How do you like the new Nimitz?

Greentea wrote:The current Nimitz sucks. Treecats are supposed to be very cute, right until they reveal killer claws. I think I found the perfect Earth analog to give an idea of what treecats should look like, albeit with different coloring and an extra set of limbs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_panda

That might actually be a surprisingly good comparison...

Agreed.
cute, soft, cuddly, but with big claws, and we have a treecat....

Tenshinai wrote:

Greentea wrote:The current Nimitz sucks. Treecats are supposed to be very cute, right until they reveal killer claws. I think I found the perfect Earth analog to give an idea of what treecats should look like, albeit with different coloring and an extra set of limbs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_panda

That might actually be a surprisingly good comparison...

Actually treecat claws are only about half an inch (12 mm) long, and usually retracted on true hands. Unles they are in six limbed buz sw mode that is

Poker

Spacekiwi wrote:Agreed.
cute, soft, cuddly, but with big claws, and we have a treecat....

So about the same length as the claws on the panda then, except fully retractable....

hey, on the plus side, blood wont show on them as they are already red.

pokermind wrote:Actually treecat claws are only about half an inch (12 mm) long, and usually retracted on true hands. Unles they are in six limbed buz sw mode that is

Poker

Spacekiwi wrote:Agreed.
cute, soft, cuddly, but with big claws, and we have a treecat....

Shoulda posted my comment about the boreal arboreal, the marten, here. Long sinuous body and tail, very fluffy. The red panda has a better (more teddy-bear-like) face, less beady eyes. But enough about how they look.

I just read about a six-legged pack predator from the movie Avatar: the viperwolf. Here's a model:
http://wesclei3d.cgsociety.org/portfolio/project-detail/904018/ I haven't seen Avatar, so wonder if they might provide a model for how the body moves. This looks like the paws are much less differentiated in function than a treecat's, so maybe not. But if the viperwolf demonstrated good running form, it might be something to start from? I'm obviously only looking at the kinematics part, not any aesthetics.

Hm, seems Avatar provides more than just the one as an example: http://scilib.narod.ru/Other/Cinefex/Avatar.htm

Early on, Cameron had conceived all of the terrain-based creatures as having six, rather than four, legs, before committing to the notion, however, he hired ILM animator Paul Kavanagh to create a series of walk and run cycles to determine if a six-legged creature could move gracefully and powerfully, or if the extra legs would inevitably create on awkward gait. The animation cycles proved the viability of the idea, and all of Pandoras land animals were endowed with six limbs.

I'm not a fan of the "to make a hexapod, just paste a second set of front limbs behind the first set, then glue a quadruped chest and hindquarters on behind that."

IM(NS)HO The mid-limbs needs to be more "mid-limbs" and less "second set of fore-limbs".

Of course YMMV, Avatar's concept artist's certainly did, their horses are also tandem-forelimb-set constructs (like an 18-wheeler tractor's tandem-axle, but in front); it just seems way too much like a cop-out to me, like they weren't even trying to get it right.

Dca wrote:[snip]
I just read about a six-legged pack predator from the movie Avatar: the viperwolf. Here's a model:
http://wesclei3d.cgsociety.org/portfolio/project-detail/904018/

Speaking of cop-outs ... having a look at the comic, it seems in addition to all the other things wrong about 'Nimitz Mark Zero' they also took the easy way out on the locomotion and just went with a rip-off of the Avatar cop-out.

Looks like the start of a perpetuating copy-paste error, like the 8 km Executor fallacy a while ago in the extended universe of a franchise far far away ... took them a few iterations to get that one ironed out; hopefully Evergreen can pace Top Cow through a faster OODA loop here.

hvb wrote:[snip] Avatar's concept artist's certainly did, their horses are also tandem-forelimb-set constructs (like an 18-wheeler tractor's tandem-axle, but in front); it just seems way too much like a cop-out to me, like they weren't even trying to get it right.

Dca wrote:[snip]
I just read about a six-legged pack predator from the movie Avatar: the viperwolf. Here's a model:
http://wesclei3d.cgsociety.org/portfolio/project-detail/904018/

It's called a Mid-Pelvis, not a mid-f-ing-shoulder for crying out loud! Didn't they bother to read any of the descriptions in the books?

Enough of these self-quotes, but this is going to be piss me off all day now.

hvb wrote:Speaking of cop-outs ... having a look at the comic, it seems in addition to all the other things wrong about 'Nimitz Mark Zero' they also took the easy way out on the locomotion and just went with a rip-off of the Avatar cop-out.
[snip]

hvb wrote:[snip] Avatar's concept artist's certainly did, their horses are also tandem-forelimb-set constructs (like an 18-wheeler tractor's tandem-axle, but in front); it just seems way too much like a cop-out to me, like they weren't even trying to get it right.

Well, that touched a nerve! I agree that an extra pair of forelimbs stuck on looks about as attractive as an extra pair of buck-teeth. But I'd rather get the idea out there and properly squashed than let it self-perpetuate.

Are there any other hexapods from Avatar that are any better? Somebody out there ought to have seen it several times....

Dca wrote:Well, that touched a nerve! I agree that an extra pair of forelimbs stuck on looks about as attractive as an extra pair of buck-teeth. But I'd rather get the idea out there and properly squashed than let it self-perpetuate.

Are there any other hexapods from Avatar that are any better? Somebody out there ought to have seen it several times....

Wish I could help. I've only seen it once. I bought the Blu-Ray when I upgraded my computer with a 27" widescreen HD monitor and a Blu-Ray burner to see how something meant for HD looked in HD. Looks gorgeous, and the CGI is top-notch, but I don't like the movie. My name for it is "Dances With Pocahontas In Ferngully", and I keep telling James Cameron that Roger Dean called about wanting his floating planet chunks and dragons back.

Second page, second from left, bottom row: http://www.rogerdean.com/paintings/

http://www.rogerdean.com/store/featured ... oster.html

I can't accuse him of stealing from himself (from Aliens) with the power loaders... err, I mean power armor, though.

I'm a bit surprised there wasn't some huge blue diamond or unsinkable ship in it that sinks and needed to be rescued by an underwater oil rig.

"Unobtanium"? Really?