Dranei Scythe

Xelan101

So I'm trying to get some handpainted texture practice and I found a fantastic concept by Edgar Cardona. http://edgarcardona.blogspot.com/ and I knew I had found the right project.

Anyways so far I've done the model for it, I feel like it might be a bit on the high side for what I'm attempting so any ideas on where to remove or add some detail within the model would be great. I should be unwrapping and texturing this over the course of the next week or so.

Poly count is currently sitting at 1,366 tris. Also the floating shards around the back and bottom of the scythe will probably just go onto a couple two sides planes which will increase the poly count marginally.



EDIT* UPDATED WITH FINAL MODEL SHEET

KyleJensen

For a second there I thought the first image was your model + texture and was like "HOLY SHIT".

Blockout looks pretty good. If you're looking to match the concept exactly,it's okay to add tris to areas that would push the silhouette such as the extruded borders on those metal pieces and making some of the pieces more curvy like they are in the concept.

Also, don't forget that big crystal on the side face of the scythe. You modeled out all the other crystals, so you might as well add that one in too.

Looking forward to seeing updates.

n88tr

can't wait to see it textured and your texture sheet

Xelan101

Yeah I'm still debating on whether or not I should extrude the edges... cause I could keep it lower like this and got for a more wow style poly count, or bump it up and add that kind of detail in there and curves some things out and make somewhat more next-gen

As for the side Crystal I completely forgot about it o.O my block out started with that metal panel so I didn't see it the time I was modeling and I just forgot it was even there haha that'll be there on the next image update

Hexidine

Aoh, that's a nice concept I want to make it aswell, think i'm gonna wait and see how yours turns out.

Lucas Annunziata

In the concept, it looks like the area directly around the center crystal of the blade area is a concave shape, whereas in your model it appears to be convex.

KartoonHead

Love the concept. I agree that there could be more detail in the blockout; in particular those raised edges, and the blade of the scythe needs to be concave, as darbeenbo said. Looks very Guild Wars... I LOVE Guild Wars.

Xelan101

Um, @Kartoonhead, or @Darbeenbo, could one of you maybe do a real quick paintover of what you mean? I'm quite sure you're right especially if both of you see it, but I'm having a hard time picking out exactly where on the model you're talking about...

Also please vote on the poll I put up top, cause I'd like a second opinion before I start moving forward. Not sure if I should keep the lower poly countor just go all out with the model.

as a side note @Kartoonhead, it may remind you of Guild Wars but the concept is actually inspired by the Dranei from the Warcraft Universe.

KyleJensen

I say add the extra geo because it would do the concept justice.

Jessica Dinh

I vote for extra geo! Can't wait to see the textures :)

Xelan101

Alright so the poll was overwhelmingly (70%) supporting extra geo. So I added the extruded edges in most places and added a few extra loops in some the rounder pieces.

I'm still had trouble figuring where the scythe blade was convex instead of concave.... don't know why I'm not seeing it so anyone who could provide a visual aid real quick that'd be great....

Anyways let me know if if looks like there's anything let to add or remove and then I tweak some things and start unwrapping this thing

Tri count currently sits at 2,035 tris, up about 700 from the last post. again there will be a slight increase when I add some alpha planes for the smaller floating crystals around the edges.

toxic_h2o

man that is such a cool concept, I cant wait for the textures. The mesh looks good too.

I think this is what darbeenbo and KartoonHead are talking about.

Xelan101

Thanks for pointing it out makes a lot more sense now I was sort of on the fence about changing that part up because then I'll lose some texture space since the scythe part won'te be symetrical. But I agree it's probably a big enough feature, especially seeing as 3 people have now pointed it out, that I should just bite the bullet and make the two sides unique.

Xelan101

Ok I think I fixed the problem. The side closest to the view is now more concave while the side further from the view has the more convex curve around the crystal so it matches the concept better.

Any other errors that look like they need fixing?

artquest

I've got a suggestion! Since it's a portfolio piece I might even suggest playing around with modeling the shards instead of doing poly planes with alpha. If you model them now anyway u can always just use the geo to bake your alpha planes anyway.

Looks awesome! Oh, one thing I just noticed is the gold lip on the top section(front side seems a bit thin compared to the concept. When it comes to blizz style it's all about bold shapes. When in doubt, make it bigger, thicker, and more epic! (case in point... shoulder pads) :P

Jessica Dinh

This looks nice! I'm glad you made the changes to the side view. I'm excited for the texturrrre

Xelan101

Been a while since I've updated sorry. Anyways I finally got the thing unwrapped and I did decide to model the shards.

I've only just started on the texture, it's just flats except the back crystal which still of course needs lots and lots of TLC

Oh and the final tris come to 2,108 so I think I'll just keep the shards as is and not bake them to a plane



EDIT* Just as I posted I noticed that I forgot to make the crystal on the back floating piece purple, that's already

been fixed EDIT*

EDIT removed the extraneous pictures to shrink down the thread.

Xelan101

Bumping with some texture updates

EDIT Removed pictures to shrink down the thread

Jessica Dinh

Hey not bad so far. I think you could work on the light reading better on your forms though. For example, on the white parts, your values are kindof random and blotted everywhere, when I think you should have the texture getting darker where it meets the gold trim or where it turns away from the light, and brighter whites where it is curved toward the light (hope that makes sense haha).

I'd say the same for the wood. Even though in the concept the wood is pretty much just dark all around, I think you could make it better if the areas where the handle meets the other segments are darker than the rest. I think some shadow areas of your gold could be more saturated too. Keep it up!

Xelan101

Is this closer to what you were saying Jessica? I worked on darkening the white parts near the gold rims and I lightened up some spots that should be getting more light.

I added some oranges to the shadows to give them a bit more saturation.

I also hit it with an AO pass rendered out with Max and lightly applied to everything except the wood where I really hit it hard with the AO.

I think I'm getting close to done with this I just need to tighten some areas up and that'll be it unless I get some more major crits.

EDIT removed old pictures to shrink down the thread

KyleJensen

Since you're painting in your lights, it wouldn't hurt to crank up the self-illumination on your material. Also, The crystals on the side and the top of the head of the scythe are missing that gold border around them.

Are you planning on replicating the same light source as the concept, or paint in a different light source?

Xelan101

Yeah there's not self-illumination on it at this point..

Thanks for pointing that out I knew I missed something!

And for the most part it is painted with the same light source as the concept since the concept is in side view the lighting is coming down at like a 45 degree angle right down the center line of the model. I haven't tired painting in any sort of cast shadows like where the scythe blade shadows the top part of the handle and stuff but I'm not sure if I should take it that far.

Xelan101

More updates So I finally was able to watch Tyson Murphy's handpainted texturing tutorial on 3D Motive, I highly recommend it. Anyway I tried to apply what I've learned from his video and I also tried to work more on the lighting situation a bit more plus I cranked up the material's self illumination all the way up so now you can see the texture without any lighting information beyond what's actually painted.

Crits are welcome I know it's not quite done yet but I feel like it's pretty close.

Xelan101

I think I'm gonna call this think finished, crits still welcome they just probably won't be implemented, but it's still good to hear ways I can improve for next time. Hope people like it cause I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.

achillesian

Doesn't look sharp, the model doesn't appear to have a blade, like the concept does.

Lucas Annunziata

Xelan101 wrote: »

I think I'm gonna call this think finished, crits still welcome they just probably won't be implemented, but it's still good to hear ways I can improve for next time. Hope people like it cause I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.

Nah dude, you've got some simple fixes in here that will make this baby shine. I placed your scythe next to the concept with the same color background to really see the difference in hue/saturation. Really the biggest problems with the texture is that the crystals, and everything for that matter need to have a sharper edge to em. There also isn't a sense of where the light is coming from. Try to emulate the lighting info from the concept.

One thing I do really like is the idea of light emanating from the crystals onto the blade.



But seriously, don't give up on this bade boy. It's a sick weapon, a sick concept, and you really don't have much left to pimp it up a bit.

Xelan101

It looks like the picture you did the comparison with isn't the actual final one. ( I can tell because the main side crystal still has those stupid bright white ovals in the center of it...) I did clean up the crystals a bunch since that image but you're probably right they could do with a bit more tightening up.

That and I completely forgot to knock back the brightness on those two back panel you pointed out, they seem like they're just emanating light at this point... and I agree I went a to far with the red in the wood handle.

In terms of the gold edging I think I might pull out the geometry a bit more so you can see the dark and light sides more easily from the side view because I spent a considerable amount of time on them and I think their current highlights and transition from light to dark is fairly crisp, but I will take another look at it.

Thanks for your critique and paintover I haven't gotten too much of that in the thread since I started the texture so it's nice to get some in depth feedback.

Will update soon with those changes to finish this thing out.

Xelan101

Alright, fixed the underside of the scythe and the red wood, fixed the shape of the piece where the blade connects to the handle and I tried to push the highlights and forms on the crystals, and I darkened the two plates that shouldn't have been receiving light.

Oh and I liked your idea of the crystal lighting up the inside of the blade a bit so I pushed that a little, maybe too much but we'll see what people think.

Anyone else have some final thoughts since I did end up going back to fix some things...

artquest

Hey man, looks great! I feel like the saturation and value range on the wood doesn't quite match the rest of the texture though. Maybe another pass to balance it out?

KyleJensen

Did a little paintover:



While you work, just look at your textured model and your reference image and try to replicate the lighting in your texture. Also, there are a few crystals that are missing gold rims that you might want to take care of.

I like the recent changes. Keep it up.

Xelan101

Added some lighter values to the wood to make it stand out a bit more. Darkened up those couple of spots shadow mentioned.

Unfortunately none of the crystals were missing gold borders, the just aren't visible from the side because they have no geometry of their own and the faces they're on are nearly perpendicular to the side view...

Anyways at this point I really think I'm calling this done I'm quite happy with the result, it'll go in my portfolio for a while and I think I'll learn and grow more by starting a new project rather than trying to push this any further