So Zbrush crashed, I lost a bunch of work and decided I wanted to do something else then flounder around in Zbrush. So I cooked up this Chaos Knight helm instead. Crits and tips always welcome!
@Xajai
The main issue I have is the chops. The hair should come out of the cheeks and straight down. Yours looks like long hair from the head coming down/
@ MdK: That came out really nice. I reckon the hair could use some sharper edges, but i'm sort of assuming that's part of the plan. @ Xajai: That hair could actually work. Shame the AO makes it near impossible to make anything that does almost completely cover his face. @ StuBurrito: Loving the shapes! The bake came through nicely. Parts of the hilt looks a bit fragile though.
@ schnoodle: I like the concept! I'm a little worried the eye is going to look really static on the portrait in-game.
This is my blockout so far. I'm happy with the overall shape of the horns, except for the tapering at the base. It seemed like a good idea at the time, now i'm not so sure. Currently at 800 tris, re-topo might get a little rough....
@TtraG13: I like the concept but one thing is bugging me about it; while the hilt is completely symmetrical, the blade isn't and somehow they feel clashing in this design. Otherwise, nicely drawn concept and welcome, if you are new here ^^.
might also be the fact that its standing upright on a flat plane. it shifts once you tilt the blade and get a better sense of direction or its placed in a hand. you'll see
hey @Paperbag i think the problem is in your sculpt, the shapes are a little too softand lack definition. also, you dont need that many polys in the handle, 5 sides would be enough, sometimes you can get away with 4 since its gonna be hidden by the hand. alsoooo, if you want to save some tris to invest in some other areas you could try something like this
Update on Omnibeard
still know very little about retopo and texturing, but i hope i'll finish it on time.
Also i want to add some particles, if I'll have the time.
@Sekoran: I think that circlet idea is really nice but I think some of your details are a little small, the runes around it will be barely visible even at the most zoomed in game view.
One more WIP on mine, a few little things to do and then promo and I'm done!
MdK: That came out great, reads really well ingame
Paperbag: Definitely an improvement compared to the last sculpt
Jlem: Love the concept, not to sure about the placement of the braid though
Ended up doing a bunch of sculpting while watching the redmoon stream. Probably too much detail...
@MdK: Thanks! Yeah a bit worried about it as well, going to try a bake on it to see if it turns out even remotely good, will just change it to some form of pattern otherwise. Also that hair is looking wicked good.
Bit of an update, coming along quite well so far. Most worried about the hair
I've fixed my masks, i was something to do with specular tint I think. I'm not quite sure about the textures yet, though, but at the same time I'm not a great texture artist.
especially the mini cape textures
@Tyn - That's a bad ass helmet. Great job! @MDK - Love that Omni hair! @Sekoran - Very cool crown. I like the rune detail. @Schnoodle - That helm matches perfectly with Abaddon's silhouette. Great job!
Finally had a free day to wrap my mind around sculpting and figuring everything out. Here is an update, feedback is appreciated.
@Aitnar - I like the details! just a little concerned with how the sharp edges will turn out around the circular shape, excited to see how it turns out!
I played around with the model a bit more, I think I like the skadi a lot better now
Edit: I almost forgot to try a style without the eye, as it looks kind of cool but also pretty silly. will update soon-ish
@Schnoodle - Thanks! I'm still struggling with it. my maps are not generating correctly, but all my settings are correct. I'm trying out xNormal now. Hopefully I'll get some more accurate results. Time for more learning!
Hair was fun to do, remade it a few times but I feel that this version works out well.
Tried a bake of the text as well, was visible in the portrait view with approximate UVs so I'm going to try to make the final with them, if it doesn't work out I'll probably just remove it / make a simple pattern.
Was encountering a lot of weird errors and went back to my mesh and built up once more. This time things are much more organised and getting a lot better results. *crosses fingers* Hopefully I'll have time to bake it today and start texturing.
@primrose - that's badass. not exactly sure how hard a wing could hit tho
here's an alternate style without the eye I whipped up. I actually really don't like it as much, although the textures in general may be smoother on their own, together they don't stand out. It's hard to see it and say "oh that's a skadi" without the eye, i think. I'm going to go through and try to give continuity to the textures, but I really don't think this item turned out too great. I can say that I've learned a lot in terms of modeling, texturing, and masking.
@Aintar: looking good! @Primrose: wicked looking sword there, can't wait for the final product @schnoodle: Have to agree with you, that version looks better even though it doesn't have the same connection to skadi @Reyne: looking nice!
@ Primrose: I really like that! Very fantasy-like and unique.
@ schnoodle: Good idea with the eye of skadi, suits abbadon pretty well.
Here are my few very very rough concepts (tablet is broken, so I did them with pen and paper). A shield for DK, a sword for Abbadon and a horse for CK. The horse and sword obviously need some refining, if I even get around to working on them...
I started on the shield... here's where I currently am with that:
Not really sure how to proceed from there, since I'm new to this whole 3D business... guess I have some googling ahead
@ Primrose: Love the concept! Curious how it will come out.
@ Reyne: Like where this is going, Nice clean sculpt! The pauldrons look especially badass.
@ Aitnar: I suggest cranking up the subdiv on your sculpt up a notch and slightly smoothing down your hard edges.
@ StuBurrito: That came out really nice. Although some of the colours seem a bit flat, are you shifting through hues?
@ spacemonsky: I reckon your design has too much detail. The rings are really nice but they'll eat at your poly-budget like crazy while not reading very well in game.
@ Paskie: Looks nice and bulky, I think it suits DK well.
@ schnoodle: I reckon one of the main things you could look at next time round is the silhouette and making sure it stands out with interesting shapes that are readable in game.
@ Sekoran: Looking good! Curious what it will look like with textures and masks.
Pffff, retopo feels a little like butchering your newborn.... Anyway, it's done. Baking time. *Runs off to wash bloodstained hands*
Hey guys, I got all my maps done, they look great, but I'm at a complete loss now. I have no idea what order I should layer these maps in Photoshop, or if I'm even missing any. I've been reading and re-reading the Character Shader Mask guide, and it helped a little, but I'm not understanding it. I posted a pic of my maps below. Any help is appreciated. Thank you
Hey guys, I got all my maps done, they look great, but I'm at a complete loss now. I have no idea what order I should layer these maps in Photoshop, or if I'm even missing any. I've been reading and re-reading the Character Shader Mask guide, and it helped a little, but I'm not understanding it. I posted a pic of my maps below. Any help is appreciated. Thank you
Oh my, I don't even know what all those things mean in that picture, hahaha!
But the way dota's specular masks etc. work is that it takes just the normal, the color, and then two mask targa files (mask1 and mask2) and it compiles it together when testing it in the workshop submitter.
basically, in photoshop, you would make 2 copies of the color file, and name them mask1 and mask2.
then you edit the RGB A channels, which should be in the tab next to the layers tab (at least that's default). the Red, blue, green, and alpha channels all correspond to different shaders in game, which you would find in that shaders guide.
Valve also goes over a couple more things not in that guide here.
I'm sure someone else can explain it a lot better than me, but I hope that helps a bit. Also, note that the targas must be named respectively, for example:
youritem_256_color
youritem_256_normal
youritem_256_mask1
youritem_256_mask2
All of your texture files must have the "_size_color" etc after the name.
Replies
@tyn looking sick!
@Xajai
The main issue I have is the chops. The hair should come out of the cheeks and straight down. Yours looks like long hair from the head coming down/
@ Xajai: That hair could actually work. Shame the AO makes it near impossible to make anything that does almost completely cover his face.
@ StuBurrito: Loving the shapes! The bake came through nicely. Parts of the hilt looks a bit fragile though.
@ schnoodle: I like the concept! I'm a little worried the eye is going to look really static on the portrait in-game.
This is my blockout so far. I'm happy with the overall shape of the horns, except for the tapering at the base. It seemed like a good idea at the time, now i'm not so sure. Currently at 800 tris, re-topo might get a little rough....
Here are my low/high polys.
Thank you for the advice sir! I will see what I can come up with.
Lots of awesome stuff in the thread this month as well, awesome
still know very little about retopo and texturing, but i hope i'll finish it on time.
Also i want to add some particles, if I'll have the time.
I absolutely LOVE this hair!!
Ditto, it gives a professional yet badass look to the holy knight. That portrait!
Update of DK Sword:
I'm actually pretty happy about how this is turning out! It's come a very long way in the past few days.
Paperbag: Definitely an improvement compared to the last sculpt
Jlem: Love the concept, not to sure about the placement of the braid though
Ended up doing a bunch of sculpting while watching the redmoon stream. Probably too much detail...
@Tyn Looking good. I think you could get rid of some geo on the 'horns'. The really small tips won't be that noticeable in-game.
Here's my progress on my CK weapon.
Help me Omni-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!
#SWAG
And yep it looks a bit like Obi Wan from Episode 3, so your quote doesnt fit because its from Episode 4. xD
Bit of an update, coming along quite well so far. Most worried about the hair
especially the mini cape textures
@MDK - Love that Omni hair!
@Sekoran - Very cool crown. I like the rune detail.
@Schnoodle - That helm matches perfectly with Abaddon's silhouette. Great job!
Finally had a free day to wrap my mind around sculpting and figuring everything out. Here is an update, feedback is appreciated.
I played around with the model a bit more, I think I like the skadi a lot better now
Edit: I almost forgot to try a style without the eye, as it looks kind of cool but also pretty silly. will update soon-ish
Hair was fun to do, remade it a few times but I feel that this version works out well.
Tried a bake of the text as well, was visible in the portrait view with approximate UVs so I'm going to try to make the final with them, if it doesn't work out I'll probably just remove it / make a simple pattern.
Blockout done on my DK sword so now the fun in Zbrush starts. Looks lika a lobster is eating the sword now
Working on a sword for DK!
here's an alternate style without the eye I whipped up. I actually really don't like it as much, although the textures in general may be smoother on their own, together they don't stand out. It's hard to see it and say "oh that's a skadi" without the eye, i think. I'm going to go through and try to give continuity to the textures, but I really don't think this item turned out too great. I can say that I've learned a lot in terms of modeling, texturing, and masking.
and I will try and get this Abaddon concept done finished for the monthly competition too
Some great stuff already in this thread! Really cool to see so much activity on the competition.
@Primrose: wicked looking sword there, can't wait for the final product
@schnoodle: Have to agree with you, that version looks better even though it doesn't have the same connection to skadi
@Reyne: looking nice!
@ schnoodle: Good idea with the eye of skadi, suits abbadon pretty well.
Here are my few very very rough concepts (tablet is broken, so I did them with pen and paper). A shield for DK, a sword for Abbadon and a horse for CK. The horse and sword obviously need some refining, if I even get around to working on them...
I started on the shield... here's where I currently am with that:
Not really sure how to proceed from there, since I'm new to this whole 3D business... guess I have some googling ahead
@ Reyne: Like where this is going, Nice clean sculpt! The pauldrons look especially badass.
@ Aitnar: I suggest cranking up the subdiv on your sculpt up a notch and slightly smoothing down your hard edges.
@ StuBurrito: That came out really nice. Although some of the colours seem a bit flat, are you shifting through hues?
@ spacemonsky: I reckon your design has too much detail. The rings are really nice but they'll eat at your poly-budget like crazy while not reading very well in game.
@ Paskie: Looks nice and bulky, I think it suits DK well.
@ schnoodle: I reckon one of the main things you could look at next time round is the silhouette and making sure it stands out with interesting shapes that are readable in game.
@ Sekoran: Looking good! Curious what it will look like with textures and masks.
Pffff, retopo feels a little like butchering your newborn.... Anyway, it's done. Baking time. *Runs off to wash bloodstained hands*
Almost forgot. The final sculpt!
And retopo does indeed suck sometimes :<
Oh my, I don't even know what all those things mean in that picture, hahaha!
But the way dota's specular masks etc. work is that it takes just the normal, the color, and then two mask targa files (mask1 and mask2) and it compiles it together when testing it in the workshop submitter.
basically, in photoshop, you would make 2 copies of the color file, and name them mask1 and mask2.
then you edit the RGB A channels, which should be in the tab next to the layers tab (at least that's default). the Red, blue, green, and alpha channels all correspond to different shaders in game, which you would find in that shaders guide.
Valve also goes over a couple more things not in that guide here.
I'm sure someone else can explain it a lot better than me, but I hope that helps a bit. Also, note that the targas must be named respectively, for example:
All of your texture files must have the "_size_color" etc after the name.
EDIT: The mask part just blew my mind... haha! X_X So complicated...I've been following this tutorial the best I can:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=123397498#19244
The Texture, Masks portion is a little vague but it does give some direction.