I'm contemplating boots .. i'm not sure how i want to do them. I always end up doing them last and have to try and fit them either under or over the armour .. :( I'm thinking this time of maybe ankle high boots with some metal plating on the top .. not sure how it'll look but who knows. Maybe i'll just take the fold over boots from my p4 fem fantasy armour and make a morph target to make em fit over the shins here.

I need to start doing boots BEFORE i do the leg armour ... what a horribly rational thought...

Any how, once i figure out boots i'll be taking the armour apart, setting all the materials, and then doing grouping, texturing, and cr2 work... (I love modeling, it's the poserizing part I hate.. groiupng makes me loose hair.)

Message edited on: 02/01/2006 14:45

Looking way awesome, cant wait to render with it!!

One thing that has kept me from trying anything like this is how to handle the bending. Real plate armor doesn't bend, of course, it hinges. You could turn off bending for each part, and have in-between parts like kneees and elbows, but I'd think it would be a nightmare to set up, with armor parts poking through each other, and body parts poking through armor parts. So, how are you planning on setting it up? ;-)

That is one cool looking suit of armor.

Message edited on: 02/01/2006 20:48

Thanks Lucca

Jim,

Unfortunately poser isn't "metl armour friendly". I'll be setting it up as a conforming figure. Doing it as a prop would be more realistic .. but would make it less user friendly and as such, less likely for people to use.

My fantasy armour did the chest piece in leather and the arms and legs were seperated in ways that don't cross over the knees and elbows so they don't bend. My other armour is fully modled scale mail which is more likely to be bendy so i don't have that many qualms with it bending.

This armour i'm doing the upper and lower arms and legs as 1 piece for ease of setup.. I agree it would be much more realistic to have them hinge off the joints, but posette doesn't have knee and elbow groups .. (really bites)

The coif and hauberk will be chain mail textured I hope, so it will be bendy. The knee and elbow joints, and probably the shoulder plates will be smart props so that they don't bend and future armours if there are any more will likely go back to being leather (for bendyness).

although i think my next project is going to be much much more difficult .. Posette has asked to sail the high seas in searh of plunder!

by the way both the before mentioned armours, as well as a build your own polearms set,, and various weapons pack, can be found here in the free stuff section... yes i said FREE STUFF. Cause who doesn't like good free stuff ? :)

Message edited on: 02/01/2006 21:28

She's looking good, Mordikar. I just have a concern over the practicality of those shoulder pieces..specificly, the height of the neck portection, in fact . As the arms are positioned in your illustraion, they're fine..but if she lifts her arms much higher..the shoulder guards will pivotupwards and inwards..and tops of guard may dig into her neck ?

I can see your point Frey, however in the 4 years i've been fighting i very rarely ever have need to lift my upper arms more than at most 15 to 20 degrees above horizontal, even with out the neck guards. Looking at the neck protection I'd say she has a good 35 to 40 degrees of bend in there. 1) The armour is just too cumbersome and heavy to get your arms up like that . and i only wear leather not full metal plate. 2) lifting you arms that high will wear them out way too quickly. the higher you lift your arms the more strain you put on the arm muscles, and the quicker you start to suffer fatigue. 3) Lifting you upper arms that high means your entire body from the armpit down is completely unprotected and the likely hood of getting an arm back into place to block is very unlikely. To see point 2 in action lift your arms up over your head almost straight up and hold them there. After 30 seconds to a minute the atms start to be come heavy. by 2 minutes they'll become sore. If you can hold them up there for 4 or 5 minutes the muscles in your arms will probably hurt for the next 2 days. Now add another 3 to 5 lbs in each hand for a sword, and throw a good 3 to 5 lbs more on each arm for armour.