Marine equivalent. I'm going to add the Chaos Marine as some sort of mechnical unit but I can't be bothered to put another humanoid enemy in.

Next up I'm going to model a sort of face hugger style unit and an egg. Rivetting stuff this ;)


And if this isn't just screaming Space Gun at you well... then you probably never played it :).

Later!

So here's the deal with Space Crusade: as I mentioned in my previous post it ... well ... isn't anymore :(.

There're a number of reasons for this the foremost being that it's someone else's IP - with the release of the new Warhammer game (2009) the Warhammer universe is a pretty toxic place to be at the moment. Also with Dave completely addicted to online gaming now; it seems unlikely any models will be forthcoming this year (and it's been more than a year since he first agreed draw the Space Crusade models).

All is far from over though: I am now doing all the modelling myself and am no longer playing in the Warhammer universe. To that end I have learned to model - somewhat ;) - and I have modelled the first team of Space Marinettes. I am retaining most of the gameplay but without the dice and the Warhammer rules.


This is the first character I've ever modelled (and practically the first character I've ever attempted). Actually the red girl was the first modelled and the purple girl was the last.


There are a quite a lot of mistakes; due mostly to my lack of knowledge of the human form. Seriously - it's bloody complicated ;). But also a couple technical stuff ups which I just can't be arsed to fix.

So that's the team - they have names and designations and everything. Variously: Opal (purple) is the leader. Ione (red) is the medic. Adelle (green) is heavy weapons. Saffron (yellow) is demolitions. And lastly Page (blue) is communications. It's a bit of break from the Space Crusade gameplay but I think having specific roles should make things more interesting.

And I need to sleep now.

Later!