Thanks for the advice Konras, i switched the curve and it immediately started looking better to me. I added the detail i originally planned, not sure about it yet. Im thinking all the detail is going to be brass/gold inlay. I dunno though, thats not super common among Jade sculptures. Thoughts?
I decided to throw my hat (tee hee) in the ring and try some Dota items. I gotta say it's a bit daunting, the simplicity of TF2 items was my cup of tea.
Nice having better documentation though.
I do have a few questions:
1- on the first page (this thread) the guide says to render out larger and the game compresses? Can we use say a 1024x1024 and importing will scale it down? Or do I just need to scale down.
2- What lighting set-up is best. The Official guide say they use a few point lights and combine the shadows in Photoshop. What angles are good?
I suppose one directly overhead. Maybe a few to front and sides? Backlighting?
I decided to throw my hat (tee hee) in the ring and try some Dota items. I gotta say it's a bit daunting, the simplicity of TF2 items was my cup of tea.
Nice having better documentation though.
I do have a few questions:
1- on the first page (this thread) the guide says to render out larger and the game compresses? Can we use say a 1024x1024 and importing will scale it down? Or do I just need to scale down.
2- What lighting set-up is best. The Official guide say they use a few point lights and combine the shadows in Photoshop. What angles are good?
I suppose one directly overhead. Maybe a few to front and sides? Backlighting?
Welcome over! I made the transition from TF2 items not too long ago.
1: Yes the importer will compress your textures, but it seems to use a smooth on compression, and not a sharpen, due to this I personally work in 1024 and manually compress my textures for a sharper quality.
Thanks for the advice Konras, i switched the curve and it immediately started looking better to me. I added the detail i originally planned, not sure about it yet. Im thinking all the detail is going to be brass/gold inlay. I dunno though, thats not super common among Jade sculptures. Thoughts?
These details will smudge real hard ingame. Go for bigger ones.
@Xajai I think the idea of the set is damn amazing, but the textures still need a lot of work. At the moment, the details look too much like photos tacked on instead of the more deliberate scultping/modeling Dota 2' art style has.
Also if you haven't already make sure you are tagging your item with this tag.
There was also another change that may have gone unnoticed in the previous patch, the armour slot for Storm Spirit has had the texture limitation increased to 512x512 so you might want to resubmit items for that slot.
@Xajai I think the idea of the set is damn amazing, but the textures still need a lot of work. At the moment, the details look too much like photos tacked on instead of the more deliberate scultping/modeling Dota 2' art style has.
Would have been really great if the golem was actually a headless demon. Like it would portray the head quite well. Dont you think?
Added colours to the Kunkka sculpt. Thanks for the previous comments, the credit for the design of course goes to SLIMEface. Crits are of course welcome! We are planning on doing a second head piece to steer him clear of Storm Spirit.
Awesome work on that Kunkka set, the sculpt alone was awesome enough. Those colours make it even sweeter. Though the hat might have some minor issues with reading his silhouette, maybe.
On a different note, finished my Spring2014 submission!
I'm really happy with how it turned out in the end. Quite a valuable learning experience to solve problems associated with rigging, skinning and animation. Thanks to the people who gave me feedback on the animation, it really helped! And if you can spare a minute, why not give it a vote? :P
PS: No spring2014 tag still. I hope they'll fix that, and that a lack of a tag won't hurt people's chances of getting items into the game for the actual event.
EDIT: Deleted entry, submission postponed until the workshop is fixed.
@Gaiascope Thing is that workshop has an algorithm that moves items in popularity down as they are getting older independent from their votes. So in my opinion it would be wise to delete any items uploaded now because of no visibility they will be pushed really fast as new items will hit workshop after bug will be fixed. Just a thought... ward looks great so it deserves visibility!!
@Gaiascope Thing is that workshop has an algorithm that moves items in popularity down as they are getting older independent from their votes. So in my opinion it would be wise to delete any items uploaded now because of no visibility they will be pushed really fast as new items will hit workshop after bug will be fixed. Just a thought... ward looks great so it deserves visibility!!
Hmm... thanks for the heads up. I skimmed over some posts and missed the bug currently in the workshop. I'll stick to your advice. But man, there's quite a few issues with the workshop. Creating and submitting an item is already quite intimidating even if everything would work smoothly
Welcome over! I made the transition from TF2 items not too long ago.
1: Yes the importer will compress your textures, but it seems to use a smooth on compression, and not a sharpen, due to this I personally work in 1024 and manually compress my textures for a sharper quality.
Hey thanks kite212!
I wouldn't say I am done with TF2 But it will be fun to work on other stuff. Seems Dota has got more room to work, more characters, more fantasy, etc...
I did find that first one last night after my post. Looks usefull, when I try and follow the official guide the shadow overlay is bleeding everything out. But that was just a quick pre-sculpt test so I'll follow this guide through today.
@Xajai I think the idea of the set is damn amazing, but the textures still need a lot of work. At the moment, the details look too much like photos tacked on instead of the more deliberate scultping/modeling Dota 2' art style has.
There are also massive texel-density issues that are bothering me just as much as the photo sourced textures.
@Gaiascope The ward came out great! Hopefully they sort out the workshop issues today, I mean what we are at like day 4 of the "most recent" bug
@Baddcog hope the links help! I told myself I would do TF2 and Dota side by side, but currently I dont's have the time. now if I could only upload my TF2 weapons with a gold star....
@Mdk quickly becomming one of my fav Spring2014 sets. When the contest started I was really hoping someone would take the Kunka challeng, and you guys are blowing it away!
Hey there, I am working on this set concepted by Fudgie Wudgie, here's the sculpt, not sure if its too detailed or needs to be cleaner/more stylized since this is my first items for Dota 2.
So crits and tips are more than welcome!
Note that I had to cut down some details on the top coat as there's no slot for something like the coat on Shadow Shaman, I decided I'll merge it with the head item so I have enough texture space.
Edit: I forgot to duplicate the arm bracer, but it'll be symmtric anyways.
@BANG! Wow! Great sculpt! I think you did a really great job at capturing the style of the drawing. When I saw the awesome concept I didn't think anyone could translate it so well to 3D, but I say you did a marvelous job! The only thing I could think of is perhaps the rope could use a little more volume to make it feel like it's actually several strands interwoven rather than a tube with some detail carved out. And perhaps the fur around his waist could be more exaggerated, like you did around the shoulders.
Big fan of that set. Both the concept and now the sculpt too. Can't wait to see it finished!
Would have been really great if the golem was actually a headless demon. Like it would portray the head quite well. Dont you think?
Thanks for the reply. True, but it doesn't make much sense to have the head at all times and summoning the rest of the body from time to time. I'm thinking of adding some wear and tear to the demon head and putting the blame on the golem too
What is the deal with clipping in game? Do they limit items like TF2 that clip each other (albiet the choices of what clips and doesn't in TF2 is puzzling to say the least)
The helmet I am working on clips with the standard cloak collar, I hope to have time to make a set but...
What is the deal with clipping in game? Do they limit items like TF2 that clip each other (albiet the choices of what clips and doesn't in TF2 is puzzling to say the least)
The helmet I am working on clips with the standard cloak collar, I hope to have time to make a set but...
A good rule of thumb that we use to follow here is to make your items fit both with the set you're making and with the default items. You shouldn't bother fixing the clipping with every other set, which would take a lot of time and wouldn't matter so much, but instead just focus on making it work with the most common combinations that the items are going to be used, which is your set and Valve's.
What is the deal with clipping in game? Do they limit items like TF2 that clip each other (albiet the choices of what clips and doesn't in TF2 is puzzling to say the least)
The helmet I am working on clips with the standard cloak collar, I hope to have time to make a set but...
----
Also, From the Community light bake guide the closest I found on imports to size is inches (fbx /max). (comparing hero>grid in the pics)
I use centimeters when importing Valve's FBX files into Max. Otherwise it shows up tiny in game. I also have to rotate the item 90 degrees, reset xform, and then rotate back into the correct position to have it positioned correctly in game. Kind of a hassle and I'm sure there's an easier work around for it but it's not that tough to deal with.
that moment when you wake up and you have 280 notifications on steam
Never been there, maybe 5-10 at most
Then again, after my pyro misc got in TF2 I started getting a lot more random friend requests. lol.
----
Dota 2 is HARD! or maybe I'm just no good.
All day baking, this is what I have. Having a very hard time with layers, I either have saturation OR shadows. NOT both.
Just the head of course, and that's at 1024x1024.
Crits and help VERY much appreciated. I followed the official guide, bad results. I followed the user guide, bad results. I did it all 3 + times to be sure. MUST be doing it wrong.
I did get a good normal though
I also made a palette, probably first time ever. But my lighten layer either bleeds it out or I get no highlights.
(a side note, I have never sculpted much, so the high was all modelling)
So I haven't shown what I've been working on for spring 2014 thus far because I wasn't 100% sure I'd be able to squeeze everything I had in mind into LC's available item slots... looks like I'll be able to do it. Everything below is only in the shoulder and arm slots.
(bakes only, no color yet)
Next up is the helm. I think I'm going to invert her color scheme a bit too: red armor, with gold lining/designs.
I use centimeters when importing Valve's FBX files into Max. Otherwise it shows up tiny in game. I also have to rotate the item 90 degrees, reset xform, and then rotate back into the correct position to have it positioned correctly in game. Kind of a hassle and I'm sure there's an easier work around for it but it's not that tough to deal with.
That's weird, the fbx importer should be orienting them on the correct axis after import. Choosing whether or not you want it to change the up axis isn't even one of the options because it's supposed to do it automatically. Did you change your 3ds max up axis somehow that would be causing it to get confused?
If you try an import the setting box will show you the file up axis and system up axis in the statistics part. Maybe check that out. It should show file being Y-up and system being Z-up with default settings.
that moment when you wake up and you have 280 notifications on steam
And here I thought over 800 positive ratings on our Gyro offhand was good :poly136: The hair does look great though :thumbup: If Valve does not add this then the rating system is completely useless
Never been there, maybe 5-10 at most
Then again, after my pyro misc got in TF2 I started getting a lot more random friend requests. lol.
----
Dota 2 is HARD! or maybe I'm just no good.
All day baking, this is what I have. Having a very hard time with layers, I either have saturation OR shadows. NOT both.
Just the head of course, and that's at 1024x1024.
Crits and help VERY much appreciated. I followed the official guide, bad results. I followed the user guide, bad results. I did it all 3 + times to be sure. MUST be doing it wrong.
I did get a good normal though
I also made a palette, probably first time ever. But my lighten layer either bleeds it out or I get no highlights.
(a side note, I have never sculpted much, so the high was all modelling)
This is looking good for a first attempt at Dota. Keep in mind that the masks will alter the model significantly. Is that a Max grid i see? If so I advise using this to test your materials in Max http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=110022&page=8
Is you issue with the 3-point method or the baked map method? Or have you tried both :poly142:
Those hookswords Koffee, man oh man. Really beautiful stuff. My reaction is "Why didnt this get thought of sooner." Nice execution overall! The diffuse on the flag seems a little flat, but that's really all I got.
Replies
I decided to throw my hat (tee hee) in the ring and try some Dota items. I gotta say it's a bit daunting, the simplicity of TF2 items was my cup of tea.
Nice having better documentation though.
I do have a few questions:
1- on the first page (this thread) the guide says to render out larger and the game compresses? Can we use say a 1024x1024 and importing will scale it down? Or do I just need to scale down.
2- What lighting set-up is best. The Official guide say they use a few point lights and combine the shadows in Photoshop. What angles are good?
I suppose one directly overhead. Maybe a few to front and sides? Backlighting?
Welcome over! I made the transition from TF2 items not too long ago.
1: Yes the importer will compress your textures, but it seems to use a smooth on compression, and not a sharpen, due to this I personally work in 1024 and manually compress my textures for a sharper quality.
2:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=183672148
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=101000
that should answer that better than me, personally since I do all my bakes in xNormal I find being lazy easier, and I do something similar to this with bent normals and prt maps and tons of wizard magic
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=123397498#19243
The Spring2014 Workshop tag has been fixed so you should now be able to browse the submissions properly.
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse?searchtext=&childpublishedfileid=0§ion=items&appid=570&browsesort=trend&requiredtags%5B%5D=Spring2014
Also if you haven't already make sure you are tagging your item with this tag.
There was also another change that may have gone unnoticed in the previous patch, the armour slot for Storm Spirit has had the texture limitation increased to 512x512 so you might want to resubmit items for that slot.
And this will be a magma/lava golem in the future:
C&C very welcome.
Would have been really great if the golem was actually a headless demon. Like it would portray the head quite well. Dont you think?
On a different note, finished my Spring2014 submission!
I'm really happy with how it turned out in the end. Quite a valuable learning experience to solve problems associated with rigging, skinning and animation. Thanks to the people who gave me feedback on the animation, it really helped! And if you can spare a minute, why not give it a vote? :P
PS: No spring2014 tag still. I hope they'll fix that, and that a lack of a tag won't hurt people's chances of getting items into the game for the actual event.
EDIT: Deleted entry, submission postponed until the workshop is fixed.
Hmm... thanks for the heads up. I skimmed over some posts and missed the bug currently in the workshop. I'll stick to your advice. But man, there's quite a few issues with the workshop. Creating and submitting an item is already quite intimidating even if everything would work smoothly
Hey thanks kite212!
I wouldn't say I am done with TF2
I did find that first one last night after my post. Looks usefull, when I try and follow the official guide the shadow overlay is bleeding everything out. But that was just a quick pre-sculpt test so I'll follow this guide through today.
I'll post progress later hopefully.
There are also massive texel-density issues that are bothering me just as much as the photo sourced textures.
@Gaiascope The ward came out great! Hopefully they sort out the workshop issues today, I mean what we are at like day 4 of the "most recent" bug
@Baddcog hope the links help! I told myself I would do TF2 and Dota side by side, but currently I dont's have the time. now if I could only upload my TF2 weapons with a gold star....
@Mdk quickly becomming one of my fav Spring2014 sets. When the contest started I was really hoping someone would take the Kunka challeng, and you guys are blowing it away!
Do we need to animate Death Prophet's ghosts?
Any help is appreciated
Inspired by the famous Terracotta Army, this is still a rough draft for Phantom Lancer, so if anyone's interested I'll refine it further on!
So crits and tips are more than welcome!
Note that I had to cut down some details on the top coat as there's no slot for something like the coat on Shadow Shaman, I decided I'll merge it with the head item so I have enough texture space.
Edit: I forgot to duplicate the arm bracer, but it'll be symmtric anyways.
Big fan of that set. Both the concept and now the sculpt too. Can't wait to see it finished!
@Xajai: nice sculpt, the pole and cup there seems too tacked on to me at the moment, like it's there to be there, not to integrate with your design.
The ears are too small, too round, and too far on the sides
Thanks for the reply. True, but it doesn't make much sense to have the head at all times and summoning the rest of the body from time to time. I'm thinking of adding some wear and tear to the demon head and putting the blame on the golem too
Do you guys think this is a decent color choice?
Does anybody actually know if Valve knows about the broken workshop?
Has been broken for quite some time..
Definetely the red, looks more menacing.
Agreed that the red ones look great! More fitting with brood's colour scheme. what pretty little critters
Thanks
What is the deal with clipping in game? Do they limit items like TF2 that clip each other (albiet the choices of what clips and doesn't in TF2 is puzzling to say the least)
The helmet I am working on clips with the standard cloak collar, I hope to have time to make a set but...
A good rule of thumb that we use to follow here is to make your items fit both with the set you're making and with the default items. You shouldn't bother fixing the clipping with every other set, which would take a lot of time and wouldn't matter so much, but instead just focus on making it work with the most common combinations that the items are going to be used, which is your set and Valve's.
What is the deal with clipping in game? Do they limit items like TF2 that clip each other (albiet the choices of what clips and doesn't in TF2 is puzzling to say the least)
The helmet I am working on clips with the standard cloak collar, I hope to have time to make a set but...
----
Also, From the Community light bake guide the closest I found on imports to size is inches (fbx /max). (comparing hero>grid in the pics)
Is that what others are using?
Well, you can thank Valve for that
and that community's desire for female hair styles!
Never been there, maybe 5-10 at most
Then again, after my pyro misc got in TF2 I started getting a lot more random friend requests. lol.
----
Dota 2 is HARD! or maybe I'm just no good.
All day baking, this is what I have. Having a very hard time with layers, I either have saturation OR shadows. NOT both.
Just the head of course, and that's at 1024x1024.
Crits and help VERY much appreciated. I followed the official guide, bad results. I followed the user guide, bad results. I did it all 3 + times to be sure. MUST be doing it wrong.
I did get a good normal though
I also made a palette, probably first time ever. But my lighten layer either bleeds it out or I get no highlights.
(a side note, I have never sculpted much, so the high was all modelling)
(bakes only, no color yet)
Next up is the helm. I think I'm going to invert her color scheme a bit too: red armor, with gold lining/designs.
That's weird, the fbx importer should be orienting them on the correct axis after import. Choosing whether or not you want it to change the up axis isn't even one of the options because it's supposed to do it automatically. Did you change your 3ds max up axis somehow that would be causing it to get confused?
If you try an import the setting box will show you the file up axis and system up axis in the statistics part. Maybe check that out. It should show file being Y-up and system being Z-up with default settings.
And here I thought over 800 positive ratings on our Gyro offhand was good :poly136: The hair does look great though :thumbup: If Valve does not add this then the rating system is completely useless
I think this would be a good decision to make it fit in with the Spring2014 theme even more
looking good! Can't wait to see more progress!
This is looking good for a first attempt at Dota. Keep in mind that the masks will alter the model significantly. Is that a Max grid i see? If so I advise using this to test your materials in Max
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=110022&page=8
Is you issue with the 3-point method or the baked map method? Or have you tried both :poly142:
Textures all cleaned up and ready