[DOTA2] - Death Prophet - Royal Finery of Auspice

Larkbeef

Ho folks!

Nothing like a contest to draw one out of the shadows, eh?

I decided to start with a Death Prophet set, see if it sticks. My idea was to give her a headpiece/crown and some fine clothes, in royal gold and purple-ish. Maybe she bought some stuff for all that money her clients gave her for fortune telling.

This is what I've managed to come up with of so far:



Main focus should be the crown/head, so most thought will be spent on that piece for sure. I think I'm gonna go with 3 pieces: Head, Armor and Belt (scarf). Well see if I do something with the dress too.

Also just bought in to the DotA 2 beta. After playing LoL for a year, DotA 2 is not being very gentle with me. Medium bots are being bullies.


Cheers!

Larkbeef

Doodled another set this evening.

Also noticed that the belt is part of the dress, so have to incorporate that in the design in whatever I end up doing. :thumbup:

bounchfx

really cool direction so far. I like this character, and the direction you've chosen seems like it fits well with her.

Spudnik

Really great improvement from the last concept, I'm digging it! I love the colors as well, gives her kind of a royal look while still staying in the dead and decaying feel. Well done!

jnumber9

I like the second concept. looks like the ancient Egypt spirit or smth.

Anuxinamoon

Very nice improvement over the first concept! I like it

Larkbeef

Thanks guys, I agree with the second concept. More in line with my idea. With that said I doodled a new one.

I still have a hard time figuring out all gold details, which parts will look good on the portrait and not messy on the player model. Start doing some stuff in 3D after the weekend I think, maybe it will become clearer.

Cheers!

Spudnik

I gotta say that I like the 2nd one better than the third, most importantly the neck area. I really like how it flares outward like the skirt, only mirrored. The 3rd one doesn't really change the silhouette all that much, I think that's why it comes off as more "muted".

Larkbeef

Thanks for input Spudnik!

So I did some blocking out, think I got most things in place. Time for some pulling and tweaking, see if I can push it more.

Have to come up with something for the hair, as I gather we cannot use anything from the original mesh.

I had an idea about making the collar trail behind, like the scarf does now, but the bones are not centered and it would probably look weird.

Anyway, loads of fun threads in the forum, always very impressive.

Cheers!

Larkbeef

Sculpt of the clothes! I have a nagging feeling that I'll redo some things, after skinning. But first retopologize.

Also changed the hat a bit, lost it's simple geometric form. But looking rich is all about being elaborate, right? Some items (hat emblem thing, sash) will be easier to detail in Photoshop, so no update yet.

Spudnik

Coming along very nicely, good job!

Olphelia

A really nice fresh design, I love your collar designs She is going to be one sassy lady!

Larkbeef

Hey there!

Almost done with the retopologizing, needs some more trimming. I can still see some edges/vertices to weld (especially the hat area). Also, basically, inflate the mesh somewhat since it tends to shrink when subdividing and sculpting.



I tried to bind all the meshes to a corresponding bone and export to the viewer before I move further.
I followed this guide by Lennyagony. All except the import SMD part, might be that's what messes up the position of the hat somehow. Bone positions off or what not:


I didn't see the hat until I switched animations. It's almost a character length above the model. Reset the Xform and moved pivot to 0.0.0, but no go.
Let the investigating ensue.

D4V1DC

Sculpting is looking great, love the dressy idea.
Response to.

Larkbeef

Long time no update, unfortunately. Work work.
This is a rundown of what I’ve done since last update:

Retopo

Skinning the mesh
Second most time consuming part in the creation. A lot of trial and error here. Skin>Export>Check in Client>Fix>Repeat.

Unwrap

Polypaint
For easier Photoshopping mostly.

Baking Normal map and Vertex colors to a base diffuse.

Texture
Always takes forever. Reading the .pdf from Valve makes it seem so easy and efficient.
Instead, fiddling with miniscule details that are not visible for hours, an old favorite.
Figuring out basic function of masks (Thanks Qwiggalo!) also took some extra time.
I use Marmoset for checking the texture usually.

So this is basically what I’ve hacked together for the royal finery:
Excuse the cut and paste ingame view. Also seems a lot less interesting without any movement and flashing metal details.




Marmoset:


I suppose nothing major should be changed at this time. But I'm sure there's other things that could be changed. Colors, simpler mesh fixes, or whatnot.

Suggestions?

Cheers all!