@DoughnutBear: that's fine, was just a suggestion. Also, I think you should add some random nails, and/or some bolts, or more wood cracking in the middle where you can see it in the viewmodel.
Here is a new backpack I've been working on for the pyro, it looks pretty good in-game. Tell me what you think.
If you are going to ask, "why is this side blown up, and is the other side blown up too?" well, the answer is no, the other side is not blown up :P
Also, those 2 black stripes are the rendered AO of how it attaches to the pyro's back.
@BenHenry looks cool! definitely will be interesting as to how it effects gameplay(like the razorback or passive). im trying to make the mailbox have a bit more personalty so trying out making a more beat up version
Hey, I decided to check out this site, finally. I knew about the Polycount contest, but I wasn't aware that so many other contributed items started out on these forums as well. Very cool! I made the Exquisite Rack and the Whiskered Gent, the latter of which was a crappy ~30-minute job that I submitted as a joke to give someone a chuckle... still not sure why I did that, but I was quite surprised when they used it.
Anyhow, I figured I'd throw up one of the models I made recently, since this seems like the place to do that sort of thing:
I haven't gone through all 200+ pages of this thread so I don't know if this has been done already. It has one jigglebone so it bounces slightly, nothing extreme.
That post makes me think 2 things, 1, not all these out of place items will be submitted to valve, just posted as mods because the creators understand they don't fit. And 2, the others who do contribute by making completely out of place things, his post is actually very true in a sense.. some of the crap in TF2 now makes it damn near impossible for me to play and I gained over a thousand hours very quickly..
I'd like some feedback regarding a single aspect of these two items - the polycount.
The headband is 692 tris, and the armbands together (as a misc item) amount to 845.
Which might have been fine last year, but... I think I'm in denial. There are official hats and misc items exceeding 2k.
EDIT: Apparently Model Viewer doubles tricount, so... I edited the numbers now!
The black box is ~5k. The kunai is ~2k. These items look great, because the artist (yay robg!) was not afraid to use more geometry. I fear my items look like shit because I'm being stingy.
So... am I in denial? Should I break out of this lowpoly habit, and just throw a ton of geometry into my models? It doesn't seem to matter anymore - Valve doesn't seem to mind. Nor does modern hardware.
What's better? Great looking models, or a lower polycount that fits the weight of the original player models?
Hey, this is my first time posting anything here, but I've just recently decided to try my hand at modeling something, and my friend is a pretty big Disgaea fan, so I thought I would come up with some sort of scarf for the Scout. Something about the speed at which the Scout runs and having a scarf trail behind him in the wind makes me smile. So here's what I have so far:
Like I said, this is pretty much the first actual decent thing I've made (I made a sort of Prinny shaped hat too, but I sort of messed up on it :P) so ANY critiques on it would be great. I also have an armature set up on it in order to make it jiggleboned so it sort of flaps in the wind, but the process is somewhat lost on me, so any help regarding that would help. I could get pictures up if anyone's willing to see. The biggest problem with it that I can see is my mesh. In order to get the texture to show up on both sides, I duplicated the scarf, then reversed the normals on it. Is that the proper way to do it? It seems like the verticies on the duplicated scarf aren't lining up and moving along with the ones on the original, so when it moves, you can sort of see double tails. Again, any help would be appreciated. Thank you for your time.
Oh, and I'm using Blender 2.5. Not sure if that's a problem, but it's what I started out with and know comfortably, so yeah.
Which might have been fine last year, but... I think I'm in denial. There are official hats and misc items exceeding 2k.
And that's also why people now complain of TF2 running slower than it did at launch.
Frankly, don't be afraid to push past the 800 tri limit, but within reason, making sure that all the extra polygons are going towards strengthening the silhouette. Keep in mind people are going to be seeing all of this at a significant distance for most of the time, so having some jagged edges here or there will not be noticeable in the heat of battle. Again, silhouette is king.
To be honest, the reason Rob, and anyone else for that matter, got a pass with such high tricounts was because Valve itself was already sloppy with LODs and tricounts by then. The contribution 'rules' have been downgraded to optional suggestions for quite some time now.
Yeah, that much is clear. It's just kind of painful wondering if, using a lot of geometry to make stuff look great, you'd have a better chance of getting accepted due to having better looking models. It is a mystery.
Edit: BenHenry: I'd look at the medic backpack if I were you, and various weapons - flamethrower comes to mind. They've nice textures.
That post makes me think 2 things, 1, not all these out of place items will be submitted to valve, just posted as mods because the creators understand they don't fit. And 2, the others who do contribute by making completely out of place things, his post is actually very true in a sense.. some of the crap in TF2 now makes it damn near impossible for me to play and I gained over a thousand hours very quickly..
Not this again....like everyone has said before, it's VALVE that chooses what gets in. Don't blame the artists, blame Valve
Thanks @BenHenry! Nice your backpack by the way!
And about this? Is it a space suit?
It is indeed! (or part of it) I am planning on starting with this for now (for a hat/backpack) I am just stuck at texturing right now, and I might add some cloth-ish normal maps.
First time posting here. I need help on my ninja hat. I want to apply a metal shine/finish on the emblem/band. How can i do it in blender? Any feedback is welcome as well.
@benhenry it depends on the direction your going. in terms of the vizor if you want it to be reflective instead of clear i would suggest a golden/bronze color for the visor since materials with those colors reflected the suns rays in space. for the backpack and helmet texture them like a medkit, with shades of white, and maybe red trim to accentuate communism. also another idea woyuld be to use black splotches to represent burnmarks, since many early russian space flights weren't successful and ended with things blowing up due to substandard parts (or at least that was the western perception).
did a little messin around with making a more busted up version. deformed the flag somewhat and caved in the front a bit to make it seem like it had hit someone previously. any thoughts on this versus the original version? also dont mind the random red splotch, its the product of a quick photoshop texture coloring :P
@DoughnutBear: I think it looks good, I would change the wood color to be more like the sandman.
Here is a little more of the texturing I've been working on:
And here is the texture if anyone wanted to look at it. I could use some suggestions to add to it, unless you guys thing it looks done (which...its not.)
as for the model, i would make the edges sharper. even if it is a cloth that covers the gear, it comes off as a pillow right now.
why not just do the helmet? the shapes you have now.. you using reference for it? if you just did the helmet you can focus more detail on it and it'll have less issues of clipping with head animations too.
I think it's because it was his first post and it didn't show up for a bit so it got pushed back in the thread quickly. I recall seeing it and thought I posted about it but perhaps not. It is a great Engineer hat. Reminds me of something someone in a post apocalyptic universe would wear.
It makes me think of Engie as a gentlemanly steampunk Engineer from the old west.
@Manuca That mask is excellent. It'd be a great first misc. exculsive for Heavy.
It makes me think of Engie as a gentlemanly steampunk Engineer from the old west.
@Manuca That mask is excellent. It'd be a great first misc. exculsive for Heavy.
On the subject of miscellaneous items, I really don't like them at all. Other than the clipping issues that pop up with 90% of them, they only help to make the game a bit too silly if you know what I mean. The miscellaneous items themselves would be great for the most part if they were just worn without a hat or somehow tied to a set with certain hats (Plague Mask and Grimme Hatte for example), but seeing a Pyro with a pink fireman's helmet and a monocle on at the same time is just too much. While I love this luchador mask too, it would just be awful if it was a miscellaneous item. You shouldn't be allowed to wear a toque and a wrestling mask at the same time. I'm all for painting and being able to customize your look, but I wish Valve would be more restrictive with what can be worn with what. One possible solution to this would be converting most of the Miscellaneous items into actual hats and only leaving the miscellaneous items that are very closely tied to other hats as miscellaneous items that can only be worn while wearing the hat it's tied to.
On the subject of miscellaneous items, I really don't like them at all. Other than the clipping issues that pop up with 90% of them, they only help to make the game a bit too silly if you know what I mean. The miscellaneous items themselves would be great for the most part if they were just worn without a hat or somehow tied to a set with certain hats (Plague Mask and Grimme Hatte for example), but seeing a Pyro with a pink fireman's helmet and a monocle on at the same time is just too much. While I love this luchador mask too, it would just be awful if it was a miscellaneous item. You shouldn't be allowed to wear a toque and a wrestling mask at the same time. I'm all for painting and being able to customize your look, but I wish Valve would be more restrictive with what can be worn with what. One possible solution to this would be converting most of the Miscellaneous items into actual hats and only leaving the miscellaneous items that are very closely tied to other hats as miscellaneous items that can only be worn while wearing the hat it's tied to.
RANT OVER!
I agree Whith you Zipf, I made the mask to be used as a Hat, I do not even consider using it as a misc item, but I let the holes for the ears to eventually be used with earbuds, although most of the masks do not have these opening for the ears.
First time posting here. I need help on my ninja hat. I want to apply a metal shine/finish on the emblem/band. How can i do it in blender? Any feedback is welcome as well.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the best way would be to simply use one material and add a specular map. Alternatively, you would create a second material in Blender, assign it to those particular faces, and make two .vmt files once you export (one with the shininess, one without).
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the best way would be to simply use one material and add a specular map. Alternatively, you would create a second material in Blender, assign it to those particular faces, and make two .vmt files once you export (one with the shininess, one without).
Looks good, keep it up.
or.... make it simply and just include a spec map in the with the diffuse and crank the fk out of the spec for the portions you want shiny. why two materials?
or.... make it simply and just include a spec map in the with the diffuse and crank the fk out of the spec for the portions you want shiny. why two materials?
Hey, I decided to check out this site, finally. I knew about the Polycount contest, but I wasn't aware that so many other contributed items started out on these forums as well. Very cool! I made the Exquisite Rack and the Whiskered Gent, the latter of which was a crappy ~30-minute job that I submitted as a joke to give someone a chuckle... still not sure why I did that, but I was quite surprised when they used it.
Anyhow, I figured I'd throw up one of the models I made recently, since this seems like the place to do that sort of thing:
I haven't gone through all 200+ pages of this thread so I don't know if this has been done already. It has one jigglebone so it bounces slightly, nothing extreme.
@Barlim, That's a nice boot. I'm not a huge fan of the "stick things on Pyro's head" thing, but some people are. Exquisite Rack is very nice also. Also it's good to see you've found Polycount.
or.... make it simply and just include a spec map in the with the diffuse and crank the fk out of the spec for the portions you want shiny. why two materials?
I don't want to be nosy, but I think you could diversify and make some kind of spy voodoo doll with some needle on it.
No, dude.
don't make it look ugly or creepy looking. go for super cute. that way it makes the engineer look adoreable. like a super cute teddy that he sleeps with at night and can't go withoutt. like his safety blanket. awwwww. : )
Decided to scratch the backpack. I redid the Uv's and re-rendered the AO. Anyone have any Idea on how to create a super shiny surface like a real space helmet? (where the orange color is)
i think im pretty much done with the model unless anyone notices any issues. started working on the texture and finally figured out why it was so shiny
@Barlim, That's a nice boot. I'm not a huge fan of the "stick things on Pyro's head" thing, but some people are. Exquisite Rack is very nice also. Also it's good to see you've found Polycount.
Thanks, there's a lot of really great work here so I'm having fun looking around.
i think im pretty much done with the model unless anyone notices any issues. started working on the texture and finally figured out why it was so shiny
In your vmt, do you have this line? "$bumpmap" "models\effects\flat_normal"
If not, I suggest adding it.
And just curious, have any of your items gotten in? which ones? :P
In your vmt, do you have this line? "$bumpmap" "models\effects\flat_normal"
If not, I suggest adding it.
And just curious, have any of your items gotten in? which ones? :P
it appears it wasn't in the vmt, just added it also this will be my first item that im planning to summit to valve when im done. I had 2 other projects i was working on but kinda abandoned them.
So I started modeling the bottom one. As you can tell, it's a pyro primary replacement. But I want the bottom one to have the same feel as the top one. Any help?
I am trying to go for a chemistry feel for this weapon.
On the subject of miscellaneous items, I really don't like them at all. Other than the clipping issues that pop up with 90% of them, they only help to make the game a bit too silly if you know what I mean. The miscellaneous items themselves would be great for the most part if they were just worn without a hat or somehow tied to a set with certain hats (Plague Mask and Grimme Hatte for example), but seeing a Pyro with a pink fireman's helmet and a monocle on at the same time is just too much. While I love this luchador mask too, it would just be awful if it was a miscellaneous item. You shouldn't be allowed to wear a toque and a wrestling mask at the same time. I'm all for painting and being able to customize your look, but I wish Valve would be more restrictive with what can be worn with what. One possible solution to this would be converting most of the Miscellaneous items into actual hats and only leaving the miscellaneous items that are very closely tied to other hats as miscellaneous items that can only be worn while wearing the hat it's tied to.
I agree Whith you Zipf, I made the mask to be used as a Hat, I do not even consider using it as a misc item, but I let the holes for the ears to eventually be used with earbuds, although most of the masks do not have these opening for the ears.
Sorry, you guys will have to forgive me on that one. Somehow this game has gotten me into the mindset that items that can be implemented like that should be, I didn't even bother think of what combinations would be made with the two, and I can't think of any good ones at all.
Though I still defend misc. items in general because I know when they are implemented right can look really good at times, Le Party Phantome goes very well with almost all of Spy's hats, and I heard they've fixed a lot of the clipping issues with Blighted Beak.
But you can take consolation in the fact that they knew not to make Noh Mercy a Misc.
@Doughnut Bear: As far as the model goes the screws could do with being scaled up a bit, partly because you don't really see them at first (they're a nice touch though) and partly because they don't look like they'd be strong enough to hold what they're screwed into in place.
I realise you're working on the texture at the moment but the green and red colours really need to be toned down a bit, they stand out a lot compared to everything else in your screenshots.
@Benhenry: Take a look at the material for the Sniper's glasses since it's a translucent and highly reflective (and also orange tinted) surface, then base your material around how that's set up and tweak as required, probably making it less translucent and more reflective.
I am a man possessed once more:
So far pulling mostly from the M60 machine gun. The bars around the barrel were inspired by this XM25 prototype image, it seemed pretty fitting to try out something from the closest real-life thing to a sticky launcher.
There's a lot I want to do to it and I'll probably be looking at other machine guns and possibly some artillery pieces.
Sorry, you guys will have to forgive me on that one. Somehow this game has gotten me into the mindset that items that can be implemented like that should be, I didn't even bother think of what combinations would be made with the two, and I can't think of any good ones at all.
Though I still defend misc. items in general because I know when they are implemented right can look really good at times, Le Party Phantome goes very well with almost all of Spy's hats, and I heard they've fixed a lot of the clipping issues with Blighted Beak.
But you can take consolation in the fact that they knew not to make Noh Mercy a Misc.
In fact this is a cool combination, but there's nothing left of spy!
Working on an alien hat titled "Alien Mind Control", a 1950's style saucer rests on the scouts head and I may be able to fit it as an all-class as well since I build it while instancing the model on the other classes for fitting. This time I'm going to actually try to get it in game and working once I paint it. Sits at around 2k poly.
Can't wait until gimp 2.8 is released, but for now manual brush rotation will do.
@Rada: Personally I'd go for bigger brushstrokes with tones a lot closer to the base colour.
@Jedah: 2.8 is aaaagesa away though... Your model seems like it could have a lot of the detail baked down or even omitted, for instance the joints on the landing legs. Maybe following him around would be more appropriate than it sitting on his head?..
Replies
Here is a new backpack I've been working on for the pyro, it looks pretty good in-game. Tell me what you think.
If you are going to ask, "why is this side blown up, and is the other side blown up too?" well, the answer is no, the other side is not blown up :P
Also, those 2 black stripes are the rendered AO of how it attaches to the pyro's back.
Anyhow, I figured I'd throw up one of the models I made recently, since this seems like the place to do that sort of thing:
I haven't gone through all 200+ pages of this thread so I don't know if this has been done already. It has one jigglebone so it bounces slightly, nothing extreme.
The headband is 692 tris, and the armbands together (as a misc item) amount to 845.
Which might have been fine last year, but... I think I'm in denial. There are official hats and misc items exceeding 2k.
EDIT: Apparently Model Viewer doubles tricount, so... I edited the numbers now!
The black box is ~5k. The kunai is ~2k. These items look great, because the artist (yay robg!) was not afraid to use more geometry. I fear my items look like shit because I'm being stingy.
So... am I in denial? Should I break out of this lowpoly habit, and just throw a ton of geometry into my models? It doesn't seem to matter anymore - Valve doesn't seem to mind. Nor does modern hardware.
What's better? Great looking models, or a lower polycount that fits the weight of the original player models?
BTW, its for Heavy ;P
Like I said, this is pretty much the first actual decent thing I've made (I made a sort of Prinny shaped hat too, but I sort of messed up on it :P) so ANY critiques on it would be great. I also have an armature set up on it in order to make it jiggleboned so it sort of flaps in the wind, but the process is somewhat lost on me, so any help regarding that would help. I could get pictures up if anyone's willing to see. The biggest problem with it that I can see is my mesh. In order to get the texture to show up on both sides, I duplicated the scarf, then reversed the normals on it. Is that the proper way to do it? It seems like the verticies on the duplicated scarf aren't lining up and moving along with the ones on the original, so when it moves, you can sort of see double tails. Again, any help would be appreciated. Thank you for your time.
Oh, and I'm using Blender 2.5. Not sure if that's a problem, but it's what I started out with and know comfortably, so yeah.
And that's also why people now complain of TF2 running slower than it did at launch.
Frankly, don't be afraid to push past the 800 tri limit, but within reason, making sure that all the extra polygons are going towards strengthening the silhouette. Keep in mind people are going to be seeing all of this at a significant distance for most of the time, so having some jagged edges here or there will not be noticeable in the heat of battle. Again, silhouette is king.
To be honest, the reason Rob, and anyone else for that matter, got a pass with such high tricounts was because Valve itself was already sloppy with LODs and tricounts by then. The contribution 'rules' have been downgraded to optional suggestions for quite some time now.
Edit: BenHenry: I'd look at the medic backpack if I were you, and various weapons - flamethrower comes to mind. They've nice textures.
Not this again....like everyone has said before, it's VALVE that chooses what gets in. Don't blame the artists, blame Valve
Very cool! I liked the gear detail.
Thanks @BenHenry! Nice your backpack by the way!
And about this? Is it a space suit?
C'est fini.
It is indeed! (or part of it) I am planning on starting with this for now (for a hat/backpack) I am just stuck at texturing right now, and I might add some cloth-ish normal maps.
First time posting here. I need help on my ninja hat. I want to apply a metal shine/finish on the emblem/band. How can i do it in blender? Any feedback is welcome as well.
I would call it the Large Luchador
@benhenry it depends on the direction your going. in terms of the vizor if you want it to be reflective instead of clear i would suggest a golden/bronze color for the visor since materials with those colors reflected the suns rays in space. for the backpack and helmet texture them like a medkit, with shades of white, and maybe red trim to accentuate communism. also another idea woyuld be to use black splotches to represent burnmarks, since many early russian space flights weren't successful and ended with things blowing up due to substandard parts (or at least that was the western perception).
did a little messin around with making a more busted up version. deformed the flag somewhat and caved in the front a bit to make it seem like it had hit someone previously. any thoughts on this versus the original version? also dont mind the random red splotch, its the product of a quick photoshop texture coloring :P
Here is a little more of the texturing I've been working on:
And here is the texture if anyone wanted to look at it. I could use some suggestions to add to it, unless you guys thing it looks done (which...its not.)
why not just do the helmet? the shapes you have now.. you using reference for it? if you just did the helmet you can focus more detail on it and it'll have less issues of clipping with head animations too.
@Manuca That mask is excellent. It'd be a great first misc. exculsive for Heavy.
On the subject of miscellaneous items, I really don't like them at all. Other than the clipping issues that pop up with 90% of them, they only help to make the game a bit too silly if you know what I mean. The miscellaneous items themselves would be great for the most part if they were just worn without a hat or somehow tied to a set with certain hats (Plague Mask and Grimme Hatte for example), but seeing a Pyro with a pink fireman's helmet and a monocle on at the same time is just too much. While I love this luchador mask too, it would just be awful if it was a miscellaneous item. You shouldn't be allowed to wear a toque and a wrestling mask at the same time. I'm all for painting and being able to customize your look, but I wish Valve would be more restrictive with what can be worn with what. One possible solution to this would be converting most of the Miscellaneous items into actual hats and only leaving the miscellaneous items that are very closely tied to other hats as miscellaneous items that can only be worn while wearing the hat it's tied to.
RANT OVER!
I agree Whith you Zipf, I made the mask to be used as a Hat, I do not even consider using it as a misc item, but I let the holes for the ears to eventually be used with earbuds, although most of the masks do not have these opening for the ears.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the best way would be to simply use one material and add a specular map. Alternatively, you would create a second material in Blender, assign it to those particular faces, and make two .vmt files once you export (one with the shininess, one without).
Looks good, keep it up.
or.... make it simply and just include a spec map in the with the diffuse and crank the fk out of the spec for the portions you want shiny. why two materials?
That's exactly what I said. I was only providing an alternative if he didn't want to do that for whatever reason.
This is so funny! but Why? Is it the Heavy boot?
I don't want to be nosy, but I think you could diversify and make some kind of spy voodoo doll with some needle on it.
Wow, I actually want that MORE than the Teddy Rosebelt.
Thanks a bunch for the help. i'll try it out
Heh, that's actually kind of a cool idea.
Though I made Teddy because it's a Mr. Bean reference, and I always loved that cartoon. SO as soon as Teddy Roosebelt appeared ingame I had to do it.
No, dude.
don't make it look ugly or creepy looking. go for super cute. that way it makes the engineer look adoreable. like a super cute teddy that he sleeps with at night and can't go withoutt. like his safety blanket. awwwww. : )
In your vmt, do you have this line? "$bumpmap" "models\effects\flat_normal"
If not, I suggest adding it.
And just curious, have any of your items gotten in? which ones? :P
it appears it wasn't in the vmt, just added it
So I started modeling the bottom one. As you can tell, it's a pyro primary replacement. But I want the bottom one to have the same feel as the top one. Any help?
I am trying to go for a chemistry feel for this weapon.
Sorry, you guys will have to forgive me on that one. Somehow this game has gotten me into the mindset that items that can be implemented like that should be, I didn't even bother think of what combinations would be made with the two, and I can't think of any good ones at all.
Though I still defend misc. items in general because I know when they are implemented right can look really good at times, Le Party Phantome goes very well with almost all of Spy's hats, and I heard they've fixed a lot of the clipping issues with Blighted Beak.
But you can take consolation in the fact that they knew not to make Noh Mercy a Misc.
I realise you're working on the texture at the moment but the green and red colours really need to be toned down a bit, they stand out a lot compared to everything else in your screenshots.
@Benhenry: Take a look at the material for the Sniper's glasses since it's a translucent and highly reflective (and also orange tinted) surface, then base your material around how that's set up and tweak as required, probably making it less translucent and more reflective.
I am a man possessed once more:
So far pulling mostly from the M60 machine gun. The bars around the barrel were inspired by this XM25 prototype image, it seemed pretty fitting to try out something from the closest real-life thing to a sticky launcher.
There's a lot I want to do to it and I'll probably be looking at other machine guns and possibly some artillery pieces.
As ever any thoughts are welcome.
Honestly man, I think the yellow parts should be team colored. But that's just me. other than that, I think that's it, submit!
In fact this is a cool combination, but there's nothing left of spy!
Can't wait until gimp 2.8 is released, but for now manual brush rotation will do.
@Jedah: 2.8 is aaaagesa away though... Your model seems like it could have a lot of the detail baked down or even omitted, for instance the joints on the landing legs. Maybe following him around would be more appropriate than it sitting on his head?..