In case a 3D artist is reading this topic, I am looking for one for a few spell animations. I would very much appreciate volunteers.

I need animations for the following spells (for now):
-Burning Hands
-Frost Fingers
-Spell Engine
-Temporal Stasis
-Destruction
-Force Cage
-Dimension Door, Shadow Door, and Teleport Without Error (they will have very similar animations, with slight differences)

These spells don't require a lot of transparencies, since I realized it's very hard for most artists out there. If you feel like volunteering, please either PM me or reply to this topic.

The details will be discussed in PMs or preferrably in the workroom. I can give volunteers the password for workroom access.

I am even willing to go on an exchange for services as a compensation. I consider myself a competent modder (except with the lack of WeiDU knowledge and inability to edit doors in areas).

-Galactygon

Barely sidetracking, but did you asked the guys over at Sol Ek Sa? There is a slight possibility that one of them can handle more complicated stuff than static bams, who knows?

To tell you the truth, I seem to be more satisfied by my own semi-3D animations than Sol-Ek-Sa's. Sol-Ek-Sa may be many things, but decent 3D animation artists are they not.

My only hopes lie in Max, Mindflayer, and the like. Or me spending money on a decent 3D-tool. I don't consider free ones decent 3D tools. It would sound too good.

-Galactygon

Actually we only have one real 3d artist.. we have two or three animation people, I'd have to doublecheck the list.. But I'm on semipermanent assignment, so that takes one of the animators out of the picture..

unfortunately our 3ds guy is either just plain AWOL, or trying to build a asian style temple, and not checking in with progress reports.

Gal is right about one thing.. there are no decent 3d freeware tools.. they all have good features, but each one only has one or two decent features, and the rest make them not worth the bother.

And a decent webdesigner you are not.

You could have noticed that I stressed the fact of us not having 3D artists (or at least full-time 3D artists) a couple of times -- I really meant it, you know? We help when we can, but that doesn`t mean we have to be the best at everything. Sorry, but we never stated that we are teh l33t 3d artirsts kthx!!11 and our main focus is 2D stuff.

Sure, that's your opinion; you might have made dozens and dozens of sites, while this is the first one I made (I am still a novice in webdesigning) OR you might not like the site. Hey, I cannot have everyone liking all of my work.

So does it matter? As long as I am satisfied by my work, obviously not.

-Galactygon

Now, that was a wise statement.
BTW, could you provide a lsit of larger visuals you made useable for BG2? I'd be heavily interested in this part.

A very interesting idea that someone popped to me in an e-mail was that Dimension Door and Shadow Door should be indistinguishable. That's how it is in PnP, and it adds a new dimension to their use in game providing enemies use both. The similarity would come right down to Shadow Door actually reading "Dimension Door" in the battle text when cast by enemies. Just a thought.

As far as animations go, the ones used in BG1 are closest to the PnP description. However, they still look absolutely terrible.

I have also thought of that, but dropped the idea when I knew the combat text displaying was hardcoded (e.g. they say "xyz casts: Shadow Door", etc.) in the game.

Otherwise, there are other differences in BG2 as in P&P, such as Shadow Door remaining in the air for a set of time, and anyone entering disappears for a short period of time. Sounds quite cool and can be mimicked via a maze effect for one round (the spell can set the intelligence of the creature to 25 right before the maze effect fires off).

-Galactygon

You could get around that for enemy mages - give the spell no name (so nothing appears on casting), but make one of it's effects be to display the string 'Dimension Door' or whatever in the dialogue window.

However, charming them will result in oddities. And for consistency, one should do this for every spell.

*Wishes it would be possible to carry over the IWD spell-identification system*

However, I have many Dimension Door tricks off the top of my head that can do more than just compensate.

-Galactygon

It might be kinda interesting if none of the spells actually showed you what they were when cast by enemies. But eh. Difficult.

IWD2 had a perfect system for this - Knowledge (Arcana) and Spellcraft.

I have been wanting this since I first played Baldur's Gate.

-Echon

Consider the idea stolen.

Now, if only I had a mod to put it into... GbG-Lite perhaps...

Are you saying you have it done??? I'd be overly interested in its implementation - if possible, please visit me over at FW in PM to discuss the details!

You know, you're still more than welcome to do something for DLTC at some point...

I am working on DLTC. I'm just dividing my time between different things.



It can be done, probably. I can think of a few ways, but they arent particulary neat. But then, in my experience, nothing worth doing in the IE is.

I'm sure if you could code it the G3 Tweak Packs would gladly nab it.

I was thinking and it would be nice if the removal of the spell name when cast could be linked with the ability for a mage to see the name of the spell cast much like IWD2 does via Knowledge (Arcana), (as T.G.Maestro pointed out)

Maybe the existing setup could be changed so that all that is displayed when an enemy casts a spell would be "Spell Cast" or something and then a global is set.

Then perhaps a HLA could be set up (Knowledge (Arcana)/Spellcraft) that when taken sets a variable allowing the mage to see the spell name as a DisplayHeadString()?

Possible or not, I don't know, just thinking out loud!

If the task isn't too outlandish then I can offer my help.

Seif

I'd appreciate that greatly; however someone is already working diligently on Shadow/Dimension Door. Unless the artist wills it, I prefer not to reveal any names until it's fully done.

I still have the rest open, which ever you want to do. Beware that Burning Hands and Frost Fingers would each have 9 sequences the face a different direction.

I am willing to give you the details if you volunteer for something. You can always reject, if you feel it's too much for you.

-Galactygon

Even after all these years, I am still looking for one to get a few animations done.

-Galactygon