Previously known as "I Wanted A Real Cat". Expect major edits from here on out as I make progress.Last Updated 11/13/2017: Added fixed big jowls (dog eyes are fixed!), wider cheeks on felines, lion cub head, another preset preview, and update on multiplayer effect on head coloration.Been fiddling with the possibility of giving people more options for head shapes. Having a cat that actually looks like a cat was high on my list of priorities, so I fenangled a bit and came up with a handful of things.
Cat prototype
Persian prototype
Oriental prototype
Lion cub prototype
Wide feline cheeks prototype
Big jowls prototype
Obviously these all need a lot of work, and I plan on making other variations as well. Before anyone asks, they're just items, not alterations to the body mesh itself (that'd be sooo much work, though in theory may be possible). They're on a preset with a (mostly) transparent head, so they still use the actual ingame ears and ear animations (the ear mauling is caused by my shoddy transparency work, not by the heads themselves. Oops!) The meshes of the new heads adjust themselves based on the width and length of your character, so they'll stay proportionate.
My idea was that these would be grouped with presets to enable people to play as more unique OCs of theirs. That's probably an unrealistic expectation given you'd have to really keep track of your item list so you can see everyone's heads correctly (probably more viable in groups then as a general item to wear?), but it's the main way I've been thinking about it so far. Think of it as an extension of a preset.
Speaking of presets, they will definitely be possible!
Fits like a glove!
Texture preview in Blender. Though optional, this will allow Blender experienced users to paint a new texture right on the head in the 3D interface
A placeholder "preset" with Toxic's feline texture. Works precisely like normal presets do, no change in UV mapping (so you could make a preset as you normally would and it'd still fit) or coding. If you can make a regular preset, you can make a head with a custom texture.
Even without a preset, though, I fenangled them in Blender so they're capable of doing this:
To spell it out, they pick up on the same pelt color, underfur color, eye color, etc. as the actual player model. Innit that something?
This means that they could potentially either be colored based on someone's preset OR on the colors of their default ingame model.
It also seems like it works pretty well from the point of view of other players. I've done minor testing with my friend where both of us wore the same item and our chosen colors stayed consistent with our characters. This is wonderful news! Given the testing was minor, there's no guarantee it'll work every time or for everyone, but we'll see!
I don't work on these all the time since I have adult responsibilites outside of FH (ugh) but if anyone would be interested in helping me perfect these, I'd love to hear from you. I've learned to fix most issues with the textures, but the meshes themselves are still a bit of a mess (hence "prototype"). As I learn Blender they'll get some finer tweaking.
I'm willing to do a tutorial on this sorta thing when I'm done with all the heads if anyone's interested. Knowledge is meant to be shared, but I'm not giving anyone any faulty code or modeling advice.
In the meantime, feedback, suggestions, and whatever else have ya are very much appreciated. Hints, tips, suggestions for future heads, whatever. Help me help these polygon animals.
Future plans for this project:- More heads including but not limited to pitbull, hyena, and maybe non-canine and non-feline animals
- Make the prototypes actually pretty
- Make preset base that takes head seam and ears into account (or fill seam?)
- New feet?
