[Request] Altar of Blood

In short, I would like a custom Altar model for my upcoming Jungle Troll race/project, which will be called the Altar of Blood. This could probably be done with some geomerging and model editing, although if someone feels really generous a scratch model won't be denied. :P

Basically, I'd like a custom Altar with regular Altar anims, a Troll theme, some vines, bones, skulls, that sort of thing. More detail below.

The Idea If you look at all the other Altars, there are some similarities (pic and quote by cosmicat): Quote: Originally Posted by cosmicat Altars: All five altars are symmetrical, feature four "pillar"-like things, and have stairs leading up to a statue or idol of some sort. "Working" animations include a glowing orb thingummy (NE, Naga), a lightning sort of effect (Orc), and lit torches (HU, UD). Hidden information: Thus, the Troll altar needs a statue, 4 pillars, stairs, and nurnies. Table: Altar Itself I believe, since it's Jungle Trolls, that the entire Altar should be made of Wood. (aside from the stairs, see below) Statue Quote: Originally Posted by Kyrbi0 I say there should be a statue of the Blood God, Hakkar the Souflayer. He would be made of stone. [...] See, it's LORE. Solid LORE, and I love it. It's not like some random Troll, or just a bunch of trees. It's a singular character that is intensely important to Jungle Troll history. So even though they "got rid of him", and he was so evil, it only makes sense that their culture (read: architecture) would still be influenced by him. See the Reference Pics below. Pillars Stairs These should be large bones, as opposed to wood. Probably the best would be just using the texture from the Orc Catapult (the long bone-spikes on front). Nurnies In the middle of the altar should be a bubbling cauldron of green gunk, + floating heads (like the Doodad). Arrayed around the front/edges, a series of tiki Torches and Headhunter Spears.. Reference Pics

More info later.

I might do this, though I'm pretty sure I can't make the statue, mainly because there is no fitting texture for that in WC3. Anything else I can put in there? Perhaps a totem or something? Oh, also, you said that the nurnies should be "in the middle of the altar". But thats where the statue\idol should be, no?

EDIT: Oh, also, this sort of tiki torches should be fine? And 1 more thing - I'm going to make it similar to the Orc altar(it is going to be my base model), is that fine?

Oh cool; I'm glad I got this posted last night instead of this morning. ^^

Actually there is. :P I didn't finish the first post, but part of what I was going to say included that the Statue can basically be the Naga Myrmidon (although it might be a somewhat heavy bit of model editing to make it look like Hakkar).

Anyway, you know the Naga Altar of the Depths? It has that "psuedo-Myrmidon" (with actual hands, no weapon, and big fin/wings). Well, that's all stony. The texture for that, though, is a part of the AotD texture, so I'll have to get someone with Photoshop to cut it out and make it a regular texture. (then again, one can just UV Map the statue to that part of the in-game texture without making a new one, I guess; it's kinda small though)

The cauldron goes in the "middle", the torch/spears go around the front edge. But here, lemme draw a pic (yay MSPaint):

So the stairs are the bones, vines on the two pillars (two tall ones in front of two short ones, like the opposite of the Undead altar, but still near/next to each other), statue, spear/torch, skulls and stuff... Etc.

I'm still undecided as to what would look cool for the pillars/back, though. Like, we could put a "wall" of vines (like the cliff-side ones) behind the statue? Or some little wooden caps on top of the pillars? Or maybe a bush or two? Etc.

Also, for Team Color (since I didn't mention that)... I would say (since you're basically stealing the pillars from the Night Elf altar) that the double-wrap of TC around each pillar is sufficient (as long as you can see it under the vines).

Wow, those look really good. I was actually thinking you could just use the doodad Torches or Braziers (maybe wide like the Brazier, but tall/thin like the Torch, = model editing). But if you want to make one "custom" like that, I won't complain. :P

Well, the Orc altar is very stony, so a rewrap to wood (using the Troll Hut logs) might be nice. Also, I'd prefer it to have 4 'obvious' pillars (like H/Ne/U), although the placement is sorta up-in-the-air (see above).
But sure, you can use whatever you want as a base.

~~~

Thanks again. :P

--EDIT--
It seems you have MSN, which might make things easier/faster. I will add you, if you don't mind.

Okay, so I can use the actual statue from AotD? And change it a bit so it would look like Hakkar? Perhaps merging Hydralisk claws-thingies.


Not sure because I never tried, but I guess I can UV map the regular myrmidon to the stone one.



Neat, that explains everything. The bubbling cauldron could "bubble" in the work anim, that would be ok? Also the torches, they could be lit in the work anim and unlit in the rest of the anims.


Hmm, dunno. We could discuss this on MSN in a later stage I guess.


So the pillars should use that Nelf texture? I though of something else though... The Beta lumber mill texture is in the MPQ so I could use the texture from there, and the TC will be a cloth or something hanging over the pillars\in between the pillars.



Now thinking of it, I'm not even sure I can make it
Although if I will manage, then I will defiantly use them.



Now I'm not sure I will use the Orc altar, after I saw your post. But that means that there won't(or at least I think there won't) be an Orc build anim.


Sure.

well, there is no fitting texture, but you could use some nage texture and tint it (as far as you are using max)

Umm, dude. The AoTD has a stony texture. And I'm not using Max, I only edit models, with Oinkertools and Magos.

Hm.. I'm not so sure. The TC on the NE texture would be nice. But the "Troll Hut" one would probably fit in a lot better with everything else.

Here's a bit of a top-down view, to help illustrate what I mean with the pillar placement...


The top 5 are a crude take on the general outline of each altar. The Black Dots are the pillars, and the Gray Square is the statue.

The bottom set is the Troll one. Currently, it's the same shape as the Human Altar, which I would like to avoid (if possible). Somewhat more roundish, or at least not a trapezoid. Also, the statue shouldn't be directly in the middle; in fact, it's kind of supposed to be closer to the back, with the cauldron in the middle.
(Reason being that their Blood God is actually a hated and dark part of their history, so the statue isn't something they currently worship, but is something that is still a huge part of their lives. In fact, if he was covered in vines/ivy that would be even better, though it's alright if he doesn't)

Anyway, on the far right is the thoughts on the pillar placement.
I think this should be either one of 3 things:

• All bunched up at the back: Similar to the Naga Altar. This provides a more solid backing for the statue (plus, the "wall of vines" doesn't have to be so big, just has to fit between them), and IF a roof is put on, this way it doesn't cover the whole Altar (since no one does that).
• All bunched up at the front: This is more unique than the first suggestion; no one has done it. Also, I think it lends an air of secrecy or mysticism. Like, "deep in the dark jungles the Trolls worship their vile gods". Kinda fits that phrase, y'know? (still, would be a problem figuring out the roof, or if the back is just "open air")
• Some other third combination: I haven't thought of; ideas welcome.

Perhaps, in front of the pillars, statues of a troll on either side, bowing/crouching, holding the cauldron with heads, and Hakkar is standing in the middle, with his arms/blades resting on their necks. It would(could?) be tough to do, but I think it would look cool. :P

^Eh, that sounds cool, but a little too EPIC. I mean, every Altar (5 races) has a statue, but just one; if I put, like, 3 on it, it would be like a Campaign building or something. Cool idea, though.

So here it is. I think its more or less done, if anything needs improving let me know. Death, Decay, Birth, Stand and Portrait animations, all of them are fully working and done. I made the birth using the same way Blizzard made the Orc buildings birth - there is a small part of the building displaying all along, and the Orc Birth stuff.

In order to make the Birth animation functional, you have to import the AltarOfBloodOrcBirth.mdx file, and remove the "war3mapImported\" from its path in the Import Manager.

Sah-weet. I'll check it out as soon as I can get out. :P

Just curious, what if I had some other models that needed similar Birth anims (stuff like doodads I'm model-editing for Team Color, Work anims, Build anims, etc); could I do something similar? Is it like a quick fix, something in Magos that I could set to "play _this_ model"?
(Maybe better over MSN)