A neat little freebie

[The Hunterminator]

I don't know about you all, but I've been waiting for Spore for quite a while now, salivating at all the possibilities the creature creator would
offer. Well, the game might not be out, but they've released a demo of the creature creator and it's quite a lot of fun.

http://playthisthing.com/spore-creature-creator

[Wiregeek]

I have the ten dollar 'full version', and this thing is a mind-eater. I love it!
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Star Ranger4]

I have to agree, I spent most of yesterday playing with it. about my only gripe is the small number of parts you get with the free version.

Oh, and apparently there is also already SPORN, where the depraved kiddies only manage to see the "heh heh heh... hey, that looks like a giant (fill in
the blank, usually with one of Carlin's 7 words)"...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25272162/
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Bob Schroeck]

Well, there's something for me to download when I get home.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[The Hunterminator]

One thing that really impresses me, is that unless you really go out of your way to make a freak of nature, the creature will probably animate well.
Although I've yet to manage a three legged creature that doesn't look stupid as soon as it starts walking.
I also love the way it manages to turn whatever you've created into cute SD babies.
Here's what I mean,

[Star Ranger4]

By star_ranger4

Mongo here doesnt look tooooo bad, but I agree that trilateral symetry is difficult at best; maybe even not possible depending on how picky you are.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Wiregeek]

I have _got_ to get me back my FTP access to my domain, I need to screenie and show you guys some of the abominations I've created..

"Cosmic Archeaopteryx"

"Balloon Duck"

"Blade Crow"

....this thing is devious in it's cranial consumptive concepts.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Sweno]

oh, wow. It is entirely too easy to lose hours doing this.

I'll put pics online tomorrow after I've had sleep.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[Bob Schroeck]

oh, wow. It is entirely too easy to lose hours doing this.

Tell me about it. I downloaded it, played with it for what seemed like a few minutes, and discovered it was almost 1 AM. Erk.

Keeping Starranger's comment about trilateral symmetry in mind, I tried a few things. Pushmi-pullyu designs don't work well because limb direction and movement is autobiased toward the "front" of the creature; some of the emotes come out really strange. Monopods (monolateral symmetry?) seem to work all right, oddly enough. Multiple pairs of legs work okay. And oddly enough, a completely unaltered base body will crawl around in the test drive mode.

Oh, and try this: stretch a body out long, attach at least two pairs of legs, then curve the spine so the "tail" hangs over and in front of the head. When you walk the critter, you'll see some odd animation artifacts.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[The Hunterminator]

Star Ranger 4... the more I look at your creature, the more I want to see it from other angles and, more importantly, I want to see what it's kids look
like.

And Bob, I've read what you said about crawling, so I tried to make a sort of slug like creature, but as soon as you put things on it, the crawling
movements start to look odd. I think the entire segment that touches the ground needs to have nothing attached to it for it to not look ugly as soon as it
moves.

Oh and, regarding mono legged creatures, there's a very neat example of that amongst the pre-made creatures.

One thing I've noticed is that attaching head parts and legs too close to each other can cause problems since the animation engine has trouble deciding if
it's an head, or an hip. So walking looks odd and the various animations that make the head move also look odd.

-Edit-

Never mind the fact that, when idle, the creature tends to look around which looks HIDEOUS if it doesn't have a neck of some sort.

[Sweno]

ok, here are my attempts at creation with the freebie parts
Mango Tom:


Smagrib:

-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[Jinx999]

How do you create the doubled arms? I haven't been able to join arms to anything except the main body.

[Sweno]

it's a three step process:

1) create arm as normal

2) hold down option key and drag the forearm (not the elbow joint or the wrist, but the bit between) away from the body, it should pop off, leaving you with a
stump.

3) drag a new arm into place, and hold the option key again to have it stick onto the end of the stump. Reposition and add new arms as needed.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[Jinx999]

I've just been trying that. I've managed to make the hands and feet come off, but not the forearms.