Help with a Delema.

Okay, In my cinimatic project, I need a unit to ride a dragon for a short period of time, and I thought of only one way to do this, create a special effect of that unit attached to the dragon. But it looks crappy like that, so I don't know what to do. First off, what is the best attachment point to use for a Red Dragon? Secondly, is there a better way than a special effect? Please help me out here.

You could make a flying unit with flying height just slightly higher than the dragon's and give it the skin of the unit you want to fly the dragon, then give the unit the same movement speed, turn rate, and collision size as the dragon so if the dragon turns the unit will turn with it synchronized, and the trigger should give same order to both the unit and the dragon when you need them to move. Or, if doing it through attachments you can try using overhead or something, or maybe chest if it won't overlap.

hmmm
usually id say make a massive red gryphon and say its a dragon but if its a cinematic then i dunno... mabye some amdly skilled person can take the grypphon rider and poly-edit him onto a dragon?

i'll create a geo merge for you if you want. just tell me the models used and i will create it for you

I needed a seperate solution for this, because several diferent units need to ride several diferent dragons, at different times, my original question was, what attachment point should I use for a special effect model of the unit, so it looks the most realistic on a scaled up Red Dragon. What's the best attachment point to use?

Why don't you try them out yourself, there are not that many attachment points. overhead,head,chest,origin,hand,foot,weapon,sprite*,medium*,large* and then the modifier addons: left,right,mount (this might be the one you need),rear,first*,second*,third*,fourth*,fifth*,sixth*,rallypoint*. Ones with a star next to them are for buildings so I don't know if they'll work for units.

Well, it turns out the "chest" attachment point is perfect for a dragon rider, but whenever he "dismounts" and i destroy the special effect it showes it's death animation, which is kinda unproffesional looking.

You'll probably have to remopve and replace the entire dragon unit then.

[For the dismount, you could make it lower the height of the dragon to ground level and then remove the dragon and place a non ridden dragon next to a rider. This is actually similar to how blizzard does it (i think)

P.S: Im just wondering... does a dragon have a mount point beacuse if he does it might look better than if you add it on chest.

no, the word "chest" is not quite accuate to where it is attached, and it is perfect, I mean perfect. The only problem is the death animation and sound. Also, the "Mount" isn't an attachment point, it's an attachment point modifyer, like "right" or whatever.
Try it, take a Dragon and attach a priest model, or something, to "chest" and see how it looks.

I think i know what you mean by it all.... chest is a nice attachment point!

anyway, the dismount..... it really depends on the unit that is on the dragon.. i mean, rexxar has the stagger back animation that would be perfect! anyway... seeing as it is a programed cinematic, you should try making a mound near where the dragon lands made of invisible platrorms on decreasing height from the dragons "chest". this way you could make the rider seeming "walk" off the dragon! keep it up!

Its a cinematic right? What i would do personally is flash a black fade filter for a split second and replace the dragon with another dragon without the attachment. And then move your old unit to whereever next to teh dragon.

Just my two sense.

;)

Dsaber