Vondell's Current Projects

[Fern]

Quite a few of the ZT2 things have been imported as scenery. Just like lots of RCT things were converted and things from ZT ended up in RCT as well.

It might be okay if they are user made and you have permission by the creator. I know genki gave permission for a lot of her ZT1 paths to be recreated for ZT2

[jbl89]

Well, I'm still not quite sure about that, although it is indeed a common practice.

It's obviously different if people actually give their permission :)

 

If things do get converted, I hope it's done properly, so they really match the ZT1 style.
I'm more a fan of the original work by people like Taz and Vondell, who create things from scratch and yet it fits perfectly in the game. A feeling I'm missing with lots of the converted stuff.

[(Designer)HENDRIX]

I was mainly talking about animals. The object styles simply don't match...

 

Technically it'd be perfectly fine even to distribute stuff created from official material, since you don't distribute the raw material (model and texture), but only 2D sprites you have created yourself. Even more so as you go only from one Microsoft/BlueFang Game to the other.

 

Yeah, I figured that you have to exaggerate when the whole thing's only a few pixels small. When it comes to larger stuff, perhaps dinosaurs, I've created lots, some with custom animation sets, so if anyone wants to import them, feel free to do so.

[(Designer)Vondell]

Once I've gotten a few animals done myself I'm hoping to get a tutorial up, I'm thinking a lot of folks from the ZT2 designing community might want to take a shot at doing their own, especially those who still play ZT1. It's a little tedious and I'm thinking someone who knew a little more about programming might be able to rig up a more sophisticated automated export system, but I'm still sort of a novice at Blender.

 

Oh, one thing, too: Since I learned a lot of the process watching your tutorials, my animals are actually fully rigged and prepared for ZT2, following the Bip01 bone system, etc. The animation setup is a little different because mine are separated into discrete actions, my walk cycles are stationary, etc, but I'm sure it wouldn't take too much work to convert mine that way, too.

 

Of course the only two animals I've worked on are already represented in ZT2 so there'd be no need, but maybe future projects! I really want to work on some dinosaurs and prehistoric archosaurs too, I'm a huge paleontology buff and honestly a lot of Blue Fang's ZT1 dinosaurs come just short of paleontologically embarrassing. I can't remember the last time I wanted to use any ingame dinosaurs in my zoos. I need some feathered maniraptorans at least. I'd love to do a fully-realized Brachiosaurus/Giraffatitan. I've had in my head that I want to do a feathered Therizinosaurus like John Conway's at some point as well. There's so much I'd love to do in that area. Azhdarchids? Might be a little unjust to keep them in zoos. Or a little impossible.

[Fern]

Is it the elephant bird or something like that in ZT2 extinct expansion? I always thought I would like one for ZT1. It was a funny looking ground bird.

[(Designer)Vondell]

At some point I want to work on a generalized flightless long-necked bird model and rig that I can use/resize/retexture to make a few different animals. Emus, Cassowaries, Elephant Birds, Moas.

 

That's the nice thing about working in 3D, I can resize and retexture my models as I see fit without having to worry about pixel detail. I want to try to build some models and rigs I can use for a few different animals.

 

I wanted to do some more tortoises since I have a tortoise model and rig, but most other tortoises (Galapagos aside) are too small to really bother with. Although that didn't stop me with the Red Panda and it's turning out nicely.

[(Designer)HENDRIX]

There's a lot you could get done with the compositor alone, I think you've already got that set up so it gives you all frames for one angle for an anim. Now you could create some python script that does the complete work at once:

 

 

#pseudo code, I know neither the blender 2.7 API nor if it's possible to control the rendering via python. It probably is though

 

import bpy

 

for action in bpy.actions:

 

action.setActive()

 

#get action start + end frames

 

#set render start + end frames

 

for angle in [E, SE, NE, N, S]:

 

#set active camera

 

#render to filepath_angle

 

 

 

Something like this is relatively simple to figure out with the blender API and rudimentary python skills; and automatization like this really pays off big time.

[(Designer)Vondell]

Taking a little break from animating to jot down the rough skeleton of a modular steel truss walking bridge that only uses 4 parts, plus two (/4) more for an illusion of water and support structures underneath. It could be as wide or long as desired and the "supports" could be placed anywhere along it.

 

 

I think it may be a little smaller than I'd like and I may wind up making it about twice this height. Not sure really. It probably shouldn't be shorter than the food kiosks. That wouldn't make much spatial sense. I'll probably stretch the truss wall height to four units heigh and stretch the end posts vertically to match, and just bump the top piece up two units without resizing it. That way you can still get a one-tile-wide bridge if you want, for thin paths. The train track path would work well with it, probably!

[(Trustee)ZooGrammy]

Another interesting project!

[Guest RedScope53]

Get releasing your stuff soon, dying to use it!