[Dota2] – Antimage – Magician Hunter

Fishmonger

Magician Hunter!

updated on 10/15/2012

Disclaimer: I suck (Very, very much), so I entered this contest to get better. Any feedback and critiques would be greatly appreciated.

Idea behind the set: Light-weight leather clothing meant for wear during the hunt for magic users. Inspired by various vampire/which hunter/slayer characters and medieval leather coats.

I'm aiming for 3 pieces: Chest, Head, and Weapons.

Here's the most recent piece of concept art (I can't make up my damn mind, but I quite like this one.)



I drew a much better version on my sketchpad, but lack of camera/scanner left me to re-draw it on computer. It's meant as a guideline, so I'll end up tweaking the colors and stuff later on. The biggest changes from the past version is the smaller-brimmed hat and main chest piece. I decided to try out a focus on bold lines, similar to the tattoos on AM's face.

I'm starting to have the bad habit of putting off modeling and just keep making new concept art. So, no more revisions until I get to the weapon. Time to man up and start modeling, even if I suck at it.

If you want to see previous pieces of (horrible) artwork, I attempted to make an album on imgur.

http://imgur.com/a/b0LLS#0

Thanks for taking the time to look at my horrible art!

Special thanks to Qwiggalo for the AM model and technical clarification.

Fishmonger

Made a second mock-up that looks much better then the first one. This time I tried a more open style for the coat, which I quite like. The metal plates and talismans would have anti-magic glyphs and runes, however that is supposed to work.

http://imgur.com/a/b0LLS#5

I also tried a concept to keep the back from being naked: A crest of a magic hunter's guild/family or what-have-you. It might end up looking more like a biker gang jacket, however. I'll also probably ditch the armbands.

Probably gonna draw some weapon ideas next.

Makeover

how are you planning on getting the model?

Justin Meisse

haha, ignore me, I'm replying to a moderated post, which I won't approve because he's trolling the OP.

Carry on, your design looks great

Fishmonger

@Makeover: From the workshop page once it goes up. If it takes too long, then probably rip them from the game if I can.

@Justin: Thanks!

Qwiggalo

Fishmonger wrote: »

@Makeover: From the workshop page once it goes up. If it takes too long, then probably rip them from the game if I can.

@Justin: Thanks!

I already did this,

http://www.mattwhite.us/files/antimage.zip

Here ya go, I exported all his SMDs and VTFs and put them in a Maya file and an FBX and included all the SMDs.

Fishmonger

I love you, Qwiggalo.

Fishmonger

Now that I have a model to work with, I made a quick model of the hat and coat. The hat is still simple poly-wise, as I can't really decide on what details to give it.

The textures are, of course, just a test get the colors down.

One the coat side of things: This is the first time I have done a Chest-based model, which, I have found, is really difficult. The end model isn't even that good, but I got a decent idea of what to aim for.

http://imgur.com/a/b0LLS#3

I decided to drop the rune plates on the jacket, at least at the moment, until I can decide on the small details. Same goes for the hat. All things considered, it actually turned out looking better then I thought it would, even with the crappy texture. The model is still ass to look at, though.

I want to take my time with the model and get it looking right, so I really want to decide on a final design for his coat before I even think about making a final model. So, since that's the case, I'll probably spend my off-time tomorrow making more mock-ups and variants. The face count also came to about 802 after tri-ing stuff, which is about 200 away from the limit, going off the in-game AM model. So, If I make a new model, I'll have to use less if I want more details.

Also, does anyone know if there's a way to make the OA bake in Blender not turn out all blockey and stuff, or am I stuck with it? If I am stuck with it, I'll just have to paint my own shadows onto the texture, which will be quite the learning process.

Fishmonger

NEW MOCKUP TIME

http://imgur.com/a/b0LLS#2

Okay, for this mock up I went back to the closed design with the normal collar because I can't make up my mind. To keep this design from being boring, I gave it a shoulder piece to see what it would look like, and I quite like it. The original idea had daggers on it, but I also drew some alternatives that I will probably end up using. I also came up with an idea for the hat that I really like: A decorative plate with a type on gem in the top. I drew it red, but it will probably end up being purple or something closer to AM's base colors. I also can't think of a way to make the shoulder cuffs look nice. They would be smaller, but after working on a chest model it's hard to get it to look like, so who knows.

I'm also having second thoughts about the main color of the jacket, thinking that it's a bit too close to the belt and will cause it to look odd.

http://imgur.com/a/b0LLS#0

I also made a quick, crappy drawing of the weapon idea I had for a while. Basically, I wanted a more normal-metal weapon with the addition to the purple crazy weapons AM normally uses. The idea is the gem in the center somehow powers the blades that come out of the side.

Next I wanted to work on the model for the weapon, so I can get it to look right.

Once again, any feedback or critiques would be great, as I am still trying to not be horrible at this stuff.

Qwiggalo

You're working with triangles? I recommend you learn to work with quads and only leave triangulation for the exporter.

Fishmonger

I have, I just use triangles to get an idea of how close I am to the poly budget. What I've been doing is: make the model, then ctrl+t all of it to get accurate face counts and stuff. I could have it all backwards, though.

Qwiggalo

Blender, Max and Maya all have methods of displaying Triangle count without triangulating your mesh. Since your GPU is already displaying a triangulated mesh anyways it has to triangulate it to make it visible on your display.

Fishmonger

http://imgur.com/a/b0LLS#1

Back with another horrible drawing. I keep putting off modeling, so no more drawing until I get a model of the coat and hat done.

I also updated the OP to be a bit cleaner and nicer looking, while also moving the old artwork to an imgur album so they don't take up so much space. My horrible ramblings are still there, though.

Vindalia

Hey, don't be so tough on your "horrible drawings" It looks to me like enough information to get a good model out of. I think drawings are great for conveying a vision, but for a project like this, the final deliverable is the 3D model, so there isn't too much of a need to create a stunning painting (unless you like detailed blueprints before you start modeling) And I'm being totally hypocritical too since I'm spending tons of time on drawing instead of modeling so far, haha...

Fishmonger

Thanks for the support, Vindalia. I finally got around to it and modeled the chest (For the most part). I might make the bottom stand out a bit more or add some details later, but for now it's fine.



Texture is a placeholder. Now I think I will work on some weapon designs, as I am tired of trying to find a hat that looks good.

Fishmonger

Hey, just wanted to make a quick update before I head to work. I recently borrowed my brother's tablet, which has been quite nice. I just tried a "Serious" test texture for the jacket, mainly the collar, which turned out really nice, I think. It's by no means final, though.



I also thought of a way to make the jacket less-boring, which is to add some black in there as a segment. It's just a rough test, and the different color segments would be separated by nice line-things, so yeah.



I also haven't decided on a weapon design yet, so I just threw some ideas out in a series of rough, lop-sided drawings.



I'm personally really liking the first and second ones.

Fishmonger

Since the AM model was added to the workshop website, it turns out he can have separate weapons and he has a shoulder slot. So, for weapons, I think I'll do the first one with his left hand, then the knife/dagger thing for his right. I also think I'll switch from a hat to shoulders, since I can't get any hat design to look right.

Tonight I was gonna sketch up some shoulder ideas then model a bit of the weapons tonight. I'll post again once I get some concept art done.

Fishmonger

Alright, here's the model for the main hand I popped out.



It's sitting a little bit below LoD1 budget, and I don't really know where I can fancy it up, to be honest. I'll probably make the blades smoother at parts or something.

I also forgot I did those (Crappy) shoulder designs from earlier, so I might end up doing one of those, or making a new one. Tomorrow will be a modeling marathon.

Fishmonger

Update time.

I worked on a texture for the jacket, and I thought it turned out a lot better then I was expecting.



I'd still have to see what it looks like in-game with all the shader masks and stuff, but I like it so far.

Tomorrow I'm going to try one-more time to model a hat that I like, and if that doesn't work I'll work on the weapon texture or start modeling random stuff until something sticks.

dproeder

Solid start so far. Have you downloaded the PDFs from the Dota 2 page yet? They give detailed steps on how to get the lighting and textures looking up to snuff. If you over layed some Lighting Bakes over the textures, I think you will get even better results.

Fishmonger

I did take a look at the PDFs, but I'm still new to this stuff, so I wasn't sure how to get a good looking light-wrap in Blender, so I just tried to hand-paint lighting on the texture, which I might end up re-doing not that I look at it. The model is simple enough so it's not that crucial. Thanks for the suggestion, though. It's something I would like to learn in the future, maybe with a more-complex model.



I was busy all day yesterday, so I didn't get a lot done, but then I woke up this morning and started modeling out of vigor. The first results (Pictured above) didn't turn out so well, so I took a break then came back later.




For this new model, I aimed for a few things: More actual-hat looking, more detail so it's not as sharp, and slimmer, flatter brim. For reference, I was actually inspired by the hat Gyro Zeppeli wears in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Even though I haven't gotten that far in the manga yet, I still love his design. I'm still deciding on the patterns and colors for it, though. The model, as of now, is about 25 triangles away from reaching the LoD1 limit, so I might have some space to add some possible flair/more detail. A cut in the side might also look good.

foeffa

Gonna follow this closely, looks promising and finally some magina love. ^^

Fishmonger

Thanks for the support! Magina has been getting tons of amazing love this contest so far, all of which looks tons better then my set. Gives me something to strive for, though.

I decided to try making some coat wing belt things, which I was afraid of at first because I didn't know how to tackle the angle and stuff, so I just improvised and popped out this.





(The thing sticking out is supposed to be a pouch). I tried my best to get it looks decent and flush with the model base, using the default thing as a small guide. I like the way it turned out, but I'll probably fine-tweak some small things before I'm done with. When next to the default one, my model is slightly closer to the front, while the default one goes a little back. I'm not sure how my model will look in AM's stance, and I can't test it due to him not being on the dota-2 compile list. If I really wanted too, I'm sure there's a way to see it using the model viewer, but I'm sure they'll add him in this week's update.


I also worked up some design ideas I had for the coat tails. I'll probably use the third one, since that lines up with the Jacket's designs.

Hat designs were also on the sketch agenda, which I made some quick ones. I wanted it to look natural, but still interesting to look at since that's what you'll be staring at when you play AM.



The one circled is the one I'll probably go with, but I might do some tweaking.

Fishmonger

Hey, just thought I'd make a quick update. I've been busy all weekend, so I didn't have a lot of time to work on things, but I had a good design idea for the hat I like.



It's still a WIP, but basically the idea is the center panel having designs on it depicting two sides: Sun and moon. Front is the sun, and the back is the moon. I'm still working on the patterns, but that's the plan. Other then that, I'm now considering doing the same thing to the black panels on the coat. I don't know, I constantly change my mind on things. Who knows.

I also forgot I have a weapon model, so I could also work on that this week.

Fishmonger

UPDATE TIME

Apparently I forgot to mention how the coat tail texture was going, so here's what I got so far.



There's some things I might change about it, but the overall design I'll probably end up keeping.

Here's the hat texture I got.



I think the designs might be too complex, I might end up just re-doing them to match more with the default bracers.

Also, in the most recent update, AM was added to the item list in-game, so I can see how they look in-game. So, tomorrow I'll probably try my hand at some rigging on the coat and get that working, then try some masks so I can get a general idea of what to expect.

D4V1DC

I like the quality but I think a lot of the details will get lost in translation to the game.
He has a big trouble in little china feel to me, nice work.

Fishmonger

Thanks for the feedback and support. I redid the patterns to match more wit the ones on the default bracers, and tried to make it simpler. I can't really say I like the outcome, since it's still a bit too complicated and doesn't look good when seen from the in-game camera angle. I did menage to rig it and try it out on the model, though.





I didn't work on the masks and stuff since this was just a test. The colors will look less dark once I get that stuff sorted out, but I just wanted to make sure the rigging worked, which it did.

Over the weekend, when I get off work, I'll crack down on getting textures finished and finalized, so all next week I can fine-tune the models, maybe add some additional details for the portrait LoDs, then get to rigging, which I am an idiot at. I have a general idea, after some googling and watching some videos. The hat was easy to do, since there was 1 bone, so it's the coat and tails that I'm afraid of, but it shouldn't be too hard.

Fishmonger

Update time, yay.

Over the weekend I re-did the texture for the chest, and I'm currently in the process of redoing the belt texture.





Once I'm done with those I was going to try and get the rigging to work so I can easily see how the mask textures look in-game, then that should be just about it. I might try to rework the weapons I made earlier, but I'm not really aiming for it. Maybe if I get things done early I'll have time, but who knows.

Fishmonger

After a busy weekend I thought I'd just relax and do some rigging, only to find out I have no idea what I'm doing.



I think I understand it, I copied the bone from the AM model (Also copied the armature from the default chest then tied it to the copied bones), deleted the ones I don't need (Legs and stuff), then started mucking around in weight-paints. I got it to the point where I can paint weights for each bone (I'm proud of myself), so now I just need to rig it to where it doesn't look like a jagged mess. The belt has less bones to worry about, so I'll rig those and put it in the client and see how they look tomorrow.

Fishmonger

Decided to try some more rigging this morning



Kept trying the chest, this time going slowly and basing my weights off of the default chest. Some of it looks good on the model, but for the most part it clips like hell. Considering the approaching deadline and my amazing ability to put off stuff (Like masks, textures, and LoDs), I'm probably not going to get it decent looking and uploaded by then. I don't mind, really. I'm still proud of myself for getting this far, and it's something I would like to continue to do.

I'll still work on what I can until the deadline, though, just to get some more practice in with some form of motivation.