[Dota2] - Clinkz - Tortured Flame

Lyaksandr

Latest Update:






Original Post:

I'm excited to finally participate in a Polycount contest. I've drawn a huge amount of inspiration from all the talented artists who post their work here.

It took more time than I would have liked to research the Dota 2 heroes, do some preliminary sketching, and make a decision (there are so many!) but I finally settled on a full set for Clinkz. His back-story in particular has a lot of thematic potential.

Concept
Rather than shield him from harm this armor struggles to contain the demonic forces which threaten to consume Clinkz, even as horns and spars violently burst forth, blisters born of the hellfire within. This is not armor he wears for vanity or rank. It is painful; a reflection of his tortured existence.

Description
- Purple/Obsidian armor plates with dark steel trim
- Steel and cloth bits glow orange/gold hot in areas close to his burning inner fire
- Demon horns/spikes burst through the armor, affixing it to his skeleton
- Archer’s helm, neck wrapping, and gauntlets nod to battle practicality

Here's what I've got so far:






Any and all critiques would be greatly appreciated!

Lyaksandr

Concept update. Still have a few more ideas to put on paper before I start modeling and I know what I've got isn't extremely divergent, but I'd love to know if any design(s) stand out, or if anyone has suggestions for improvement.

Thanks.

Lyaksandr

Update: More sketching, and got I started on the high res mesh. On paper I liked the look of the coif around his shoulders, but after looking at the model more closely, I don't think it will fit very well and might look strange with the fire in his ribcage.

Time to do a quick and dirty optimize to import and see how the armor does with his animations.

ACap

Man, looks really good. I am too think about Clinkz as my second character after Phantom Asassin) One only thing - You completely closed his eyes with that helmet) Great job! Keep it up!

Mongrelman

Looking good, though wondering if the horn may have clipping issues with the shoulder guard.

Lyaksandr

Thanks for the comments.

I figured since he doesn't actually have eyes, covering the sockets would be a good opportunity to help the helmet look a bit more creepy and menacing.

I'm still looking for ways to push the personality of the armor. Ultimately I want it to feel a bit surreal and unsettling, and hopefully more of that will come through once I bring it into Zbrush.

ellisq

I love the concept, the only negative thing i have to say is that the silhouette looks a little like undying's.

Lyaksandr

Good point about the Undying's silhouette, ellisq. I hadn't really looked at the other characters that weren't on my short list.

Here are a few horn options to help give him a more unique silhouette along with a matching quiver model.

Lyaksandr

What each of the horn options might look like from an in-game perspective:

AimBiZ

Sorry, got a double post.

AimBiZ

Cool armor, nice standard fantasy. For the helmet, the horns pointing upwards definitely works best.

Lennyagony

Really solid work on this. No crits and im having a hard time choosing a horn option, they are all nice!

Lyaksandr

After doing some testing in Modelviewer with the entire set together (except the bow), I realized I needed to change the shape of the helm. There were some serious clipping issues with his jaw and spine using the version I built. The biggest change is to the shape of the area near the jaw.

I also changed the horns to a combination of styles 2 and 3, since the horns read well with a bit more height from the in-game perspective, but I like how version 3 sweeps back. Not sure if this is the final shape yet, but luckily the horns are pretty easy to change.

Some screengrabs from Modelviewer showing the new shapes (on hastily optimized versions of the high res geometry):



And here's the armor ready for Zbrushing:

ACap

It looks better and better. Great job. I am too digging clinkz now. Progress soon, but I have one thing, making me sad)
Head

• LoD0 Triangle Limit: 800
• LoD1 Triangle Limit: 350
• Texture Size: 256H x 256W

Shoulders

• LoD0 Triangle Limit: 800
• LoD1 Triangle Limit: 450
• Texture Size: 256H x 256W

Gloves

• LoD0 Triangle Limit: 500
• LoD1 Triangle Limit: 300
• Texture Size: 256H x 256W

Back

• LoD0 Triangle Limit: 350
• LoD1 Triangle Limit: 250
• Texture Size: 256H x 256W

Weapon

• LoD0 Triangle Limit: 500
• LoD1 Triangle Limit: 400
• Texture Size: 256H x 256W
• This model should primarily be bound to the bone: bow2_0

Be careful with gloves. It is 300 tris only. I measured basic clinkz palm - it is 170 tris in one - so palms have a great potential to completely eat your poly budjet.

Pina

Some feedback having read through your posts.
Couldn't you make maybe the horns really be stuck to his bones? Like, imagine the bones in the helmet are actuallky stuck to his skull and ripping through the helmet. The same for the rest. So in each armor piece there would be huge holes and cracks where the horns come out from.

P.S: I feel the pain with the polycount dude

Lyaksandr

@Pina: Yeah, that's definitely the plan. Sorry if that wasn't clear from my sketches.

Shoulder sculptin':

BrontoThunder

Loving it!

Pina

Ha! You are doing the cracks on the normal map, not the geometry. Looks good.

Lyaksandr

Well, I may be putting too much high frequency detail into this. Obviously details will get lost at a distance, but I don't want to get to the point where it just looks like noise instead of defined forms. May have to dial back some of the shapes.

ACap

Good decision. My advice - do not use small cracks on armor - because it really becomes just noice. Small bumps and scratches, alas - will be lost and just decrease quality) Looks good! Keep it up!

Lyaksandr

Time to start working on the low poly versions, even though I'm still planning on making some changes to the high poly, especially to the striations on the horns.

Lyaksandr

Refined the horns a bit:

Lyaksandr

There hasn't been much to show getting all the in-game meshes set up and baking, but I got some basic colors laid down. Not sure exactly what palette to go with yet.

Skiffy

I vote for the one on the left. It works nicely with the magma cracks.

Boonta

I like your sculpt + textures! cool stuff!

Lyaksandr

Thanks for the kind words.

Still working on the textures, and the diffuse is about done. I'm planning on playing around with the size and shape of the molten areas, though, as I'm not happy how they read from an in-game perspective.

AimBiZ

Liking the reds a lot! I think you could do without those cracks as as far as I know metal doesn't melt in that way. Perhaps making it with just gradients will be enough, more realistic basically.

D4V1DC

Whoa man, if you want to follow the realism approach I'd agree with Aim, but getting past all that I really like what you've done, the colors are awesome, could we get some in game previews before you change It? I would like to see what you mean.

Lyaksandr

Yeah, the cracks weren't working for me either. The pads are actually supposed to be made of leather, trimmed with metal. The molten areas are meant to evoke a demonic glow coming from beneath the armor as opposed to a melting of the armor itself.

Hopefully these changes help that come through a bit better. In-engine shots forthcoming.

Lyaksandr

As far as I know, it's not possible to preview the entire set in-engine (Alien Swarm modelviewer doesn't handle metal materials and lighting the same way, so it's pretty useless for shader tuning), so here are all the pieces loaded up separately.

AimBiZ

The new cracks are looking better, the beveling on the edges makes them look more integrated to the surface rather than pasted on. The entire pad read as metal to me. Even though I didn't pay much attention to the rivets I guess they would be for keeping layers of metal together. Stick to metal, looks nice. Suppose the leather would've burnt up anyway.

Lyaksandr

Well, it's submission time.

Paskie

Looking great!