hey guys, just wanted to share this before going and passing out. This was about 6 weeks of 16+ hour days, while moving twice and doing the ESL stuff too. Glad to have it all finished and submitted. Here's hoping Valve doesn't 'You shall not pass' everything
O snap. Inspiring contribution to dota man.
Crazy amount of items that I've loved in game, and always wanted to know who did them!
Wicked bro. Will be subbing
Nice collection, the only crits I have is that the ward seems a bit too fragile/thin in terms of silhouette and really stands out in that respect because all the other items are right on the money in terms of 'weight'
It's AMAZING!
I share the same opinion as Spud about the ward, but I like all the other items. It's an impressive high quality collection. Good job, can't wait to see it all on the store!
Thanks a ton guys!! It was exhausting but I'm so happy to have it all finished.
@ Spud & Zaphk, I completely agree with you, the ward looked better on paper than it did translating to 3d, and unfortunately didn't have the time to take another swing at it. I'm still happy with how it came out, but I don't think it's on the same level as the others. Too thin !
Okay, so I've finally compiled some videos I had taken together. There's no audio, and it's sped up so it doesn't go on forever, and some stuff was missing... but whatever, besides the point! Now that I have a workflow for this down I plan on actually recording in a better fashion as I work and have a quicker turnaround on this. My test case will be with the ESL sniper rifle I'll be hitting up next.
Oh man, these texturing videos remind me of how nice it was to texture like that in Deep Paint 3D a few years back (same workflow : exporting a screenshot to Photoshop, painting over that, re-importing/reprojecting). It allowed to texture a full character in just a few passes.
Is there any hurdle in the process when using 3DC for this workflow ? Or some minor pitfalls to know about ?
Admittedly I haven't given this technique a try in 3DC since a few versions back because it was a little buggy back then. If I remember correctly the Mudbox implementation of the same feature was a little buggy too, but Deep Paint not being supported anymore makes me want to give it another spin...
Oh man, I remember watching Slipgatecentral's DeepPaint video ages ago and was soooo impressed by that. I tried both Mudbox and 3Dcoat a while back and for me, 3Dcoat was definitely better, the only gripe I had was that I couldn't use PS brushes but with this technique, that is so much easier (there _are_ some bugs when painting on really low poly geo in 3DCoat where the angle between the polys is more than 90°, but you can deal with it by rotating the camera around till it works). Also, that color picker window in 3DCoat is pretty handy. So much to catch up on...
Oh man, I remember watching Slipgatecentral's DeepPaint video ages ago and was soooo impressed by that. I tried both Mudbox and 3Dcoat a while back and for me, 3Dcoat was definitely better, the only gripe I had was that I couldn't use PS brushes but with this technique, that is so much easier (there _are_ some bugs when painting on really low poly geo in 3DCoat where the angle between the polys is more than 90°, but you can deal with it by rotating the camera around till it works). Also, that color picker window in 3DCoat is pretty handy. So much to catch up on...
This is exactly why I've been wanting this workflow for so long. I saw that video and tried for such a long time to either find a copy of DeepPaint or another method that worked the same way but I couldn't. I even think DeepPaint was discontinued by the time I first saw that video (The video in question, if anyone is curious: http://vimeo.com/5820395).
Then while I was at Trion I had learned that 3D Coat had this feature, I rushed to try it, and experimented with it for a bit and found that it was exactly what I was looking for.
Yeah, painting in 3DC isn't amazing, it has custom brushes but it still doesnt FEEL as good as PS does, so I'll usually use 3dc for cleaning up symmetry seams more than anything, and projection paint the rest.
Is there any hurdle in the process when using 3DC for this workflow ? Or some minor pitfalls to know about ?
There are some hiccups:
- Spudnik mentions one about the 'more than 90 degrees' angles. While painting in 3DC it gets a little tricky, sometimes you need to rotate the camera a bit to get it painting properly on edges, though a lot of times I will open the UV view and just paint straight on that, makes it much quicker.
- If you're doing things like swords, sometimes the projection paint wont reach to the edge of the blade, or might goof out a little. This can be remedied by turning on 'Project Through' when doing your photoshop projection paint-over. Just make sure you turn it back off! or else you might accidentally do some weird shit later haha.
- be CAREFUL when project-painting on a symmetried area. The safest thing to do is 1) test the side you're painting on first. AKA shoot it over to PS, scribble on one side, save, and check that it projected the sym properly. If not, try it on the other side. Once you find which side works, DON'T PAINT OVER THE SYM LINE. It's just not worth it. It can work sometimes but I've had more goofy errors than not, like where it will only get the smudge that went over the center symmetry point and fuck up everything else.
- don't use photoshop layer modes. At least not when you save. My way around this is to use whatever I need in PS, then collapse it all down to a normal layer before saving. Some layers collapse weird if they are certain modes, and a way around this is to copy all (Ctrl+A to select all, then ctrl+shift+c to copy merged), paste it, align it, and merge that down over the other layers.
lastly, educational mode only supports 7 layers but with the way I work I've never needed more than that, plus it's A-OK as a license for Dota work.
lastly, educational mode only supports 7 layers but with the way I work I've never needed more than that, plus it's A-OK as a license for Dota work.
For those who dont know, you can get a full license of 3DCoat on Steam HERE. The reason I mention that is because during the upcoming summer sale, price will probably go down a to, I picked up my license for <50 bucks.
- don't use photoshop layer modes. At least not when you save. My way around this is to use whatever I need in PS, then collapse it all down to a normal layer before saving. Some layers collapse weird if they are certain modes, and a way around this is to copy all (Ctrl+A to select all, then ctrl+shift+c to copy merged), paste it, align it, and merge that down over the other layers.
If I didn't miss anything, you were working mostly on a single layer with no blending mode over all your bakes, correct? Just doing a straight up paintover? Shame that the symmetry is buggy, the 3DCoat brushes still feel so clunky to me, guess that just comes with practice.
If I didn't miss anything, you were working mostly on a single layer with no blending mode over all your bakes, correct? Just doing a straight up paintover? Shame that the symmetry is buggy, the 3DCoat brushes still feel so clunky to me, guess that just comes with practice.
Aye, in this case yeah. If I need some special effect (sometimes I will use multiply or some other layer blending mode), I will just make sure to merge it to a normal layer before saving to go back to 3dcoat.
and yeah.. 3dc brushes still are pretty clunky by nature. I almost wish there was a way to 'drop' the canvas like zb and turn it into 2d temporarily to get better brushwork. It does the job painting in 3d but they're nowhere near PS's level of control, at least not that I can manage.
also, good point! I think the summer sale starts really soon too.
lastly, educational mode only supports 7 layers but with the way I work I've never needed more than that, plus it's A-OK as a license for Dota work.
SLIMEface found an easy workaround for that. You can either import a PSD with as many layers as you need, or you can just duplicate an existing layer in 3D coat.
Great videos btw! Looks like a nice way to paint textures. They look much more alive and sexy.
I always wished to use ps brushes in 3dcoat + I tried out your method of painting over the bakes with a standard layer and it was much easier to get nice hue shifts from light to dark.
@Nannou - I wanted to stay closer to the original concept, otherwise I would have pushed it further. I actually dialed it back a bit so it wasn't too contrasty, but yeah I agree that would help differentiate the pieces more for sure.
@Ghost - yeah, I will do this sometime. Just too lazy/busy right now hehe
these are looking fantastic. The only critique I have is that the material definition on the beastmaster axes tends to read the same to me. The cloth has some really high specular and almost reads as metal to me.
@praetus - good call! Turns out I actually didn't have the alpha channel saved out correctly with Mask2, it seemed to have help the material definition part considering Glossiness is a huge part of that XD. I alsp doubled the size of the feathers.
Here's a couple other thingies I've been working on:
chen staff idea
tundra ward
husky pup courier
I've also been streaming pretty regularly now if anyone is interested in watching stuff be made, I'm usually on around 1-6am EST
I have three other summons I'll post here soonish, but in the meantime I'm making some progress on the VS set I'm doing with Cottonwings. She did a great job with the concept, check it out!
As far as I know 2MB only apply to image gallery on items page. In description you should definitely put bigger gif. Now I see that Luna looks sweet, but I don't know to what extent ^^. Looking forward to this and Venge as well!
Replies
Awesome job with the set.
Lich Neck, that twisted bone on the right side connection is awesome
Big fan of your ESL items, your sculpts always have a clean style to them
You know he's not some punk you can mess around with, look at them twisted muscles
Just wanted to pop in and share a guide made by Jimo and us about the creation of his ward; you can see it here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=257882054
thanks for looking!
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=264013254
Yes, it's for a third party, hope to have more specifics to share soon. Hope you guys like it!
TIME TO PASS OUT FOREVER
Crazy amount of items that I've loved in game, and always wanted to know who did them!
Wicked bro. Will be subbing
I share the same opinion as Spud about the ward, but I like all the other items. It's an impressive high quality collection. Good job, can't wait to see it all on the store!
@ Spud & Zaphk, I completely agree with you, the ward looked better on paper than it did translating to 3d, and unfortunately didn't have the time to take another swing at it. I'm still happy with how it came out, but I don't think it's on the same level as the others. Too thin !
Okay, so I've finally compiled some videos I had taken together. There's no audio, and it's sped up so it doesn't go on forever, and some stuff was missing... but whatever, besides the point! Now that I have a workflow for this down I plan on actually recording in a better fashion as I work and have a quicker turnaround on this. My test case will be with the ESL sniper rifle I'll be hitting up next.
In the meantime, have these:
Shadow Demon Model/Sculpt
Shadow Demon Texture Setup
Shadow Demon Texturing
Snapjaw Sculpting 1
if you have any questions let me know,
and once again, thanks for looking!
Is there any hurdle in the process when using 3DC for this workflow ? Or some minor pitfalls to know about ?
Admittedly I haven't given this technique a try in 3DC since a few versions back because it was a little buggy back then. If I remember correctly the Mudbox implementation of the same feature was a little buggy too, but Deep Paint not being supported anymore makes me want to give it another spin...
This is exactly why I've been wanting this workflow for so long. I saw that video and tried for such a long time to either find a copy of DeepPaint or another method that worked the same way but I couldn't. I even think DeepPaint was discontinued by the time I first saw that video (The video in question, if anyone is curious: http://vimeo.com/5820395).
Then while I was at Trion I had learned that 3D Coat had this feature, I rushed to try it, and experimented with it for a bit and found that it was exactly what I was looking for.
Yeah, painting in 3DC isn't amazing, it has custom brushes but it still doesnt FEEL as good as PS does, so I'll usually use 3dc for cleaning up symmetry seams more than anything, and projection paint the rest.
There are some hiccups:
- Spudnik mentions one about the 'more than 90 degrees' angles. While painting in 3DC it gets a little tricky, sometimes you need to rotate the camera a bit to get it painting properly on edges, though a lot of times I will open the UV view and just paint straight on that, makes it much quicker.
- If you're doing things like swords, sometimes the projection paint wont reach to the edge of the blade, or might goof out a little. This can be remedied by turning on 'Project Through' when doing your photoshop projection paint-over. Just make sure you turn it back off! or else you might accidentally do some weird shit later haha.
- be CAREFUL when project-painting on a symmetried area. The safest thing to do is 1) test the side you're painting on first. AKA shoot it over to PS, scribble on one side, save, and check that it projected the sym properly. If not, try it on the other side. Once you find which side works, DON'T PAINT OVER THE SYM LINE. It's just not worth it. It can work sometimes but I've had more goofy errors than not, like where it will only get the smudge that went over the center symmetry point and fuck up everything else.
- don't use photoshop layer modes. At least not when you save. My way around this is to use whatever I need in PS, then collapse it all down to a normal layer before saving. Some layers collapse weird if they are certain modes, and a way around this is to copy all (Ctrl+A to select all, then ctrl+shift+c to copy merged), paste it, align it, and merge that down over the other layers.
lastly, educational mode only supports 7 layers but with the way I work I've never needed more than that, plus it's A-OK as a license for Dota work.
if you have any other questions feel free to ask!
For those who dont know, you can get a full license of 3DCoat on Steam HERE. The reason I mention that is because during the upcoming summer sale, price will probably go down a to, I picked up my license for <50 bucks.
If I didn't miss anything, you were working mostly on a single layer with no blending mode over all your bakes, correct? Just doing a straight up paintover? Shame that the symmetry is buggy, the 3DCoat brushes still feel so clunky to me, guess that just comes with practice.
Aye, in this case yeah. If I need some special effect (sometimes I will use multiply or some other layer blending mode), I will just make sure to merge it to a normal layer before saving to go back to 3dcoat.
and yeah.. 3dc brushes still are pretty clunky by nature. I almost wish there was a way to 'drop' the canvas like zb and turn it into 2d temporarily to get better brushwork. It does the job painting in 3d but they're nowhere near PS's level of control, at least not that I can manage.
also, good point! I think the summer sale starts really soon too.
heh
SLIMEface found an easy workaround for that. You can either import a PSD with as many layers as you need, or you can just duplicate an existing layer in 3D coat.
Great videos btw! Looks like a nice way to paint textures. They look much more alive and sexy.
I always wished to use ps brushes in 3dcoat + I tried out your method of painting over the bakes with a standard layer and it was much easier to get nice hue shifts from light to dark.
With that said, I made another one for the ESL One premium ticket Sniper weapon. This one is a bit better than the others considering I filmed the entire thing from start to finish without the weird gaps found in the previous videos.
You can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl0r_649uDk
and vote on it here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=274623370
I also made timestamps yay! heh, they were much easier than I thought.
here is the result:
I also updated my OP.. as much as I could. 16 image limit
Thanks for looking!
It's a sign that you're damn hardworking!
@Nannou - I wanted to stay closer to the original concept, otherwise I would have pushed it further. I actually dialed it back a bit so it wasn't too contrasty, but yeah I agree that would help differentiate the pieces more for sure.
@Ghost - yeah, I will do this sometime. Just too lazy/busy right now hehe
first, a luna mount for an upcoming set
and a pair of beastmaster axes ! These have a creation video that I will try to have up by this weekend.
thanks for looking !!
edit: and on inspection yes I think I will be sizing the feathers up
Here's a couple other thingies I've been working on:
chen staff idea
tundra ward
husky pup courier
I've also been streaming pretty regularly now if anyone is interested in watching stuff be made, I'm usually on around 1-6am EST
Thanks for looking!
A couple more things coming down the pipe:
Thanks for looking !!
I have three other summons I'll post here soonish, but in the meantime I'm making some progress on the VS set I'm doing with Cottonwings. She did a great job with the concept, check it out!
quick test, this is what it takes to make a 2mb gif for me. I am horrible at making gifs apparently haha:
edit: fixed! transparency on gifs no work proper so I make gray.