[Chivalry] - Agatha Knight -Crown of Cobalt, Blade of Mercurial Wrath
sublime tool
Hey everyone! My name is Sheng, but I generally go by 'Zetheros' online. I am a modern armoursmith, and I concept/model/texture/animate game assets and characters using photoshop, zbrush, and modo, and will be working with the Unreal Engine soon, to make a game of my own.
I've played Chivalry for a few weeks, and I really enjoyed the combat, but then I moved to China and the latency here is terrible for mmo's. I was that guy with the bidenhander and 40+ kills... sorry
I've been studying and building plate armour of the 15th-16th centuries for the past 5 years, specifically Gothic plate, and the Maximilian-styled fluted armour. Here are some pics of a model I've been working on (that I will eventually build irl, out of carbon steel, leather, hemp cloth or linen, here at my dad's house in China)
Here is a (really) rough zbrush concept for my next suit of armour, Desiderium Sigil, Plate of the Godslayer.
Most of the armour is 16th c. Maximilian, however there are influences of Negroli, the gauntlets are 15th c. Gothic, and the pauldron guards are from a late 15th c. jousting suit. The cuirass and backplate have the globule shape and fluting of Maximilian, but has the articulations and a more slim-shape reminiscent of Gothic, and the flutes run in the same way as gothic armour.
The cloth articles are not contemporary, I just thought it'd look cool
I've played Chivalry for a few weeks, and I really enjoyed the combat, but then I moved to China and the latency here is terrible for mmo's. I was that guy with the bidenhander and 40+ kills... sorry
I've been studying and building plate armour of the 15th-16th centuries for the past 5 years, specifically Gothic plate, and the Maximilian-styled fluted armour. Here are some pics of a model I've been working on (that I will eventually build irl, out of carbon steel, leather, hemp cloth or linen, here at my dad's house in China)
Here is a (really) rough zbrush concept for my next suit of armour, Desiderium Sigil, Plate of the Godslayer.
Most of the armour is 16th c. Maximilian, however there are influences of Negroli, the gauntlets are 15th c. Gothic, and the pauldron guards are from a late 15th c. jousting suit. The cuirass and backplate have the globule shape and fluting of Maximilian, but has the articulations and a more slim-shape reminiscent of Gothic, and the flutes run in the same way as gothic armour.
The cloth articles are not contemporary, I just thought it'd look cool
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Edit: Nevermind, this is WIP. Above screencaps are not my final submission.
Anyway, I've started the the head + body, because just starting with the head is a fatal mistake. You get a better sense of proportions with sculpting on an entire body.
Imported into Zbrush. Why is the mesh off center?
I checked back with modo, and it was not only off center, but asymmetrical.
That's alright I suppose, I can still center it with seneca's script and work around it, but it would be better if the mesh were symmetrical.
Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and this is just one of my strengths, it's really kind of ridiculous really, I mean medieval armour? Kind of hard to find a job just for that.
Testing to see what the helmet looks like on the character. So far so good.
This is all I'm going to do in Zbrush for now. Onto modo.
Most of the detailing will be done with textures and normal map, I don't think repousse fits the look of Agatha.
I have my own style of art, but I think that the point of this challenge is to not make something completely in 'your style', rather it's to make something amazing that will fit in with Chivalry's existing artstyle and 3d assets, so I picked a helmet style that is great for conserving polygons, and also looks great and 'in character' on a Agatha Knight.
This is what 440 triangles looks like. I'm by no means a professional at low-poly, but the helmet's mesh is already fairly close to the mesh resolution of Chivalry's models.
I could either not use the rest, and allow the savings for improved game performance, but since this is a mesh for an item that will be bought, it will only appear occasionally in the game, I'll probably use the rest of the 560 spare polygons for either repousse detail, or perhaps a feathered plume (but that might not be allowed, due to size/animation limitations.)
For the texturing, I'm planning on partial blued steel, acid etch designs, brass trim, perhaps something to do with lions, and a cross design that intertwines with the visor.
Blacksmiths generally work with just iron. They make ALL sorts of tools, horseshoes, basically anything usable out of metal. What they usually don't work on are swords and armour, because while the tools, techniques, and materials are somewhat similar, they are also quite different.
Swordsmiths work on swords. It's a very difficult profession requiring a lot of experience and knowledge to be good at, because if you're a swordsmith, your day to day regime is basically making an incredibly thin, long, flexible, and very, very sharp, piece of metal be able to chop down anything from trees to humans to cars.
Armoursmiths are similar to swordsmiths in that they too are highly specialized, requiring exacting knowledge of a human's range of motion and anatomy, a lot of trial and error to figure out how to make articulations for every part of the body, and an experienced hand to shape steel, either cold, hot, or both, to encase a human in indestructible plate armour.
...So no more throwing the title 'blacksmith' everywhere. If you take your sword to get sharpened at a blacksmith, they will definitely mess your blade up, unless they are also a swordsmith, in which case you should take your sword to a dedicated swordsmith, and not that farmer down the road hammering on a red hot pair of horse shoes, who used to sharpen a few swords here and there for spare change back in ye olde war, no matter how friendly he might seem...
Yeah, I know they look a little like feathers, but they never said you couldn't decorate with anything more than just bears, crosses, and blue!
Here's to playing with colors.
This is what I mean by 'blued' steel, in case anyone was wondering. Basically, carbon steel is treated with fire.
I will be making a set for the Agatha Knight. It will feature a helmet, sword, and shield. The Crown of Cobalt, Blade of Mercurial Wrath, and Ferocity Visage - Grand Shield of Agatha.
I made a new thread though, since I can't figure out how to change the title of this one =/
Here ya go: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139190
I'm starting on the repousse details on the center ridge. It's going to be of a battlefield, with a lion snacking on a large bird and fleeing masons behind it.
Here are the first few lines of the lion;
Now, shields are probably one of the most inaccurately represented items in popular culture. You see all these guys with shields made of all-steel, giant tower shields. No! That's not going to be fun to fight with, at all! Most shields were made of wood, treated and glued all together with leather, canvas, or other coverings, and with a nice cereal-bowl sized carbon steel 'boss' in the center, which is where your hand/arm would be behind it. This is so that any blows that might hit dead center, where your hand is, would glance off the boss and land on the shield. Metal was basically used only used for smaller shields, like bucklers.
Don't believe me? duct tape a rectangle of 18 gauge steel to your arm, that's nearly as tall as you are, and have fun.
Another thing is the grip. You want the straps at an angle, so that when you get bashed on by folks with 50lb sledge hammers (made of crystals and magic and stuff) the force either glances off your shield, or is evenly distributed across your arm. That way, the shield doesn't swing around on it's straps and knock your teeth out.
But since this game has a giant, all-metal tower shield, and these things look freaking amazing, I'm going to make a giant, all-metal tower shield, in the style of the 15th-16th century! Woooooot!
Also, the helmet isn't even nearly done yet. Most of the work will be in the textures and mapping. I'm just swapping to a shield because I need to change up the workflow a bit.
Roughing out the shield.
http://grooveshark.com/s/Attack+On+Titan+Second+Opening/6JID0I?src=5
Could I ask a very noob question, pls? Are you doing the repousse in Photoshop or something like that or directly on Zbrush/any other 3d soft.
I was planning to have some carvings and relieves on a sword skin and my first choice was going to be a lot of PS and hand painting the texture maps.
However, I'm also thinking about looking for a program that would be good for painting directly onto the model, since I feel that it would be easier to determine where to paint light and shadows, and also because it's more natural than painting on a flat, unwrapped UV.
I saw that blender has a feature where you can directly paint onto a low-poly game model, it looked pretty sophisticated, but there might be something better out there.
For a sword, I imagine that it would be easier to just unwrap and paint it all in photoshop, if both sides of the sword are symmetrical. Swords are pretty much flat already.
The first thing I noticed was that the boss was too large, and conflicted with the more realistic aesthetics of the helmet, so I made it smaller. I also decided to add additional repousse locations, and have masked lines for flutes.