[Dota2] - Nyx Assassin - Pretty Ladybird
Decided to wrap it up. I like where I ended and won't have time for a misc item. Made a presentation and submitted everything to the workshop - it is nice to see the final result up there.
Thanks for all the kind words and feedback - you guys helped a alot!
Thanks for watching.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
I will try and make it redder/lighter to pull it out more, but it shares space with the main shell.
Headupdate:
Thanks for all the kind words and feedback - you guys helped a alot!
Thanks for watching.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
I will try and make it redder/lighter to pull it out more, but it shares space with the main shell.
Headupdate:
Replies
Now, I have been reading around and it seems Valve are alot more strict with Dota2 item themes than in TF2. Do you think this direction will fly?
A ladybird seems to match the colour scheme of Nyx Assassin perfectly(its armor parts are already orange-red and yellow)
I am going to take the head in a rhino-beetle direction, while still keeping the rorshach feel of the ladybird. (getting a nice Venom feel right now).
Everything is my initial thoughts and I expect the shapes, especially the head, to change alot when I get to jam some silhuettes.
Let me hear what you think.
Thanks
Another rule would be to learn your hero and his role and his personality. Giving him this look gives him a 'lady bug' personality, the bright red just doesn't fit because he is an assassin. Trying to blend in, not trying to stand out.
If anything I would take inspiration from a preying mantis, those things are just cool as shit.
Also careful with the wings, I don't think Nyx Assassin's model is compatible with Alpha Maps.
The wings don't need to be transparent to read right. The red and the shininess of a ladybug's shell is the problem not the shape of the dots.
I see what you did there
I don't know, maybe I enjoy the juxtaposition of it all, but I think the concept can work if it reworks it. A Dark Blood Red color can fit Nyx Assassin just fine. I still feel if the spots are less traditional ladybug and more twisted and angular along with a more gritty dirty coat it would be a really cool concept.
It seems the whole point of my idea is what makes it not work.
I WANT it to be a bit more lose and silly than he is. That's the appeal to me, and also my concern in what I wrote. It interesting that this isnt popular in the Dota2 scene? Personally, I play LoL and I love the sillyness in the skins(and the game in general)
Oh, and about the red: I colour picked it from Nyx's original armor.
I'll wait and get some more thoughts and then probably see/rework the thing tomorrow.
Thanks guys
Just like in Left 4 Dead, Valve are trying to tell the story through the game's environment and audio. The cosmetics are helping develop the story of each hero further.
That red is not the same as the red you see in game.
Can anyone redirect me to somewhere I can read about these thematic guidelines and/or a discussion regarding the mentioned Cowboy Ursa where someone from valve in involved?
FOR GOD'S SAKE MAN, RUN! RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN! In case you don't know, there's deep rivalries between Dota, Hon and LoL, with the different artsyles certainly being part of the equation. In other words, Dota players "don't dake kindly to them LoL players 'round 'ere!"
LoL is ugly as shit imo, but it's a better game(again, imo). I don't like the lack of ability power(spell damage) in Dota. In LoL, the heroes just seem more different.
Dota 2 is one of the most beautiful games ever, however.
It also gives a limit to the roles each hero can be, in LoL pretty much every champion can be a carry.
I think if you give Dota a chance you'll find it supplies a much greater challenge and keeps your mind much more active than LoL, I found LoL's laning phase to be unbearably boring and the runes and skill builds are bad game design.
Also, tried to take all the things you guys have been suggesting into concideration here:
-Made him more predatorial(made the spots look more like tiger stripes/wasp spots - thanks RossC)
-Pulled the colour more towards orange, across the board.
-Made his head more aggressive and beetle like
-Added more spikes to pincers like a mantis(thanks Qwiggalo)
More comments are welcome. Thanks!
Also, I'm with Qwiggalo on this one. Not to turn this into a "Dota vs LoL" thread but I never got into dota 1, played LoL for hundreds of hours, then stopped playing when I realized that the only reason I was still playing was to grind champion and rune unlocks because the game itself bored me.
I've currently put more than double the amount of hours I sunk into LoL into Dota 2 in half the time and I'm still learning new tricks and strategies at the same rate as when I started, and I constantly see things I've never seen before. LoL is much more accessible for beginners, but Riot's fear of new players ragequitting when faced with a challenge instead of trusting in the player to think about what went wrong and try to come up with a counter-strategy... made them design/nerf everything into a blandness where almost all the champion's skills are identical to each other. How many melee champions have a 1) gap closing ability 2) some sort of stun/slow and 3) a defensive ability, either heal, shield, dodge etc and the only thing that makes them different from other melee champions is their ultimate and visual aesthetic?
In dota no two heroes are even remotely similar to each other in skill design or playstyle... and every hero picked on a team will wildly change how that match is going to play out. Which is why it's so important that you can play any hero you want whenever you want, and players that have been playing longer don't get a stats advantage to new players, and no flash. Seriously, screw flash, a get out of jail free card every 6 minutes at no cost to the player is such terrible design. In dota if you want the equivalent of flash you need to farm up the gold and use an item slot on it.
The biggest problem with dota is that as a new player you will suck, and you will suck hard, for awhile. It has a steep learning curve but my god was it worth climbing; probably the most rewarding experience in competitive gaming I've ever had.
Ok, very sorry to hijack your thread for a minute there, I honestly didn't mean to write that much and it kindof got out of hand. This is something I've had on my mind for months but haven't been able to put to words until now.
Your updated set does look great, I really like the orange. Maybe look at some more poisonous insects for more inspiration.
Much much better, The only crit I can give is lose the wings
Best idea i've seen so far !
Maybe you could add a stinger to his butt
What I want for this set is to be a natural, and not crafted, armor for Nyx. As if he evolved and became even more predatorial retaining the feel I had in my latest concept.
Top one: Very clean shapes and solid
bot one: More zerg'y and complex, layered shapes
What direction do you like the most?
I love it but I'm just concerned about it being too similar.
Hang, I know what you mean but I am pretty sure that will change with the colour/patterns I have in mind. I'll keep it in the back of my head though - thanks
Decided to go somewhere inbetween. It says in Nyx' bio that his claws are like sharp blades, so I want to work with his already existing plating, beef it up and play with contrasting blade like chittin. Here's my present head sculpt:
So this is where I am right now. Liking the direction but all comments are welcome
Debating weather or not I should add somekind of shoulder-shell pieces. Whatchathink?
Also started working on the back shell. Lopoly and baked, working on texture. 90% done with that I would say. Still trying to figure out if I should add a pattern of some sort, but I think I will wait with taht till I have all parts at 90% textured.
Good job getting it in-game, the first one is absolutely the hardest - it gets exponentially easier as you do it.
looking forward how it will look
the only thing I do not like are the overlapping scales on the weapon
maybe add some spikes on your blade, or use 2 or 1 scale
now it's like all the detail is in the handle
and the blade is kinda flat
Hannes, I get what you mean but I wanna try and flush all the items out now since I only have 2 weeks left to work on them. I plan on having all 3 items done this week, and one extra week to polish and maybe add more stuff(thinking of the legs and ass here)
got the head texture done as well now, and ingame. Having problems with the "tint spec by color" mask. I have no clue where it is getting that brown color from. Will have to look into that. Also seems like the head needs to be a bit more red to fit the shell.
the back armor is more saturated and a little darker then the helm armor
especially visible in the yellow,
maybe there is some kind of special shading on the head ?
any chance you share what the differences were ?
could come in handy for me
Also found out that the mask 1 channel 3(metal) is very sensitive together with the specular.
This leaves me with almost a week for a bit of polish, and a possible 4th item(misc catagory - I'm thinking somekind of shell or evolved pincer on his bottocks)
Comments appreciated as always.
My opinion would be to lower the white painted on the edge of the weapons and tip of the head and try to achieve that result more in-game with the specular+rim masks.