Looking for Texture Artist for random UVW painting
Ok, so the title is probably pretty discouraging, but I couldn't think of a more exciting, while honest one.
Basically, I'm not looking for mod help, I'm not looking for any commitments, and at this current time, I only do this kind of stuff as a hobby.
Here's the deal, I like to play a few games when I get the opportunity, as I'm sure we all do, and like many of the members here I also occasionally get that desire to contribute and twist elements of the games we love.
So I create simple model replacements, as simple and low-brow as that may seem here amidst this great talent, to help customize the gaming experience, and add a little bit of excitement too.
I am a designer, programmer, modeler, rigger, animator, uvw/high poly baker, etc, etc, nothing new or amazing around these parts, but I like to keep my focus narrow, and avoid any big commitment like big mod work or indi game development.
For the last year I've been greatly enjoying the artistic style and gameplay that hopefully some of you will agree is Team Fortress 2. So late last fall I decided I was going to set out and make a few graphical customizations, something that hasn't been happening much past the typical reskinning of default models, mostly due to the complexities that arise during decompilation. What this means is that anyone that wants to create new graphical content has to know how to rig and animate, and apparently that's a rarity for more stylized games like TF2.
Long Story short, with a friend I started toying with some ideas and threw a few sketches back and forth, until we had arrived at something I just had to create.
The SkullBuster, a visual replacement for the default Sniper Rifle in TF2, here is the concept art we arrived at:
(finished 2d artwork courtesy of my friend, and co-designer Marc Johnston, yes he's a Kiwi)
I'm aware it won't appeal to everyone, and even more so that it won't make sense to those that do not have a love for TF2 humour, but I can't help but laugh when looking at it. So I went on to model it.
I created the Skull INSIDE of the Scout player model's head, to make sure it all made sense and lined up properly:
(yes yes, hideous render, I know, I've never been much on spending time to make fancy renders when I could be getting it ingame)
(high poly shown, low poly mesh with all backfaces is ~14k tris, and yes, those are ugly 3dsm colors)
I'll spare you the process, since you are all familiar, and skip to an early ingame rendering, with normal maps, phong shaders, and light warp maps to give it that toony feel!
(just a quick glance before re-rigging the TF2 Sniper arms and animating this bad boy)
I rigged the hands, and made a set of animations to most closely match the originals, while keeping them unique, original, and fun, and I created a series of LODs of the mesh for use with the World models, ranging in 4 layers from 14k to 2900 triangles (yes, I know I could go lower than 2900)
(quick low res screenshots of the World model in use ingame! I'm aware his hand clips through the ribcage)
And of course a view from First Person (the animated "view" model)
(not the best screenshots in the world either, but I'm usually eager to get back to work)
Finally, I also modelled and animated a muzzleflash on the end of the rifle, because I always felt the default was a bit dinky for a one-hit kill skull smashing bullet flinger, and it's always been one of my 'things' to create my own MuzzleFlashes:
(I actually made quite a few before I arrived at one I was happy with, having a semi-toony over saturated feel, and lightly broken light gradient)
By now some of you are surely questioning "What's the deal with the lack of detail on those diffuse maps?" Well, truth be told, the Diffuse maps are currently all single colors, and unskinned. The UVW maps are made, the normal maps are made, and even most of the specular maps are made, but Diffuse map painting just has never been my cup of tea, and I hate to drag the rest of my work into the mud with a poor quality Diffuse map!
//
!! Skip to here to get to the point already!!
//
So we FINALLLLLY arrive at the reason behind this whole thread, and that is that I am searching for a talented individual, possibly with similiar interests, that would like to join me in finishing this little art asset (almost everything is finished except the Diffuse maps being painted), AND possibly future assets as well, I'm always open to suggestions, and I love a good challenge, especially creative ones. I can handle every piece of the process from start to compilation, but I just hate my own Diffuse maps, and would absolutely love to have some one collaborate with me to compensate for that fact.
Currently I'm still so very much in love with TF2, I'd like to create more customizations for it, especially with all the new unlockables coming out so quickly, and I'm already scheming up some rough designs for some new models.
Anyway /endrant and all that jazz, sorry to bloat this thread so much, but I look forward to hearing any kind of responses!
Basically, I'm not looking for mod help, I'm not looking for any commitments, and at this current time, I only do this kind of stuff as a hobby.
Here's the deal, I like to play a few games when I get the opportunity, as I'm sure we all do, and like many of the members here I also occasionally get that desire to contribute and twist elements of the games we love.
So I create simple model replacements, as simple and low-brow as that may seem here amidst this great talent, to help customize the gaming experience, and add a little bit of excitement too.
I am a designer, programmer, modeler, rigger, animator, uvw/high poly baker, etc, etc, nothing new or amazing around these parts, but I like to keep my focus narrow, and avoid any big commitment like big mod work or indi game development.
For the last year I've been greatly enjoying the artistic style and gameplay that hopefully some of you will agree is Team Fortress 2. So late last fall I decided I was going to set out and make a few graphical customizations, something that hasn't been happening much past the typical reskinning of default models, mostly due to the complexities that arise during decompilation. What this means is that anyone that wants to create new graphical content has to know how to rig and animate, and apparently that's a rarity for more stylized games like TF2.
Long Story short, with a friend I started toying with some ideas and threw a few sketches back and forth, until we had arrived at something I just had to create.
The SkullBuster, a visual replacement for the default Sniper Rifle in TF2, here is the concept art we arrived at:
(finished 2d artwork courtesy of my friend, and co-designer Marc Johnston, yes he's a Kiwi)
I'm aware it won't appeal to everyone, and even more so that it won't make sense to those that do not have a love for TF2 humour, but I can't help but laugh when looking at it. So I went on to model it.
I created the Skull INSIDE of the Scout player model's head, to make sure it all made sense and lined up properly:
(yes yes, hideous render, I know, I've never been much on spending time to make fancy renders when I could be getting it ingame)
(high poly shown, low poly mesh with all backfaces is ~14k tris, and yes, those are ugly 3dsm colors)
I'll spare you the process, since you are all familiar, and skip to an early ingame rendering, with normal maps, phong shaders, and light warp maps to give it that toony feel!
(just a quick glance before re-rigging the TF2 Sniper arms and animating this bad boy)
I rigged the hands, and made a set of animations to most closely match the originals, while keeping them unique, original, and fun, and I created a series of LODs of the mesh for use with the World models, ranging in 4 layers from 14k to 2900 triangles (yes, I know I could go lower than 2900)
(quick low res screenshots of the World model in use ingame! I'm aware his hand clips through the ribcage)
And of course a view from First Person (the animated "view" model)
(not the best screenshots in the world either, but I'm usually eager to get back to work)
Finally, I also modelled and animated a muzzleflash on the end of the rifle, because I always felt the default was a bit dinky for a one-hit kill skull smashing bullet flinger, and it's always been one of my 'things' to create my own MuzzleFlashes:
(I actually made quite a few before I arrived at one I was happy with, having a semi-toony over saturated feel, and lightly broken light gradient)
By now some of you are surely questioning "What's the deal with the lack of detail on those diffuse maps?" Well, truth be told, the Diffuse maps are currently all single colors, and unskinned. The UVW maps are made, the normal maps are made, and even most of the specular maps are made, but Diffuse map painting just has never been my cup of tea, and I hate to drag the rest of my work into the mud with a poor quality Diffuse map!
//
!! Skip to here to get to the point already!!
//
So we FINALLLLLY arrive at the reason behind this whole thread, and that is that I am searching for a talented individual, possibly with similiar interests, that would like to join me in finishing this little art asset (almost everything is finished except the Diffuse maps being painted), AND possibly future assets as well, I'm always open to suggestions, and I love a good challenge, especially creative ones. I can handle every piece of the process from start to compilation, but I just hate my own Diffuse maps, and would absolutely love to have some one collaborate with me to compensate for that fact.
Currently I'm still so very much in love with TF2, I'd like to create more customizations for it, especially with all the new unlockables coming out so quickly, and I'm already scheming up some rough designs for some new models.
Anyway /endrant and all that jazz, sorry to bloat this thread so much, but I look forward to hearing any kind of responses!