[DS2] Axe, Rilem

Rilem

I loved the first Darksiders and I'm super excited for Darksiders II.
I was just about to go to bed when I saw the challenge on the polycount front page. Going to bed was out of the question now, I had to at least do some silhouettes.

I'm going to start off with the dagger *cough* AXE and I'm going to try and finish it. On the last challenges I entered I somehow never finished. I'll stick to it this time!

I'll keep updating and restructuring this first post for convenient reading of the process.

concept phase:
mistake
Axe lines
Axe color:


Base modeling (maya)


Latest:

Sculptaur

Hey bro, nice concept.

But, sorry to say, the contest is just for the Axe, Mace and Hammer. Or are you just doing the Dagger for fun?
"For this contest you will be creating a Mace, Axe, or Hammer that would fit in the world of Darksiders"

Habboi

Regardless I hope you transfer the design to an axe. Also unless your thread is renamed it'll stick out which is very crafty of you ;>

Rilem

SHIT

How the hell did that happen?
My mind is blown, where did I get the idea that it was dagger/axe/mace?

pffff... erm.. I guess I'll go for the axe then, thanks for the heads up!

Piflik

That is one sweet concept. Sadly only heavy weapons, but I am sure you can make a even sweeter axe from this...maybe just ad the big, vertical blade on the right side at the handle, starting just below the small eye...

ShootandRun

I really like the silhouettes you've made, can't wait to see this in axe form! Demonic weapons are my fav

adam

**Title of thread changed to indicate you will be working on an Axe.

Rilem

Thanks for the quick title edit Adam, I didn't even have to ask!

Can't wait for tonight, I feel like a noob for making that dagger so I'm burning to do that axe asap.

thepapercut

Sick concept man. Best of luck

Di$array

Well Rilem you have the base there. Just elongate the blade, do some fancy stuff where the handle use to be and then jam a pole on it. Then bob's your uncle.

Really nice concept. Shame really.

BoBo_the_seal

really nice dagger! I'm looking forward to seeing it adapted for an Axe

- BoBo

JacqueChoi

WoW! You definitely nailed it!

Rilem

So here's what an axe should like like, no puny kitchen knives here:

lupi

niiiiiceeee...:) best concept so far:) keep it up dude!

Habboi

If your final model turns out like that I definitely think it's going to be one of the stronger pieces. Who knows though, time may reveal some lurkers Good job.

Kurry

Damn, thats a sexy concept ! Can't wait to see this bad boy in 3d.

zeroSlave

Nice. I like the little eye looking up at the big eye. :poly128:

MissMaddyTaylor

I think the axe looks awesome! I can't wait to see this in 3d

Shiv

Dude, the dagger was nice and all, but damn, this axe. Beautiful!

leslievdb

those are some nice fluid shapes.
Really digging these designs man

keep it up

Progg

really nice conversion

0Hayes

Haha, it drooped, love it. It translated really well into an axe, cant wait to see some colour down!

Obikenowan

Looks a lil bit like Soul Edge ^^. But nice concept, hope to see it in color.

Lowpology

Yeah I definitely get the Soul Edge look so I'd try and find some way to differ but man is this an awesome axe dude love it.

ageless

WoW...super!!

Grimmstrom

really like your concept. clean and easy to read

Rilem

Thanks for all the positive comments, it's really motivating.

Added some color to the axe:

Di$array

You've done a crackin' job on the concept mate. Looking forward to see this in 3D.

Daven

Damn man, this is looking incredible. I'd love to see some different color schemes, maybe pulling more from the KOTD or demon palette, but it's looking amazing so far.

Maph

Amazing work so far, but yeah; introduce some new colors and gradients. Keep going man!

BoBo_the_seal

yes! Love this!

Jeff Parrott

Chunkier!

Otherwise this is pretty nice.

ScoobyDoofus

Soo much disgusting fun. Maybe some more colors/variation and a little brighter.

Rilem

I'll definitely play with the colors, I want to get some purple in there to replace the greys I have now.

Heres a work in progress on the basemeshl:


I don't have much experience with high poly modeling and sculpting, I did do some basic sculpt doodles for fun though. Baking normals and doing retopo are going to be major learning experiences.

Royzy

This. This looks fantastic. Really nice rendering on the concepts too. Will be monitoring the progress on this one

Fritzzz

Looking good so far! You did a great job capturing the organic look of Demon weapons.

Keeping an eye on this thread

TaylorMouse

Great Design, can't wait to see the 3D!!

T.

pulyx

Looking real good man.

Rilem

Did a quick blob-out:


I'll start refining and doing details later this day.

Rilem

Some progress:

AJSALL

simple and effective, I like it

Torch

Very nice Rilem, this is really coming along

Rilem

Thanks guys.

Some more progress:


Sitting at 1408 triangles now, including the spikes.

Rilem

Normal map on there:


It needs some work. :poly142:

dirigible

protip : harden the normals on the edge of the blade, and triangulate your mesh before baking. That'll get rid of 90% of your black errors on your normal map. Also make sure your green channel is correct. For maya, the green channel should look like your model is lit from ABOVE. For other things (udk, for instance) your green channel should look like your model is lit from BELOW.

Rilem

Thanks for the tips man, you might have just saved me some time browsing the polycount wiki.
I'll give it a go tommorow

OrganizedChaos

Just curious- was that your final sculpt? Seems like it could use a little more work- in particular, there doesnt seem to be any damage on the weapon.... also, did you change a few things? Some of the spikes look like they've been dulled down, as well as the notches on the handle.

Rilem

You're right about the sculpt. I plan on reducing some of the blobbyness and making some more wear on the blade.

Colt3d

One quick question about the normal baking, ive heard that the model should be triangulated before baking but the part i dont get is if one should triangulate the highres model , or the lowres model? or both? .. i would appreciate a quick explanation on this , Thx

Rilem

From the polycount wiki

Before baking, it is usually best to triangulate the low-poly model, converting it from polygons into pure triangles. This prevents the vertex normals from being changed later on, which can create specular artifacts.

http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap

Colt3d

Thanks a lot for the pointer Rilem , altough more questions came to my mind after reading it i hope you dont mind if ask it here, Once the mesh is triangulated its a permanent step? what happens if we need the quads again? also the triangulation process itself should be manual? (like manually flipping triangles or connecting edges) or automatically done by some tool in the modelling package?, again thanks a lot for the hints!