Boss of Bosses, Part 3
I spent the last few days constructing a low-poly version of Shattered Dream’s ultimate boss. With 5,208 triangles, however, this mesh exceeds the poly count of most, if not all, official NWN2 models. Considering that this creature is one of a kind, I think that the relatively large number of polygons can be forgiven. As can be seen from the in-game screenshot on the right, I’ve also textured the mesh. My next task is to rig and animate the model. Because none of the skeletons of the existing NWN2 models fits this creature, I’ll have to make one from scratch. This, together with creating the animations, will probably be easier than building the mesh itself.
Here’s another picture of the creature. If, during the game, you can see the pupils of its eyes, you are too close. Update, May 31, 2009
Stop the presses. Feedback from Nicethugbert and Josh/Anduraga has prompted me to try to retexture the boss to make it look more natural. The new look is shown on the right. Oh, by the way, that cute little thing beside the boss is a full-grown red dragon. It's just there to give a sense of scale but won't appear in Shattered Dreams. Player characters will have enough to worry about without red dragons getting in the way.
Comments
My two cents.
We could do with more people like you who could fill in some of the missing monsters in the game as well as create great new creatures like this one. :)
Lance.
My only suggestion/comment is that the arm texture looks too clean(his 'human arms', I mean). It stands out a little too strong from the creepy textures on the rest of the body: maybe you could give some more detail on them? To me, they seem to just be stuck on.
But I know I like the look of this guy. Have fun animating the tentacles!(jk)
:p
Thanks for the comments, everyone. I appreciate this opportunity to improve on my work.
I can't wait to see your bosses around in PW land.
Hmm, I wonder if a little lighting zapping down to the ground from the tip of the tail would add to it.
I guess damage to the creature's tail is negligible for all intents and purposes, so the best way to hit it is with ranged attacks, including spells.
A range/spell attack battle would be different for a end boss. An interesting twist for the high damage melee fighter types.
First time going through your blog and I'm astounded by what I saw.
Great ultimate boss. Even if the PC is not going to see much of it but his feet (paws?), it will make great a scarry cutscene when it is first introduced.