Lou's Workshop

Louisk

This will be my first attempt at submitting anything to the Dota workshop. Any advice or crits would be much appreciated. My first project is an axe for Axe with a Lotus Orb theme. Here's my concepts



I went with Design #2



I decided against the straps working on refinig the design on the right now



This is a quick preview of the colors. I'm curious what you guys think?

Swaggernaut

Breaks color pallette of axe completely. (Sorry if that sounds harsh :P) Try Black stone, darker wood, yellow gems, make the boundries (cylinder parts idk) red, and make the scales dark grey

Louisk

Hey swaggernaut, I realized that from the get go. The point is to emulate the lotus orb. Maybe if I made a whole set it would work? Or is it mandatory that a set follows the predefined color schemes of a character?

Clyptic

It's just not a good idea to break from the default color palette. The hero color palette is what helps identify a hero on the map quickly, even if he is in a set you have never seen before. Now this is only a weapon so it wouldn't really cause that issue, but that is the way valve likes things done. 

On a side note, this weapon is a pretty cool design. But the flower theme doesn't seem like the best choice for Axe. You have much more freedom on themes when creating a set vs the color palette, but you want to take the hero into account when doing so. 

Louisk

Hey Clyptic, I understand maybe I can modify the colors a bit. I agree looking at the weapon in his hands it doesn't feel right. I think I need to go back to the drawing board on this one. Thanks for the feedback guys.

Louisk

Okay, so I've done some tests and I think I'm going to leave the colors. If I adjust them to fit his palette the association with the lotus orb is lost. It feels even worse to lose that association because the design really isn't axe themed it's themed for the orb. In the future I'll need to make sure the item theme doesn't clash with the hero's. So this may totally bomb but it's my first try I'm not really expecting to get in the shop. I do want to change the blade design though. Any thoughts on which axe blade design I should go with?

Louisk

Here's an update on the redesign. I liked the way the blades of design #1 mimicked the petal shapes of the lotus orb, but I was told it needed more variety so I altered each blade to be a bit more interesting. I also decided the orb needed to be smaller. Once I settled on the proportions I sculpted the new blade. I did a final retouch of the entire piece and now I'm on to the low res!

Shock

hey mate, just found ur thread
just wanted to say that i actualy rly liked ur first axeshape before the rework,
it had that rly fency and massive blade part that fits great to axe. ofc the crit from
the other guys is absolutly right so, the details on the handle are too filigran and soft
for axe and the colors dont rly work. my advise is (and i have made alot of ingameitem-mimics^^)
that volvo doesnt like it alot, and if u go close to its design u will be 100% not added into game,
so i would take ur former shape and replace the handle with something rougher that fits better to axe.
and for the color i would keep the red gem and for the metal i think dark metal is rly good, even rusty works
- and under that dark and rusty metal there can be some highlight spots made in that gold color,
with a gradient or whatever. so people will see this was a lotus orb axe once, but now its used off and rotten.
just my idea! gl with it!

Clyptic

I really like the new axe head, it feels more suited to Axe and looks awesome. I think it could work well as is even with a fancier handle. But I would say that is heavily dependent on the texturing, you will have to play down the elegant look. Maybe something along the lines of what Shock said. 

You may have already, but if you take a look at all Axe's in game items, they tend have a darker gritty color palette. http://dota2.gamepedia.com/Kingslayer_Axe

Edit: One other thing I forgot to say, this axe has a decent amount of texture space so you should be ok, but in the future you might want to avoid details as small as the scales. Most the time they end up to low res and can't even be seen in game anyway. I do this myself sometimes and then regret it...

Louisk

Hey thanks for the feedback guys! I started the lowres today. The polycount is brutal! had to alter the amount of petals I had around the blade. I kind of like how they missing petals are still implied by the negative space in the blades.

@Shock Thank you for the tips about item based weapons. I totally get your feedback about the design not fitting axe's personlaity. I am just going to finish this piece as is, so I can move on. I will try to make the texture reflect Axe more.

@Clyptic Glad you like the new direction. I realized as I was making it that the scales may be too frequent and I am prepared to go back and alter them. It's a nanomesh so it shouldn't be too hard to mess with.

Louisk

I'm back to work on this piece. I finished the bakes so now it's on to the coloring.

Here's my quick and dirty photoshop previs of the color scheme. Trying to stay within the Axe palette a bit more. I may end up making the orb red in the end.

I am leaning towards the 1st of these three options

Louisk

Here's the WIP color map any feedback out be much appreciated

Louisk

Here it is in Axe's hands for real