The mask of Owloocucu (Character and weapon project)

JamesMeader

The idea of Owloocucu was firstly the staff. I wanted to create something fun and a bit silly. I started this a while ago and have now decided to show what I've been trying to do.

The project has expanded and I am now planning to include a character even though I am not character artist its more to complete the overall idea I have for Owloocucu.




Current wip of the staff, the texture isnt finished but wanted to get some feedback on the execution as well as colour palette. This is a big challenge for me as its the first time I've attempted 100% hand painted as often in the past made a high poly and used the baked maps as a guide.


I haven't decided my approach for the character yet, may spend a few more days to get things sorted.

I'll be posting a blog soon going through more of the back story of Owloocucu which I've been writing on my train journeys home.

Any feedback is appreciated, thanks.

Thane-

Looks really nice and i love the background too.

JamesMeader

Thanks Thane!

pixelb

Sorry for the wait! I really do like the design you have going, it was a ton of fun to paint over. It kinda reminds me of crash bandicoot.

JamesMeader

Thats awesome pixelb! Great reference to follow and to further work on.

Yeah good old Crash Bandicoot has been a big influence and reference. Its kind of what I'm going for in terms of gameplay if Owloocucu was going to be a game.

Hope to begin the character and fixed what I need to on the staff.

JamesMeader

Feeling a lot better now with this version. I followed Pixelb's very helpful advice as well as starting from the bottom and working my way up which was a lot better than just hitting the thing at all angles.

Maybe theres a few bits I could work on, emphasize or revise.

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

JamesMeader

Been working pretty hard on this.
With the other assets I applied the same workflow I learnt with the staff.
I tried to make things like glows in realtime. Though the obvious glows are real I couldnt get very low opacity glows and gradients to work in Toolbag 2.



Please crit, I'd like to call this done so I get started with the next project.

Thanks.

Alphavader

Technically a good staff. youre Improving and that is good.
However your presentation is very distracting. Also it
looks like 2d. But you want to show your modeling/texturing skills right ?
Colorwise its too noisy. Its dazzling from to bottom and the top.
The Screenshopt above is looking much better.
I think you should work with a bit more with an gradiend (Dota2) and also choose
your color pallette a bit better. After everything is done, just do a very slim
presentaiton. Everything very settled - cause you want to show your art at the
first place - not your branding, and not your background. Would be a shame if this
nice staff goes under by all this.

/this is good for picking colors: http://colorschemedesigner.com/

Cheers
Alpha

JamesMeader

@Alpha Thanks for the feedback.
Yeah I agree with the gradient flowing through the scene. I'll sort this.
For me I really wanted to create a stupid but cool scene, ideally I don't want to calm things down too much as this will defeat the purpose.
I'll see how it all looks without the main glow and just a more subtle approach but still keeping the context.
I'll make the background more subtle too as well as the branding side of things.

pixelb

Heyhey. It's evening so I have time to write up some thoughts.

I think you ought to reconsider how you’re lighting this. It looks like there’s an intense blue spotlight shining on your staff and it’s washing out the colors of your texture.
If you’re keen on using the base as a spotlight, you should make it fall off faster and position the staff slightly in front of it so it acts more like a rim light.

For me, when I’m lighting handpainted stuff, I use a directional light at half intensity and then use the diffuse texture as an emissive map, also at half intensity. I find this strikes a good balance between realtime lighting and the light painted into your texture, so the colors don’t get blown out. In this case I would make a copy of the diffuse and fill any not-glowy areas with 50% black, then use that as my emissive map. Top it off with a colored rimlight to show off the silhouette and you’re done.



It’s my best approximation of what I think Firstkeeper does:



Also, the lightning isn’t working, it just looks like random scribbles. I like the symbol at the top, I think that’s all you need to convey the staff’s magic properties.

Confetti is….I mean, I respect your enthusiasm, but it’s too much. It’s a fine-looking prop, it doesn’t need sprinkles on top.

Nice work on the base and all, it's awesome that you’re putting the extra effort into your presentation.

JamesMeader

Thanks pixelb.
I followed your advice, removed the lightning glow which I think makes it less 2d like what Alphavader said and also removing the confetti. The lighting was still tricky and took the longest to sort out.

Got some crit already saying the pot is too bright and taking too much of the focus. I plan to make it darker so that it follows a more universal gradient.
If anyone else has anything that could help it would be appreciated.

JamesMeader

An other go, feel like I'm shooting in the dark at the minute, or I need to rest my eyes on this scene for a bit.

I may start doing all my presentation for my website now unless someone says something I should change.
Cheers for all the previous comments y'all.

Stirls

I like that a lot. Good work, man.

JamesMeader

Thanks Stirls, appreciated!

pixelb

Nice! Stick a fork in it. :thumbup:

JamesMeader

Thanks pixelb, I have a few things I've written down that I want to adjust and then its done.

JamesMeader

I've done the tweaks I wanted to do and decided that I am done with this.
Maybe there is more to do or change but at this time I'm pretty happy with it.
Any further critique will be considered and I may change something.


Thanks for all the comments, appreciated as always.
Now to focus on my other project the Wildstar Fishing Cannon.