TF2 - Polypack - Zipfinator

Zipfinator

Theme - Mann Co. Standard Issue Mechanic's Kit

NOTES: All item names are WIP

Combination Wrench

-Replacement for the Wrench
Recommended Effects
-Plus 25% Build and Repair Speed
-Minus 25% Damage against Players
-Minus 40% Damage to Sappers


Reference Images:



WIP ITEM:

Mechanic's Cap

A Hat similar to Scruffy's hat in Futurama.



The color would be changed and it'd have a Mann Co. symbol over the front.

Can of Oil

-A replacement for the Pistol
-Same functionality as Jarate (Mini-Crits on enemy players, screen overlay, recharge rate instead of ammo, uncloaks spys)
Recommended Extra Effects (To differ it from Jarate)
-Does NOT remove fire on throw of friendly player
-Fire damage done to players covered in oil will be crits.
-When thrown on an enemy on fire, it will increase the afterburn duration of the Pyro's fire by 5 seconds.
Crazy Extra Effects (To make it more useful for Turtle Engies)
-When thrown on the ground it creates a pool of oil that causes enemy players to slide. This would be useful for placing near your sentry because any incoming spys will be affected by the oil.
-Oil on the ground will stay for 10 seconds.
-Fire can light the oil on the ground on fire for 5 seconds.

Reference Image:



WIP ITEM:



Wikipedia Page

Zipfinator

Updated my first post with two possible ideas.

adam

Whats the overall theme for your items?

Zipfinator

I'm not positive yet. Waiting to decide that until I choose which class I'm doing. I'm going to decide which class I'm doing once I think of a few more ideas for each and can compare them to see which one I think has a better shot of being chosen. I think I should rather focus on one class than doing two like I was thinking of before.

Zipfinator

Updated the first post with an Engineer theme and hat to go with the repair tool. I like the Mechanic's Kit idea so for now I'm going to stick with the Mechanic's Kit idea. If I finish it very soon or think of better ideas for the Demoman perhaps I'll do two sets of items like I was planning before.

Steaky

Just a heads up, if you make a hat that has any relevance to Futurama, the entire TF community will want to beat you to a pulp for destroying everything good about the game....

Trust me on that one

Artexe

Rapid Fire Pipe Bomb Launcher - bad idea. Its ruined gameplay

Zipfinator

Yeah the pipe bomb launcher isn't a great idea but if it's refined a bit it could be okay. I'm going to do the Engineer now I'm pretty sure though.

And Steaky, the hat won't really be a reference to Futurama. I'm just using the Futurama hat as a reference if you get me.

Also I updated the first post with The Grease Gun for my Engineer set. Going to start doing some silhouette tests now.

Zipfinator

I just read through the rules a bit closer and it seems that these are purely aesthetic changes. Looks like I'll have to redesign so they don't require new animations, particle effects or any new gameplay. Kind of depressing because I was excited with my current setup but I don't want to be completely ignored in judging because my ideas aren't easily replaceable. I think I'll still do the other ideas separately but not for this contest.

EDIT: Actually reading through again my Repair Tool is still relevant. The Grease Gun is definitely too different though.

-Job-

I like you idea about grease gun, but how about this.

Grease Gun - Shoots out grease on ground, makes ground slippery. Have effect where you slide around. Also can be ignited by Pyro and will burn for a few seconds.

Adhesive Gun - Shoots glue on ground, slowing players.

Check out this pneumatic caulk gun.

Zipfinator

Hmmm... The idea of slipping on the grease is good too. I'll just write both down and let Valve decide although I doubt they'll even choose this idea since it involves completely new mechanics.

Thanks for that reference image. I'll try and incorporate it into my Grease Gun silhouette tests.

Zipfinator

Did some silhouette tests based off of one of my Grease Gun reference images. Going to start more silhouettes based off of the other references now.

Zipfinator

A few more.



Can you guys start pointing out things you like in each of these and which one you think is best? I'd like to choose a few and refine them/test out other things on them.

Right now I'm leaning towards #1 or #2. I like the position of the can the best. I'll start doing a few more variations but I'd love it if some of you could point out what you like best and give me a few suggestions on what to try.

Psyke

Zipfinator wrote: »

A few more.



Can you guys start pointing out things you like in each of these and which one you think is best? I'd like to choose a few and refine them/test out other things on them.

Right now I'm leaning towards #1 or #2. I like the position of the can the best. I'll start doing a few more variations but I'd love it if some of you could point out what you like best and give me a few suggestions on what to try.

6+5

anything with the canister attached to the handle looks a little astheticly daft

Zipfinator

Yeah I've noticed that. I'll test out some variations with the can placements in 6 and 5. Going to test out some new canister aesthetics and handles.

yoplatz

3 & 5 are my favorite

Vrav

I like four the best, but one would probably match existing reload animations better.

Zipfinator

Vrav wrote: »

I like four the best, but one would probably match existing reload animations better.

This item won't use reload animations. It's going to have a recharge like the Jarate or Sandman.

Steve Schulze

I'm liking 5 and 6.

6 would likely look better from first person perspective.

Enderstaley

I like with 5 and 6. though with 5 youll only be able to see part of the rear canister

Zipfinator

I think I may be over complicating things a bit. I'm not a hugely experienced modeler and these items will require new animations and particle effects and such. Here's what I think I'm going to do.

Replace the Repair Tool with a combination wrench.



Replace the grease gun with a can of oil.

This way they'll be able to use current animations (Jarate for the Oil Can and the wrench for the wrench). Also they'll be considerably easier to model than guns and since I don't have much experience I should definitely be able to get more quality out of these than if I made gun-like weapons. I'll start thinking of exactly what I'm doing and update my main post. Then get to modeling right away.

Zipfinator

Started the Wrench model.



I think it might be a tad too long right now.

Also do you think I should model on the MANN CO. symbol or do it through the texture? I think I might just model it on. It's only 358 polys right now so I definitely have the triangle room for it.

Naso

The silhouettes are looking really awesome, can't wait to see how the final model will be.

As for the wrench, make it really stylized and custom, not plain like the ref!

Steve Schulze

What about making it one of those S-shaped wrenches to give it a slightly more interesting silhouette?

The chunky sockets on this thing make it look a bit more suitable as a weapon too.

-Job-

Scale it up.

Enderstaley

Yes. That. More of that.

Zipfinator

Thanks for the suggestions (The serious ones :P) but I think I'm going to stick with the main shape of it now to keep in line with my Mechanic's Kit theme. I'll play around with the proportions and angle of the wrench end a bit to see if I can get it looking a bit more cartoony though.

-Job-

Oh boy look what I found. Old wrench and tools auction post with era correct wrenches and tools.

http://wrenchingnews.com/ervin-matz-auction-2009/catalog.html

May help you some more.

Zipfinator

Wow that's a shitload of wrenches... I'm going to stick with what I'm doing for now, but maybe I'll try and do one or two of those to contribute after the Polypack. Thanks!

Zipfinator

Updated the circular part to have the triangular shape, rotated the wrench side more and put the Mann CO symbol in.

CrazyChicken

This reminds me of the old Team Fortress Classic wrench that before they changed it.

Zipfinator

Tested out some different scales on the ends and this was what looked the best in my opinion. I think it looks a bit more TF2-ish without being over the top. UVed it already and am going to start texturing it now.

Zipfinator

Yes/No on the curve?

Swizzle

I'd say yes. It gives it some added interest.

Zipfinator

Yeah I'm fixing it up a bit more now. That's actually how the wrenches are too. The reference I used just didn't show it very well. No more pics for tonight. Fixing up the UV now and will post some more tomorrow once I have a WIP texture and a start on the can of oil.

Frump

I also say yes to the curve. Adds a lot to the shape and silhouette as well as making sense functionally. Real wrenches have that curve to fit into tight spots.

Coming out really nice so far. Keep it up.:)

AyesDyef

I like the wrench, but have you had a test to see what it looks like with the MANN CO embossed in rather than out?

Zipfinator

AyesDyef wrote: »

I like the wrench, but have you had a test to see what it looks like with the MANN CO embossed in rather than out?

Nope. I thought of doing that but I'm not quite sure how to go about it. Boolean is kind of unreliable and I don't have the experience/time to emboss it by hand. Tomorrow I'll try out some Boolean tests perhaps. I heard it got better with Max 10 but haven't ever tested it myself.

EDIT: Actually I just thought of a fairly easy way to make it engraved. I'm definitely going to try it out tomorrow. I think it'd look a lot better.

EVIL

still looks a bit to realistic for my taste, it could use some more exaggeration

Rhinokey

i would sau either emboss it in, or inset a area of the wrench an put the extruded letters in it, areyou doing htis as high for a normal map bake? or is this the low poly? looks like a highpoly to me, so you can do the inset text as floating geo. search forums for floating geometry or floating geo for more on that

Zipfinator

Rhinokey wrote: »

i would sau either emboss it in, or inset a area of the wrench an put the extruded letters in it, areyou doing htis as high for a normal map bake? or is this the low poly? looks like a highpoly to me, so you can do the inset text as floating geo. search forums for floating geometry or floating geo for more on that

Yeah that's what I'm planning to do for the engraving. And nope, this isn't a high poly. It's only about 1000 tris right now I think and the limit for weapons is 8000 so I think it's fine to model out the letters. It'll make the phong much better especially when it's right in your face. I'm going to finish making it look engraved now and then fix up the curve.

Also I'm not going to exaggerate the ends anymore. I've already tested it out with larger ends and this is what looked the best.

I'll post an update once I've finished the wrench up and have a solid start on the oil can.

Zipfinator

Does anyone have a tutorial or something I could read on how to make a 1024x256 UV? I'm not exactly sure how to do it but it would be a much better choice for this wrench.

Enderstaley

What program are you using?

Zipfinator

Max 2010.

Do I just edit it so it fits within the first 4 squares vertically and then scale it so it covers the whole square, then render the template at 1024x256?

oobersli

looks cool! keep the curve.

Surfa

Zipfinator wrote: »

Do I just edit it so it fits within the first 4 squares vertically and then scale it so it covers the whole square, then render the template at 1024x256?

Yes basically

Zipfinator

Finished the UV, made the text engraved in instead of floating on top and a slapped on a slightly modified TF2 metal texture on there. Going to test out some grease stains and find a way to make the texture more noticeable. It could just be my render setup that's making it hard to see though.

Zipfinator

I'm still working on the texture and the AO bake needs a few touchups. Getting there though!

Swizzle

Might I suggest making the handle team colored and the ends metal? You could have chips and such where the paint transitions to metal.

Zipfinator

Swizzle wrote: »

Might I suggest making the handle team colored and the ends metal? You could have chips and such where the paint transitions to metal.

It's actually all silvery metal. The closest parts in the shot haven't gotten much of that gease/dirt that's on the other side. It doesn't look that interesting now but once it's in Source with proper phong I think it'll look much better.

Zipfinator

I think I'm done with this for now. I need to move onto the other two items and I don't really like the idea of putting on colored handles. There actually isn't even a handle on it, that last render just wasn't finished being textured so the clean part and an error in the AO map made it contrast a bit.