Black Mesa Mod (my contribution - beware spolier!!)

[redmotion]

http://release.blackmesasource.com/ Download Black Mesa here.



http://www.redmotion.com/#!black-mesa-main-page/c1pjg Link to Black Mesa Portfolio

http://www.redmotion.com/#!blackmesa-surgerybot/cspf Link to Surgery Bot page

I just wanted to post up info on something I did in Softimage quite a while ago (Summer 2010 I think) but has only now seen the light of day . The Surgery Bot from Questionable Ethics in the Black Mesa Mod (the tribute/re-make/reimagining/etc of the Valve original game Half Life).

I've not posted the video on this page incase you're someone waiting to see it how it's mean't to be seen - in game.

I did everything (modelling/hires/lowres/UVs/texturing/shaders/rigging/animation) on the Surgery bot except for the initial design/concept sketch. I had to split the model into two because the rig was too big to fit into a single game model. Took me several weeks of experimentation to get it to work well in game. Rigging and animating game assets is a major exercise in trial and error!

Any way, hope you enjoy taking a look.

I'll post a video showing the rig I used to animate the rocket window (also on the website) at some point in the future.

Cheers
Jason.

[iamVFX]

I finished the game a day before yesterday, I should say this is the most awesome game remake in game industry that ever happened! Valve should be proud that they're get such a passionate fans as you guys (and I really hope you guys get a free Source license for the next projects if it's ever happen)

Thanks for the breakdowns of the models! They're looking great!

A few question, do you use XSI 7.5 a.k.a Mod Tool? Can you share with us the experience of XSI's integration with Source engine?

Thanks, Jason!

[redmotion]

Thanks for your kind words.

I'm using Softimage 2010 x64 to do everything and x32 to export (exporter doesn't work with the x64 version).

Workflow is relatively straightforward, it's while ago since I've done some work directly between the two systems but I had a lot of hoops to jump through.

It's trial and error, but luckily Softimage allows you to do all sorts of tricks to get it to work. Such as I made the model in pieces, rigged it and animated it and then merged into one mesh at the end for export. This is easily done in most packages nowadays but I'm pretty sure XSI was the one that pioneered the ability to do things in a different order. It's nice to be able to redo some of the UVs, or tweak the objects silouette AFTER doing the animation.

All animation had to be baked before exporting. And it took me a while to realise that the source engine models have a 128 bone limit, which is why the cables for the arms had to be moved to a seperate model.

I used constraints for the hydraulics and to animate the main shaft that moves the body up and down. I built just one arm and mirrored it to get 4. Then I'd test it out, delete the 3 duplicates and tweak one before duplicating everything again.

I also spent some time ensuring that it wasn't instantly obvious that the blood splatter was the same on every arm, but was sufficently plentiful and glissening for the best effect!

Thanks for interest and I'm glad you enjoyed the game!