[DOTA 2] - Drow Ranger - Bird of Prey

Elisabet.YA

Hello!

[Latest image!]



I'm a bit late to the party, but I've been working on designing a set for the Drow Ranger. The theme is "bird of prey" (as per the name), and I want to emphasize her elegance for this set.

Any feedback would be much appreciated!

Elisabet.YA

Hello again!

Been awhile since the first post, but I've been keeping busy. Found out about the deadline extension, so I'm really happy! Haven't been wasting time though (well, not most of the time at least), but I've been having a go at some basics in Zbrush (nothing to show from that yet). I was trained in Mudbox, but I've always wanted to have a serious go at Zbrush. So, while I've been building a base mesh in Maya I've been having a look at some tutorials for Zbrush, figuring things out. But some progress:





So, the base for most objects is pretty much there now, just a couple of things missing. I've been struggling with the cape. I'm thinking I'll need to redesign it to work with the rig. I've also been building as low as I can, keeping to the limits mostly but going a bit over in places. I'm not too worried about that at the moment, as I'll retopologize the whole thing anyway after I sculpt.

I haven't been at my best speed for this yet. I'm steadily picking up speed as I figure things out though. So I'm hopeful that I'll be able to make 1 or 2 more sets once I finish this one. And hopefully I'll know what the hell I'm doing in Zbrush too! The whole interface is so different from Mudbox, it's a bit of a challenge just to figure out where things are.

But again, any comments are welcome, feedback would be much appreciated! If you know of any great Zbrush tutorials as well (maybe ones that helped you a lot!), I'm always looking for new ones

Vindalia

Looking good so far, you seem like you know what direction you are headed in! As for your Bird of Prey theme, I think it would be interesting to experiment with some feather shapes on the top of the hood since you have it appearing in other parts of the armor. As for Zbrush tutorials, I've seen some good ones on Digital Tutors, but you'll need to pay a subscription fee (but you can find some on youtube too!)

Elisabet.YA

Thanks a lot Vindalia! Yeah I'll have a look at some feathers for the hood, but I'll most likely be focusing on that in the texture. I've been looking at some falcons, and they have this beautiful pattern in their feathers which could be interesting to experiment with.

Elisabet.YA

Base models all done! I'll be starting to sculpt now.

So, I redesigned the cape to fit better with the existing rig. I like it better this way anyway.





Here's the rough drawing for the cape:



But now the fun part begins! I'll be stumbling through Zbrush again, so look forward to more fancy screenshots

Elisabet.YA

Hello again everyone. I see you all reading, but few commenting! Your feedback would be appreciated if you got any

Anyway, I've been having fun in Zbrush. Been making mistakes. More progress than mistakes though. I'm thinking I'll make a full transition into Zbrush. Hopefully Mudbox won't get too jealous.

But here's some progress images:



Haven't touched on all objects yet. Also only imported one side of objects that I'll be copying over entirely, so you'll notice some stuff missing. I'm getting pretty fast at this. Having A LOT of fun too.

Anyone got any good ideas for retopology programs? I've found a few that are interesting, but I haven't really researched it properly. Always just done it in Maya, but since I'm making progress learning a new program, why not another one eh?

xinwenzoutao

very nice ,l like

D4V1DC

Topogun for re-topology or if you can 3D Coat < you get some texturing bonuses from using that as well, I have never tried it though but have heard some good things about it. Then you'd be cheating on mudbox and zbrush in a 3 way love triangle. If you have time, though I don't recommend it Zbrushes retopology tools.

Zbrush is great hopefully mudbox won't be sad your cheating on It.

I really like the bow and I think your off to a good start so just keep doing what your doing, some people don't even use zbrush and slap patterns and call it a day so your already ahead of them.

You'll probably get more comments when you start nearing the completion of your set, hopefully right? anyway looking forward to more.

Elisabet.YA

Thanks guys

I've heard of Topogun, I'll have a good look at it as soon as I'm done sculpting. Thanks for the suggestions $!nz.

And yeah I'm pretty sure I'll be getting more comments as soon as it starts looking more finished, and starts getting some color in there People loooove some color images.

RyanAxel

The idea is awesome. And the sculpting is clean and tidy. Its a solid design and it looks like you know where you are going with it. That's probably why there is not much crit going on Will be great to see what you have planned for the colour scheme. Keep up the good work

Elisabet.YA

Thanks RyanAxel Happy to hear that!

I've got some more progress. I'm done sculpting, whoo! Now I'll be having a look into Topogun and some paintinnnng. Fun stuff! My hand is starting to kill me, so many feathers.



I've only sculpted things once that I'll be mirroring or using the textures again for. Only two feathers sculpted, one big for the hand and one smaller one for the shoulder. That's also why you see only one half of the bow So I'll have an easier time just making UV's for those and then copying them around. And also so my Zbrush won't crash spectacularly. It's already pretty heavy.

So I'm looking forward to getting into the more technical stuff, rigging and properly getting into importing into DOTA 2.

And again, any feedback would be very welcome! If you have any links to good advice on importing into DOTA I'd be very happy to get those as well. Already had a look in the Q&A thread and such, but more hints are always appreciated.

Have a nice night!

sadies

Really nice progress you have going!

RyanAxel

Coming along great, the boot is all kinds of awesome Still not sure how to crit this as I really like it....maybe a bird of prey's eye symbol on the hood would look cool. But I seriously like where this is going. Are you a professional game artist, or is this just a hobby for you?

Elisabet.YA

Thanks a lot you guys I'm in the progress of retopology, so look forward to some updates soon

RyanAxel: I'm technically still a student, as I'll be graduating January 2013, but right now is "intern time", where all the students have to finish a 3 month internship to finish their degree. I got a job at a game company though, not an internship, but unfortunately the project I was on got cancelled :P But I was there long enough to finish the internship part of the education, so I guess it's all good hehe.

Elisabet.YA

Hey guys, sorry about the lack of updates so far. Just wanted to let you guys know that I'm currently making things ready for normals baking, I've UV'd everything and such, but I got into some technical issues that made a couple of things a bit difficult.

And I also discovered Mass Effect (late to the game, I know!) so I lost some hours there haha

But I'll be posting picture updates verrrry soon, as soon as I've got through all the unexpected zbrushing that came with retopology. And then I'll have some color stuff

D4V1DC

sounds great can't wait!

Elisabet.YA

Hey all, an update from me.

Unfortunately I won't be able to finish this in time for the contest But I'll still be finishing the set, and publishing it to the DOTA workshop when I'm done. If the threads here don't get deleted I'll probably just show it off here, or make a new thread somewhere appropriate.

There are so many great entries out there! It's absolutely fantastic to see it. And while I'm disappointed I wasn't able to finish in time, I learned SO MUCH from changing up my process and trying something new. For instance learned the hard way that Zbrush is absolutely awful at baking normal maps...

So I have a huge library of new knowledge to use to my advantage for the next Polycount contest, whatever that may be. I'm looking forward to it. And I'm really happy to have learned about the DOTA workshop, it's really something I think I'll have fun with hehe.

I'm really, really impressed with the quality stuff that comes from the members here. So good luck everyone!