This preview of a new automaton prototype, remodeled, rendered and saved into .Art format,
so its possible to use this critter in Arcanum game.

If you are interested how I did created that .Art file, I've been working on tool which is able to
automatically generate .Art file from directory that contains bitmaps,
this tool is simply called ArtGenerator and it will be released soon.

Static:
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Stance animation:
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In game:



How first version of Automaton Prototype looked like?


Video:


Sprite for game:

This is alright.
Where will this thing be utilized? Replacing the original automaton or as another type?
The shading on the automaton is spot-on for Arcanum. Nice work!

On a secondary note: I, for one, am most interested in this ArtGenerator program. Mainly (for my hack at least) as a way to create new beds, as Artview has a bad habit of ruining 2nd, 3rd, etc. pic replacements.
And does or will ArtGenerator have a X-Y setting control built-in? That, plus a visual of where the X-Y point actually is would be a very welcome addition.

(Finally make my way back here and all I do is ask questions... )

(Edited out question about rendering software)

This one will be new critter for Arcanum, and automaton replacement for OpenArcanum, if we manage to recreate all art.

ArtGen was made especially for multi picture/frame .Art generation, and animations, not for single frame .Art

But it has support for single frame .Art and its able to generate any type of Art, critters from directory, items from single file, etc. Atm its able to load only 8 bit bitmaps, because I dont need any other format since 3DS Max can render into 8 bit bitmaps. But if it will be wanted, I can add support to any format and depth.

Why I wanted this tool for critters and animations? Because when you render many frames, you have many palettes, and .Art must have one palette for all frames. This the most hard task in ArtGen, I've needed to learn about color quantization, create own color quantizer etc.

When you have only one frame .Art, you dont need to worry about this problem because you have one palette already, saved in that bitmap...

About XY control support, you mean offset where are .Art files drawn in Arcanum right? or delta?
ArtGen calculate this offset when saving frame, and this offset is equal to topleft corner of bounding rectangle, because ArtGen searchs for any 'object' in frames and calculate bounding rectangle, so any background pixels that are not in this rectangle are cut off, so final frame resolution is for example 71x10 and not 640x480.

This new generated .Art has saved same information as old Art, nothing is missing, so its possible to use it in game directly after its generated.

Another offset is saved in sectors, so if you are placing new item, you need to load that .Art into WorldEd, and place it where you want.

This ArtGen sounds like it might be just what the doctor ordered!

The offsets - As you know, when you place a bit of scenery, there's a red cross-hatch showing where the game engine is going to see it.
Case in point (from the Russian mod):


What's a real pain with new art creation is getting that blasted cross-hatch exactly where you need it to be. That's why I was asking about the controls.

Thats what I'm talking too, that red cross-hatch control, you want .Art to be in that right? Its controlled with offset saved in .Art, and this offset is generated by ArtGen too, so its always aligned.

Anyway, its possible to that you can specify your own offset, which will be added to generated offset by ArtGen, so you will total have control of offset, and you dont need to care about with and height of every frame.

So I'll add this control on form, its easy, 5 min max edit

Far out! Thank you.