Silly question, but I'm struggling a little bit with LoD0 and Lod1. What is your process to making LoD0 and LoD1?
Do I res down to LoD1 from LoD0 after having UV'd, sculpted, and textured LoD0?
Thanks!
It varies. I personally like to do a retopology of my sculpt with the tris count of LOD0, then I UV it, bake the maps and start to cut down tris to make LOD1. I know some people who like to do the inverse, which is to do the retopology with LOD1 in mind and then add up to make LOD0.
@brianchenito its just a screengrab from zbrush, just changed the background to white.
And for LoDs, i normally go with the lowest one, and bake. if i can see edges and rough figures in the loadout, i do the lod, but if i dont, i normally submit it that way... maybe thats a mistake haha
@mihalceanu - That looks great! On the end of the sword, is that gold edged or blunt? @Xajai - Another great weapon! liked your first one as well. I do agree that the hammer part does look like solid gold. maybe that can be broken up a bit with the middle layer white/yellow-ish?
Thank you all for replying about the LoD0 and LoD1 confusion. I'm still a little confused, but i'm in a better understanding now.
I'm thinking about about making a LoD0 poly model. UV, sculpt, texture, and then make the LoD1 version using the maps from the LoD0.
That's the more traditional way to do LOD's. Some people just find it easier to add polygons than to remove them without effecting the silhouette.
I build a base mesh with as few polygons as possible [but not adhering to a budget yet] to sculpt on, then retopologize that for my LOD0, then find creative ways to get rid of polygons for the LOD1 limit.
It's all a learning process. I guarantee you every veteran here (not just Dota, but of the industry) has re-designed their workflow to find ways to achieve the best results specifically for dota requirements. I've worked in a AAA studio [like many here] and we did things very differently than I do for Dota. So you will constantly evolve as you get better. Don't limit yourself to one method, learn from your mistakes and improve on them.
Personally I love sculpting, but I hate building super low polygon LOD's, doing UV's and texturing.. so I tend to want to pull my hair out by the time I get to that part of the process lol.
What are you sculpting with? Everything looks really blobby atm, so if you're using zBrush.. the best advice I can give is to watch other artists worth when they stream. You can and will learn a ton from that. Especially with guys like bounchfx who will take the time to explain what he's doing if you ask him to.
Also, if you don't have zBrush.. look in to Sculptris. It's way more limiting, but it would probably work fine while you're learning how to sculpt. ALWAYS keep it simple at first. Don't start adding subdivision levels as soon as you get your asset into zBrush until your base is correct. Then add 1-2 levels and refine a bit more, then 1-2 more levels for your fine details. It's a lot easier to work forwards than it is backwards.
Xajai - Your concepts are amazing. I can't help but wondering if you spent some more time on each items textures and masks if you could get them to look better instead of rushing off to the next weapon. rock - That weapon definetly looks better as a Abaddon sword. I agree that you should push your values more and shrink the size of the handle. schnoodle - That mask creeps me out lol. I can't really crit this, must see the 3D. Malloy - I think you should stay away from the purple on the handle, it really clashes with the color scheme. Other than that the bakes turned out well. darkkyo - The mask is pretty cool. I would give it more curvature though. Really emphasize the round shapes of a skull. Jlem - I really like your concept. Looking forward to more. Paskie - I dig the weapon on the left. If you really push those forms it could work out great. mihalceanu - As alway nice. I think the hilt could use a more busy design to match the blade. Paperbag - I think it would be beneficial for you to go back to the sculpt and really define your shapes.
I hope some of that helped. I am about to start polishing my sculpt and moving on to retopo.
That's the more traditional way to do LOD's. Some people just find it easier to add polygons than to remove them without effecting the silhouette.
I build a base mesh with as few polygons as possible [but not adhering to a budget yet] to sculpt on, then retopologize that for my LOD0, then find creative ways to get rid of polygons for the LOD1 limit.
It's all a learning process. I guarantee you every veteran here (not just Dota, but of the industry) has re-designed their workflow to find ways to achieve the best results specifically for dota requirements. I've worked in a AAA studio [like many here] and we did things very differently than I do for Dota. So you will constantly evolve as you get better. Don't limit yourself to one method, learn from your mistakes and improve on them.
Personally I love sculpting, but I hate building super low polygon LOD's, doing UV's and texturing.. so I tend to want to pull my hair out by the time I get to that part of the process lol.
This is really good advice/feedback! Thank you very much, Bewsii. I'm used to low poly modeling. Just making the one item and painting the hell out of it. This LoD0 and LoD1 is a whole new territory for me and it's a bit of a learning curve. :P Your words were really helpful. Thank you again!
What are you sculpting with? Everything looks really blobby atm, so if you're using zBrush.. the best advice I can give is to watch other artists worth when they stream. You can and will learn a ton from that. Especially with guys like bounchfx who will take the time to explain what he's doing if you ask him to.
Also, if you don't have zBrush.. look in to Sculptris. It's way more limiting, but it would probably work fine while you're learning how to sculpt. ALWAYS keep it simple at first. Don't start adding subdivision levels as soon as you get your asset into zBrush until your base is correct. Then add 1-2 levels and refine a bit more, then 1-2 more levels for your fine details. It's a lot easier to work forwards than it is backwards.
I'm currently using Maya LT and Mudbox, though I'm still very novice and haven't submitted an item yet. Hopefully this contest can progress my skills a bit more!
I'm going to go back and change stuff on the mini-cape, then polish textures and the masks, because the eye is really shiny on only the bottom in the loadout for some reason. That will probably be tomorrow, but I can say I've gotten a lot faster at this since last time, haha
Thanks for the comments, i honestly didnt see any problem with the difference of the weapon. but i love to hear feedback, so do you guyst think this looks better? i changed the materials and added some emmisive on the cracks.
Thanks for the comments, i honestly didnt see any problem with the difference of the weapon. but i love to hear feedback, so do you guyst think this looks better? i changed the materials and added some emmisive on the cracks.
This looks a lot better! much more polished. I also like the red around the emblem at the top. It really makes the emblem stand out. Good job!
@Xajai - It looks better, but if you look at your concept you will notice very nice tonal differences i.e. dark gold with bright gold highlights around the edges. Their are also some nice dark spots in the grooves. I'm not seeing these in your 3d textures.
@StuBurrito hah! thanks for poiting that out, yeah I guess i just overlooked those details. my sketching style is very different from my 3d style, so sometimes items that i draw a bit more cartoony, suffer some loss of details in the 3d stage. what do you think now tho! ?
I'm kind of stepping outside of Omniknights normal weapon type here. But, I thought it might be kind of cool if he had so sort of ancient 'holy' relic or something. So here is a super basic piece of concept art to map out the colors for my 'Rune axe/hammer' obviously it's not final and some of the feature may be tweaked. Comments and criticism are greatly appreciated.
mihalceanuNice sculpt! I kinda liked the handle overlapping the blade in the concept though. A little disappointed you changed that part in the process..
Good morning all! I have LoD0 and LoD1 modeled now. *cheers* Now I'm encountering another wall. I'm importing LoD1 into Mudbox for some sculpting and when subdividing the mesh, it collapses in. I want to keep those hard edges around the blade. Any ideas on how to address this?
Good morning all! I have LoD0 and LoD1 modeled now. *cheers* Now I'm encountering another wall. I'm importing LoD1 into Mudbox for some sculpting and when subdividing the mesh, it collapses in. I want to keep those hard edges around the blade. Any ideas on how to address this?
Thank you!
Not sure if this is the most efficient way, but I like to save out an extra copy of my model, then add more divisions to the copy model so it retains more structure when I sub divide in mudbox.
@mihalceanu After looking at my previous concept I totally agree with you, so I decided to go with a more bulky hammer axe. Here's what it looks like after mudbox.
You could hide so many cheese-itz in that beard, 10/10
An update on my DK weapon progress
I did a pretty big overhaul on my concept because I figured it was pretty shitty.
I'm happier with this sculpt but it is still in progress. Any tips or ideas for the sculpt at this point? I really like the grip I did but the area above that seems a little bloby still.
Beautiful. This gives me some ideas for my own geometry. I hope to have an update soon. I'm currently in the sculpting learning curve. :P Thanks for posting!
Replies
Do I res down to LoD1 from LoD0 after having UV'd, sculpted, and textured LoD0?
Thanks!
It varies. I personally like to do a retopology of my sculpt with the tris count of LOD0, then I UV it, bake the maps and start to cut down tris to make LOD1. I know some people who like to do the inverse, which is to do the retopology with LOD1 in mind and then add up to make LOD0.
And for LoDs, i normally go with the lowest one, and bake. if i can see edges and rough figures in the loadout, i do the lod, but if i dont, i normally submit it that way... maybe thats a mistake haha
finished my omni weapon
off to the next one!
The Old One's Retribution by Xajai
I'm going to jin this month with a few single itemes aswell.
first one for omni: i wanted to make a 2 handed sword , but to keep the blunt'y feel
@Xajai - Another great weapon! liked your first one as well. I do agree that the hammer part does look like solid gold. maybe that can be broken up a bit with the middle layer white/yellow-ish?
I'm terrible at concept drawing, so hopefully something better comes out through modeling
^DK sword with a talon theme
I'm thinking about about making a LoD0 poly model. UV, sculpt, texture, and then make the LoD1 version using the maps from the LoD0.
Talon sword update: Looking rather silly.
That's the more traditional way to do LOD's. Some people just find it easier to add polygons than to remove them without effecting the silhouette.
I build a base mesh with as few polygons as possible [but not adhering to a budget yet] to sculpt on, then retopologize that for my LOD0, then find creative ways to get rid of polygons for the LOD1 limit.
It's all a learning process. I guarantee you every veteran here (not just Dota, but of the industry) has re-designed their workflow to find ways to achieve the best results specifically for dota requirements. I've worked in a AAA studio [like many here] and we did things very differently than I do for Dota. So you will constantly evolve as you get better. Don't limit yourself to one method, learn from your mistakes and improve on them.
Personally I love sculpting, but I hate building super low polygon LOD's, doing UV's and texturing.. so I tend to want to pull my hair out by the time I get to that part of the process lol.
What are you sculpting with? Everything looks really blobby atm, so if you're using zBrush.. the best advice I can give is to watch other artists worth when they stream. You can and will learn a ton from that. Especially with guys like bounchfx who will take the time to explain what he's doing if you ask him to.
Also, if you don't have zBrush.. look in to Sculptris. It's way more limiting, but it would probably work fine while you're learning how to sculpt. ALWAYS keep it simple at first. Don't start adding subdivision levels as soon as you get your asset into zBrush until your base is correct. Then add 1-2 levels and refine a bit more, then 1-2 more levels for your fine details. It's a lot easier to work forwards than it is backwards.
rock - That weapon definetly looks better as a Abaddon sword. I agree that you should push your values more and shrink the size of the handle.
schnoodle - That mask creeps me out lol. I can't really crit this, must see the 3D.
Malloy - I think you should stay away from the purple on the handle, it really clashes with the color scheme. Other than that the bakes turned out well.
darkkyo - The mask is pretty cool. I would give it more curvature though. Really emphasize the round shapes of a skull.
Jlem - I really like your concept. Looking forward to more.
Paskie - I dig the weapon on the left. If you really push those forms it could work out great.
mihalceanu - As alway nice. I think the hilt could use a more busy design to match the blade.
Paperbag - I think it would be beneficial for you to go back to the sculpt and really define your shapes.
I hope some of that helped. I am about to start polishing my sculpt and moving on to retopo.
This is really good advice/feedback! Thank you very much, Bewsii. I'm used to low poly modeling. Just making the one item and painting the hell out of it. This LoD0 and LoD1 is a whole new territory for me and it's a bit of a learning curve. :P Your words were really helpful. Thank you again!
I'm currently using Maya LT and Mudbox, though I'm still very novice and haven't submitted an item yet. Hopefully this contest can progress my skills a bit more!
I'm going to go back and change stuff on the mini-cape, then polish textures and the masks, because the eye is really shiny on only the bottom in the loadout for some reason. That will probably be tomorrow, but I can say I've gotten a lot faster at this since last time, haha
This looks a lot better! much more polished. I also like the red around the emblem at the top. It really makes the emblem stand out. Good job!
Xaja: looks better
Thank you!
Not sure if this is the most efficient way, but I like to save out an extra copy of my model, then add more divisions to the copy model so it retains more structure when I sub divide in mudbox.
Hope that helps.
Knight Theme!
It's ROGUE KNIGHT, it's not ROUGE knight. Dammit!
This is cool
You don't like lipstick?
lipstick only for Svenette..
@paperbag Apologies if you don't get the joke reference from my reply.
The typo was real
ha! i was thinking bout doing something similar for dk... but turns out his head is almost completley blacked out by the ao of the helmet....
also.... he kinda looks like becks..
You could hide so many cheese-itz in that beard, 10/10
An update on my DK weapon progress
I did a pretty big overhaul on my concept because I figured it was pretty shitty.
I'm happier with this sculpt but it is still in progress. Any tips or ideas for the sculpt at this point? I really like the grip I did but the area above that seems a little bloby still.
Preety much done with this one
BTW: valve made a new form thingy where we need to readd some info and stufs , my ITIN didnt worked ; anyone else had this issues?
Blade of Righteousness by mihalceanu
@mihalceanu - This looks fantastic. Do you mind posting a wire of your LoD0 and LoD1? I'm curious of your layout.