Sketchbook: Azaraen
polycounter lvl 10
Hello! I missed being a part of the Polycount community. Having a very strict goal to becoming employed at a video game company, I want to improve my skills, improve my ability to communicate my work to people, and share my passion with like-minded people.
I'll share with you what I've been working on recently, and then move on from there!
Texture and it's test box.
Got a great paintover feedback from Bourikina on this one. I plan to revist this painting.
Got another great feedback from Kelvin Tan on this piece. I also plan to revisit this painting. Heavily inspired by a wall in Pandaria in World of Warcraft.
Texture Test.
I'll share with you what I've been working on recently, and then move on from there!
Texture and it's test box.
Got a great paintover feedback from Bourikina on this one. I plan to revist this painting.
Got another great feedback from Kelvin Tan on this piece. I also plan to revisit this painting. Heavily inspired by a wall in Pandaria in World of Warcraft.
Texture Test.
Replies
A paintover I did to show where I want to polish it.
Slowly making a working prefab for the cannons in my personal project. Cannonballs not included (yet). And I added more highlights to the cannon.
More pics coming.....
Now to either work on a boat, more tileable textures, or a small diorama!
I kind of agree with Atticus on the rope on the top of the cannon. It would be cool if it was a bit more defined as an igniting cord, maybe even add some what a burnt tip to show that it was used.
Also to push it even further, it would be great to see some foot step prints in the sand with maybe some sand being displaced by the muzzle flash/blast of the cannon.
After forgetting about Sketchfab, and then remembering that it's actually a really cool spot, I uploaded my cannon there too!
[SKETCHFAB]e6e9f9705695438d8391d1559ddc2357[/SKETCHFAB]
Next up! A booooooat!
Started on the beam across the sides. Tiling wood texture acting as temporary placement while I paint up the rest of the ship.
Here is my analysis of a WoW ship's hull (which I am using as reference and my bar of quality):
What I don't understand is how they get the textures to look great over the whole ship. The back side of the ship is taller than the part near the front. It has caused me a slight problem which is illustrated in my picture below. I might just move the UV down for that last beam.
ALSO, it seems like the hull isn't getting any AO except on corners where it meets the beams. Areas above and below looks like it doesn't have any AO.
Two ways of doing this: 1. Paint the occluded areas with dark vertex colors, then set the vertex color to be multiplied against the base texture, or 2: Give the mesh a second UV channel. Unwrap it to a small texture with a gradient on it. Set the gradient texture to be multiplied against the base texture.
I can't remember if WoW supports vertex colors on props or not, but #2 definitely is used to hide tiling textures in the game.
Perfectly acceptable. Noone will notice if your UVs are stretched by 10%.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/17944910/engineer%E2%80%99s-workshop-anti-aliasing-lighting-2-12-2015
Vertex colors can be used on terrain and very big objects in WoW.
@Snafubar7 - Thanks for pointing that out! I'm not familiar with vertex colors, so I'll be doing my research.
Now, I'm also working on a puppy model along with my boat, just to keep things fresh and fun! Captain puppy is an old drawing and I will be redesigning him.
One night...
With a youtube video of me making this painting.
https://youtu.be/eE_MLwhDeDQ
Another night...
No video recording of this because when I started I thought it was going be crap. lol!
I had a lot of fun playing Shadows of Mordor over the weekend! I actually finished the game, and started playing the DLC. As for the painting. Wanted to do SOMETHING that involved Celebrimbor. I had an image in my head that was asking to come out, and this is exactly what I thinking.
Puppy base sculpt! Next I will create a low poly from it and start painting!
WIP WIP WIPitUP
Another iteration on the puppy. Im at a loss for the fur. GAHHH! Gonna be doing fur practices now. And I'm moving back to the ship while I work on these practices.
Another render at a perspective that is closer to how it will appear in-game.
I should be working on my pirate ship, but I kept have technical issues in 3D Coat with it. So...while I was waiting for 3D Coat to finish crashing, I worked on the puppy a little bit more.
There was a really great guide for DotA 2 texturing that suggested having the general texture get darker towards the bottom of the mesh. It helps emphasise the key areas of focus and draws the eye more towards the important bits like faces. I see it a little bit in some of your work but I think a little more would go a long way.
Its on page 3 of this guide:
http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterArtGuide.pdf
I don't know if its the style you want, but I think it would give that cannon for example a little more oompf
[ame]
Excited to see more, I really like where this is going
Getting closer, I think! Omg fur. I like how the ears turned out. Need more contrast in that chest fur.
@FreemanH: Thank you!
@disownedbeef: oh nice!! Definitely using that as a guide. Especially since I'll be making clothing pieces for the puppies still!
@bcarter: thats a really cool technique! It seems to be a little much for my guy, but when I work on the grass textures, I'll use that!
Thank you guys so much!
Clothes!! Kinda!! Coloring tomorrow.
And a paintsketch I did for the Handpainted Art Jam. Testing out my new photoshop plugin the "Magic Picker", practicing my color variation (tip from Faf @ link), and just wanting to do something fun.
Just one more day, and then I'll be done on this! Need to work on the belt.
Updated puppy textures (close to final). Just need to finish the tail and add some AO/shadows.
Sword painting from last night's Twitch Stream! I will make it into a Youtube video sometime in the week! 2 more sword paintings to come!
Modeled one of the swords! Going to move on to painting it now.
Incase anybody is interested, I am art streaming this on Twitch and will be starting the texturing process tonight! http://www.twitch.tv/evolvyn
Almost done with the sword! I projected the concept art onto the sword, now for clean up and polish!
Almooooost done....
[SKETCHFAB]d189641ca5ea46ad9f1da0c444339c46[/SKETCHFAB]
So I am back to this old thing! But this time I am making it in 3D.
Texture test
Was planning on doing this all by painting it, but decided to go ahead and use zbrush with this.