FreeGameDev

Hi. I didn't think the Beastie model looked very much like the actual Beastie mascot, so I made a new model which is more faithful to the original.

I don't care for licensing, so, for all I care, CC0/public domain. Not sure if this mascot is a registered trademark or something so I don't know about the legalities there. All I know is that I waive all copyrights for the 3d model and the texture.

I'm not big on animation so I would be great if something could take over.

I like it (There is not a lot a differences with the current one imho) but that means that animations need to be re-done right ?

Damn'it!
I'm the one that made the Beastie model we currently use (that was my first try at making a character and animating it), and I admit yours looks much better with less faces...(and a 1024x1024 texture vs 128x128, which is maybe too low?) *jealous*.
Yours still lacks rigging and animation, so it's not finished enough to be directly usable. We can probably just integrate it with the existing skeleton and animation though.
So, I'm comparing both to try to get what makes yours look better over mine (trying to learn ). From what I see, most of the elements give a more cartoonish look, namely:
- bigger nose
- bigger hands
- shape of the face shows chicks, while mine is more round
- bigger horns
But also:
- darker
- tail's shape in the continuity of the back -> smoother and more natural
- the eyes and the front of the face are not just vertical
- the position of the horns is more on the back of the head (which is made possible because of the head's shape), so it feels more natural, just like our ears.
- bigger texture allows for the white dot in the black of the eyes
- baked ambient occlusion in the texture

So, all in all, I like it and I think (hate to admit) that it would be a good replacement for the one we currently have...

you have to look at the poly-count of the character, you can read more about it here:

http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/New ... rtex_count

also check for the poly count of the original model
(https://svn.code.sf.net/p/supertuxkart/ ... s/beastie/), it should be in beastie-kart - file

Hi.

Funto, I tried to make it as close as the original mascot graphics (i actaully measure it), which is very cartoonish.
I hope you don't mind, but I would like to try and give some constructive criticism.
I think you probably added to much details early on. With a very low poly shape you can try to get the large shapes in place first with little effort.
I always start by doing an profile-outline of the model and extrude from that. I recommend exaggerating the shapes to compensate because the mind a tendency to downplay shapes and highlight details.
I try to identify basic shapes from the reference, as highlighted in the attachment

rubberduck, Am I right to assume you mean that i've used far to low polycount? Because there is less than a third of the current model.


I'm leaving for a week but I'll be happy to try and adress any critique when I get back.

Thanks for the criticism ^^
I used the original image as a basis too, but I think I didn't get the shape of the head, the proportions (arms and hands mainly) and the shape of the tail.
The difficulty was also that the drawing isn't facing us, so we can't just model over it.
As I said, that was my first characterl, hope my next one will be better

Micket {l Wrote}:rubberduck, Am I right to assume you mean that i've used far to low polycount? Because there is less than a third of the current model.
.

i only wanted to say, that the poly-count should not too high-poly

I'm moving this topic up as I like the proposed model for Beastie and made comparisons with the current one, see the images below:




I would go with making it the new official one in STK, as long as animations from the current one are adapted to this one.
What do you think?

I agree, the lack of animations is the only stopper preventing inclusion, I think

Looks fantastic! A decisive improvement over the previous model. All it needs is animation now and your name will be forever immortalised in the credits of SuperTuxKart!

me too ... me too
if driver model new, then icon also

Attached to this post: the new Beastie, animated and put in the old one's kart.
I've put the Blender files and an already exported version in the folder "new_beastie".
I'm having some problems with the rendering of the eyes at kart selection time, but it seems ok afterwards...

[EDIT] v0.2: fixed a problem with the winning animation loop + eyes at kart selection time.
I was wondering it the skin was a little bit too dark in-game, but I think it's ok, so I would let it as is.

+ some screenshots :

Thank you very much for your work! It looks amazing. I like the new Beastie very much.

Thanks! I integrated this new kart in the game. Congratulations and thanks to everyone involved

Ok.
I just realized the hat offset has been removed. That value comes from the .blend file, right?
Also, the random-wheel-rot attribute changed from "false" to "true", that needs to be changed too no? I see this attribute set to "true" for Sara, Konqi, Gnu, and now Beastie

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

// Randomize wheel rotation if needed
    if (m_kart_properties->hasRandomWheels() && m_vehicle && m_kart_model)
    {
        scene::ISceneNode** graphic_wheels = m_kart_model->getWheelNodes();
        // FIXME Hardcoded i < 4 comes from the arrays in KartModel
        for (int i = 0; i < m_vehicle->getNumWheels() && i < 4; i++)
        {
            // Physics
            btWheelInfo& wheel = m_vehicle->getWheelInfo(i);
            wheel.m_rotation = btScalar(rand() % 360);
            // And graphics
            core::vector3df wheel_rotation(wheel.m_rotation, 0, 0);
            if (graphic_wheels[i])
                graphic_wheels[i]->setRotation(wheel_rotation);
        } // for wheels
    } // if random wheel rotation


What is the point of the feature? I mean, why is this different from one kart to another?

random-wheel-rot was added so that each wheel has a different rotation, slightly decreasing the chance you will notice a repeating pattern between wheels. Karts that have it to false are typically just karts made prior to the availability of this features. I am not myself convinced that this feature provides noticeable gains, but it was contributed so can't complain!

Ok I see
Well it seems it could be done for all karts with no harm, no? (all wheels are supposed to rotate at some point anyway ^^).