DOTA 2 Courier - Phantom Lancer Mammoth

mariotoon

Hello Polycount, I've been a lurking in the forums for a long time, appreciating all the great art that has been posted here. This is my first thread on Polycount!

After seeing CyborgMatt's Shagbark DOTA 2 courier I got really excited and decided to work on a courier based off of a hero.

For those of you who may not know the Phantom Lancer, here's how he looks like:


And so I started doing some sketches:


I'm not the best at concepting, so I got my friend Jamesy to help me with the concepts, and this is what he came up with:


We kept going back and forth and this is where we're at so far with concepts:


I decided to go ahead and start modeling some of the prop pieces, and here's what I've got so far:



The body is just made up of 2 spheres to give me a sense volume, so you can ignore that. I also brought the stock courier Valve provided into the scene for reference.

Any critiques and comments are gladly welcome! Jamesey will be posting here too, so critiques from him are also welcome here.

Also, I've got a question for you DOTA 2 Workshoppers: When I downloaded the Phantom Lancer Model, it came with all the textures needed, ie. Colour, Normal, Mask 1 and 2. How ever the courier download only had a Colour texture, does that mean all the other texture maps aren't needed?
Not sure if anybody has asked this question already but I thought I should ask before doing anything too crazy.

Thanks, and hope you guys enjoy!

Jamesy

stoofoo

cute. Too busy. But cute. Dont mess this one up.=)

ignamatador150

Wow, I play a lot of DOTA and would totally buy a courier like that. Keep on it!

mariotoon

Just a quick update since I kinda disappeared after one post, but I've been busy with relocation in Singapore over the past few months. My computer is still on a boat somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, slowly sailing west towards me, but it'll probably take another month for it to arrive. I've not given up on this project, and hopefully I'll be able to finish it as soon as possible.

evilblah

Please do. Idea is really fun. I like the second iteration of fans you have but instead of having it connect by a single pole, I would add to the contraption more, possible something else on its back like a mechanism to drive the fans. Otherwise, really cool!

chudork

that is really cute!

mariotoon

Real quick update:





My boxes finally arrived on Monday earlier this week, and I've been working on it whenever I have time. Hopefully more updates soon!

klamp

Glad to see your computer finally arrived so you can continue working on this. Can't wait to see more, dude.

mariotoon

Update:




A big Thank You to those who has shown interest in finishing this courier for us, but I'm still working on it very, very slowly. I thought I should post some progress shots to show where I'm at, but this project is still very much alive. It's been a crazy 6 months since I've moved to Singapore, so I apologize I couldn't get this done faster.

Also, crits and comments!

CandyStripes05

glad all your stuff arrived safe! concepts look amazing and cute, and progress is looking promising : )

klamp

Hey dude. This is looking pretty cool so far. A couple things you may want to consider when moving forward...

• Keep in mind the size this courier will be on screen and, therefore, the size the details on the sculpt should be. The scratches and cloth folds are looking cool, but I have a feeling they will not be seen when the camera is pulled back because the details are too small. Think bigger and broader.
• You may also want to make the transitions on the armor more obtuse (see image below). This would not only help with making the details read from further away, but would also probably give you a cleaner bake for your normals.

Keep up the good work, dude!

stevston89

You really should be separating objects they way they would be in real life. Don't sculpt belts into things. Button should be modeled out. You should build you geometry to support seams and pockets in your bags. It looks like you just took your highpoly masked and then extruded out for the edges of your armor ( which is a fine if you plan on using dynamesh). I would recommend building out your armor pieces cleanly in max first and then just sculpt details ( scratches, dents, imperfections) on to it. Same goes for the rest of the meshes. Its a great concept. I think your just need to get a cleaner workflow if you want the best possible product.