motionblur's workshop
polycounter lvl 12
Hi, everybody. 
I had some spare time and gave the Workshop item creation a try. For my first submission I created a few pieces for the Earthshaker model.
Since the color palette is pretty much set for each character and I didn't want to do any weird experiments with it on my first attempt I started out with a greyscale concept. While working on the first piece I iterated on a few places - like the belt for example.
The main work was done in Zbrush with initial base modeling on Valve's original model so that the proportions fit. Retopo was done in Topogun with additional fixes in modo. Te textures are pretty much 100% manual Photoshop work.
Here are the models from inside DOTA 2
And finally the promo renderings for each set piece.
Thanks to the help threads here on Polycount I was able to iron out the remaining technical quirks that weren't mentioned on Valve's Steam Workshop pages and PDFs. So a big thank you to polycount's comunity, again.
Finally I've released it into the harsh reality of the steam workshop yesterday. :poly122:
So - what do you think?
[edit] Almost forgot posting the link to Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198007036657/myworkshopfiles/
[edit2] .. and just in case here's a collection of the whole Set: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=184271387
I had some spare time and gave the Workshop item creation a try. For my first submission I created a few pieces for the Earthshaker model.
Since the color palette is pretty much set for each character and I didn't want to do any weird experiments with it on my first attempt I started out with a greyscale concept. While working on the first piece I iterated on a few places - like the belt for example.
The main work was done in Zbrush with initial base modeling on Valve's original model so that the proportions fit. Retopo was done in Topogun with additional fixes in modo. Te textures are pretty much 100% manual Photoshop work.
Here are the models from inside DOTA 2
And finally the promo renderings for each set piece.
Thanks to the help threads here on Polycount I was able to iron out the remaining technical quirks that weren't mentioned on Valve's Steam Workshop pages and PDFs. So a big thank you to polycount's comunity, again.
Finally I've released it into the harsh reality of the steam workshop yesterday. :poly122:
So - what do you think?
[edit] Almost forgot posting the link to Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198007036657/myworkshopfiles/
[edit2] .. and just in case here's a collection of the whole Set: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=184271387
Replies
Also, blood is rather unfitting on Earthshaker items. Anyway, good luck and gj heh!
Thanks for the feedback so far, everybody.
If I find the time to do another one I'll definately have to give the shader masks more attention. This set has like the most basic shadermasks there are, probably. Luckily (and I only found that out after I started working on the set) the Earthshaker doesn't use a complex mask setup himself. I totally agree that now that I have a feeling for the workflow itself the masks will get more attention on the (hopefully) next project.
BTW - is there a way to more quickly check on the shader setup without the need to open up DOTA and recompiling the model every time?
I read somewhere on the Workshop page that so far the only way of viewing items outside DOTA is the Alien Swarm SDK. I never got that one to work correctly, unfortunately.
Also I do not have Maya or Max. I know there's a Maya shader setup that imitates the DOTA setup but that won't help me much without the software. I have a unity Pro license but i suck at shader programming - and of course it still is a different engine.
Why don't you just fix the masks on this one?
I think I might revisit the sculpt later on again, though and make it a little more fitting as a separate set. I think that's the best option here as I don't think there's any harm in the design just staying like it is. Worst case is that it won't get picked up by Valve.
So again thanks for the feedback, everybody.
But I really like the preview renders, how'd you do them, if you don't mind me asking ?
The Item assets use only the standard Color-, Diffuse- and Normalmap Testures. With Diffuse being the specular intensity mask in the case of C4D.
The Earthshaker himself uses othe normalmap and a converted Normals-To-Cavity with the xNormal plugin in the colour channel. Here's a screen of my settings:
For the extra punch in the rimlights I used a fresnel with a pretty harsh gradient in the self-illumination channel. The rest ist very basic lights and rendering. Not many extra bells and whistles. I think I rendered with AO and GI.
If you have any use for Cinema 4D specific material settings I can post a little more in-depth screenshots. From my experience I am a minority as a C4D user, though.
To begin with I stuck way closer to the character's original palette:
Like last time I created the highPoly in ZBrush but this time also polypainted it while I was at it.
Another improvement to my first submission: there are different LODs now - not only the LowPoly Game version:
And this is how it looks inside DOTA:
If you like it please leave me a positive rating. I really put a lot of effort in this one and tried to improve on all the feedback from the previous submission.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=188811183