[Dota2] – Venomancer – Cowl of the cobra

Shiv

Started working on the venomancer, thinking of taking it in a more snake like direction.
The orchid like pieces at the back I was thinking of turning into snakes, the ward an angry cobra.
Dont know what to do for the arms tho :c

Qwiggalo

As stated in his lore, he used to be a human before becoming the Venomancer deep in the Jidi Islands.

I think giving him human parts would be more interesting than making him a snake. Create a set that makes him look like he's half-way to his final form. Remember not to change his silhouette too much and that custom animations are possible.

Shiv

Thanks qwiggalo, and yes i looked at the lore before starting, I thought about the human aspect and didnt really feel it. Maybe someone else with more skill could tackle it.

I have an update, not sure I am feeling it, feels like a bit of a mess


Tempted to take it more towards a scorpion, with the shoulders at least.

D4V1DC

You got the colors right uhm You could take the "arms" to the direction of the tail of a scorpion but just make them open up and/or add an eye or two if you want, I think that might workout well.
Perhaps sharper claws at the top and curved at the sides?

Shiv

Thanks for the ideas man, I think I am going to push on with this and kind of change up stuff as I go.

Finally got time to get back to this, operation VENOMANCER I SHALL FINISH YOU is go

Here is todays effort.


Actually more comfortable with the balance of it now, the hood might be a bit weak tho.

Shiv

Apologies for the low quality picture, here is my current progress.
Only piece that needs a low poly mesh created is the hood now. In this scene it is currently a placeholder.



Thanks

Shiv

Todays progress, didnt spend much time on it. Started getting some quick texturing down.
I still need to bake some lights from the top, should really help with some of the detail.



Thanks

Shiv

tommorows task - finish texturing the rest of the model + arms + then run it through tweaks and extra light bakes.

Shiv

Model looked better without the venus fly traps, going to move towards the scorpion tail as $!nz suggested as it should fit better within the theme.
Also, a friend suggested angling the tail down and putting in a bit of a bend so I have done that, thats not in this pic tho.

Thanks

D4V1DC

You've matched the colors great, you still got time to do anything you want keep going strong looks good, idk y no one posts comments anymore, best of luck!

Shiv

Thanks man, I am one of those terrible people that doesnt comment, I just get back to modelling and post before i collapse each night ... I shall have a long look through tommorow, some of the entries are mind blowing.

Here is todays update -

I think these new shoulder pieces look much better, so thanks a lot man
Also re-angled the claws thanks to some crit, they should appear more interesting from above, also this is with the re-angled rattle.
I attempted to put some of the colour of the lower body into the tail with painting but it looked naff, might try again with a gradient colour adjust (they seem to produce cleaner/nicer results)

Am thinking orange tipped stinger, echoing the top mid of the main body down the arm of the stinger and um.. yeah...

Shiv

Bed time :x

D4V1DC

Looking good.
Minor thing you probably don't need to add it in if you don't want to all my comments are just suggestions. Since it's a cobra and they spit venom the scorpion tails work well but since the theme is cobra, if this was my design i'd put the teeth at the top were the tail pointers are. If you wanted to, not saying you have to but all you would have to do is sculpt the tail tips into cobra teeth, leave the sacks and the bake should be quick and an easy fix to the textures as well, nothing but the sculpt would need to be changed and re-bake normal, you could probably paint in the AO if you didn't want to sit waiting, or copy a part of an AO that worked well, but baking is best.

It works with the theme with and without teeth, maybe even a texture change would be fine.
Here's the basic idea:
Spitting Cobra

Tovee

Now that you've changed the shoulders I feel these work better than the Venus fly traps the carapace up ties in better with the main body. Looks awesome Shiv

Shiv

ok, a few days without posts, i have been building the Lod1 and skinning for Dota
(that was a pain in the arse )
I also created mandibles for venomancer and will be creating the spell and skinning those mandibles.


$!nz - Thanks dude, I think it will stay as the scorpion stingers, tieing it in with the arms better I think.
Tovee - Thanks dude.

To the finishing line!

Tvidotto

i really want to see that in the dota view angle, that should be a good sillhouette

Shiv

I spent today working on the Ward spell, not sure about the colours atm.
It was my own doodle i guess. Less planning involved XD


I think the sillhouette seems good, might tweak the weapon colour slightly.

Jalcober

Love it!

Shiv

I think its pretty much finished, most pictures ready for submit are sitting in a folder, just got to run through it tomorrow



Yay

Zipfinator

Pretty nice set! Looks like your Cobra ward is sitting in a pile of shit though.

naruSol

I think I mentioned this before, but the big pinchers make him look really boxy from above. I'd suggest moving them out from his body more and/or shrinking them down a bit.

The new doo-dads on top look pretty plain in comparison to the rest of the design and that orange kind of comes out of nowhere. The wards look great, maybe borrow a bit from there to snazz up the stingers?

All that said, it looks pretty damn snazzy overall.

Shiv

Yeah, you mentioned them before, I adjusted the angle they are at but I dont want to make them smaller, I am a big fan of chunky I guess and they feel oversized on a scorpion a lot of the time, I wanted to continue that into my design.
Here is a mockup of it in game


The doodads have continued the theme of venomancers back with the Dark green ridging, I appreciate that main shot really doesnt show that very well but hopefully this shows it better, with the high contrast on the back I chose to avoid doing the same on the underside.
The orange is a tweaked grab from the eyes/orange edging in the rest of the body, The original had a very strong spike in value at the tip and I was tryign to emulate that, sounds like I missed the mark. I am heading into labs in a bit. Will see what people there say and try and tweak it towards something that makes more sense.

Thanks for your help man, hopefully my reasons for stuff make sense