[DS2] Axe, John_B

John_B

Hi guys, just staking my spot in here for this awesome competition (first time taking part on here). So many awesome designs cropping up already in here. Currently blocking out some shapes in my sketchbook as I type so I shall post a concept soon. Good luck to all taking part.

John_B

Hi everyone, here is my chosen concept for the comp. I decided to go with the darksiders core theme with my axe design. I might make some small changes here n there on the details (straps/pommel). Any thoughts or crits? cheers.

Neongoat

Cool blade shapes guy, very much in the style of DS. No crits really other than maybe try some other options for the central skull, think they're going to get seriously overused!

John_B

cheers Neongoat, yeah i was thinking as i posted it what else i could add in place of the skull lol. Might open the area up a bit or put some kind of bone structure in there.

John_B

Hi guys, I decided to revist my concept over the weekend and have settled on this design for a Darksiders Core axe concept. Next stop colours and 3d blank.

John_B

Blank progress so far. Having to rethink a few elements during this phase as what sometimes works in 2d doesnt always translate well to 3d! Aim to get this finished in the next day or so (only have evenings and lunchtimes to work on it, due to work).

Skyerzz

This is looking cool. Honestly though I liked the symmetry of the first design. You can still do it asymmetrically but the single blade side needs to be attached better or a better silhouette.

John_B

Thanks skyerzz. I'm still open to playing with the design during the blank phase and i agree with the joining of the single blade, it's looking a bit 'stuck on' i'll admit lol.

John_B

Hey guys, having ummmd and arrr'd about it i decided to revert back to the original blade design on my entry. Here is the blank as is currently stands in max now. Just need to add a flourish to the top center ring which holds the stone. I'm finding it quicker to concept the shape out in max than drawing it now hence the lack of concept art. I do intend to get a paintover of this put up as i go into the sculpting phase (starting tonight i hope) to give you guys an idea of where i'm heading with this. Some incredible entries now on here now so i really want to push hard on getting this complete in time for the deadline. Any thoughts or crits? Cheers guys

John_B

Here is the finished blank finally ready for some mudbox love! Any thoughts or crits out there?

Piflik

Have you thought about how you fit the chains into the poly-budget?

John_B

Yeah im looking to keep the links very close and tight so theres no gaps to waste tris on. I'm a newcomer to sculpting so i'm hoping this works!

Habboi

Just remember that 1500 can be exceeded if it's within reason. My design has chains and it added way too many at first. I had to cut the number of sides to 6 and enlarge them so less chain links were needed. Overall I'm lucky to skim 3000 so just be careful

John_B

Hi guys, currently baking my normal maps out and i've run into an issue regarding the back of my model! Just some info about my low poly first. I cut the model in half (deleted the back half) and exported this as an obj to take into UVlayout (software i use to unwrap). Once i unwrapped it i imported it back into max and split the parts up into seperate meshes and using xnormal i baked my normal maps using only the half low poly object e.g the blades and a full (both sides) high poly from mudbox. Once i have my normal map i apply it in max using the Xoliulshader and then drop a symmetry modifier on the low poly to make it whole again and thats when i noticed the black edges to the normal map on the back of the model. I'm still getting my normal map workflow down so i've obviously messed up somewhere with my UV's i think. Any thoughts? Bit worried as only got 2 days left on this and i really want to submit it come monday! Thanks

daphz

I think your UVs are fine, try collapsing the symmetry modifier and putting one side in one smoothing group, and the reverse side in a different one.

Holi

Maybe try duplicate>mirror instead of symetry?

John_B

Cheers for the suggestions guys. What i've ended up doing is going into the UV editor and selecting all the back faces of the UVs and then changing the value in the W box below to 1.0 and this seemed to fix my problem.

John_B

Hi guys, Here is a quick update to my entry. This is the bake pretty much done. Its gonna be a late night!