Khthon: Thanks mayne. I think i could still get some color in there but yeah, mostly calling it done.:)
Scudz: Yeah I have had that same feeling for a while now but you have no idea how many times I already reworked the brush strokes on this thing. Overall it's still too busy, but I don't want to get into another funk. If I have time to polish I'll revisit that stuff. I think there might be a layer somewhere that I can turn off to make it less busy. Thanks for the crits.
Zipfinator: Agreed. Maybe I will try to jump in with some big erasing strokes. If I have time that is.:)
It does look a little busy. If you take a look at Larolaro's textures, he does well to leave most everything a single base color, only adding a few brush strokes here and there to sell it.
In a few places the stroke work you've done looks great, and fits the tf2 style, but the other areas have so many strokes in looks like a scifi tiling texture. I've marked those areas in red in case you didn't see what I was talking about. I think those areas could benefit from just having a solid base colour. Nice work though!
Okay, I'm definitely going to go back and address those areas. I can see in my head how I'll do it. Thanks guys.:)
The reason it turned out so busy is because of the Ambassador texture. If you actually look at it, it has tons of really abstract shapes and marks and stuff. It just doesn't show up a lot with the nice shiny shader it has on it or the busy areas are small and away from view. Looked at it too much for reference while making this one.
Moosey_G: Thanks, hopefully they are all ace by the time I'm done.
a gentlman: Workin on it, thanks.:)
here's some progress on the book, this is actual texture on geo now, not a paintover or anything. The pattern in the background is just placeholder and the stamps are not final either. Everything is very WIP.
Dude that is so fucking rad! Thanks so much! The animation turned out great. After I get the fancy ambassador shaders on it and a spec map it'll be perfect.:)
Something to note though, it only holds two shots, but in the video shoots a lot more before reloading. I don't know if you can change that or not, might be a thing to leave to valve.
Khthon: Going to start on it today, It's one of the last details I have to include before doing the brush strokes and stuff.
KamikazeBeaver: Thanks man, glad to know you think so.:)
Here's some progress on the book yesterday. I got really sick of making stamps so I want to call that done. Tell me if they are working or what I should change.
Yeah, love that sawmill stamp, at first glance it looks like a normal stamp and only later you notice the saw. Anyway, the passport is probably most original idea for disguise kit i have ever seen!
Karkasmolenklok: That map rocks. Almost a reason to go back into an achievement map.:)
Khthon, Buck: Glad at least one of them is nice. I like it too. My least favorite is actually the payload one because I don't think I did the bomb justice. The Granary stamp is a top down view of an actual Control point, the 2fort stamp is the silhouette of the 2fort bridge, Sawmill has the saw and the crown because it debuted as a KOTH map and Well, Badlands are just generic stamp designs. I might've made more but I got really bored of designing stamps. There's a lot of other maps I could have made into interesting stamps.
Buck: Heh, yeah. I haven't seen many ideas for disguise kit replacements overall though. I think Ritz' idea was pretty unique and it turned out great.
It just makes sense, all spies in TV and Movies have Aliases and they have passports to go with each one, to make each legit. The Spy has to have at least 9 as well, to change his disguise.
Finished the passport, now I will just polish everything and compile like a madman. Any crits are still welcome, I'll be revisiting everything for one thing or another. Spec maps at least.
Love the passport.
IMO you should fill in the bits about identity though. It just looks too plain. Maybe some fake info from other classes or something?
That gun + Sparkwire's animation is frickin' sweeeeeet. Do want.
The passport is cool too. No Badwater or Gravel Pit stamps though...
You should make the stamps look more like they were stamped on. ie: with the lines varied from thin to thick as if there was more ink applied in certain areas and from not being stamped perfectly.
Have you considered taking a picture of Spy yourself though?
I'm thinking a frontal image of him might be a little more unique for the passport than using an already existing image.
KamikazeBeaver: That's a fair crit, but I have no idea what I'd write. I'm fine with the amount of negative space there is now. Much more text and it might become cluttered. I had to balance composition of all the details, between stamps, pictures and coffee stains. The red and blue small text on the page is actually random phrases because they are too small to be read.:)
REKLAS: Badwater didn't get done because I already had a payload map stamp. Gravel Pit was originally designed to be in there but I never made it, hmm. I wil try and go back and make the ink levels vary, it'll just be tedious.
Simski: I thought about it earlier on in the project but I took the easy way out going with the premade avatars. They are done well. I don't have the time to make my own at this point anyway.
DKK, vcool: Thanks Guys!
dire_luck: I figured I'd leave the photo black and white so it doesn't draw too much attention or so I don't mess up what colour the scout's mom is. It's only confirmed that the red spy has a relationship with the scout's mom anyway.
Khthon: Done, check back a page or two, unless you don't think it's done. What should I add?
Thanks for all the support guys, I'm glad to be on the homestretch. Off to working on it.:D
It's only confirmed that the red spy has a relationship with the scout's mom anyway.
wait, so if the red spy is sleeping with the blue scouts mom, is the blue spy sleeping with the red scouts mom? cause if he isn't then you can't make this a team coloured pack.
Simski: Yeah, I guess. Maybe just sections of color, like the swinsuit and hair band could be colored. Pretty sure I want to not work on this stuff anymore though.:)
Scudz: Hahaha exactly. That's why I left if Black and White. The ambassador for both classes has the scout's mom on the barrel so I think I'm good.
dire_luck: I don't know, maybe. I hadn't really thought about it. I suck at doing the compiling stuff and a couple of them would need more custom animations. I guess we will just have to see. If you release them to the public does it void them from being included? Because they've said there's a change to get them implemented later on.
Sparkwire: Once again, thanks man!:D Hopefully we both get our work in the game!
Khthon: You don't sound very enthusiastic, lol. I am happy with how it turned out,
Okay so I finished and submitted a lot earlier and kept working because I needed to have a neato presentation sheet. Here it is:
I don't know, maybe. I hadn't really thought about it. I suck at doing the compiling stuff and a couple of them would need more custom animations. I guess we will just have to see. If you release them to the public does it void them from being included?
What else needed custom animations besides the derringer?
Anyway, I couldn't find anything in the rules saying you weren't allowed to release them to the public. It seems to be okay, because Pogo did it with his polypack entry (http://www.fpsbanana.com/skins/93794) and several of the weapons in the community updates have been released to the public before they were accepted. If you want to play it safe, you could just wait until the winners are announced, and release the pack if you don't win.
BANG!: I like your opinion! Let's hope Valve does too.
Dr. Waldo Fehr: Much obliged!
dire_luck: True, I might go ahead and release them after the winners are announced. I am just kind of lazy. Very relieved to be done and have time to relax.
Norron: Thanks, glad to hear that you think it has winning potential.
Khthon: Haha, no worries. It's true there was no post with a final watch image, but I never went back to it after the last update on it.
Nothing else of interest to report. I'm glad I spent the time to make the presentation image. Now I'm going to browse other entries and play vidya gaems once I'm off of work.
FUUUUUUU thats a great kit you got there! Love the passport, the deringer, the watch.. argh love them all! Goodluck in the contest my fellow spy packer - your going to need it ;P
Another pack that I somehow missed! Yours is now my favourite Spy pack by a mile. I only wish I'd seen this earlier as I think inverting the colour of the stamps would have been a really neat touch and paid homage to the roll of the Spy. All the best (I'm rooting for you).
EVIL: Good luck to you too. There's some very stiff competition in the Spy bracket! Your pack in particular is super awesome.:)
vcool: Haha, don't think of it that way. It's not all about winning or losing, afterall. I would have liked to have seen your finished entry too. I was really digging the knife and gun you were working on. Maybe finish them anyway and submit them through the contribute site normally. Your knife being all animated would look sweet.
Mico27: You have a definite chance of winning, your pack is not to be ruled out, and you never know! Valve might just be taking one item per kit so we all get a chance. The Taser was an awesome idea and you even got featured in the mainsite article which was linked on Kotaku.
nofacej: Thanks for the kind words! Thanks for the idea too. I went and tried it out, swapping the blue book's stamps to red and vice versa. A cool idea, but it didn't work out too well. Because I made each colour so much of that color; it really clashed having something breaking from it.
Some crazy stuff happened today. The water heater in the house broke and ended up flooding half of the lower floor during the day... Then later my computer decided to start random blue screening and refusing to boot. Poor little guy. He held on all the way until the day after I was done working to get sick. I opened it up and jiggled the RAM around a bit because I had this sort of thing happen before due to loose sticks. Thenk I got to safe mode and found out directx installed itself without asking and it conflicted with my old video drivers. I reinstalled both and was back up and running. Eventful day though! I never would have been able to finish if either of these things had happened any sooner.
Fragus: Nah, no tutorials for anything this specific; however, there are millions of photoshop tutorials online. It might be worth your time to learn how to use Photoshop for creating graphics. That's all there is to it, really. I used text, selectiions, layer styles, masking and some other basic photoshop stuff in the creation of this. The most complicated thing was the spy image at the top. I took a screenshot from meet the spy, extracted the spy, masked off parts that weren't team coloured, changed him to blue, drew in the silhouette for his left arm and faded out part of the heavy's face that was there. Then I took the background form the same image and put it underneath, removing all the characters.
Moosey_G: Thanks. And yup, it's pretty simple stuff, but I feel like these image presentations adds a lot to the quality of the entries.Wish I had my items in game to get actual renders from there. Also wish I had some time to get some screenshots of the spy and parts of maps for the backgrounds.
Buck: Yeah, I chose to go with the Spy update style. Liked it better than the rest and got the fancy header from it.
It's a shame that you didn't win. I liked your pack alot more than Chemical Alia's pack.
Even if Valve didn't want your items in-game, I still do. Could you please release the pack whenever you get a chance?
they might have picked the Alia's pack because it didn't have a disguise kit replacement (which would need a new slot and an icon for the original), but I think it was an admirable risk...
dire_luck: It's a big compliment to me that you want to use my items in game, but I don't think it's going to happen. Sorry man. I tried to get them into game during the comp, but the compilers said my source sdk was missing files and stuff. It was a headache I don't want to revisit. We can just hope that some of my items will be included in the next round of polypack updates.:)
jgoodroad: Wow, you're right, I never even thought about that until now. There is no slot of the disguise kit, maybe it's not supposed to be replaced. Ah well, I am glad I did it either way, some of my other items still have a chance to make it in.
I'm not even disappointed that I didn't win. The winners were all good choices on Valve's part and all in all it was a really fun comp. I got some nice portfolio pieces out of it and got to know a lot of new PC members.:D
Replies
Scudz: Yeah I have had that same feeling for a while now but you have no idea how many times I already reworked the brush strokes on this thing. Overall it's still too busy, but I don't want to get into another funk. If I have time to polish I'll revisit that stuff. I think there might be a layer somewhere that I can turn off to make it less busy. Thanks for the crits.
Zipfinator: Agreed. Maybe I will try to jump in with some big erasing strokes. If I have time that is.:)
In a few places the stroke work you've done looks great, and fits the tf2 style, but the other areas have so many strokes in looks like a scifi tiling texture. I've marked those areas in red in case you didn't see what I was talking about. I think those areas could benefit from just having a solid base colour. Nice work though!
The reason it turned out so busy is because of the Ambassador texture. If you actually look at it, it has tons of really abstract shapes and marks and stuff. It just doesn't show up a lot with the nice shiny shader it has on it or the busy areas are small and away from view. Looked at it too much for reference while making this one.
Any crits on the watch or anything else?
Nah, you did the same thing on there, but it turned out pretty ace. Nice work.
a gentlman: Workin on it, thanks.:)
here's some progress on the book, this is actual texture on geo now, not a paintover or anything. The pattern in the background is just placeholder and the stamps are not final either. Everything is very WIP.
http://www.livestream.com/sparkwire
Dude that is so fucking rad! Thanks so much! The animation turned out great. After I get the fancy ambassador shaders on it and a spec map it'll be perfect.:)
Something to note though, it only holds two shots, but in the video shoots a lot more before reloading. I don't know if you can change that or not, might be a thing to leave to valve.
Khthon: Going to start on it today, It's one of the last details I have to include before doing the brush strokes and stuff.
KamikazeBeaver: Thanks man, glad to know you think so.:)
Here's some progress on the book yesterday. I got really sick of making stamps so I want to call that done. Tell me if they are working or what I should change.
Khthon, Buck: Glad at least one of them is nice. I like it too. My least favorite is actually the payload one because I don't think I did the bomb justice. The Granary stamp is a top down view of an actual Control point, the 2fort stamp is the silhouette of the 2fort bridge, Sawmill has the saw and the crown because it debuted as a KOTH map and Well, Badlands are just generic stamp designs. I might've made more but I got really bored of designing stamps. There's a lot of other maps I could have made into interesting stamps.
Buck: Heh, yeah. I haven't seen many ideas for disguise kit replacements overall though. I think Ritz' idea was pretty unique and it turned out great.
It just makes sense, all spies in TV and Movies have Aliases and they have passports to go with each one, to make each legit. The Spy has to have at least 9 as well, to change his disguise.
Finished the passport, now I will just polish everything and compile like a madman. Any crits are still welcome, I'll be revisiting everything for one thing or another. Spec maps at least.
IMO you should fill in the bits about identity though. It just looks too plain. Maybe some fake info from other classes or something?
The passport is cool too. No Badwater or Gravel Pit stamps though...
You should make the stamps look more like they were stamped on. ie: with the lines varied from thin to thick as if there was more ink applied in certain areas and from not being stamped perfectly.
Have you considered taking a picture of Spy yourself though?
I'm thinking a frontal image of him might be a little more unique for the passport than using an already existing image.
Just a suggestion, you might want to make the scout's mom team colored. (blue for the RED team and red for the BLU team)
REKLAS: Badwater didn't get done because I already had a payload map stamp. Gravel Pit was originally designed to be in there but I never made it, hmm. I wil try and go back and make the ink levels vary, it'll just be tedious.
Simski: I thought about it earlier on in the project but I took the easy way out going with the premade avatars. They are done well. I don't have the time to make my own at this point anyway.
DKK, vcool: Thanks Guys!
dire_luck: I figured I'd leave the photo black and white so it doesn't draw too much attention or so I don't mess up what colour the scout's mom is. It's only confirmed that the red spy has a relationship with the scout's mom anyway.
Khthon: Done, check back a page or two, unless you don't think it's done. What should I add?
Thanks for all the support guys, I'm glad to be on the homestretch. Off to working on it.:D
wait, so if the red spy is sleeping with the blue scouts mom, is the blue spy sleeping with the red scouts mom? cause if he isn't then you can't make this a team coloured pack.
...I think I just blew my own mind.
Looking back at the passport, i see what you mean. Having it colored would cause the passport to be kinda clutered.
Just in case your items aren't selected, are you going to release them as model replacments?
Oh well, it looked good anyways.:thumbup:
Scudz: Hahaha exactly. That's why I left if Black and White. The ambassador for both classes has the scout's mom on the barrel so I think I'm good.
dire_luck: I don't know, maybe. I hadn't really thought about it. I suck at doing the compiling stuff and a couple of them would need more custom animations. I guess we will just have to see. If you release them to the public does it void them from being included? Because they've said there's a change to get them implemented later on.
Sparkwire: Once again, thanks man!:D Hopefully we both get our work in the game!
Khthon: You don't sound very enthusiastic, lol. I am happy with how it turned out,
Okay so I finished and submitted a lot earlier and kept working because I needed to have a neato presentation sheet. Here it is:
Great modeling, textures and details hope this pack gets picked by Valve
What else needed custom animations besides the derringer?
Anyway, I couldn't find anything in the rules saying you weren't allowed to release them to the public. It seems to be okay, because Pogo did it with his polypack entry (http://www.fpsbanana.com/skins/93794) and several of the weapons in the community updates have been released to the public before they were accepted. If you want to play it safe, you could just wait until the winners are announced, and release the pack if you don't win.
It turned out rad to the max, man.
Dr. Waldo Fehr: Much obliged!
dire_luck: True, I might go ahead and release them after the winners are announced. I am just kind of lazy. Very relieved to be done and have time to relax.
Norron: Thanks, glad to hear that you think it has winning potential.
Khthon: Haha, no worries. It's true there was no post with a final watch image, but I never went back to it after the last update on it.
Nothing else of interest to report. I'm glad I spent the time to make the presentation image. Now I'm going to browse other entries and play vidya gaems once I'm off of work.
Kinda sad I didn't get mine in time, but it wouldn't matter anyway, yours is just so much cooler.
vcool: Haha, don't think of it that way. It's not all about winning or losing, afterall. I would have liked to have seen your finished entry too. I was really digging the knife and gun you were working on. Maybe finish them anyway and submit them through the contribute site normally. Your knife being all animated would look sweet.
Mico27: You have a definite chance of winning, your pack is not to be ruled out, and you never know! Valve might just be taking one item per kit so we all get a chance. The Taser was an awesome idea and you even got featured in the mainsite article which was linked on Kotaku.
nofacej: Thanks for the kind words! Thanks for the idea too. I went and tried it out, swapping the blue book's stamps to red and vice versa. A cool idea, but it didn't work out too well. Because I made each colour so much of that color; it really clashed having something breaking from it.
Some crazy stuff happened today. The water heater in the house broke and ended up flooding half of the lower floor during the day... Then later my computer decided to start random blue screening and refusing to boot. Poor little guy. He held on all the way until the day after I was done working to get sick. I opened it up and jiggled the RAM around a bit because I had this sort of thing happen before due to loose sticks. Thenk I got to safe mode and found out directx installed itself without asking and it conflicted with my old video drivers. I reinstalled both and was back up and running. Eventful day though! I never would have been able to finish if either of these things had happened any sooner.
It's all about simplicity, spacing and contrasting colours. And some reflections here and there. Nice work frump.
There's a template for the old style updates here: http://www.fpsbanana.com/tuts/6834
Moosey_G: Thanks. And yup, it's pretty simple stuff, but I feel like these image presentations adds a lot to the quality of the entries.Wish I had my items in game to get actual renders from there. Also wish I had some time to get some screenshots of the spy and parts of maps for the backgrounds.
Buck: Yeah, I chose to go with the Spy update style. Liked it better than the rest and got the fancy header from it.
Snowloss: Thanks!
Even if Valve didn't want your items in-game, I still do. Could you please release the pack whenever you get a chance?
jgoodroad: Wow, you're right, I never even thought about that until now. There is no slot of the disguise kit, maybe it's not supposed to be replaced. Ah well, I am glad I did it either way, some of my other items still have a chance to make it in.
I'm not even disappointed that I didn't win. The winners were all good choices on Valve's part and all in all it was a really fun comp. I got some nice portfolio pieces out of it and got to know a lot of new PC members.:D