[WIP]Mermaids

[mantaman]

hey Suludi, are these water sprint animations?

[Suludi]

No, it's the default swim. I haven' done a sprint animation yet cause I'm still waiting for the mesh/skeleton. It's a bit pointless to create all those animations now if we use a different skeleton later.

[mantaman]

hmmmm, well, if you stick with the default skeleton, you can use EBs, im not sure bout xenos

[Suludi]

The joy of animating... *weeps silently*

 

 

... LOL.

[Suludi]

Aaaand double post.

 

swimforward.hkx and swimidle.hkx for test purposes. I think I'll stop the upper body wobbling, it's not nice to look at when you're swimming faster.

 

Install:

 

Unzip the files and drop them into data/meshes/actors/character/animations.

 

Uninstall:

 

Delete them.

 

 

 

mermaidswim.zip

[mantaman]

oh man, this swimmin animation looks goooood

[firepower02]

The swim looks pretty decent. Is it a mermaid only kind of swim, or will it affect every human race, since in your video its not really a mermaid but a human with blue skin.

 

It would be nice if you make land animations too.

[mantaman]

oi, im pretty sure this is race specific

[lindazana]

So. I apologize if this has been said before, I don't have very long to be on. But I notice a lot of mention of mermaids with tails not being used much because they would flop on land. Why can't they "swim" in the air? This is a world of magic, a world that has, at least in the past, had a levitate spell. I could see such a spell being modified by an aquatic race to allow them to treat air, at least near the ground, as water. Mechanically, you could replace the walk animations with swimming ones, this way. Thoughts?

[mantaman]

So. I apologize if this has been said before, I don't have very long to be on. But I notice a lot of mention of mermaids with tails not being used much because they would flop on land. Why can't they "swim" in the air? This is a world of magic, a world that has, at least in the past, had a levitate spell. I could see such a spell being modified by an aquatic race to allow them to treat air, at least near the ground, as water. Mechanically, you could replace the walk animations with swimming ones, this way. Thoughts?

 

oi, its been talked about before but, flying mers are too op

they're already fuckin mega deadly in water, and mediocre with legs, they need somethin to balance them out, so being highly underpowered and useless on land works

[firepower02]

My thoughts? Three words. Not gonna happen.

[Suludi]

The swim looks pretty decent. Is it a mermaid only kind of swim, or will it affect every human race, since in your video its not really a mermaid but a human with blue skin.

 

It would be nice if you make land animations too.

 

Right now, it affects all humans in the game cause it simply replaces the default swim animation. When we have a Nereid/Mereid* race, I'm sure we can bind the mermaid swim to mermaids only but we don't have it yet.

 

 

* just my name suggestions

 

Here's the swimbackward.hkx. The animations are much too stiff for my liking but I'm still learning and there's only so much I can do without a proper tail.

swimbackward.zip

[leepingferret]

 

The swim looks pretty decent. Is it a mermaid only kind of swim, or will it affect every human race, since in your video its not really a mermaid but a human with blue skin.

 

It would be nice if you make land animations too.

 

Right now, it affects all humans in the game cause it simply replaces the default swim animation. When we have a Nereid/Mereid* race, I'm sure we can bind the mermaid swim to mermaids only but we don't have it yet.

 

 

* just my name suggestions

 

Here's the swimbackward.hkx. The animations are much too stiff for my liking but I'm still learning and there's only so much I can do without a proper tail.

 

 

There's a... slight problem. As of now, isn't it impossible to add custom animations, even for specific races? .-. 

 

The only option i see is PCEA, but well... that'd be kinda tricky and it would make a mermaid mod completely dependent on it, wouldn't it?

 

 

As for animations, why are some of you so against the idea of floating mermaids? I'd imagine having a flopping mermaid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PljA3S3jG8 lol) or even two versions (finned-legs for land and tail for water) would be pretty pointless as the first would mean mermaids would be useless on land... AND in water as we don't actually know if underwater combat is possible and the latter would mean mermaids on land would be pretty much humans with fins glued to them (that have some generic weakness such as shock vulnerability) and mermaids in the water would be wasted as you'd seldom even go underwater because of, well, the current lack of combat and locations and npcs, etc...

 

So... first, it might not be possible to even add animations to the race. Second, if it was possible... maybe we shouldn't be so picky about it?

 

P.S: Check our the "Hover Animation" floating around (hee) on the Nexus, it's somewhat of a start for having strong independent mermaids that don't need no water to swim.

[mantaman]

well ferret, these mers kinda have three stages

 

1. water, swimming

 

2. crawling on land, just getting out of water

 

3. completely dry, legs

 

this applies for some mers, as ive said before, i hope some subraces keep the tail, but crawl (non magical mers) and to make people happy, the more magical ones float

 

woooah, diversity

 

edit: and suludi, just post it on the vimeooooo

[Suludi]

 

edit: and suludi, just post it on the vimeooooo

 

What do you want me to post? I don 't have another video right now.

[mantaman]

that backwards swimmin

 

[leepingferret]

Hm... how about something like... the Vampire Lord transformation? Except forced, it'd make for a smoother transition and maybe it'd make the process easier? I dunno if it would allow for more than two stages though.

 

As for diversity, Land Mer (crawlers) would need to be akin to (wait for it) Nagas, as both fish-like and dolphin-like mermaid tails would likely tear and be pretty messy... maybe a sea serpent-like tail with a wider fin? So they'd slither around (with some difficulty), maybe even using HDT for the tail to have it adapt to uneven surfaces more easily without having to run around with a completely static fin sticking out of them. How this would be done is beyond me, though...

 

In that case, there could be two kinds of Mer; one that floats over land and another that crawls, in which case there would be no need for a transformation or stages as they would keep their tails both in land and in water~ 

[Suludi]

Maybe we should try and bring some kind of order into our mermaid evolution process.

 

1. Mermaid Race

- Name

- Skeleton and mesh - EB and Xenos

- waterbreathing ability

- remove heavy breathing when resurfacing (is that even a word?)

- more than one race?

 

2. Animations

- normal animations - done/WiP:  swimforward, swimidle, swimbackward

- swim animations separate from humans

- swimming speed

- fighting underwater

- floating/wobbling/crawling on land? or mesh change to humanoid?

 

3. Environment

- Lakerise - 16x16 cells with additional interior cells, WiP by Suludi

- portal link to Skyrim

 

4. Meshes

- weapons

- armour

- furniture? houses?

 

5. NPCs

 

6. Quests

[firepower02]

I believe water combat is possible, the slaughterfish are a different race and they have underwater combat. I also believe that the swim animations could be used only for mermaids. There must be some way to it. I mean, the animal races have a different kind of walking/running animations from humanoids, so why not for mermaids?

 

 

well ferret, these mers kinda have three stages

 

1. water, swimming

 

2. crawling on land, just getting out of water

 

3. completely dry, legs

I thought we have come to an agreement that there would be two types of mermaids. One that can transform at will, and one that is pathetically permanently mermaid. (Although a mermaid who can transform at will can possible satisfy the needs of both. If you want a mermaid who flops on land helplessly, then just have them transform tails when on land.) No more 3rd type of mermaid that floats in the air, that would be best reserved for a new type of race such as nagas. It would be too boring if they would all be mermaids, a new race would be nice.

 

 

 

 

Maybe we should try and bring some kind of order into our mermaid evolution process.

 

1. Mermaid Race

- Name

- Skeleton and mesh - EB and Xenos

- waterbreathing ability

- remove heavy breathing when resurfacing (is that even a word?)

- more than one race?

 

2. Animations

- normal animations - done/WiP:  swimforward, swimidle, swimbackward

- swim animations separate from humans

- swimming speed

- fighting underwater

- floating/wobbling/crawling on land? or mesh change to humanoid?

 

3. Environment

- Lakerise - 16x16 cells with additional interior cells, WiP by Suludi

- portal link to Skyrim

- underwater caverns would be nice

 

4. Meshes

- weapons

- armour

- furniture? houses?

 

5. NPCs

- I would like to see seahorses as their horses. I know seahorses are not fast, but they are super cool. Or a magical horse that can transform into a seahorse underwater. Lol!

- small dolphins as their pets, like humans have dogs on land.

- a sea witch/hag

- electric eels

- a human/manta ray hybrid

- a lobster bard

 

6. Quests

[Suludi]

swimidle.hkx, swimforward.hkx with less body wobble, swimbackward.hkx for test purposes.

 

 

 

mermaidswim2.zip

[mantaman]

Hm... how about something like... the Vampire Lord transformation? Except forced, it'd make for a smoother transition and maybe it'd make the process easier? I dunno if it would allow for more than two stages though.

 

As for diversity, Land Mer (crawlers) would need to be akin to (wait for it) Nagas, as both fish-like and dolphin-like mermaid tails would likely tear and be pretty messy... maybe a sea serpent-like tail with a wider fin? So they'd slither around (with some difficulty), maybe even using HDT for the tail to have it adapt to uneven surfaces more easily without having to run around with a completely static fin sticking out of them. How this would be done is beyond me, though...

 

In that case, there could be two kinds of Mer; one that floats over land and another that crawls, in which case there would be no need for a transformation or stages as they would keep their tails both in land and in water~ 

 duuuude slithering was also shot down

 

the crawling races are gonna stay crawling, the rest of us decided on that

 

edit: oh and

 

1. Mermaid Race

- Name

- Skeleton and mesh - EB and Xenos

- waterbreathing ability- Argonianwaterbreathing

- remove heavy breathing when resurfacing (is that even a word?)- if its possible

- more than one race?- most definitely

 

2. Animations

- normal animations - done/WiP:  swimforward, swimidle, swimbackward

- swim animations separate from humans- ofcourse

- swimming speed- 2.0

- fighting underwater- yes, weapons, unarmed, magic?

- floating/wobbling/crawling on land? or mesh change to humanoid?- as firepower said, change at will, but when will a mer npc know when to change?

 

3. Environment

- Lakerise - 16x16 cells with additional interior cells, WiP by Suludi

- portal link to Skyrim- oi, i'd suggest a boat, i'll add it later

 

4. Meshes

- weapons- tridents, spears, harpoons?

- armour- modified vanilla glass, elven, ebony, dwemer, daedric, and steel

- furniture? houses?- colonies on the beach, some in the water

 

5. NPCs- i have a list so if anyone wants it, sure

 

6. Quests- had one planned, want me to tell it?

 

[firepower02]

Sure, go ahead tell it in a spoiler. Npc mermaids can have AI package for their daily chore, including when they want to change. But do you really want to see npc mermaids on land flopping, or just your character and followers? If they have it at will, they prolly wouldn't want to change on land, maybe near rivers and lakes.

 

The swimming animations look really great now. The movement of the body is perfect. Although I still think the speed could be a little faster, they should outswim humanoids. Will there be sneak swim underwater? The first post had a mermaid tail uploaded, maybe you want to try your animations on that tail.

[mantaman]

 

WHY DIDNT I THINK OF AI PACKAGES

 

oh, but yaman, that makes sense.

 

and lemme edit this soon with the story

[Suludi]

 

The swimming animations look really great now. The movement of the body is perfect. Although I still think the speed could be a little faster, they should outswim humanoids. Will there be sneak swim underwater? The first post had a mermaid tail uploaded, maybe you want to try your animations on that tail.

 

NP, we can use the very slow swim animation for the sneaking and hopefully bind the very fast swim to Alt W.

 

But the file in the first post is a blend file with no weight painting, so the mesh won't follow the bones' movement. It's of no use to me that way. If Richard19840706, EB and Xenos don't offer their meshes for download, I'll make one myself but that would take quite some time. I'm busy enough with the worldspace and the animations (and a triton I made in Blender yesterday).

 

mantaman, sure, go ahead! I'd like to see what quests you come up with.

[mantaman]

*cut*