At GDC I got some great feedback and direction from some wonderful people, and the broad strokes is I'm going to begin focusing on "hero" props, and I'm going to start to become a lot more active on the forums.
For this project I'm going to be using concept art by Blizzard artists. My plan is to use ZBrush for the rough shapes, retopo it in Maya, get an AO map from XNormals, and then fully painting to item using 3DCoat. The only part of the process that is new to me is 3DCoat, and I'm very excited about it.
So, here's the first item in a cluster of blizzard style props I plan on making, a druid's staff. Concept art from FirstSeeker on deviantart.
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I'd say maybe on just the horns, add another pass on tonal value... push the brightness just a tad bit more so it's not the same values as the handle since its looking a little bit flat to me... also maybe add some rim light values coming from the bottom up along with contact illumination where the green leaves would have a slight bounce light onto the surface of the horns etc... just so it sits a little more natural and it should be set imo
Great work so far (Y)