No Grass, Please!

[P.Rex]

Aye, it was pretty much impossible for me not to see it. Rumors spread like wildfire on the Internet. (a lot of misinformation too, it goes without saying).

I'm a troublemaker by nature, always skeptic about anything and everything unless concrete evidence presents itself before me. That's why I take so much time looking up the facts for this mod, and why I don't trust paleoart for example. (it's just that- art. But I digress)

 

The Carnivores games were made in the very beginning of the 3D era (late 90's), so all models had to be low-poly, 1024 triangles at most. Hence, to be able to mod these games I had learned to accustom myself to that limit. There are many animals in the official Carnivores roster I'd also like to adapt for this mod, like the Moschops I made as a test (and plan to re-make once the new APE is available).

 

Yeah, so I pretty much got a lot of ideas for animals at this point, and I'm also always on the look out for new plants. (became quite the paleobotany buff when I picked up the hobby of gardening a couple years back)

But I'd also like to expand on buildings, attractions and other zoo paraphernalia. Got any ideas?

[(Admin)Savannahjan]

Love the models and I'm fascinated with the terrarium. I personally don't find the silver distracting, but a little less shiny would be good too. Honestly, these sure do look like real screenshots, so it makes we want these things to be ready for my zoo now. I would love to see the terrarium, and maybe even with larger pane area.

[P.Rex]

Been experimenting with a new technique for making plants:

 

[(Professor Emeritus)Professor Paul]

Just going back to the animals a second, could the same technique you mention (bearing in mind that I am a technological moron) be used to make animals from some of the early Jurassic park games?

[P.Rex]

I have all the models from Jurassic Park Operation Genesis (like the Spinosaurus I showed earlier), the plan is to rig and animate for ZT all the JPOG animals that don't already have counterparts in the game (Parasaurolophus, Ceratosaurus and Brachiosaurus to name a few).

 

The new technique I was experimenting with for the plants consists of splicing together parts from existing ZT flora (mainly for the base of the trunk) with models I made in Spore Creature Creator, then heavily editing it all in GIMP to get the proportions and colors I want. This is a very cumbersome technique, and while it gets the wanted results I wouldn't dare try to use it for an animated object, let alone an animal.

[(Designer)Vondell]

Those plants do look good though! The nice thing about foliage in ZT is that it doesn't have to look perfect to look good, since plants rarely look perfect in reality and since they won't be animated. It's so interesting to see all the ways people go about making the images. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought of opening up Spore to make some quick 3D model sketches but that's a really cool concept!

[(Professor Emeritus)Professor Paul]

The new technique I was experimenting with for the plants consists of splicing together parts from existing ZT flora (mainly for the base of the trunk) with models I made in Spore Creature Creator, then heavily editing it all in GIMP to get the proportions and colors I want. This is a very cumbersome technique, and while it gets the wanted results I wouldn't dare try to use it for an animated object, let alone an animal.

 

Could this, in theory, be done with animals as well though? It would be interesting to see a guest spliced onto a horse to make a centaur!

[(Designer)Vondell]

In theory it's possible, although it would involve hand-editing hundreds of animation frames one at a time, which is why most people who do that stick to non-animated scenery.

[P.Rex]

In theory it's possible, although it would involve hand-editing hundreds of animation frames one at a time, which is why most people who do that stick to non-animated scenery.

This.

 

After doing an inventory check of all the available flora I've realized we needed more Jurassic conifers... so here's a new plant:

 

 

The Cook Pine tree (Araucaria columnaris) is a close relative of the Monkey Puzzle tree and the Norfolk Island Pine tree. This species or a similar-looking ancestor may have grown besides its more famous relatives throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

[(Admin)Cricket]

Very nice! I especially like the coloring :)