Hey,

I'd like to ask some questions about importing our own art to Elemental. Its a bit technical; i plan to model and animate a few monsters mostly for my own enjoyment and for other modders to use it as they see it fit. To prove my determination somewhat, i modeled a reaper/monk/wraith thing; it is not skinned/animated yet, but i think i can do that too ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHiSJw0RO3k - i animated this nonhuman monster for fun).

I played a lil bit with renders, besides adding the ink lines, and setting ambient light to very light, no other fancy effects were used, so i guess it will look very similar in the game . I did not purchased the game yet, but i watched some youtube videos about the "june beta" version, and i hope that my style isnt really _that_ different from the already existing art.Feel free to comment tho.

So here are my questions:

Animation:
- Can we use 3ds max 9 to animate figures (it has havok exporter)? What programs did you use to animation?

- If 3ds max is a possible solution: can we use Character Studio's Biped? Also for skinning, shall we use the "skin" modifier, or the "physique"? Can we use simple meshes (boxes for example) as bones, or only "bones" type bones?

- Is there blending between animation sequences in the engine?

Modeling:
- Does it cause any trouble if the model is "open" (not "watersafe")?

- How does the engine deal with different smoothing groups?

- It is possible to set materials or objects as 2-sided?

- What is the usual triangle(!) count on a unit? Is 1000 too much?

Texturing:
- It is possible to have some alpha-ed parts in a model (like ragged clothes, that is a simple plane by model, but the texture contains the torn parts and holes)?

- It is possible to give "self illumination" to some textures or models (so it will never receive shadows or shading) ?  Like a magical glowing sword, or the halo of an angel?

- It is possible to use more textures on a single entity (like using a texture for the wraith's robe, and an other texture for its scythe)? Or at least it is more benefical? Doesnt matter?

- Do textures have to be squares? And/or power of 2-s? (128, 256, 512, etc)

Other:
- It is ever possible to see a character from below?

- Where does the engine put these cartoony ink lines? It is not always just the outline of the character/object, i think so. Can i somehow control that in my modelling tool?

- Can the figures be scaled extensively (like to 0.001 scale, or 1000 scale) in the game?

- In 3ds max, what system unit did you use to model the figures? Inch, feet, meter, cm?

- When releasing the game, can you release a few "sample" files in .max format, that include animation, and can be used as a basic structure to follow? Like naming convention and stuff.

If you dont want to answer, or cannot answer, i understand it perfectly. I mean by trial and error i can get an answer to  all of these questions. However, if i would have some answers, that means less rework to me, and probably for some others too.

Ty all who read this. I am primarily waiting for an artist dev's response; however if anyone has information about these, feel free to share it.