Mhkiel's Workshop Thread
Hello, So Sapphire and I working together on this Lone Druid project. We hit off during the Chinese New Year Event, and decided we would work together some more.
After some brainstorming this is the Description we came up with.
Sylla awaits the end int he remotest parts of the world. He journeys to and fro across this plane. Usually as the seasons pass he befriends the animals around him. In the remotest parts of Icewrack where few care to venture, Sylla lost track of time as most immortals do. With a lack of critters to converse with the lone druid now truly alone began to go crazy. Talking to himself and asking the wind to remind him of things.
In such a barren land a creature of ill report was drawn to the Druid's power. The Wendigo is a viscous creature, living in a land of little, it's appetite is never satisfied. Twisted as a nightmare, a king of desolation has become the embodiment of Sylla's spirit and mind.
Sylla the Skinwalker.
Working on right now is the Skinwalker Wolfskin Hood.
Inspiration:
Rough Model:
...
We plan to break away from the normal bear model and go with a wendigo of our own design. Wolf head, Caribou body, Hyena mane, Antlers, 3 toed Talon front feet, hooves in hind feet. Hopefully it look awesome.
Critiques always welcomed,
After some brainstorming this is the Description we came up with.
Sylla awaits the end int he remotest parts of the world. He journeys to and fro across this plane. Usually as the seasons pass he befriends the animals around him. In the remotest parts of Icewrack where few care to venture, Sylla lost track of time as most immortals do. With a lack of critters to converse with the lone druid now truly alone began to go crazy. Talking to himself and asking the wind to remind him of things.
In such a barren land a creature of ill report was drawn to the Druid's power. The Wendigo is a viscous creature, living in a land of little, it's appetite is never satisfied. Twisted as a nightmare, a king of desolation has become the embodiment of Sylla's spirit and mind.
Sylla the Skinwalker.
Working on right now is the Skinwalker Wolfskin Hood.
Inspiration:
Rough Model:
...
We plan to break away from the normal bear model and go with a wendigo of our own design. Wolf head, Caribou body, Hyena mane, Antlers, 3 toed Talon front feet, hooves in hind feet. Hopefully it look awesome.
Critiques always welcomed,
Replies
I'll attempt the scultp again and I do have a little room to add a little thing. Maybe it will set it apart.
besides the fact it's a wolf in his head (I guess), if it's the case I don't see a problem. If it's a bear, I have to agree with Spudinik.
As for the highpoly model, it's filled with small and weak shapes, my suggestion is to look for bigger shapes with some "flow"
Here's the concept so far. And the 2 variants I'm bouncing between. One is more native American and one more Celtic.
I would take this as a reference how fur looks good in dota2:
Also your nose looks very small and that makes the bear look more cute than strong.
:thumbup: Your fur details are still way to small on his head. In game perspective it will just be noise and only visible in the hero cam mode.
Polarbear: It's a wolf head. I'm not trying to copy that style. If you look at the default models of the lone druid and his spirit bear I would prefer my stuff to follow more inline with that. But I think I do need a better silhouette.
I know it's a wolf head. ^^
I think you misunderstood me: just look at the fur. It's big, even so big that it is visible in the lod0 (maybe even lod1) geometry and not just in the baked texture.
Yeah these are really the size of shapes you want to target for your fur so it is as readable as possible, and fits really well with the over tone of Dota art style. Keep at it!
Thank you for the comments. I went back and I made the tuffs of fur bigger. I also made the the forehead, ears, etc larger. I've tested it in game and don't think it's too different from the default models fur and proportion. Especially next to the bear.
I'm learning a great deal. I also know I have to move on and keep a momentum going so I finish a set. It may not be the best thing out there, but it will be better than the stuff I have made before. And with these comments in mind I'll have to learn more on my next model.
I still have a 120 polygons in the low to add something to tie the set together
In the mean time, I know I could be biting off more than we can chew but I have started on a courier. Going to be a cute little pink mammoth in draft named pinky.
I really enjoyed working on this piece in the Dota2 Hangout. As well as being the first piece that went from concept on paper to model. I think I'm settling into a much better workflow.
Concept Art:
Here is the direction it is taking for now.
You will learn more from completing a set then jumping from project to project, and I urge you to do that before picking up more pieces.
As an artist, I am obligated to defend my work and state that while an elephant and a mammoth are technically very different species, there is a uncanny resemblance in your concept to my piece. Granted your model is not close to your concept what so ever, I urge you to rethink your guiding design decisions.
If you make it less "stampy" and more mammoth, it will be neat, however right now I see too much of my previous work, and not enough original content. I believe this is inherently from your concept looking so similar to my work (honestly it feels like fan art), and I'd suggest you focus less on that, and more on a unique, mammoth piece courier. Keep in mind mammoths are also nothing new to dota, as shown here but I feel that if you push the mammoth details, forget your original concept and keep on running with the "cutesy" theme you seem to have, it should be okay. Maybe ice/wintery things instead of a shield sword and scroll? Could be neat courier if directed towards Tusk.
If this seems harsh or over bearing at times, it is because I've previously informed you of my work and the similarity of this piece to it while you were in earlier stages of this piece, and it seems like the friendly "stepping on toes" message was ignored.
How do you imagine it will fly?
I don't think that you're stealing this or anything, because a elephant courier is not a super original idea (no offense to you both! they both look great!), but you should have listened to Harry when he warned you about the similarity to his courier on the Hangout.
Belkun, It's a shield and back pack on the back. A combination that can be seen on a lot of couriers. I'll look into changing that around.
First off, no one said the work was stolen, and I suggest you think about saying that in this forum before jumping the gun on your words. Stolen work / concepts is taken seriously around here from what I've seen and I wouldn't want to get into that sticky of a situation.
As to your first point with the horse/donkey couriers, I'm not sure to which pieces you are referring to exactly, but the point remains the same. There is an uncanny amount of similarities between your concept image and Stampy. Stampy and Peanut are about as similar as an African Elephant and a Indian Elephant. From anatomical differences to decorations and paintings, and the entire pack system, there are first glance differences in the two designs of the same animal, similar to Haithi Jr from the Jungle Book and Dumbo.
This "first glance differential" is completely missing from the concept and Stampy, as well as several design elements of the WIP model. As the model is more pressing I'll deal with that. The pack design + shield is completely inspired by Stampy, and I would suggest that you view this as a "recycled" idea instead of a "safe" one. There are no safe concepts. If there were, everyone would get into the store. As CsOconnor also mentioned, the hair tuff is also inspired as well, however it flows more with the mammoth theme, and if you push the entire Hair aesthetic, it could work well with the piece. As far as the concept which doesn't matter as much seeing how it is not being followed very accurately, proportions (ears, face, legs, body), facial similarities (gruff over exaggerated eyebrows), and pack design seem to represent Stampy far more then the Mammoth WIP shot.
Secondly you never mentioned anything about your mammoth flapping his ears, nor did I mention that this was exclusive to Stampy. The Valve Mammoth in game actually flaps his ears, and it looks pretty excellent.
As it's been mentioned several times since I originally brought it up aiming this courier towards a winter theme would or "Tusk" help solidify the "ice/mammoth" idea differentiating the three/four pieces even more, as well as bringing in some cool unique flair. Think Ice Pick, Climbing rope, or fold up tent. They are all excellent ideas and would totally put the whole "shield + X " combo to rest.
What's mildly frustrating is that beyond the amount of visible similarity between the pieces, that others have commented on this and offered suggestions and critique that could potentially push your piece even further then the ones done before it and erase any said similarities, however these critiques are being responded to in a seemingly negative light, and slightly disrespectfully.