Speaking of color schemes : Does Valve accept sets containing color variants of a given item ? For instance I could imagine a certain part of a Dota character being colored in two different ways, swapping the primary and secondary colors around without breaking the rules of this given character. Is there any history of such thing being accepted ?
Yes they do, people went crazy over one pretty nicely done Set for the Naga, Valve decided to add it because besides beeing pretty differently colored it was a beautiful piece of work.
BUT there will be a loud minority yelling at you if you do something slightly different, so be prepared
Hehe thanks, good to know - I'll try to blissfully ignore the fan rage if that happens
Also I just tested the normals conversion through Handplane and it definitely helps for extreme surface changes. Nothing drastic, but it does look more accurate. Now of course this is only applied to a Max shader here, but I suppose that in game it looks more accurate too. I think this can be most valuable for hard armor and weapons. Good stuff ...
Woah, It is in fact a great change just by using a 'simple' program, gotta try that and add it to my workflow asap!.
Amazing work btw, going to try you're texturing technique as well, mine was something that way but much more complicated and using to many maps. Your's so much cleaner!
I have to agree. At first glance, the tufts on the wolf's neck look like they could be Sniper's hair.
Just a quick question about your texturing methods, when you say edge detection what do you mean? A cavity/detail map?
The way I generate it and how Pior said you can generate it is through Crazybump. Just input your normal and then copy the map under the Diffuse tab. Then set it to overlay or soft light in photoshop and mess with the transparency of the layer. It's useful sometimes to adjust the levels on it too so there's no full black in the crevices.
Hi there, sorry for the late reply, had a bit of a busy weekend
Yeah the edge detection is basically a post process effect applied to a Tangent Space normalmap in order to generate a neat "cracks and highlights" pass that I personally find to be very useful during the texturing process. It can look good when lightly applied to the diffuse texture, and it is also of great help when working on the specular map as well. It is a good way to remove the plastic look coming from cracks being too shiny.
There are 3 ways that I know of to generate such a map : a standalone Photoshop script, the Xnormal photoshop filter, and Crazybump. I used Crazybump for the longest time, until I was shown that there was ways to do it straight whithin PS. The less apps to use, the better
And then the intensity of the cracks and edges can be adjusted using Curves or Levels.
Note that the thickness of the edges depends on the resolution of the source texture : the more highres the source map is, the thinner the edges will be.
Also different methods rely on different norms for Y/green channel orientation, so careful with that when running a normalmap through these
Oh that's right ! I've used dDo before, but never nDo. But yeah you're right, I've heard it can do great things with a tangent source so yeah that would be yet another way to generate that pass ...
Alright last spammy update before final Getting the fur to look the way I wanted was much harder than expected but at least now I'm ready for furry couriers
I still have the feeling I might be breaking the original color theme too much with the white spots on the back ... I might have to turn the whole fur grey in that area. Will see ! I was relieved to see that as a standalone hat it kind works tho. And again, if it doesn't get accepted it's not much of a big deal as it is mostly a first test anyways.
Thanks for the feedback so far guys, it's really appreciated
I honestly think it would ruin the color theme more if you made the fur all grey, usually the lighter colors will be in the higher places of the model (in Dota 2 anyways)
So if you make the fur all grey it would contrast the face too much and you would pay too much attention to the wolfs face, and not enough to the whole model overall. That's how I see it anyways :P
Hex : sure, here they are. Nothing special about them tho - just trying to be tight ! But still leaving a generous margin between parts, since the final in-game resolution is so low. And when the texturing is done I dilate everything so that pixels at the edges of UV islands bleed out generously. That way there is no problem in game when the engine mips between resolutions.
Also, I always try to orient my UVs so that surfaces pointing up on the model also point up on the UVs. It's not necessary and that is just a personal preference, but I find that it makes the textures esier to read when working on them.
Sure I'll do a video on a small piece once I am done with this. I use the default tools in Max2009/2010, the ChuggnutUVtools script (which I think is not needed anymore if one is using a newer version of Max), and Roadkill.
If it was in Maya : just the default tools and Roadkill.
I kinda feel goofy jumping on the love bandwagon again, but I am most struck by how well you nailed the perfect amount of detail and stylization. I struggled with that so long and still do.
Very cool.
Like everyone else I would love to see as much as possible about your process.
I only have one doubt...looking at your UVs the dagger is in the same texture of the head piece. Is it gonna be in the same slot?
I expected it more in the cape slot...just an opinion
The rest is looking awesome
Yeah sharing information is always a pleasure, and it's always beneficial on both ends so that's great I have a whole lot of questions about Dota myself, and I am sure that I'll find all my answers here given how dedicated everyone seems to be
GhostD : not sure what you mean by that - do you mean, what happens after the bake and layering texturing wise ? If that is your question, then the answer is actually pretty straightforward : just a lot of layer manipulation, contrast adjustments, tinting, and so on, so that all the masks work together. Meaning that I try as much as possible to work on the Diffuse, Gloss, Metalness and Specular masks all at the same time, as layer groups in one PSD.
Then from time to time I also do some extra painting on the Diffuse map in Mudbox in order to tighten things up - mostly cleaning out dirty shading that I don't want, and adding small highlights and extra touches here and there. This is actually the part I enjoy the most, because it reminds me of old-school diffuse-only texturing from back then and I miss that a lot !
At the end, if needed I render a quick point light illumination bake, in order to "force" some highlights on the spec map. But only if really necessary, and as a very light overlay, as too much of this can look weird and fake.
Motenai : you are absolutely right, I ended up making the dagger part of the head slot as opposed to the original intent of attaching it to the cape. The main reason for this change is polygon budget - the cape is a bit more complex than a regular cape geometry wise, meaning that I couldn't make it double-sided, and couldn't add the bone dagger to it
So at the end I thought it could be kinda cool to have the extra accessory be part of the head item - as if this item was made of the wolf hat, and the inuit bone dagger that was used to slay it too I am not sure if this will be a blocker for submission ... If anything I suppose I could always remove the dagger altogether ... will see !
Okay, done with the texturing This is what I meant earlier regarding the idea of an alternate color scheme BTW :
(also the darker wolf head is too dark on these screenshots, I brightened it a bit since then)
Do you guys think that is it possible to submit a "double set" like that, which each component of the set receiving two diffuse texture variants ?
I don't think I have ever seen sets like that in the Dota store... I suppose it could be frowned upon and perceived as a cheap way to game the system, as it artificially creates value out of little effort. Now I am not hoping to have these split into two different sets ; but rather, I would like to keep everything as one regular package, giving more customization opportunities to the player at no cost. What do you think ?
Do you guys think that is it possible to submit a "double set" like that, which each component of the set receiving two diffuse texture variants ?
I don't think I have ever seen sets like that in the Dota store... I suppose it could be frowned upon and perceived as a cheap way to game the system, as it artificially creates value out of little effort. Now I am not hoping to have these split into two different sets ; but rather, I would like to keep everything as one regular package, giving more customization opportunities to the player at no cost. What do you think ?
there were a few colourvariants for early items that were drop only. and more recently bronto's KotL set had two styles for a stache/gandalf hat.
i don't see anything wrong with having more options like that
First of all, everything turned out beautiful. There are several things I noticed though:
1. I prefer the original colors because they read better. Although I think it's also a good idea to have some kind of gradient from the alternate colors of the armor, like this:
2. I would personally add more details, highlights, shadows to the fur, because currently it's looking too even and plain, so it doesn't really do the bakes justice. Something like this maybe? (Sorry I don't have my tablet with me, please bear with the scribbly mouse marks)
Regarding submitting an alternate version, I've seen people do that, so I guess it's fine to do? Although.. I am a believer of having a solid idea in what you have designed, but at the end, still be open to changes if it's really really needed.
Thanks a lot for the suggestions Ken !! That's what awesome about Polycount I'll try all that asap - and don't worry about the mouse scribbles, it's the communication that counts I can't wait to have the LoDs ready so that I can actually see how it all looks, in game, see how it reads from a distance, and so on. Thanks again man.
Beetroot : that's great to hear ! I really like the idea of an item package with multiple variants in it, and it opens up more cool possibilities for future items too. Very cool...
looks great man, exactly what I expect outta you. I also completely agree with kendmd - having a slight gradient along his arms could add some more interest, plus it would follow valve's texture 'guidelines' of having a pseudo-gradient from the top of the model to the bottom. I would do it from the shoulder to the wrist though and not per individual item.
This is looking incredible! Really amazing work there.
Are you baking the point light through Maya? How are you doing it? I usually set up a material with the normal map, place a couple of lights and assign the object to a Texture Bakeset, with Light and Color selected, but sometimes I get some weird results. Would love to know your process
o m g - finally i see some highlight bakes as an example.. thanks so much for sharing your process, really appreciate it. keep it coming i am soaking that stuff in.
Very nice result Pior.
About the color thing, i'm not sure if Valve would accept both variants, even as 1 single set. The last Skywrath Mage that got into the Store had 2 different versions for the wings, one blue and one more traditional white, and in the store only the blue one appears in the set objects...so i think it would be Valve's decision at that point.
Anyway i think i'd prefer your original concept version, with the darker color of the wolf pelt on the second.
And by the way, what shader are you using to visualize?
Yes that was my question.
So to recap from your gib
-baked maps + base color
-Adjust contrast
-Highlights and shadows
-About this part, did you just multiply your AO map and just masked it to some placed? And did you just overlay another cavity map (whites and black edges)
-Decals
In the front of the gun, there is a gray shadow on the wood. I think it should you should change the color of it or atleast reduce it.
The last thing is kind of a design flaw, how does it reload? I guess you can say they are magic bullets and everything else looks great.
Yeah you totally nailed it with the gun design comment I spent a lot of time looking at real crossbows when designing the original weapon ... then just improvised the conversion to a gun by tweaking it around and didn't give it much thought at all hehe. So yeah, magic bullets it is
As for the texturing workflow, I guess I should clarify a bit by saying that I don't really follow a layered PSD formula - I do take the time to make my base cream/white bake as clean as possible, and also make sure that I have all my selection masks ready for easy material selection ; but after that, I do not maintain a non-destructive layer system at all. I modify values, collapse layers, make touch-ups, and so on. To me it is simply a matter of path of least resistance - things have to move quickly
If I need a darker AO in the cracks, for instance, I would simply duplicate the needed bit out of my source edge highlights layer and put that on top of whatever I am working on. I know that some artists are against that kind of workflow, but in the case of Dota assets I think it is acceptable.
Thanks for the further info Motenai - I guess I just have to cross fingers
The shader is the 3DSMax shader that has been released a little while ago here on PC. Someone took the Valve specifications and wrote a shader mimicking them. I like it because it looks simple, and it accepts texture in their final game-friendly TGA format with the proper masks and channels. This shader is not a finely controllable as the 3Point shader (metal highlights tend to blow out quite a bit) but it is quite close to the look of the game.
Working on the ingame reduced version now, hopefully exporting it to the game later today ...
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I really appreciate the constructive criticism !
Hello Pior! I read that you don't have your LOD's ready, but you still got a low poly model that you have done the bakes and textures with. Is this just a higher polygon model you use to get cleaner bakes, then reduce later to LOD0? Great work btw!
Each item can have two models with different level of detail (LOD). LOD 0 model is used in the portrait, LOD 1 model is used in-game. LOD 0 is approximately twice as detailed as LOD 1. . Internally we create LOD 1 out of LOD 0 by optimizing and removing small details.
So basically all the meshes shown so far for this set are following the budget of what Valve calls "LOD0". I am now making the LOD1 variants by removing edges, collapsing vertices, and so on. Now of course it would be possible to skip making LOD0 altogether and just make the whole model as a LOD1, which I think might work just fine for some small or low detail items. however I was afraid it might be too tight for baking in my case here. And at the end of the day, reducing meshes by hand doesn't take much time anyways
yeah, i just find it odd that you didnt import it to DotA yet when you have LOD0 ready, so you can see how the shading and lights affect the textures. Atleast for me it's easier to work like this. If you don't have the LOD1 ready you can simply just skin a box to the rig and export that. Now you can type r_lod 0 in the dota console to be able to see the LOD0 ingame via the compiler.
Ha - I was under the impression that there was a hard requirement in the game importer, only letting one import at the proper game budgets ? I had no idea I could import the higher detailed model (LOD 0) and see it running in the game. Care to elaborate ?
You just need all the files, but it's not too important what's inside them as long as they have the correct texture ratio and not over the poly budget. So you can just make dummy files for lod1 and the masks. r_lod 0 forces the game to only use the LOD0, so when you have the LOD0 and bakes ready you can start to import and work from there.
Oh I see what you are saying ! Yeah just dummy exports, true. I had no idea that there was a way to force LOD0, very cool. It would be nice if there was a way to completely override the poly limit altogether, for testing purposes ...
(I still have to try out the white higlights on the fur - I added the gradients on the bone pieces already tho, and I like it a lot Thanks for the suggestion !)
Oh and for some reason, the self-illuminated parts don't seem to show up properly (the eyes of the pelt are supposed to be glowing). Anyone knows why ? Is it a limitation of the default shader ?
Oh and for some reason, the self-illuminated parts don't seem to show up properly (the eyes of the pelt are supposed to be glowing). Anyone knows why ? Is it a limitation of the default shader ?
As i know self-illumination works while testing in game, dunno if it's really so.
(I still have to try out the white higlights on the fur - I added the gradients on the bone pieces already tho, and I like it a lot Thanks for the suggestion !)
Oh and for some reason, the self-illuminated parts don't seem to show up properly (the eyes of the pelt are supposed to be glowing). Anyone knows why ? Is it a limitation of the default shader ?
Looks amazing!
Not sure what it is with the self-illum shaders, but iirc it should work in that load out view too.
Also you might want to consider adding an underside to that cape for the LOD0 (I'm assuming that's the LOD0 you're showing us there) since the under side of the cape is easily visible in players' loadout views when they equip items. I guess with your design you can't just conveniently duplicate and flip those polygons though
Yeah I had no polies left for the interior on either LoD because of the paws being part of the cape, making it a more complex design than the usual ones... It looks a bit dumb in this view for sure but at least it's not apparent in game view ... I am kind of stuck with that !! (that's the dense LOD here )
Cool, will try that Thanks for the tips MdK and ILM.
Now I have a few questions regarding the file submission process and would like to hear your insights. Since a lot of you guys submitted many items already I am sure that this is all common knowledge around here, but I am still a Dotanoob hehe
1 - First things first : if I understand correctly, items are submitted to the workshop on a per-item basis (slot by slot) ; there is no notion of "set" at that stage (besides the extra promo pictures being added to the gallery view of a given item ). I am right to assume this ?
2 - Once the model files, textures and promo icon of each item are uploaded (from the ingame compiler interface), do they go straight to the global workshop page under recent submissions ? Or is there a way to somehow review and finalize an upload before it goes live for everyone to see ?
3 - Can I upload the mesh and textures first, and add the icon later, while the item is still hidden from view of the general public ? Same thing goes for screenshots and youtube links on an item's workshop page : can this be added later on, or is it a one-time deal ? And if page edits and gradual uploads of screenshots are indeed possible, is it common practice to upload everything at once (model files, icons, and the extra promo images for the workshop page of an item) or are people adding things gradually ? Is one or the other detrimental to upvotes and approval ?
4 - Is there a way to re-upload a component of an item (compiled model, and icon) if a problem is being spotted ? Or does the re-upload show up as duplicate in the main workshop page ?
Obviously the reason why I am asking all this is because I want to work on polished presentations for the individual items workshop pages, but I would like to release such pages to the publicly browsable workshop only when it is as close to final as possible.
Cool, will try that Thanks for the tips MdK and ILM.
Now I have a few questions regarding the file submission process and would like to hear your insights. Since a lot of you guys submitted many items already I am sure that this is all common knowledge around here, but I am still a Dotanoob hehe
1 - First things first : if I understand correctly, items are submitted to the workshop on a per-item basis (slot by slot) ; there is no notion of "set" at that stage (besides the extra promo pictures being added to the gallery view of a given item ). I am right to assume this ?
2 - Once the model files, textures and promo icon of each item are uploaded (from the ingame compiler interface), do they go straight to the global workshop page under recent submissions ? Or is there a way to somehow review and finalize an upload before it goes live for everyone to see ?
3 - Can I upload the mesh and textures first, and add the icon later, while the item is still hidden from view of the general public ? Same thing goes for screenshots and youtube links on an item's workshop page : can this be added later on, or is it a one-time deal ? And if page edits and gradual uploads of screenshots are possible, is it common practice to upload everything at once (model files, icons, and the extra promo images for the workshop page of an item) or are people adding things gradually ? Is one or the other detrimental to upvotes and approval ?
4 - Is there a way to re-upload a component of an item (compiled model, and icon) if a problem is being spotted ? Or does the re-upload show up as duplicate in the main workshop page ?
Thanks a lot for your help !
1 - Yup, they're submitted slot by slot. You can tie individual items together into a "set" using the Steam Workshop's Collections feature, which generally comes after you've uploaded all of the individual items.
2 - They're initially hidden after uploading before you finalise the financial sharing section I believe. During this time you can choose to hide it using some visibility options in the bar on the right of the screen if you really need more time to finalise how it looks like on the workshop. I don't find that generally necessary though.
3 - You have to add the icon together with the mesh and textures, or at least add a placeholder which you can change once you've finalised your icon. Screenshots, youtube links etc are all added after the item has been submitted to the workshop and you can edit any part of your submission whenever you need to.
From what I've seen so far, people try to get everything ready before submission though, or at least upload the 512x512 image first, and then put in all the screenshots and promo images as soon as possible. The longer you have the promo images on the better - each item has a sort of "life time" on the Most Popular page, since it's arranged by items Most Popular in the last week.
4 - Yup, if you see an issue you can reupload all your mesh, textures and promo pdfs using the Edit button, it doesn't show up as a duplicate and you'll have to update all your promo images and videos manually.
2. I think there is a small delay before the items get published on the workshop. On the item profile you can select to hide it for the public.
3. You can add stuff later. The only thing that is needed is a thumbnail, but i guess this can be a dummy. I suggest to upload everything at once since the item have one week to fight for a spot on the first page of the workshop. After this it will get buried with all the other cosmetics.
4. You can update and delete submissions. It's common to submit it once and deal with the bad popularity if you are unlucky.
Replies
Yes they do, people went crazy over one pretty nicely done Set for the Naga, Valve decided to add it because besides beeing pretty differently colored it was a beautiful piece of work.
BUT there will be a loud minority yelling at you if you do something slightly different, so be prepared
Also I just tested the normals conversion through Handplane and it definitely helps for extreme surface changes. Nothing drastic, but it does look more accurate. Now of course this is only applied to a Max shader here, but I suppose that in game it looks more accurate too. I think this can be most valuable for hard armor and weapons. Good stuff ...
Amazing work btw, going to try you're texturing technique as well, mine was something that way but much more complicated and using to many maps. Your's so much cleaner!
I think you should make down part lighter. It will looks like continuation of beard.
The way I generate it and how Pior said you can generate it is through Crazybump. Just input your normal and then copy the map under the Diffuse tab. Then set it to overlay or soft light in photoshop and mess with the transparency of the layer. It's useful sometimes to adjust the levels on it too so there's no full black in the crevices.
Yeah the edge detection is basically a post process effect applied to a Tangent Space normalmap in order to generate a neat "cracks and highlights" pass that I personally find to be very useful during the texturing process. It can look good when lightly applied to the diffuse texture, and it is also of great help when working on the specular map as well. It is a good way to remove the plastic look coming from cracks being too shiny.
There are 3 ways that I know of to generate such a map : a standalone Photoshop script, the Xnormal photoshop filter, and Crazybump. I used Crazybump for the longest time, until I was shown that there was ways to do it straight whithin PS. The less apps to use, the better
And then the intensity of the cracks and edges can be adjusted using Curves or Levels.
Note that the thickness of the edges depends on the resolution of the source texture : the more highres the source map is, the thinner the edges will be.
Also different methods rely on different norms for Y/green channel orientation, so careful with that when running a normalmap through these
Hope this helps !
Alright last spammy update before final
I still have the feeling I might be breaking the original color theme too much with the white spots on the back ... I might have to turn the whole fur grey in that area. Will see ! I was relieved to see that as a standalone hat it kind works tho. And again, if it doesn't get accepted it's not much of a big deal as it is mostly a first test anyways.
Thanks for the feedback so far guys, it's really appreciated
So if you make the fur all grey it would contrast the face too much and you would pay too much attention to the wolfs face, and not enough to the whole model overall. That's how I see it anyways :P
Also, I always try to orient my UVs so that surfaces pointing up on the model also point up on the UVs. It's not necessary and that is just a personal preference, but I find that it makes the textures esier to read when working on them.
If it was in Maya : just the default tools and Roadkill.
Very cool.
Like everyone else I would love to see as much as possible about your process.
I expected it more in the cape slot...just an opinion
The rest is looking awesome
GhostD : not sure what you mean by that - do you mean, what happens after the bake and layering texturing wise ? If that is your question, then the answer is actually pretty straightforward : just a lot of layer manipulation, contrast adjustments, tinting, and so on, so that all the masks work together. Meaning that I try as much as possible to work on the Diffuse, Gloss, Metalness and Specular masks all at the same time, as layer groups in one PSD.
Then from time to time I also do some extra painting on the Diffuse map in Mudbox in order to tighten things up - mostly cleaning out dirty shading that I don't want, and adding small highlights and extra touches here and there. This is actually the part I enjoy the most, because it reminds me of old-school diffuse-only texturing from back then and I miss that a lot !
At the end, if needed I render a quick point light illumination bake, in order to "force" some highlights on the spec map. But only if really necessary, and as a very light overlay, as too much of this can look weird and fake.
Motenai : you are absolutely right, I ended up making the dagger part of the head slot as opposed to the original intent of attaching it to the cape. The main reason for this change is polygon budget - the cape is a bit more complex than a regular cape geometry wise, meaning that I couldn't make it double-sided, and couldn't add the bone dagger to it
So at the end I thought it could be kinda cool to have the extra accessory be part of the head item - as if this item was made of the wolf hat, and the inuit bone dagger that was used to slay it too
Okay, done with the texturing
(also the darker wolf head is too dark on these screenshots, I brightened it a bit since then)
Do you guys think that is it possible to submit a "double set" like that, which each component of the set receiving two diffuse texture variants ?
I don't think I have ever seen sets like that in the Dota store... I suppose it could be frowned upon and perceived as a cheap way to game the system, as it artificially creates value out of little effort. Now I am not hoping to have these split into two different sets ; but rather, I would like to keep everything as one regular package, giving more customization opportunities to the player at no cost. What do you think ?
Also close ups of the rifle with shader :
Now on to LoDs, rigging and promo art !
there were a few colour variants for early items that were drop only. and more recently bronto's KotL set had two styles for a stache/gandalf hat.
i don't see anything wrong with having more options like that
1. I prefer the original colors because they read better. Although I think it's also a good idea to have some kind of gradient from the alternate colors of the armor, like this:
2. I would personally add more details, highlights, shadows to the fur, because currently it's looking too even and plain, so it doesn't really do the bakes justice. Something like this maybe? (Sorry I don't have my tablet with me, please bear with the scribbly mouse marks)
Regarding submitting an alternate version, I've seen people do that, so I guess it's fine to do? Although.. I am a believer of having a solid idea in what you have designed, but at the end, still be open to changes if it's really really needed.
Beetroot : that's great to hear ! I really like the idea of an item package with multiple variants in it, and it opens up more cool possibilities for future items too. Very cool...
Awesome stuff! Now let's see it in game..
Are you baking the point light through Maya? How are you doing it? I usually set up a material with the normal map, place a couple of lights and assign the object to a Texture Bakeset, with Light and Color selected, but sometimes I get some weird results. Would love to know your process
About the color thing, i'm not sure if Valve would accept both variants, even as 1 single set. The last Skywrath Mage that got into the Store had 2 different versions for the wings, one blue and one more traditional white, and in the store only the blue one appears in the set objects...so i think it would be Valve's decision at that point.
Anyway i think i'd prefer your original concept version, with the darker color of the wolf pelt on the second.
And by the way, what shader are you using to visualize?
This this this! Can't wait to see how it turns out in-game.
Really exceptional work and thanks for sharing your process.
Inspiring.
So to recap from your gib
-baked maps + base color
-Adjust contrast
-Highlights and shadows
-About this part, did you just multiply your AO map and just masked it to some placed? And did you just overlay another cavity map (whites and black edges)
-Decals
In the front of the gun, there is a gray shadow on the wood. I think it should you should change the color of it or atleast reduce it.
The last thing is kind of a design flaw, how does it reload? I guess you can say they are magic bullets and everything else looks great.
Thank you for sharing some information
Yeah you totally nailed it with the gun design comment
As for the texturing workflow, I guess I should clarify a bit by saying that I don't really follow a layered PSD formula - I do take the time to make my base cream/white bake as clean as possible, and also make sure that I have all my selection masks ready for easy material selection ; but after that, I do not maintain a non-destructive layer system at all. I modify values, collapse layers, make touch-ups, and so on. To me it is simply a matter of path of least resistance - things have to move quickly
If I need a darker AO in the cracks, for instance, I would simply duplicate the needed bit out of my source edge highlights layer and put that on top of whatever I am working on. I know that some artists are against that kind of workflow, but in the case of Dota assets I think it is acceptable.
Thanks for the further info Motenai - I guess I just have to cross fingers
The shader is the 3DSMax shader that has been released a little while ago here on PC. Someone took the Valve specifications and wrote a shader mimicking them. I like it because it looks simple, and it accepts texture in their final game-friendly TGA format with the proper masks and channels. This shader is not a finely controllable as the 3Point shader (metal highlights tend to blow out quite a bit) but it is quite close to the look of the game.
Working on the ingame reduced version now, hopefully exporting it to the game later today ...
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I really appreciate the constructive criticism !
I am just following the guidelines from the Valve model page :
http://www.dota2.com/workshop/requirements
So basically all the meshes shown so far for this set are following the budget of what Valve calls "LOD0". I am now making the LOD1 variants by removing edges, collapsing vertices, and so on. Now of course it would be possible to skip making LOD0 altogether and just make the whole model as a LOD1, which I think might work just fine for some small or low detail items. however I was afraid it might be too tight for baking in my case here. And at the end of the day, reducing meshes by hand doesn't take much time anyways
I hope that answers your question
(I still have to try out the white higlights on the fur - I added the gradients on the bone pieces already tho, and I like it a lot
Oh and for some reason, the self-illuminated parts don't seem to show up properly (the eyes of the pelt are supposed to be glowing). Anyone knows why ? Is it a limitation of the default shader ?
Looks amazing!
Not sure what it is with the self-illum shaders, but iirc it should work in that load out view too.
Also you might want to consider adding an underside to that cape for the LOD0 (I'm assuming that's the LOD0 you're showing us there) since the under side of the cape is easily visible in players' loadout views when they equip items. I guess with your design you can't just conveniently duplicate and flip those polygons though
Now I have a few questions regarding the file submission process and would like to hear your insights. Since a lot of you guys submitted many items already I am sure that this is all common knowledge around here, but I am still a Dotanoob hehe
1 - First things first : if I understand correctly, items are submitted to the workshop on a per-item basis (slot by slot) ; there is no notion of "set" at that stage (besides the extra promo pictures being added to the gallery view of a given item ). I am right to assume this ?
2 - Once the model files, textures and promo icon of each item are uploaded (from the ingame compiler interface), do they go straight to the global workshop page under recent submissions ? Or is there a way to somehow review and finalize an upload before it goes live for everyone to see ?
3 - Can I upload the mesh and textures first, and add the icon later, while the item is still hidden from view of the general public ? Same thing goes for screenshots and youtube links on an item's workshop page : can this be added later on, or is it a one-time deal ? And if page edits and gradual uploads of screenshots are indeed possible, is it common practice to upload everything at once (model files, icons, and the extra promo images for the workshop page of an item) or are people adding things gradually ? Is one or the other detrimental to upvotes and approval ?
4 - Is there a way to re-upload a component of an item (compiled model, and icon) if a problem is being spotted ? Or does the re-upload show up as duplicate in the main workshop page ?
Obviously the reason why I am asking all this is because I want to work on polished presentations for the individual items workshop pages, but I would like to release such pages to the publicly browsable workshop only when it is as close to final as possible.
Thanks a lot for your help !
1 - Yup, they're submitted slot by slot. You can tie individual items together into a "set" using the Steam Workshop's Collections feature, which generally comes after you've uploaded all of the individual items.
2 - They're initially hidden after uploading before you finalise the financial sharing section I believe. During this time you can choose to hide it using some visibility options in the bar on the right of the screen if you really need more time to finalise how it looks like on the workshop. I don't find that generally necessary though.
3 - You have to add the icon together with the mesh and textures, or at least add a placeholder which you can change once you've finalised your icon. Screenshots, youtube links etc are all added after the item has been submitted to the workshop and you can edit any part of your submission whenever you need to.
From what I've seen so far, people try to get everything ready before submission though, or at least upload the 512x512 image first, and then put in all the screenshots and promo images as soon as possible. The longer you have the promo images on the better - each item has a sort of "life time" on the Most Popular page, since it's arranged by items Most Popular in the last week.
4 - Yup, if you see an issue you can reupload all your mesh, textures and promo pdfs using the Edit button, it doesn't show up as a duplicate and you'll have to update all your promo images and videos manually.
2. I think there is a small delay before the items get published on the workshop. On the item profile you can select to hide it for the public.
3. You can add stuff later. The only thing that is needed is a thumbnail, but i guess this can be a dummy. I suggest to upload everything at once since the item have one week to fight for a spot on the first page of the workshop. After this it will get buried with all the other cosmetics.
4. You can update and delete submissions. It's common to submit it once and deal with the bad popularity if you are unlucky.