I think the bracer is done, might rework the texture a bit, but decided to continue the bone theme and see if i can get a set done. Im happy with the belt, but not sure where to go with the shoulder/back and head, still WIP.
After a lot of struggling, I wasn't feeling the direction of the rest of the set, and will settle for just a single item for Ogre Magi, the Lucky Double Hoodie:
Probably going to put it aside and open it again in a few days for some tweaks.
Hi Tibbi.
I like the idea a lot, but I think unless you manage to explain the gator's stiffness in the texture some how you should think about wrapping it up in something...otherwise you'd expect it's arms and legs to flail about a bit.
maybe get it tied to a stick with some leather straps or somesuch nonsense. Sculpt looks fun though
Any thoughts before retopo and stuff? It's supposed to be a Dark Seer kind of circlet/gem/thingy, like his "third eye", since he's all for "intelligence over strength".
It definitely looks better, but i'm wondering about the scale. Is this for his head? if it's going to be that small in-game you might want to rethink a bit of the design work to get something visibly appealing at that scale.
It definitely looks better, but i'm wondering about the scale. Is this for his head? if it's going to be that small in-game you might want to rethink a bit of the design work to get something visibly appealing at that scale.
Yeah, it's kind of circlet or something like that, here's the base mesh:
And here is it with the main part a bit bigger:
I'm not sure if it'll look as good in-game, but my main concern is the portrait, and I'm focusing on making it look great there, while also having some colors like gold to make it stand out on the small model in-game.
Here's what I'm planning for this months competition, a weapon for PA for those who can't tell. I'll probably have to do some tests to make sure the parts that should go along the arm works out well enough.
Keep it up everyone, some great stuff in here so far
Not sure why normals are screwed up on Marmoset, they're completely fine (at least apparently).
I plan on painting the big eye part as some gold-ish color, not sure about the backpiece, maybe orange or something. I'm accepting suggestions.
I'm having some issues compiling it, and I'm pretty sure they're related to bones. Every time I try to compile after binding the bones with Maya (selecting head_1, then the mesh, Smooth Bind, select both and then export selection as .FBX), if I open it after doing this, I can see it also saved the beard and spine bones, and when I try to import it fails. I tried doing it through Blender, and while the import works, the item just floats away pretty far from the character. Am I missing something?
Not sure why normals are screwed up on Marmoset, they're completely fine (at least apparently).
I plan on painting the big eye part as some gold-ish color, not sure about the backpiece, maybe orange or something. I'm accepting suggestions.
I'm having some issues compiling it, and I'm pretty sure they're related to bones. Every time I try to compile after binding the bones with Maya (selecting head_1, then the mesh, Smooth Bind, select both and then export selection as .FBX), if I open it after doing this, I can see it also saved the beard and spine bones, and when I try to import it fails. I tried doing it through Blender, and while the import works, the item just floats away pretty far from the character. Am I missing something?
When the object floats far away from the character, does it still appear to be attached to the bone? I have no experience with compiling with Maya or Blender, but I know that this is a problem in 3DSMAX when compiling that deals with the object's pivot/hierarchy. You usually have to reset the object's pivot to get it to react correctly with the bones you attach.
i typically use a combination of clay tubes, dam standard and trim dynamic, but that's more to get the shape of larger chunks of hair, especially for something stylized...i love that hedgehog(?) on the club right now. It amuses me deep inside.
Not sure why normals are screwed up on Marmoset, they're completely fine (at least apparently).
I plan on painting the big eye part as some gold-ish color, not sure about the backpiece, maybe orange or something. I'm accepting suggestions.
I'm having some issues compiling it, and I'm pretty sure they're related to bones. Every time I try to compile after binding the bones with Maya (selecting head_1, then the mesh, Smooth Bind, select both and then export selection as .FBX), if I open it after doing this, I can see it also saved the beard and spine bones, and when I try to import it fails. I tried doing it through Blender, and while the import works, the item just floats away pretty far from the character. Am I missing something?
If the normals in marmoset are screwed up they probably are! Most of the time I test my models in marmoset to look if the normals are all correct, because in some 3d programs it's hard to see. Make sure you have the correct smoothing on your model, or if you use mirrored parts that you change the normals correctly..
If the item floads far from the character, try to change the pivit point from the object. Was having this issue too since the last update. Or in 3ds max you can select the use working pivot, it should be at your root bone.
I managed to bind everything right, imported it successfully on the right place, but there's still a problem (as always). If I select the LOD1 on both in-game and portrait geometry, it import it flawlessly, but with the LOD1 geometry on portrait of course. If I try to import both LOD1 for in-game and LOD0 for the portrait, the import fails. They were bound and exported both the exact same way, and still, for some reason, the import just fails when selecting the LOD0.
Anyway, here's the progress so far:
Not too happy with the colors, still fiddling with it a bit.
My only criticism is that much of the finer details you spend time refining in the sculpt don't translate that well into the game engine due to the texture and visual size. Those blue runes read quite well on the portrait shot but the runes around the gem itself are barely visible in the portrait and most of the runes are hard to define in the game camera.
The colours work pretty well though but you could experiment with different colours on the gem to see if anything works better and doesn't get "lost" so much in the dominant purple of his body.
Larger and bolder shapes in the sculpt will translate much better to the in game engine. It can also be a good idea to import a quick mockup of your bash mesh into the engine before the sculpt to get a feeling of how much visual space you have to work with.
I managed to bind everything right, imported it successfully on the right place, but there's still a problem (as always). If I select the LOD1 on both in-game and portrait geometry, it import it flawlessly, but with the LOD1 geometry on portrait of course. If I try to import both LOD1 for in-game and LOD0 for the portrait, the import fails. They were bound and exported both the exact same way, and still, for some reason, the import just fails when selecting the LOD0.
What's the actual error message you are getting here?
My only criticism is that much of the finer details you spend time refining in the sculpt don't translate that well into the game engine due to the texture and visual size. Those blue runes read quite well on the portrait shot but the runes around the gem itself are barely visible in the portrait and most of the runes are hard to define in the game camera.
The colours work pretty well though but you could experiment with different colours on the gem to see if anything works better and doesn't get "lost" so much in the dominant purple of his body.
Larger and bolder shapes in the sculpt will translate much better to the in game engine. It can also be a good idea to import a quick mockup of your bash mesh into the engine before the sculpt to get a feeling of how much visual space you have to work with.
What's the actual error message you are getting here?
Hope any of this helps.
Thanks for all the feedback and help!
I'm still mostly experimenting with things, this item for instance is a lot better than my last one, and I hope to improve even more on the next.
This only happens when I select LOD0 on Portrait Geometry. I tried (and still am) to change how I bind, checking for any errors, but it still keeps screwing up.
I'll try to do it on Max a bit later.
EDIT
I did it!
Not sure what was screwing it up, but this time I imported the .MA file instead of the .FBX, deleted every geometry, imported my model, selected both the head_01 joint and the mesh, used Smooth Bind to Selected Joints with everything else default, changed FBX to 2009 and removed animations, lights, etc. and then just exported and it worked!
Working on her head piece again, the previous one isn't working =___=
And the ponytail thing was too much similar to the original in game.
Crits are welcome!
More or less finished the base mesh for our PA set.
Although seeing Zaphk work I see that I will need to work twice as hard to be even close to awesomeness of your set
I would lose all the feathers, it will give it a more windrunner look also if the colors are completely diffrerent. I'm not really seeing the feathers and Phantom Assasin combination to be honost.
Maybe remove them completely and keep the detail in the hood and cloth?
The sculp is looking great so far!
I'd go with only the feathers on the top of the hood. Like others have said the less noise look looks better. I agree with it looking a bit windrunner-y but I think any type of trim would help your model out, especially when it comes to adding some color to it, so I'd keep the feathers, atleast in the shoulders. Maybe try and make the feathers more dirty and scattered? I think when you add color to it it will be easier to variate it away from being Windrunner like.
Does the hood clip with the normal shoulders? How is the model distributed? It seems a bit thick to cause some clipping. Incredible sculpt so far.
I'm a bit weirded out, the first render looks like the textures are too noisy and grainy/realistic to follow Dota 2's art style, but the later ingame renders look fine. Maybe it's the lower resolution smudging in the details? It's a little noisy but it still reads well ingame.
I think the pony tail can be a bit more vertical, Its silhouette looks a bit stiff, try and utilize all the bones! Other than that it looks really awesome!
I'm a bit weirded out, the first render looks like the textures are too noisy and grainy/realistic to follow Dota 2's art style, but the later ingame renders look fine. Maybe it's the lower resolution smudging in the details? It's a little noisy but it still reads well ingame.
I think the pony tail can be a bit more vertical, Its silhouette looks a bit stiff, try and utilize all the bones! Other than that it looks really awesome!
I probably did over detail my high res texture a little, but once it's re sized I think it looks ok in game.
I'll take a look at the ponytail again tomorrow. I thought it looked fine in motion, but I can see what you mean by it looking stiff in the image.
I think the presence of feathers could still work for the character, specifically if they were dark - say crow feathers or something.
A minor update from me just to prove i've been working :P
I'm kind of dragging. Must pick up pace!
I agree with reverendK, some dark theme could work very well with her. I don't like the feather composition of the hood much though, I would try to use some really big black feathers, mostly pointing downwards or backwards. I also don't like the idea of a hood very much, helm is kinda her thing.
@reverendK: Looking really unique and great. I'm looking forward to see the finished sculpt.
Working on her head piece again, the previous one isn't working =___=
And the ponytail thing was too much similar to the original in game.
Crits are welcome!
I have played PA couple of times, and i think that big ponytail will not fit well to her crispy shapes. And one more eyecatching thing: your middle haircut element seemed to small to pass so big hair volume (may be it looks so only for the first time).
I agree with reverendK, some dark theme could work very well with her. I don't like the feather composition of the hood much though, I would try to use some really big black feathers, mostly pointing downwards or backwards. I also don't like the idea of a hood very much, helm is kinda her thing.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. Yes, the hood (and entire set) is a little further out there than usual, but I thought I'd take a gamble and just see how the dota community takes to it. I'm just not a huge fan of an armor clad assassin so I decided to go a different, more risky direction with it. However if people on the workshop hate it I'll try and rework it the best I can based on feedback.
I'll try some different things with the feathers tonight in the hood. Currently, I'm on the fence about the feathers on the hood which is why I decided to ask you all here. I think they have potential and could help pull the shoulder and head items together. I just need to find a more elegant solution for them. (Hopefully)
Replies
Probably going to put it aside and open it again in a few days for some tweaks.
I decided to get my feet wet with this contest. I'm working on a club for Ogre Magi.
Concept sketch
Starting the high poly sculpt.
I like the idea a lot, but I think unless you manage to explain the gator's stiffness in the texture some how you should think about wrapping it up in something...otherwise you'd expect it's arms and legs to flail about a bit.
maybe get it tied to a stick with some leather straps or somesuch nonsense. Sculpt looks fun though
Any thoughts before retopo and stuff? It's supposed to be a Dark Seer kind of circlet/gem/thingy, like his "third eye", since he's all for "intelligence over strength".
tennis racket for ogre magi almost done, flat render from blender
any critique would be appreciated
Yeah, it was indeed looking pretty basic. I tried adding some swirls thingies, looks much better now IMO.
Still touching it up a bit, meanwhile I'm open for more suggestions.
Yeah, it's kind of circlet or something like that, here's the base mesh:
And here is it with the main part a bit bigger:
I'm not sure if it'll look as good in-game, but my main concern is the portrait, and I'm focusing on making it look great there, while also having some colors like gold to make it stand out on the small model in-game.
Here's what I'm planning for this months competition, a weapon for PA for those who can't tell. I'll probably have to do some tests to make sure the parts that should go along the arm works out well enough.
Keep it up everyone, some great stuff in here so far
I like it
hey paskie, that round tip looks to fragile for a weapon, besides that i like the concept =]
you could also make a more contrasting blade, is even and on the entire model, you could play a little with it
the suggestion on the stiffness is really nice
another suggestion i would like to give is to try to keep the club sillhouette, that big and round tip like the weight of it is enough to be an weapon
welcome to our competition, i should have said that when i unlocked your first post =]
great work, you started really well
if i may suggest i dont think the logo on the racket fit the art style, we dont have as far as i know, any valve logo inside the game
the rest is really amazing, i would like to know how is your worksflow to make the normals after the difuse
congrats on finishing it, dont worry if you are fully satisfied with it, you can improve on the next one =]
great Nannou! awesome set
both added to the first post
You could add an oversized tortoise in its mouth to give it that hard end .:)
Yup, will make it a little denser around the tip. Will post the highpoly later tonight if i'll get something good going.
Not sure why normals are screwed up on Marmoset, they're completely fine (at least apparently).
I plan on painting the big eye part as some gold-ish color, not sure about the backpiece, maybe orange or something. I'm accepting suggestions.
I'm having some issues compiling it, and I'm pretty sure they're related to bones. Every time I try to compile after binding the bones with Maya (selecting head_1, then the mesh, Smooth Bind, select both and then export selection as .FBX), if I open it after doing this, I can see it also saved the beard and spine bones, and when I try to import it fails. I tried doing it through Blender, and while the import works, the item just floats away pretty far from the character. Am I missing something?
When the object floats far away from the character, does it still appear to be attached to the bone? I have no experience with compiling with Maya or Blender, but I know that this is a problem in 3DSMAX when compiling that deals with the object's pivot/hierarchy. You usually have to reset the object's pivot to get it to react correctly with the bones you attach.
If the normals in marmoset are screwed up they probably are! Most of the time I test my models in marmoset to look if the normals are all correct, because in some 3d programs it's hard to see. Make sure you have the correct smoothing on your model, or if you use mirrored parts that you change the normals correctly..
If the item floads far from the character, try to change the pivit point from the object. Was having this issue too since the last update. Or in 3ds max you can select the use working pivot, it should be at your root bone.
I managed to bind everything right, imported it successfully on the right place, but there's still a problem (as always). If I select the LOD1 on both in-game and portrait geometry, it import it flawlessly, but with the LOD1 geometry on portrait of course. If I try to import both LOD1 for in-game and LOD0 for the portrait, the import fails. They were bound and exported both the exact same way, and still, for some reason, the import just fails when selecting the LOD0.
Anyway, here's the progress so far:
Not too happy with the colors, still fiddling with it a bit.
Sure!
BTW, masks aren't done yet.
My only criticism is that much of the finer details you spend time refining in the sculpt don't translate that well into the game engine due to the texture and visual size. Those blue runes read quite well on the portrait shot but the runes around the gem itself are barely visible in the portrait and most of the runes are hard to define in the game camera.
The colours work pretty well though but you could experiment with different colours on the gem to see if anything works better and doesn't get "lost" so much in the dominant purple of his body.
Larger and bolder shapes in the sculpt will translate much better to the in game engine. It can also be a good idea to import a quick mockup of your bash mesh into the engine before the sculpt to get a feeling of how much visual space you have to work with.
What's the actual error message you are getting here?
Hope any of this helps.
Thanks for all the feedback and help!
I'm still mostly experimenting with things, this item for instance is a lot better than my last one, and I hope to improve even more on the next.
Here's the log:
This only happens when I select LOD0 on Portrait Geometry. I tried (and still am) to change how I bind, checking for any errors, but it still keeps screwing up.
I'll try to do it on Max a bit later.
EDIT
I did it!
Not sure what was screwing it up, but this time I imported the .MA file instead of the .FBX, deleted every geometry, imported my model, selected both the head_01 joint and the mesh, used Smooth Bind to Selected Joints with everything else default, changed FBX to 2009 and removed animations, lights, etc. and then just exported and it worked!
Now to figure out the masks!
Any suggestions? I think it's pretty much done.
I added some selfillum, it was even brighter before, but I thought it was too much.
I'll do revisions to it tomorrow, but for now, here is it on the workshop!
And the ponytail thing was too much similar to the original in game.
Crits are welcome!
Although seeing Zaphk work I see that I will need to work twice as hard to be even close to awesomeness of your set
Now onto Darkseer and Ogre Magi
Both look great!
Maybe remove them completely and keep the detail in the hood and cloth?
The sculp is looking great so far!
A minor update from me just to prove i've been working :P
I'm kind of dragging. Must pick up pace!
@Robbiek1000:
I'd go with only the feathers on the top of the hood. Like others have said the less noise look looks better. I agree with it looking a bit windrunner-y but I think any type of trim would help your model out, especially when it comes to adding some color to it, so I'd keep the feathers, atleast in the shoulders. Maybe try and make the feathers more dirty and scattered? I think when you add color to it it will be easier to variate it away from being Windrunner like.
Does the hood clip with the normal shoulders? How is the model distributed? It seems a bit thick to cause some clipping. Incredible sculpt so far.
@PoPcorn:
I'm a bit weirded out, the first render looks like the textures are too noisy and grainy/realistic to follow Dota 2's art style, but the later ingame renders look fine. Maybe it's the lower resolution smudging in the details? It's a little noisy but it still reads well ingame.
I think the pony tail can be a bit more vertical, Its silhouette looks a bit stiff, try and utilize all the bones! Other than that it looks really awesome!
@Konras
This looks weird and kind of crazy for Phantom Assassin, but I'm still interested on how it'll turn out in the sculpt. Never hurts to be unique.
@Zaphk
The new sculpt looks great! The new ponytail is crazy, but I think it compliments the head piece better.
I probably did over detail my high res texture a little, but once it's re sized I think it looks ok in game.
I'll take a look at the ponytail again tomorrow. I thought it looked fine in motion, but I can see what you mean by it looking stiff in the image.
I agree with reverendK, some dark theme could work very well with her. I don't like the feather composition of the hood much though, I would try to use some really big black feathers, mostly pointing downwards or backwards. I also don't like the idea of a hood very much, helm is kinda her thing.
@reverendK: Looking really unique and great. I'm looking forward to see the finished sculpt.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. Yes, the hood (and entire set) is a little further out there than usual, but I thought I'd take a gamble and just see how the dota community takes to it. I'm just not a huge fan of an armor clad assassin so I decided to go a different, more risky direction with it. However if people on the workshop hate it I'll try and rework it the best I can based on feedback.
I'll try some different things with the feathers tonight in the hood. Currently, I'm on the fence about the feathers on the hood which is why I decided to ask you all here. I think they have potential and could help pull the shoulder and head items together. I just need to find a more elegant solution for them. (Hopefully)