[Dota2] - Brewmaster - Portabrew

Pina · Nov 2012

UPDATE
Submission finished. Steam Workshop link.
Youtube video

O R I G I N A L - P O S T

After thinking a few days about this I decided to go with another submission.
I already have the knowledge and wisdom from the first submission (Order of the Caretos set) so this should be much easier.

I also need to let Anuxinamoon know that he is not the only that can do multiple submissions

hehehe... who am I kidding, 5 submissions already?...

First of all Brewmaster is the character I am familiar with so another set is easier to do than to go to another character.
Secondly, there aren't that many Brewmaster submissions, well, there are threads but only one or two are really updating with materials.
Third, I had an idea I liked to see in the game.

THE PORTABLE BREWERY! (Portabrew?)
The Brass City of Veelavee set (temp. name)

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1300x538.

Items are mostly brass wood and leather
Back - The Portable Brewery
Weapon - Brass Pipe Wrench
Off hand - Brass Keg
Shoulders - Leather Harness + Hat (formerly wool cap)
Arms - Leather Bracers (formerly gloves)

Brass Keg
The Brass Keg is just like a normal keg instead it is made of brass instead of wood. A gift to Mangix from the Mayor of the Brass City of Veelavee for helping them in the fight against the enemy.

The Portable Brewery
Built by the Master Brass Builders of Veelavee, the Portable Brewery is a complex piece of engineering. It works just like a normal brewery would except that Mangix can carry it everywhere.

Brass Pipe Wrench
The Brass Pipe Wrench was a gift to Mangix from the Mayor of the Brass City of Veelavee for helping them in the fight against the enemy. Although best used in pipes and for tuning up the inner workings of a brewery, the Brewmaster prefers to lay down its weight in the heads of his opponents.
Leather Harness + Hat
Although there is no slot for the head on Brewmaster, this shoulder item includes both a leather harness and a hat. The Leather Harness holds the Portable Brewery and the Hat is just for style, well... some might say that little hats on animals can't exactly be called stylish. Except with Brewmaster anything he wears becomes the standard for others to follow so...
Leather Bracers
A pair of leather bracers for extra grip.

Idea and concept
It is cool to think that Brewmaster is this great master of brew but actually he is on the road often and if I would have to guess, he must stop lots of times to refill his keg. So why not have a portable brewery instead? This way he can make his own brew whenever he needs more.

Story (wip)
Mangix finally reached one of the greatest cities ever built, the Brass City of Veelavee only to find it in war against their enemies. He helped the citizens in vanquishing their enemies.
For his heroic deeds the master brass builders built him a portable brewery.

I will be posting more pics of decisions I have to make because I haven't locked down the items yet.

P.S. Filipe Andrade is not participating on this one with me.

Pina · Nov 2012

3D tests started.
Like before, I first go in and do the blockouts for Lod1. This way I test all the items to see how the form and shape look in-game. In this case the gloves and harness might have some issues when the character moves and bends. Only after this I go for Lod0 and high-res mesh for the normal maps.

Pina · Nov 2012

All items seem to fit in nicely, the gloves actually only need a little tweaking.
The only one I thought would be easy as pie is actually the one who has a problem, the backpack.

It seems that the brewmaster idle pose puts the weapon right through the backpack. I need either to move it lower or make it shorter. It's really a shame, only in the idle pose does Brewmaster get his weapon on his shoulder

Pina · Nov 2012

High res mesh and Lod1 for the portable brewery done. Also did some fast Lod0 test just to check that I could cut some geometry without any problems. Flipped some elements from one side to the other to avoid collision with any animation. Lowered the entire thing and shortened the base. Also moved the cannister on the bottom to the right, it was not visible in-game or the portrait. Next UVs, normal map, ambient occlusion, painting etc.
Also updated the story and change some items names. Will post this later.

ACap · Nov 2012

Good Idea and great job, man. There is a plenty of time, so, I think you will make it with ease. Clipping problems make me angry too. But now, doing my 7th, I starting from looking on the animations and trying to find best proportions before concepting. My shadow shaman was remade almost in the final, because I found, that his animations affecting front of the face, so I had to remake his mask, but it was not very painful. In your case it looks really bad and I would make new concept and started from begining)

Pina · Nov 2012

Thanks for the suggestions. I already remade the portable brewery so the one in high res is already in conformity with all the animations

Anuxinamoon · Nov 2012

Hahah Pina

Looking nice! Thicken up the belt on the highpoly to help it read better, most of your details are the same depth. Vary them a bit and your bake will be more visible

EtotheRic · Nov 2012

Haha nice!

Something that might be cool for his weapon or off-hand is a wooden stirrer. A paddle or wooden version of something like this

Pina · Nov 2012

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

@Auxinamoon, thanks for the idea, I already did the bake but got some slight errors so when I redo it I will try that.

@EtotheRic, the idea is really good! will search for images to see what else I find. Still don't know if I keep the wrench or not, needs to be something that hurts when you hit somebody with

Pina · Nov 2012

Portable brewery and shoulders + hat is modelled and tested.
Difuse colors are almost finished as well as normal maps.
I am still not sure if I will go with the golden brass look or change for something else later. But it is easier to change the colors later with the entire set finished than midway through.

Pina · Dec 2012

Brass keg almost done.
Need to start seeing the models with the masks in-game to check if all these brass materials will look like I want them too.

Clyptic · Dec 2012

Looks great!

Pina · Dec 2012

Thanks

I am currently discussing in another forum what is the best weapon to use in this set considering it has to make sense with the portable brewery and brass keg.
My current idea is a big brass wrench, but someone suggested others:

A big spoon, or ladle.
A dredge.
A wrench or pipe.

Here is the spoon and wrench test.

Need ideas and suggestions.

Pina · Dec 2012

Ok, no opinions from anyone, had to move on and went with the wrench.
Meanwhile started getting all assets in-game startgin with the brass keg.

As you can see, all textures are working fine but the keg looses its color in the normal viewing window but you can see it correctly while playing from top. I am using the Mask2 channel3 (B) to color it from texture but it doesn't seem to work correclty.

Pina · Dec 2012

Portable brewery also with finished masks but again it looses color in the viewer

I added some self ilumination to the pressure gauge but it seems it is not that noticeable at night.

Pina · Dec 2012

Brass wrench also tested and ready to go. Same problem with shaders to fix later.

Pina · Dec 2012

Ok, masks, textures and most everything is tested. Found some minor errors with some normal maps when doing some test renders.

Here is one test pic.
I also took the time to try and start finding a font and deciding on colors.

Pina · Dec 2012

Ok, managed to get through most problems and kinks. Still have some things I would have liked to waste more time on... oh well.

Assembling everything on the store, will post the final result in a short time and then post some of the final meshes and general looks.