Tyn's Workshop

Tyn

Heya, i'm giving dota 2 item making a shot, so I figured opening up shop here was the way to go. I acquired a little bit of 3D experience while in college but nothing major. I enjoy creating stuff though and one of my friends suggested I should try this. I started working on a set for Riki and up to now i'm loving it! So far i've got the concept and the low poly block out. However i'm a little too embarrassed to post my concept, i'm working on improving my 2D skills but I've got a long way to go.

Here's what i've got so far.



Any crits and comments are welcome! Don't worry about being straight to the point, i'm here to learn and i'll pretty sure I can handle it I'd like to hear some opinions before I start the high poly sculpt... Which i've never actually done before *gulp*

Giiyom

Looking good so far!
I like the shapes

Tyn

Thanks for the feedback! I guess there's nothing for it but to start sculpting I've been going through a bunch of zbrush tutorials, so much to learn... I'm going on vacation for a bit so it could take a while but I'll post WIPs of the sculpts when I have something worth showing!

Tyn

Right, back from vacation. After fiddling around with zbrush for a couple of days this is what I got.



I still lack a lot of proper control in zbrush, this whole thing is basically a string of happy accidents. I've also noticed it's really easy to get lost in details.

Although happy with the progress i'm afraid as it is now it doesn't really fit the game. It needs more chunk/cartoon, not quite sure how though, working on it. Any tips would be welcome!

Tyn

I wasn't happy with the way the lower part of the mask looked, especially the part under the eye, so I changed the concept a little, also to make it feel more root-like and give it a little more flow. Figured I would need to redo the zbrush sculpt from scratch anyway so reworked the lowpoly a little. This is what I got.



Right, second attempt to make a half decent sculpt, wish me luck, I need it

Spudnik

The sculpt is a bit too detailed, 90% of that detail is going to be lost due to compression unfortunately.

reallymadmaveric

I like the concept and the sculpt, but as you saw on my post the finer detail gets lost. I have found anything below 3 pixels wide becomes lost.

Thanks for the feedback on mine, I should be able to save 50 pixels on my handle and I will look to smooth the blades

Tyn

Thanks for the feedback! Progress is a little slow, still figuring out zbrush as I go along. This is what i've got now. Tried to eliminate detail and give it a more cartoony look.

What do you guys reckon? Still too much detail? If I lose some detail during the compression it's not a major deal as long as it doesn't end up creating noise.

Andyk125

Riki is a really small hero, so the mask woul be hard to recognice from the start. But I think you got the right amount of detail there, it looks really good!

Spudnik

Still a tad too small ^^ Of course it depends on the resolution you'll assign that piece on the UVs/Textures but chances are that it's gonna be close.

Tyn

@Spudnik: Hmmm, what would you suggest? Less and larger wood cracks? I'll give it a go, really enjoy working that wood anyway

@Andyk125: Thanks! I'm really hoping the mask will come to light in the portrait.

Spudnik

Give it a try and bake, I can sit here all day and speculate, but nothing beats trying it out yourself ^^ Do a normal+AO bake, set up some quick textures and throw it into the game. If it looks fine in the portrait view, it's absolutely fine.

Tyn

Thanks for the advice Tried it out... Lots of conclusions both good and bad and lots of amendments to be made. The horns and the smoothing on them looks fine, portrait and ingame, the ends need to be a little bulkier, the mask in the portrait reads really well, but not at all in-game. I also had to flip the mask for it to show up on the portrait and since riki isn't 100% symmetrical it caused some fitting issues.

I'm thinking of redoing the base mesh... I want to separate the horns and the mask into separate elements, This should give me more control over the shape of the mask and hopefully I can make it more readable in game.

reallymadmaveric

Its looking better have you got any in game shots?

Tyn

Had another go at this. This is the new geometry and the sculpt to go along with it.



I've run into a major issue though, i'm hoping someone can give me some advice. The border where the horn fits on the head have shifted while sculpting. Easy enouth to fix in 3dsmax but I have no idea how to do it in zbrush and if I do it in max after the export it screws up my bakes. Is there any way to snap or align the polys of my base mesh in zbrush? I'd also like to know if there's a way to lock border verts so I can prevent this sort of thing happening in the future?

/Edit - Guess I could prevent it using morph targets. Still looking for a fix. Guess I might have to sculpt from scratch again.