I cant really understand why nobody has bothered yet about making some pretty models for venom, recluse, and all the other spider units, so I did my worst and made a venom. Well, do you like it? Or not? Tell me front view: http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg26/scaled.php?server=26&filename=venomfront.jpg&res=mediumback view: http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg638/scaled.php?server=638&filename=venomback.jpg&res=medium
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Why? Because we dont have enough talent like yours. Please come work for us. :D Really, we dont have many in-house artists, and those we do tend to be overcommited to a lot of things (maackey also does the site, KR and I do a bit of everything and already have our model projects commited to). Love the design. Love the style. Love the details. Really great. If you could do other spiders (you can reuse a lot of the chassis) that would be perfect. You can use a single UVmap too, with turret swaps, depending on whether you want to vary the colour scheme. I'd suggest making the differentiation higher by increasing the size of the yellow part, and if you dont intend on reusing the UV, giving it a colour scheme above simply grey (the current models use brown- recluse, silver- venom grey- con white- aa). Also you can do things like changing the 'stance' of the legs (making the knees very high, or the second joint a lot longer, or making the legs splayed vs more underneath the model- a lot of this can be done in the script though) might help. But you probably dont need my advice, keep doing your thing and we will totally use your models.
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That's one of the best looking models for ZK, right up there with the ships. :)
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There has been some debate about the identifiability of zk units. Therefore I recommend you to think how the spider looks from far distance. Sure it looks good from near distance, but the game is played mostly overview camera angle and from distances that makes macromanagement possible. I suggest you to focus on what is the most important characteristic of the spider model and that is ofc the legs. Your legs is very thin and tiny. Make them bigger, fatter, more massive, that makes them appear more and makes them recognizable, so that players see that its actually spider moving and not just a some 'blob'. (The point is, they dont need to be in fact be heavy and fat, but to create an illusion that makes them appear to be spider legs from distance) http://springrts.com/phpbb/download/file.php?id=6277Didn't find close-up shot, but those are the spiders of EVO-RTS. The great thing about them is, that they look like a mech spiders, even from distance. The downside however is, that the difference with other spiders are not that recognizable.
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I disagree, spindly is perfect for spiders because it makes them look fragile (which they are). I think good way for distance recognition is distinct patterns on the back. That pretty much how the current spiders are distinguished. Btw excellent job, that's a huge improvement over the current models. :D
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hehe. I've tried bothering to make some spiders. Unfortunately, as Saktoth mentioned I have been a bit busy with the website.  recluse model (top) is about half done, not to mention uvmapping, texturing, animating, etc. so still a far ways off :P The venom (bottom right) and tick haven't even been started.  A cool little firethrower dude I started ages ago. uvmapping etc. have yet to be started though. Anyway, good work on the venom :) It would be nice to have another modeler around to take up some slack.
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Oho, i havent expected that much positive response, sure I would do the other spiders too if you want :D Ive played a bit with the leg scaling, and thats what it looks like from above now: http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg97/scaled.php?server=97&filename=venomtop.png&res=mediumThe script is also making trouble atm (its just the old spider script edited to fit to the new one, dunno how i broke it), but i guess i can get it to work soon
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Have to say it looks preety nice. Got a zoomed out pic although?
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Cool! Definitly easy to disern, even the legs.
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i think there still to small... how looks it if you scale the legs 1.5x of the actual size?
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You dont need to scale them, theres always many ways out: You could for example add somekinda plates or armors to the legs, with teamcolor, which makes them more recognizable from distance. Or you can make some extra joints which are part of robot-hydraulics, making them appear more, while preserving the illusion of fragility. Luckywaldos suggestion to make distinct pattern on the back wont make them look spiders from distance but rather blobs, its the legs that makes spider a spider, you need to highlight that essential property. However, he has a point, not that distinct patterns at the back and the armament which is attached to it makes it distinguishable from other units, but them distinguishable from other spiders.
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Maybe add some large teamcolour armour plates to the tops of the upper leg sections? Hopefully, that would make it a little larger (from an above view) and a bit bighter (so easier to see).
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A little dull against a grey background from a distance, but its good, people (including me) are offering critique here but dont worry so much about including all of it, people are gonna have different ideas of how it should look so just forge ahead. Its fairly trivial for one of us to do the scripting, any scaling required, and even to edit the texture if it greys out a bit or the teamcolour cant be seen at a distance (Also looks like you have no reflection map, but we can do one of those too). The hard part is making the model, doing the uvmap, and getting most of the texture detail. So please make more spider models, it looks great.
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I'm sorry but I don't like this model when put in context. Basically I think the close up image you have shown is a really awesome spider type thing but it doesn't quite fit as Venom and doesn't look good at playable zoom. I dislike how most model changes change the balance of the unit or require to unit to act in ways that now no longer look appropriate with that model. The things to watch out for here are:
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Unit shape, Venom is a circle from the top and I'd like to keep it that way as circles are handled in the most reliable way.
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Turret position. If the turret is further back the unit becomes better at shooting while running away.
Long spiders have problems with looking silly when they walk over sharp turns in the terrain. So in short so far I've said the body is too long. There is also a mismatch with colours. The spider factory has lighter units and I don't foresee any more than the 4 3do spiders being remade, in any case noone is touching Crabe. ZK in general has lighter, sort of cartoonyer, units. There is the important issue of distance recognition, your screenshot of the spider of the dam has worse distance recognition than Venom does currently. When looking at screenshots to comment on distance recognition you've got to remember how different the situation of analysing a screenshot is to ingame when you want to see things quickly. I agree with SirArtturi's sentiment that spiders get their recognisability from their legs. Compare new to old in these screenshots  the old model is further away yet the legs are still a prominent feature. Notice how the legs are larger in every way; they are longer, fatter and have bulbous joints. They are also in general brighter so show up against the terrain. TLDR: My design specifications for the spider model remakes are the current spider models.
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Ive rescaled the legs again, it should be better now. http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg803/scaled.php?server=803&filename=venomcompare.png&res=mediumSure, the model is a bit longer than the old one, but passing sharper edges doesnt look that shitty (ive tried it). The turret position position seems also be more or less the same to me. Well, the colour scheme is different, but you can see this as a positive change, the aa spider has nearly the same one as the old venom. And yes, it has a texture2, but i dont want it to be too shiny, i think that wouldnt fit to the whole design.
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Looks good to me, no use fussing over it, we'll get it in game before we worry about all this stuff, though maybe keep in mind some of the stuff google said for future models. If you want to see the real problem with long spiders, try putting them in a shallow dip, like walking them over a crater left by a Starlight beam or narrow deep impact crater. Their front and back half will be in the dirt. This doesnt happen with, say, bots because they are vertical, or vehicles because they cant go over steep surfaces. But the -real- reason not to worry about this is that we can actually fix this with scripts that detect ground height and compensate, which google may not be aware of (like the stuff we use to give the ravager suspension over rough terrain). This is really more of a problem for boats (*_* such paaain). So yeah, its fine. A lot of the problem with the turret being so far back can probably be solved by the fact the whole model itself is a bit far forward, how far the front legs are forward are being taken into account when judging the middle position of the model- when it should be set around the centre of mass. But we can worry about this kind of minutia and gameplay stuff, you can get back to the modeling. We can get it in game if you upload the source files, or get you SVN access if you can be bothered with that. What format is it, s3o or obj? Just to get the legals out of the way, licence will have to be GPL if its going in ZK too, though that is the whole point of open source so you're probably aware of that
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It's a nice shape, maybe it's just a tad long but it is quite threatening as a result. Being critical, it looks very dark at the side of the original model. With a dark team colour on a moon map it'd be all but invisible. Including more light colours in the texture would help distance recognition and general visibility. That aside, it looks great.
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Uploaded it to ModelBase (i guess thats where i had to upload it), including the script that does not want to be compiled, and the .xcf of the texture, if you want to change the colours. Dont worry, i will also make a wreckage model soon.
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It's nice, really nice. Albeit a bit dark. I think the easiest way to distinguish the old Venom model was its bright yellow abdomen. Both, legs and the abdomen are very important. Both have to me much eye-catching.
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