Wouldn't the cage be just the same if you do it in xNormal natively?
Well, the approach I mentioned is technically using a cage. The main difference is the ease of use and the fact that you can still play around, to an extent, with the Ray Distance. Added, modifying the cage in 3DS Max is a breeze vs modifying it in XNormal. Atleast to my experience.
I have two questions:
1. Is there any difference between using SBM, FBX and OBJ in this particular case? Just curious
2. On that screenshot, are you using shaded viewport+realistic mats and maps? Also is that just the normal map or ur using AO or AO+Gradient maps?
P.S. When you guys want to move a vert in the direction of the normals, select the vert and switch to Local Coordinate System )
Answering your questions:
1. I believe, and haven't tested, that going SBM allows XNormal to do the Ray Distance calculation mentioned in step 7 which is very important. I don't know if XNormal can do that with the other file formats. Since SBM is specific to XNormal.
2. My viewport is using DirectX with Smooth settings. The one you are mentioning is Nitrous engine with Realistic viewport setting, though I am not using that in the screenshot. Also note that I am using DirectX material with DotaHero 2.2 shader (can be found around here in PC). As for the maps, I am using normal map and also AO as the diffuse.
Thanks for the tip. Somehow after all this time, I never thought about such an option! Andumy also pointed that to me. Simple stuff but very powerful!
Some progress on diffuse paint. Getting there! Ofcourse no masks applied. I tried to add gradients where it felt needed via both a top down gradient for each item, a global top down gradient and brush with some falloff in 3DCoat. Any comments in this area are welcome. Next I will move on to adding some small details such as dirt and highlights.
I'm assuming the yellow spots on the armor (not blade) should emit light? IF so, paint in some cast light directly into the diffuse. And yeah, add some hue variations via gradients or other means, just not gold. Keep every material separate but variate within that space. Maybe reduce the AO a bit on the spots where dents etc are so they don't appear to cut as deeply into the blade as the engravings.
With the shaders and such it's looking great now(really nailed the metal/gold look) but I can't help but want to see the eye in other colors/styles... Like a glowing light blue lens/orb look? Maybe one that has some self illumination? That has the potential to be really cool looking and offer a great contrast/highlight -- just think of how bright red it would turn when he uses his ult. Then maybe add another gold component to the helmet as it looks to be made of several different chunks of metal connected together.
@darkkyo; thanks for the feedback. I tried playing with selfillum but to our impression, it didn't look as good as the gold finish eye orb. As for color to blue or red, well, we honestly don't see it working on it. Added, the particle is white/gold/orange which we want to keep close to the default as players tend to outcry when too much change is introduced on particles.
We are now finalizing promo work and particles. So expect it to release soon.
I have started already working on my next set.
In the mean time, a quick item I am working on based on a concept from Double Leaf. Currently early base mesh. I think I captured the main features of the weapon and will do some more minor tweaking then take it to Zbrush for refining features and detailing.
And here is the finished Item. We went ahead with what people thought to be a bulky design. As testing it ingame shows that it can work. Similar to how Manta style weapons worked on AM.
After some hickups, we are proud to present Oathbreaker's Armaments, a set for Sven. Complete with custom ability icons, loading screen and a custom particle for the head item. Thanks for Egor-Ursus for the concept, loading screen and ability icons and to Automedic for his custom particle effect.
P.S. Special thanks to Robo for his translation work as Egor doesn't speak english.
This kinda makes me a hypocrite as I am always against bundling with tourneys and pro teams. As can be clearly seen in this last patch, this is a direction to make a lot of workshop submissions move and get into the game.
I am still working hard to get my work in vanilla form and one day, I believe I will achieve that.
Special thanks to everyone around here as your support directly or indirectly helped me a lot to continue on this adventurous path!
Been a while since I posted any of my work. So here is my current project. A Tiny tree of a concept by Madshock. I feel I am halfway through the sculpt and it is still missing one element. Not sure how the UV space and tris limits will be but I guess that will be the fun part!
Crits are rare these days so don't hold back to give some!
Finally, it has been a bumpy ride for all of us who worked on this set but we believe it turned out great. Lumberclaw set for Timbersaw comes with all items replacements, loading screen and custom particles for spells and chainsaw.
Honestly I never thought it will be this daunting to make a set for Timbersaw. He is huge! Especially with the tight texture budget on the shoulders item. Additionally, get the reactive armor tested is not straight forward.
Modeling and base texture by Vayne
Texture finalization and loading screen by Oroboros [Red Moon]
Particles and SFM video by Drew Carrymore
We would appreciate your support for our latest work.
Thanks everyone. Your support is highly valued. After all the frustration that is the workshop, making something that gets good reaction is a welcome feeling and pushes me to positivity.
After a hiatus and lots of crunching, I finished my work for the New Bloom 2015! In collaboration with Red Moon and other artists who all worked to make The Dark Lotus Bundle which can be viewed at www.thedarklotus.com
I worked on the Nature Prophet Set which was a new challenge for me. He is almost completely transformed but since Valve kept asking artists to make something that isn't similar to existing stuff. I hope you like it as much as I did.
I really like the main set itself, every single piece of it is great, however, I can't say I'm a big fan of the staff. It looks a bit unfinished and I'm not sure if it fits with the set. While on the set there are several layered materials and pieces, the staff looks like an extremely simple flower on a stick. The way both of them are 'connected' doesn't seem right, and the piece looks a bit rushed and 'cheap'.
I also have a bit of a problem with the summon, because it really doesn't look like a treant at all, but instead something like a boar from Beastmaster or even a courier, and that is surely going to cause a lot of confusion ingame, since I also took a while to figure out that it was actually a treant, and some friends had the same problem.
The promotional page, while incredibly well made and just straight up next level, is quite a bit misleading, and probably intentionally so, and I fear that may (or may not) influence Valve when reviewing the collection.
Still, the main set is fire, despite a couple of gripes with some items, the actual 'clothing' looks great!
So yeah I have to agree that while the presentation sure is slick, it seems a bit dangerous to basically attempt to make it look like an official Valve update. I feel like the sets stand out on their own and do not need that !
It's great to see them shown as big renders on a scrolling layout though. Tough call !
@Belkun: Glad you liked the set man! As for the weapon, we initially started with a staff that looks like pretty much a shaped stick, as is with most of his weapons. Considering the darker tone of the set as well, we decided to go for a flower because there was only one flower for him and ours is significantly different, atleast we think so. That said, I did zero mirroring on the texture because of time limitation and the flower section was complex, for me atleast, to retopologize and bake. It heavily relies on alpha. With that said, I should have managed some radial mirroring to get sharper bakes. Still, relative to other staves, it falls within the "detailed enough" as per our judgement. I might agree on the connection area though, but it isn't a focal spot.
As for treant, we went all in and dived for it. From testing ingame in motion, the treant can almost never be confused by a courier or boar due to it's size, silhouette, texture and count. We guess that the initial impression to it will be similar to any new treant design initial impression during a match "eh whose controlled creature is this!?". Again, this is all based on our impression and yes, it is a risky approach. With the current trend of rejected sets due to them looking "too similar to existing" ones, we opted for this. I admit my reply is heavily opinionated and respect your POV.
As for website stuff, it was done before and I was not directly involved in the that decision. I personally think it polarized the community about it.
I am happy that I am done with this and can take a long break to focus on my new PC!
It has been a while since I updated in this place that I can sense all the dust settling in.
Here is a dump of animations I did for a ward concepted/textured by Madshock and modeled by Blossomalex. It was on my desk for far too long for crazy and silly reasons. Thanks to the patience of my team, I managed to finish it and I believe it to be my best animation yet. It isn't perfect but I believe it works.
Again, they aren't perfect and some can catch some "small" abnormalities, but in the scale of things, I kinda called it.
Spawn: Nice and snappy, could use a tiny bit or rotation/asymmetry in how it goes up.
Idle: Seems a bit too 'even', everything seems to be moving at a constant speed with very soft curves which makes everything a bit floaty and slow-mo-y
Idle_rare: Same crits as idle. The sword pullout is nice but could be smidge faster. The sword waving is super cute but a bit stiff, add some variations to where he points the sword after the swing.
Death: Like the spawn, a bit too symmetrical and perfect. The head doesn't look like it has weight and the sword seems to defy gravity just a tiny bit :P Needs some bouncing on the head and body when they hit the ground.
General Scarecrow ward is done. It has been a lot of challenge to work on this. I apologize to my team for delaying them and thank them for their patience! Concept by madshock and modeling by Blossomalex.
Replies
Well, the approach I mentioned is technically using a cage. The main difference is the ease of use and the fact that you can still play around, to an extent, with the Ray Distance. Added, modifying the cage in 3DS Max is a breeze vs modifying it in XNormal. Atleast to my experience.
I have two questions:
1. Is there any difference between using SBM, FBX and OBJ in this particular case? Just curious
2. On that screenshot, are you using shaded viewport+realistic mats and maps? Also is that just the normal map or ur using AO or AO+Gradient maps?
P.S. When you guys want to move a vert in the direction of the normals, select the vert and switch to Local Coordinate System
Answering your questions:
1. I believe, and haven't tested, that going SBM allows XNormal to do the Ray Distance calculation mentioned in step 7 which is very important. I don't know if XNormal can do that with the other file formats. Since SBM is specific to XNormal.
2. My viewport is using DirectX with Smooth settings. The one you are mentioning is Nitrous engine with Realistic viewport setting, though I am not using that in the screenshot. Also note that I am using DirectX material with DotaHero 2.2 shader (can be found around here in PC). As for the maps, I am using normal map and also AO as the diffuse.
Thanks for the tip. Somehow after all this time, I never thought about such an option! Andumy also pointed that to me. Simple stuff but very powerful!
P.S. Sorry for nighttime and weather effect. Lazy of me...
Let me know what you think?
Almost done with both diffuse and masks. Thanks a lot to Stefco for helping me replicate gold texture and shades!
We are now finalizing promo work and particles. So expect it to release soon.
I have started already working on my next set.
In the mean time, a quick item I am working on based on a concept from Double Leaf. Currently early base mesh. I think I captured the main features of the weapon and will do some more minor tweaking then take it to Zbrush for refining features and detailing.
Edge of Dismay by Vayne and DoubleLeaf
Special thanks to Spunik for the Quick Map Save plugin for PS.
This is the concept:
Feel free to comment.
P.S. Special thanks to Robo for his translation work as Egor doesn't speak english.
[ame="
(Links in thumbs)
http://www.dota2.com/store/itemdetails/20666?r=ca
This kinda makes me a hypocrite as I am always against bundling with tourneys and pro teams. As can be clearly seen in this last patch, this is a direction to make a lot of workshop submissions move and get into the game.
I am still working hard to get my work in vanilla form and one day, I believe I will achieve that.
Special thanks to everyone around here as your support directly or indirectly helped me a lot to continue on this adventurous path!
Been a while since I posted any of my work. So here is my current project. A Tiny tree of a concept by Madshock. I feel I am halfway through the sculpt and it is still missing one element. Not sure how the UV space and tris limits will be but I guess that will be the fun part!
Crits are rare these days so don't hold back to give some!
Soon(TM)!
Finally, it has been a bumpy ride for all of us who worked on this set but we believe it turned out great. Lumberclaw set for Timbersaw comes with all items replacements, loading screen and custom particles for spells and chainsaw.
Honestly I never thought it will be this daunting to make a set for Timbersaw. He is huge! Especially with the tight texture budget on the shoulders item. Additionally, get the reactive armor tested is not straight forward.
Modeling and base texture by Vayne
Texture finalization and loading screen by Oroboros [Red Moon]
Particles and SFM video by Drew Carrymore
We would appreciate your support for our latest work.
(Link in image)
Custom Q Spell:
Custom Chakram:
Custom Chainsaw Particle:
Portrait View:
P.S. Sorry for the spam!
I worked on the Nature Prophet Set which was a new challenge for me. He is almost completely transformed but since Valve kept asking artists to make something that isn't similar to existing stuff. I hope you like it as much as I did.
I also have a bit of a problem with the summon, because it really doesn't look like a treant at all, but instead something like a boar from Beastmaster or even a courier, and that is surely going to cause a lot of confusion ingame, since I also took a while to figure out that it was actually a treant, and some friends had the same problem.
The promotional page, while incredibly well made and just straight up next level, is quite a bit misleading, and probably intentionally so, and I fear that may (or may not) influence Valve when reviewing the collection.
Still, the main set is fire, despite a couple of gripes with some items, the actual 'clothing' looks great!
So yeah I have to agree that while the presentation sure is slick, it seems a bit dangerous to basically attempt to make it look like an official Valve update. I feel like the sets stand out on their own and do not need that !
It's great to see them shown as big renders on a scrolling layout though. Tough call !
As for treant, we went all in and dived for it. From testing ingame in motion, the treant can almost never be confused by a courier or boar due to it's size, silhouette, texture and count. We guess that the initial impression to it will be similar to any new treant design initial impression during a match "eh whose controlled creature is this!?". Again, this is all based on our impression and yes, it is a risky approach. With the current trend of rejected sets due to them looking "too similar to existing" ones, we opted for this. I admit my reply is heavily opinionated and respect your POV.
As for website stuff, it was done before and I was not directly involved in the that decision. I personally think it polarized the community about it.
I am happy that I am done with this and can take a long break to focus on my new PC!
Here is a dump of animations I did for a ward concepted/textured by Madshock and modeled by Blossomalex. It was on my desk for far too long for crazy and silly reasons. Thanks to the patience of my team, I managed to finish it and I believe it to be my best animation yet. It isn't perfect but I believe it works.
Again, they aren't perfect and some can catch some "small" abnormalities, but in the scale of things, I kinda called it.
Idle: Seems a bit too 'even', everything seems to be moving at a constant speed with very soft curves which makes everything a bit floaty and slow-mo-y
Idle_rare: Same crits as idle. The sword pullout is nice but could be smidge faster. The sword waving is super cute but a bit stiff, add some variations to where he points the sword after the swing.
Death: Like the spawn, a bit too symmetrical and perfect. The head doesn't look like it has weight and the sword seems to defy gravity just a tiny bit :P Needs some bouncing on the head and body when they hit the ground.
Keep it up!
@Spudnik: Thanks for the feedback man. Seems to be stuff that I can fix in one sitting.
Don't think so. Then again, not paying attention to it.
P.S. Animators, be gentle!
Link: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410266372
http://www.dota2.com/store/itemdetails/20782
The set was revised twice and this is it's final form:
P.S. Special thanks goes to Stefco!
In other news, I'll be starting a new set for TI5 soonish!