Here's a suuuper early and rough blockout from FudgieWudgie's Abaddon helmet. Still working on the shape of some stuff, then I'll get into smoothing the surface, detailing and everything.
Actually my first time going straight into ZBrush without a base mesh. Much much easier to mask and extract stuff from Abaddon's head.
Not sure if I'm that happy with the runes and stuff on the helm, I may change them. Also need to tighten up some of the helm details, the cloth and specially the tail.
Really really need some thoughts on that sword. I think I solved the problem of defining the material of the blade a bit better now that I got the masks almost done. I was going for a material that looked a bit like his flesh/skin, playing with the idea that he isn't good old Skeleton King, but a Wraith King now, so no bone shenanigans. Also tried to match the overall colors and materials to the ones on his default items. I'm also not so sure about its size. It kinda looks like an oversized dagger, and if I make it bigger it looks even worse, but if I make it smaller it looks like a normal dagger, which doesn't fit the hero.
I don't know why, but I think the sword is still in the skeleton's king vibe. Wraith King has more adorned stuff, just a thought.
I guess you could maybe rethink the proportions of the blade compared to the handle extension in the blade's back, this might solve the feeling of an "oversized dagger".
Also I guess the empty space of the blade could be filled with something else , another material/runes etc. Welp that's my point of view at first glance.
I think that if I make the sword more adorned it would break a bit of the theme. I like the balance right now of a golden handle with a gem on it, but with a ghastly fleshy blade, and I personally think that the theme fits with him. I agree that proportions are the main problem which makes it look like an oversized dagger, but I'm not so sure if I can do much without having to start everything again. I also agree that the blade is a bit empty, and I even though about adding some material similar to the blue on his armor, but I didn't want to stray too far from the initial concept.
I'll check with noblebatterfly and see if there are any changes we can agree on.
Again, thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it
Messed with some colors and masks, quite a bit happier now with how it looks. If everything goes as planned, I'm submitting it tomorrow. Here's a promo I made along with a whole bunch of screenshots and gifs:
Well, I'm trying to get the WK sword on the workshop since yesterday, but the original concept artist doesn't respond to any of my messages anywhere, so all I can do is wait now, which is pretty shitty.
Anyway, some more work on the Abaddon helm. Adjusted some proportions thanks to the guys over at the Hangout, and also removed the runes for the time being. Still some way to go. Not quite happy with the furry tail yet, and also need to work a bit more on the cloth.
Made a bunch of changes today on the helmet! The mouth guard now actually guards the mouth, made the cloth less boring by getting it over his collar and also worked a lot more on the tail thingy.
Thanks everyone on the Hangout for the help Some more critique would be lovely.
It could be the matcap, I use a different one for taking pictures and I also do a quick BPR. Here's a shot with a simpler material that I use to sculpt:
Still needs lot of clean up though, the plume/tail specially, it's nowhere near done, mostly a blockout.
Really rough first pass. Trying to balance out the blue, purple and yellow, specially on the helm. Also need to work a lot more on making decent fur/hair.
Starting up a new project! A Nature's Prophet set with Artypi
I wanted to do it since it was posted, but I didn't had time to finish it for the CNY and for some insane reason no one picked it up!
Here's a super super rough blockout.
Again, as I did with the Abaddon helm, I'm trying to skip the part where I create base meshes and do it straight in ZBrush.
Would love some critiques, specially about the detail level. I know it's really really rough, but is 20-50k tris a nice amount to start blocking out stuff or do I need to go lower? Trying to nail that step so I don't have to spend too much time cleaning up the blobyness that is left later on.
EDIT
More progress. Having a much better time sculpting fur now. The Enchantress spear and the Abaddon helm really helped me learning how to get fur that looks good on Dota 2.
I really like your progress on this set! So glad someone picked it up. It feels like a very wintery outfit though, so valve might hold on to it for a while before release.
You've improved so much and so fast from the abaddon helmet to this furion mantle :OO (what is your secret!)
Yeah, I can definitely see how it feels kinda wintery with the coat/mantle, but the flower help to break that a bit. And I kinda like the winter idea
The secret is to just have a lot of fun and enjoy the work, haha! I'm really having a blast doing this set, and everything is going so fast and smoothly, unlike anything I've ever done before, and it has been an amazing experience so far.
The rope is disconnected at the back! Also, I strongly suggest either adding some subtle folds and/or a pattern to the black areas. Love the horns, not sure how difficult it will be to fit it in triangle count. Bracers are a bit generic, which isn't bad.
The rope is disconnected at the back! Also, I strongly suggest either adding some subtle folds and/or a pattern to the black areas. Love the horns, not sure how difficult it will be to fit it in triangle count. Bracers are a bit generic, which isn't bad.
Yeah, I know about the rope. I tried to insert it using a IMM Curve brush, but couldn't manage to make it work with symmetry, since it would kinda create an extra "rope" and mess everything, so I inserted it without symmetry and arranged it the best I could. I tried Smart ReSym but that gave me terrible results so I left it the way it is now. I'm expecting to mirror the UVs, so it's not really that big of a deal.
There IS a pattern on the back on the concept, but it's just painted, so we're leaving that for the texturing stage
I think that I may be able to get the horns under the budget with no major problems, but we'll see!
For such a large area, I would really consider some pattern sculpt. Similar to what MDK did on his Kunkka's chest. Play with it and then take the best result; paint or sculpt.
I'd say, based on the concept, this set is more spring-like than winter. Personally I like the idea of leaving the mantle without too much sculpted detail, it gives the eye a place to rest, as the fur can be quite busy.
But I wanna say that both the concept and the sculpt look great. If you keep going in this direction it's bound to end up awesome. It's also interesting to see you improve over the course of your workshop thread, learning something with every new item. Great work ^_^
I agree with Gaiascope. Leaving the mantle a bit cleaner with less sculpted detail would be a lot nicer to contrast a bit the heavily sculpted fur. Still, I may try both ways when I start to lay down some colors later on.
Again, thank you all so much! I really appreciate you guys taking your time to visit my thread and follow my progress
I'm planning on streaming a bit on TwitchTV today if possible, so if anyone else wants to see how it's going, I'll post a link here or just join me and the polycount crew at the Hangouts!
Hey looking good belkun. About the rope and mirroring, you'll run into a problem with the rope spiral if you try to mirror it, the same happened to me with my Ursa Torc. I't might be ok cause its small, in my case the seam was behind his head so it couldn't be seen, with it front and center you might not want to mirror the rope.
That's it for today! I believe that I made a huge amount of work in just 3 days, working around 5 hours every day. Today was really really fun! Had a pretty great time on Twitch with some nice viewers. I'd like to thank everyone that dropped by!
Got some base colors and some shading on almost everything. Just need to paint the rope, the bag, possibly do some tweaks on the bracer and finally the fluffy tail!
My suggestion is: you can put a slight overlay gradient in the horns (or if it already has, a stronger one), with dark grey in the horn base and light gray in the top~
This will probably give you better values in the horn. The set looks pretty good so far!
My suggestion is: you can put a slight overlay gradient in the horns (or if it already has, a stronger one), with dark grey in the horn base and light gray in the top~
This will probably give you better values in the horn. The set looks pretty good so far!
I did a top to bottom gradient but it is indeed too faint and weak, I'm definitely going to make it a bit more pronounced. Thanks for the suggestion!
Well, yesterday was not a great day. ZBrush kept crashing and I couldn't stream because my internet died (sorry about that).
Anyway, I painted whatever was left to paint and tried to do the tail, which I'm not happy at all with. It just doesn't look quite right . Besides that, I think that the fur may need some more refinement to define them a bit more. Suggestions are very much welcome!
Unless my ISP decides to screw with me again, I'll hopefully try to stream today.
The tail looks pretty good from the side, but from the back the layering on it gives it a weird effect. Maybe try to lessen the amount with which the polypainting emphasizes the layering?
Did some minor changes to the set today, so figured that a stream wouldn't be necessary. Updated the tail with some really great help from Arty and the guys at the Hangout! I'm way happier with the result now.
I think that I'm really really close to finishing it up. Not sure if there is any part that needs urgent attention, but suggestions are highly appreciated as always
I'm super pumped to start on that treant, hope I can do it tomorrow!
EDIT
New rope with fixed symmetry and the pattern on the mantle's back.
EDIT 2
Toned down the dark parts of the rope. Thinking about lightening it even more overall. Also a shot from an angle similar to in-game:
Looking awesome belkun.
I have a question is there a opacity in polypant brush and how do you paint the green parts. I mean how do you pass to dark green from brighter green so good.
Looking awesome belkun.
I have a question is there a opacity in polypant brush and how do you paint the green parts. I mean how do you pass to dark green from brighter green so good.
As kite212 said, you can use RGB intensity to control the amount of color. The pressure sensitivity on your tablet is also pretty useful for blending colors.
Thanks everyone for the feedback! The horns are looking much much better now.
I'm calling this the final version. I may go back to it in the future when I start the lowpoly, but for now I'm really happy with how it turned out. Now it's time for MORE FUN! I'll start working on the treant in a few minutes and I'm streaming it! Here's the link as always: http://www.twitch.tv/belkuns
It is just awesome, I am very exited about treants as well. And as always I have a question (I hope I am not boring you or I am not spaming ypur thread with my questions)
How do you make a high poly without making a low poly?
A highpoly is pretty much any mesh with too many polygons to be usable in a game, which is pretty much anything you do on ZBrush. You can just start extracting stuff from a mesh or add polymeshes on ZBrush and that's a high poly. A lowpoly is usually obtained from the retopology you do afterwards. You don't need a lowpoly for a highpoly, but usually (at least if you're sculpting) you do need a highpoly for a lowpoly (again, only if you plan on sculpting or transferring maps from another mesh, which is usually the case on Dota 2).
That's the treant so far! I'm not really happy with how the neck thingy is looking, since it looks like fur instead of t leaves, which is what the concept shows, so I may just start that over. I'm liking the overall anatomy and the main body, but as always, throw me your critiques and suggestions!
Those holes aren't supposed to be eyes, in fact there are no eyes! It's more of a nose/decorative hole. It'll look better once I refine it a bit more. Also, I think that the fur looks alright, but I'm not sure if I'm doing the concept much justice with it. Here's the super amazing concept by Artypi by the way:
EDIT
Correction: they are eyes! They probably don't look like one right now, especially because of being too low, so we'll either change their position or think about something like a glow to make them more obtious.
Replies
Here's a suuuper early and rough blockout from FudgieWudgie's Abaddon helmet. Still working on the shape of some stuff, then I'll get into smoothing the surface, detailing and everything.
Actually my first time going straight into ZBrush without a base mesh. Much much easier to mask and extract stuff from Abaddon's head.
Critique is appreciated
Quick edit:
Not sure if I'm that happy with the runes and stuff on the helm, I may change them. Also need to tighten up some of the helm details, the cloth and specially the tail.
I guess you could maybe rethink the proportions of the blade compared to the handle extension in the blade's back, this might solve the feeling of an "oversized dagger".
Also I guess the empty space of the blade could be filled with something else , another material/runes etc. Welp that's my point of view at first glance.
I think that if I make the sword more adorned it would break a bit of the theme. I like the balance right now of a golden handle with a gem on it, but with a ghastly fleshy blade, and I personally think that the theme fits with him. I agree that proportions are the main problem which makes it look like an oversized dagger, but I'm not so sure if I can do much without having to start everything again. I also agree that the blade is a bit empty, and I even though about adding some material similar to the blue on his armor, but I didn't want to stray too far from the initial concept.
I'll check with noblebatterfly and see if there are any changes we can agree on.
Again, thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it
Anyway, some more work on the Abaddon helm. Adjusted some proportions thanks to the guys over at the Hangout, and also removed the runes for the time being. Still some way to go. Not quite happy with the furry tail yet, and also need to work a bit more on the cloth.
Thanks everyone on the Hangout for the help
Still needs lot of clean up though, the plume/tail specially, it's nowhere near done, mostly a blockout.
Really rough first pass. Trying to balance out the blue, purple and yellow, specially on the helm. Also need to work a lot more on making decent fur/hair.
I have no idea how I'm going to fit this on the budget, but I'll try.
Yeah, 300 tris for lod1 ):
Retopo, AKA where your dreams go to die.
Still need to fix a lot of issues with the bakes, but it's getting there!
I wanted to do it since it was posted, but I didn't had time to finish it for the CNY and for some insane reason no one picked it up!
Here's a super super rough blockout.
Again, as I did with the Abaddon helm, I'm trying to skip the part where I create base meshes and do it straight in ZBrush.
Would love some critiques, specially about the detail level. I know it's really really rough, but is 20-50k tris a nice amount to start blocking out stuff or do I need to go lower? Trying to nail that step so I don't have to spend too much time cleaning up the blobyness that is left later on.
EDIT
More progress. Having a much better time sculpting fur now. The Enchantress spear and the Abaddon helm really helped me learning how to get fur that looks good on Dota 2.
You've improved so much and so fast from the abaddon helmet to this furion mantle :OO (what is your secret!)
Yeah, I can definitely see how it feels kinda wintery with the coat/mantle, but the flower help to break that a bit. And I kinda like the winter idea
The secret is to just have a lot of fun and enjoy the work, haha! I'm really having a blast doing this set, and everything is going so fast and smoothly, unlike anything I've ever done before, and it has been an amazing experience so far.
Yeah, I know about the rope. I tried to insert it using a IMM Curve brush, but couldn't manage to make it work with symmetry, since it would kinda create an extra "rope" and mess everything, so I inserted it without symmetry and arranged it the best I could. I tried Smart ReSym but that gave me terrible results so I left it the way it is now. I'm expecting to mirror the UVs, so it's not really that big of a deal.
There IS a pattern on the back on the concept, but it's just painted, so we're leaving that for the texturing stage
I think that I may be able to get the horns under the budget with no major problems, but we'll see!
Thanks a lot for the feedback!
But I wanna say that both the concept and the sculpt look great. If you keep going in this direction it's bound to end up awesome. It's also interesting to see you improve over the course of your workshop thread, learning something with every new item. Great work ^_^
Again, thank you all so much! I really appreciate you guys taking your time to visit my thread and follow my progress
I'm planning on streaming a bit on TwitchTV today if possible, so if anyone else wants to see how it's going, I'll post a link here or just join me and the polycount crew at the Hangouts!
http://www.twitch.tv/belkuns
EDIT
Got some colors going
EDIT 2
Now some shading!
Got some base colors and some shading on almost everything. Just need to paint the rope, the bag, possibly do some tweaks on the bracer and finally the fluffy tail!
This will probably give you better values in the horn. The set looks pretty good so far!
I did a top to bottom gradient but it is indeed too faint and weak, I'm definitely going to make it a bit more pronounced. Thanks for the suggestion!
Starting the stream very soon! Come watch
http://www.twitch.tv/belkuns
Anyway, I painted whatever was left to paint and tried to do the tail, which I'm not happy at all with. It just doesn't look quite right . Besides that, I think that the fur may need some more refinement to define them a bit more. Suggestions are very much welcome!
Unless my ISP decides to screw with me again, I'll hopefully try to stream today.
I think that I'm really really close to finishing it up. Not sure if there is any part that needs urgent attention, but suggestions are highly appreciated as always
I'm super pumped to start on that treant, hope I can do it tomorrow!
EDIT
New rope with fixed symmetry and the pattern on the mantle's back.
EDIT 2
Toned down the dark parts of the rope. Thinking about lightening it even more overall. Also a shot from an angle similar to in-game:
I have a question is there a opacity in polypant brush and how do you paint the green parts. I mean how do you pass to dark green from brighter green so good.
Rgb Intensity
As kite212 said, you can use RGB intensity to control the amount of color. The pressure sensitivity on your tablet is also pretty useful for blending colors.
Here's a nice introduction to Polypaint:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AZjD7fdqco
I'm calling this the final version. I may go back to it in the future when I start the lowpoly, but for now I'm really happy with how it turned out. Now it's time for MORE FUN! I'll start working on the treant in a few minutes and I'm streaming it! Here's the link as always: http://www.twitch.tv/belkuns
How do you make a high poly without making a low poly?
A highpoly is pretty much any mesh with too many polygons to be usable in a game, which is pretty much anything you do on ZBrush. You can just start extracting stuff from a mesh or add polymeshes on ZBrush and that's a high poly. A lowpoly is usually obtained from the retopology you do afterwards. You don't need a lowpoly for a highpoly, but usually (at least if you're sculpting) you do need a highpoly for a lowpoly (again, only if you plan on sculpting or transferring maps from another mesh, which is usually the case on Dota 2).
Here's the treant so far! About 2h of sculpting.
EDIT
Some more progress:
That's the treant so far! I'm not really happy with how the neck thingy is looking, since it looks like fur instead of t leaves, which is what the concept shows, so I may just start that over. I'm liking the overall anatomy and the main body, but as always, throw me your critiques and suggestions!
Haha! I can't unsee that now!
@Xajai
Those holes aren't supposed to be eyes, in fact there are no eyes! It's more of a nose/decorative hole. It'll look better once I refine it a bit more. Also, I think that the fur looks alright, but I'm not sure if I'm doing the concept much justice with it. Here's the super amazing concept by Artypi by the way:
EDIT
Correction: they are eyes! They probably don't look like one right now, especially because of being too low, so we'll either change their position or think about something like a glow to make them more obtious.