Barricade

Models and textures for players, weapons and buildables.
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Viech
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Barricade

Post by Viech »

The barricade is an alien structure that is used to shield of corrdiors, block entries and keep the gunfire away from the more vulnerable structures. When an alien approaches (or when the overmind has been destroyed), it shrinks down to ca. 40% of its original height, letting it pass. Concept art by alex_bo.

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The shrink animation may be more complex than this, with tentacles shrinking individually. To allow this, the tentacle density can be lower than in the concept. Other animations include idling, pain and death (which shrinks the cade, too). You can animate yourself if you want to, otherwise we will pass the finished model to a specialist.

Responsible for: Arch Linux package & torrent distribution, Parpax (map), Chameleon (map texture editor), Sloth (material file generator), gameplay design & programming, artistic direction

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SyphonX
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Re: Barricade

Post by SyphonX »

I can start off with a sculpt for the barricade and we can go from there. I'll probably start on it within a couple of days as I have to take care of some real life stuff first. Technical Specifications and any other requirements for this asset?

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kharnov
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Re: Barricade

Post by kharnov »

The specs are identical to the others you've done so far. Speaking of which, you've been doing a great job! I'm very impressed.

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SyphonX
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Re: Barricade

Post by SyphonX »

Does the barricade wrap around the columns? I'm not sure of the dimensions nor if I have to make the columns as well. Can this asset be built within any door way, or are there only specific areas that it can be placed? I'm just trying to figure out how best to model it with the intended animations

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Viech
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Re: Barricade

Post by Viech »

Just like the leech and egg, the barricade is a free standing structure – it doesn't rely on the presence of a doorframe or other map geometry and can be built anywhere where its bounding box fits. The current placeholder has a collision/hit bounding box of 70×70×75 (w×l×h) units when extended and 70×70×30 units when shrunk. Unlike the leech and egg, the barricade can currently only be built on the floor, but a model that still looks valid when placed on a ceiling or wall would allow us to change that in the future.

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SyphonX
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Re: Barricade

Post by SyphonX »

Alien Barricade WIP 3D concepts.

I was working on a couple variants of the barricade mainly with either incorporating a small body or a larger one. I was looking at the concept and it didn't have clear attachment points for the tentacles/web wall. So I thought of a spiders body as a potential way to make it lore friendly with the tentacles/webs being shot out of its body. The spider can also work for it to be attached to ceilings/walls instead of just the ground.

I don't know what kind of webs/tentacles would have been the most appropriate as I had to take the animation into consideration. I went with the single strand variation due to the nature that it can attach itself to most of its surrounds --and for the fact that the barricade could be placed anywhere, more elaborate webs might make it harder to animate as well as inflexible to most environments --, easier to animate, and can be retracted back into the body when it "shrinks" within the larger body to "hide" the tentacles.

If the body is too big I was hoping that the main spider body would be the main version, with possible the smaller variant as the shrink/destroyed version. It could possibly regrow into the main body with proper bulging animations. If this is the route taken, I might have to create multiple stages of the metamorphosis, but wouldn't know how complicated that would be to pull off technically.

(I might add hooks to the ends of the tentacles to make it look like it can grab on to surfaces.) I was also thinking the legs can also move or lift up to make it look like the barricade has the sides covered as well from the front view, like how a spider might hang from its web.

Thoughts and suggestions?

Alien Barricade Small Angle View
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alien barricade small top view
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alien barricade spider body angle view
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alien barricade spider body front view
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alien barricade spider body side view
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alien barricade spider body top view
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Viech
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Re: Barricade

Post by Viech »

Hey, sorry for the late response!

The model looks pretty awesome as such, but there are a few things that I'd change to better fulfill the gameplay requirements:

  • The side view shows that the model is rather assymetric, while its ingame functionality is entirely (rotationally) symmetric: In active/blocking pose, the barricade has collision and hit bounding boxes of 70×70×75 units, so the model should fill a good fraction of this space, so that the blocking of shots and players looks credible. Obviously the model should look organic as opposed to square, so it may help to imagine a bounding cylinder with a height of 75 and a diameter of ca. 70 units instead. Also note that bounding volumes are independent of the actual model and it's fine if parts of the model stick out of or don't fill parts of the bounding box by a sane amount. This can be especially helpful as the shrunken barricade may be slightly higher, the extended barricade slightly lower than the collision/hit height. As the bounding box for the shrunken/inactive barricade is 70×70×30, this means that the barricade model needs to lose up to 60% of its height (the closer the actual value comes to this amount, the better) while its width and length should stay roughly the same.

  • Hiding the tentacles completely when the barricade is shrunk might be a tough thing to animate. While it's technically an option to pull them back into the body, I doubt that it's possible without distorting them significantly in the process. Since I'm no expert on animation matters I'll ask gavlig to provide additional feedback. While it certainly makes the shrinking-to-40%-height equirement harder to achieve, the safest path is probably to just lower the tentacles as the barricade shrinks instead of hiding them.

  • The current tentacles are too few and too thin to provide credible protection against gunfire. Maybe it would be nice to have "inflatable" tentacles that grow in diamter in addition to rising/appearing. Again, this is something gavlig should comment on.

Responsible for: Arch Linux package & torrent distribution, Parpax (map), Chameleon (map texture editor), Sloth (material file generator), gameplay design & programming, artistic direction

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gavlig
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Re: Barricade

Post by gavlig »

Inflatable shit is totally doable since we have bone scaling in our arsenal. I will make it look like the biggest erected penis you've ever seen in your life! Even bigger than mine! (kidding, nothing is bigger than mine of course)

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SyphonX
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Re: Barricade

Post by SyphonX »

Updated model of the barricade. I took the spider back off in exchange for a ramp like back for units to pass through. The tentacles are more numerous and feel more like a forest. The tentacles are a little more looser so it would be easier for me to retopo, but they should all be movable to fit within the designated space.

I measured the dimensions roughly and they should fit within the 70-70-75 box when up. The 70-70-40 is harder to tell, but the tentacles are structured in a way to peel down like a banana or fold backwards if more space is needed to fit within the bounding box.

Barricade Back
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Barricade Front
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Barricade Side
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Barricade Top Angle
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Viech
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Re: Barricade

Post by Viech »

Awesome! This should work just fine. :smile:

The one thing that could be improved is that currently the tentacles originate and grow more towards the back than towards the front of the model, which may lead to some odd collision/hit behaviour when its front is targeted. If possible without screwing up your otherwise excellent design, you could try to move the tentacles a bit more towards the front like this:

Image

(Note that the bounding box estimate is just a rough sketch, no need to follow it precisely.)

Responsible for: Arch Linux package & torrent distribution, Parpax (map), Chameleon (map texture editor), Sloth (material file generator), gameplay design & programming, artistic direction

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