This scene is dedicated to Chezi, Casun, and Crazybitz, who took me on my first ever shadow lair run and brought me back up alive on the other side, may they force every member from their respective guilds to come look at this so they may gloat about it :P (P.S. Yes Chezi, wolver tail accessories really do exist).

On a note about the making of the scene itself, this thing, in my opinion, is a master piece of Spiral Spy work, a lot went into making this particular scene with so many characters each with their own unique animation setup requiring multiple copies of model files to make it work, also the work with the lighting (or more like the lack of lighting) and ambient effects is something I really pushed here, a lot of what I know went into getting this scene to work, a pity since the second I close Spiral Spy all the animation settings get wiped and everyone goes back to idly staring stupidly into the distance :/

The scene is based on actual gear that was worn at the time, I'm sorry to you guys if you would have rather worn something else if you knew I was going to make this into an art piece :D

The best title I could think of for this was the one word that got repeated a lot in the Unknown Passage...

RUN

run1
run2
run3
run4
run5
run6
run7
run8
run9
run10
run11
run12

Chezi
Casun
Craybitz
some smuck

This shot from behind really makes me regret not adding the exit elevator ahead of us, I wasn't intending to look at it from this angle but it looked good enough that I screenshot it anyways:

Incomplete

I'm going to post the scene file for Spiral Spy here so people can upload it and maybe get an idea of what I did, although chances are Spiral Spy will explode if you try to use it as I used a number of custom files to make this thing work, plus all the animation work will be lost and everything will be reset to idle even if it does work:

http://www.mediafire.com/?h332pbfgkf89uh6

Spiral-Spy if you take a look at this you may understand why I would REALLY appreciate a way to rename environment models something else besides Environment Models(0), Environment Models(1), Environment Models(2)... and so on, maybe even a way to group them so things like floor pieces and walls can be kept together.

I promise something funny for next time.

actually the flooring for this one was pretty fast as most of it is obscured I didn't put much work into it.

A lot of my work uses existing animations that I essentially "freeze" when the pose is right, this greatly expands the number of different poses I can create, how I do this is hard to explain and requires playing with the animation speed controls.

Anyone tried downloading the scene file and seeing if they can load it? If you can please tell me.

@Tovvok

To create walls and floors go Edit->Preferences

Click "New Environment Model"

In Config, click "none"

Find your way to rsrc/world/tileset

Have tedious mind numbing fun placing each individual floor tile and wall panel, its the way I do it :P (I cheat using model scale sometimes though)
-------------------

To save a characters gear set you have to save the character itself, do the same thing as above but instead go rsrc/character/pc/model_level.dat

This will create a character model as an environmental model and will preserve for next time you open Spiral Spy, make note that working with animations is a more complicated process this way though.

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@Atrumvindex

You'll have to explain what you mean better then that...

Neat, though the way I do my characters is kinda like that but "one step less" and involves a little trick with shifting the models position in the Environment Model list, here's what I do.

1. Make a new character as an Environmental Model
2. Click the first "Edit" button
3. Look under "Animation Mappings" look for the animation you want, if its not there find the "New Animation Mapping" button and click it
4. If your making a new animation mapping, give it a name, then in the Animation Config locate the .dat file of the animation you want
5. Now this is important, turn on "Start Automatically" on the animation you want to use and TURN OFF "Start Automatically" for the 'idle' animation which is set to run automatically often

Your character will still be standing idle however, this is where the 'trick' part of this comes in.

1. Create a new blank Environmental Model
2. At the top of your character Environmental Model, there should be two arrow buttons that control the position in the list of your Environmental Model, press the down arrow
3. This should reset your model which will automatically use the animation you set instead of the idle animation

Had a brief hiatus for a bit, been busy with other stuff for a while.

I have two quickie pieces ('quickie' been defined as taking about an hour to make) that I made.

I've never actually tried a knight vs. knight seen and decided to give it a whirl, to be honest I only halfheartedly made this one, I prefer working with mobs of monsters more.

Duel1

duel1
duel2
duel3
duel4
duel5
duel6
duel7

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The second one here is the result of some experimentation with animation priority to try and create new poses by having one animation "override" another one, I sadly was unable to create the desired two-handed "dragon slayer" pose as there aren't that many motions which bring both hands together, the closest thing I could find was the clap emote which proved to be utterly useless.

The pose I use here is an odd combination of the 'fall recovery' and 'charged pistol hold' animation for the knight.

Fall of Troy (Name seemed appropriate)

falloftroy1
falloftroy2
falloftroy3
falloftroy4
falloftroy5
falloftroy6
falloftroy7

I also tried some Photoshop work with one of the images here.

Original
Edited 1
Edited 2

I swear I've seen this particular knight before...

@Romasanta

I don't think I've ever managed to hit 100 elements :s, do each of those snarby knights have their own model file? Looks like the method I used to make the pint-sized zombies could have been useful here.

I just tried loading your scene into Spiral Spy, it won't load :s

1st Question. Guess that's one of the big secrets to my work I really should explain (I keep promising a guide, but I keep finding different ways of doing things :s)

Here's a brief example guide using a blank new scene:

1. In preferences create a New Environment Model and for the Model config go rsrc/character/pc/model_level.dat

This should create new player model, you may not see it as it is placed in the same spot as the default player model that always appears, so...

2. Scroll to the bottom of your Preferences and put 2.00 for the X Translation
3. Dress up your knight however you want, just make sure to give him a sword, not a gun
4. Scroll back up to the top of your Preferences, next to "Model_level.dat" click the 'Edit' button

Now things get interesting...

5. In the Edit window, find the 'idle' animation, disable 'Start Automatically'
6. Scroll down through the listed animations, look for the 'New Animation Mapping' button and click it
7. Name the animation whatever you want, for its Config go rsrc/character/pc/attack_sword_heavyslam/heavywslam_fire.dat
8. Enable 'Start Automatically' for your animation
9. Scroll all the way back to the top of the Edit window and look for 'Tick Policy', which should be set to default, change it to 'Never'
10. Whatever you do, DON'T CLOSE THIS WINDOW

Doing all this won't make any changes to your player model yet, to get it to work you need to do a little trick...

10. Go back to the Preferences window and create a new blank Environmental Model
11. At the top of each Environmental Model there are two arrow buttons that control its position on the list, in your blank model click the up button

In doing this you also reset your model so all those changes you just made are now applied to it.

12. Go back to your Edit window and set the Tick Policy back to default

If everything went well your character should perform a Troika sword slam, now what we want to do is catch him mid-swing.

13. Set the Tick Policy back to Never
14. In the main window, set the Global Speed to 0.01
15. In the Preference window shift your player model back up on the list, this will reset your knight again
16. Go back to the Edit window, keeping a careful eye on your knight change the Tick Policy to default, the moment you want to pause the animation change the Tick Policy to Never

This will freeze the animation in place, though many of the FX's associated with it will still play out, working with those is a similar, but messier process to what I just explained.

17. If you fail to capture the position you want for your knight, set the Tick Policy back to Never and reset the model again using the arrow trick and try again

Well that was a mouthful, its not a pretty process and a misstep could wipe everything you did, this may be hard to understand if you only just started using Spiral Spy but its the best I can do to explain what I do. Make note that clicking the 'Edit' Button again in the Preference window for your model will wipe all your animation work so don't close the Edit window unless your certain your done working with your player model.

2nd Question:

rsrc/character/npc/monster/swarm...

'parts' folder has things like Swarm Turrets, Swarm Seeds (the big hole in the ground), and other swarm related FX's and props

'shadows' folder has swarm infested enemies

go to the folder with the model_level.dat, find it and make a copy of it, you should be able to use the copied file for a second knight.

On another note, the funnies just got updated :)

Believe it or not, I actually get very few requests for some reason despite been always open to them (for some inexplicable reason :s), to get a request from a high-profile figure like you is a surprise and a delight :D (congrats on the wings), I'll get right on it as soon as I finish up what I currently have in the works.

So how would you like your character posed with Vana, under his foot or mace? :P

j/k, I'll make sure its spectacular :).

I must say however, I've never been to UFSC and have no concept screenshots to base the environment off of, if you (or someone else) has screenshots of a run there it would be helpful for creating the scene.

P.S. Do you care what shield i use cause I can't see yours...

@Tsubasa-No-Me

Yeah that guide is a constant nagging issue for me, although the whole thread here is pretty instructive in itself, I may just copy parts of it eventually when making the guide.

@Bulby

Nice scene there, must have a lot of patience to place every tile there at the correct scale :P

@Olajdzija

Have to explain your question better then that for me to answer

Experimenting with animation priority and overriding I'm able to create some poses that don't exist in-game, essentially a mash-up of existing animations with certain parts been 'dominant' over another.

I've been getting some good results, like this pose I tried with Aecarus for his scene, there are actually 3 animations going on at once here, though I thought this one looked a little awkward so I rejected it for the scene I'm working on:

pose1
pose2
pose3

However the results don't always work out so well, I hope he's okay to suffer this indignity:

Oh the Humanity!!

P.S. I hope you have an Owlite shield Aecarus, cause that's what its going to be unless you say otherwise within the next half-hour

With each new update new files are added to the game, if your like me and use a separate folder containing the SK files to work off of in Spiral Spy you will need to update the rsrc folder you work with in order to keep up to date.

A few new things added in the last update include the 'badge' accessory and the one-way energy gate, plus there are other new things... *looks around nervously" like um, tiles... that I can't mention here... I've said too much already I need to go hide from the mods.

@Bulby

Are those eyes something you managed to change on the character in Spiral Spy? That's something I haven't figured out how to do yet, all I can get is the default open or closed. If you did manage to change them please tell me how

My next major update is going to be completely devoted to the subject of dual wielding and then goes WAY WAY beyond it, I'll explain it all there and probably show you things people never even dreamed possible of been able to do in Spiral Spy, let alone SK itself, its going to be an epic update here :)

@Bulby

Well at least I know a way to make angry faces now, thanks for that, trying to directly mess with the eye texture file causes the program to crash and custom eyes is something I've been trying to do for a while now.

The bullet I used in the portrait is actually a shrunk done charged iron slug shot which is actually 5x bigger then what you see there, the Callahan fires a blue shot which I found looked less impressive then the orange flare I used.

Also who likes teasers? Well here's one:

What could this possibly be?

Checkout later tomorrow to find out :)

MUST SEE!!!

There actually 3 unposted scenes I have that are older then this but the results of what I made here I just can't hold off on posting, I'll get those other scenes up when I have time, the work I did in them is what lead to making the scene there possible.