[DS2] Mace, JamesWarren

JamesWarren

This is the concept I have so far. I think I'm going to change the horse-like skull in the center to a more demonic kind of skull, but I still want to keep the animal characteristics.

Neongoat

I like the horse skull, you can always warp it a bit, give it some extra eye sockets or spikes etc. Are the gold bits rock?

JamesWarren

Thanks for the tip, those ideas sound interesting. The yellow things are more like crystals actually.

Di$array

Maybe a couple of runes would be a nice touch also. I forgot to add some to my concept .

JamesWarren

Thanks, I was actually thinking that it may look cool for one of the skulls to have some symbols on it.

ScoobyDoofus

Heya James! I think your top concept is a nice start, but be careful about covering up the skull to much with too much goo.

Also, it looks like you've incorporated elements of the DS style and whatnot, but it doesn't read as very "dangerous" to me. Ya know? Its got skulls, crystals and gooey stuff, all the ingredients are there, but they aren't arranged in a fashion that makes the weapon feel epic.

JamesWarren

Thanks for the critique Ryan. I definitely know what you mean about the concept not looking too dangerous. I'm planning on making skulls and crystals that look cool/evil looking on their own and then arranging them together before applying the "goo." The idea that is in my head seems pretty cool looking at least, hopefully I can create it.

After coming home I looked at the skull I made last night and decided it needed a lot of work. Here is another update:

ScoobyDoofus

Heya James,

I think you'd really benefit from watching both of the livestreams that Bobo did, if you haven't already. Try to really listen to what he's sayin' about the style of Darksiders Skulls.
I've done a little liquify+paintover of your latest skull to show where I think you need to get to.

JamesWarren

Holy crap your version looks so much better. I should really try to push that stylized look some more, your paintover also showed me how circular and odd the nose area looks on my skull. I'll work on that some more tomorrow. Thanks again man!

JamesWarren

Worked on the skull some more and started a new one. The new one looks a little too rat-like for me at the moment but I'm calling it a night. I don't really like the brow so much either.

JamesWarren

ScoobyDoofus

I'd say focus more on the whole right now, and less on individual pieces.
If you noodle away at bits like this, it'll never get done, and if it does, it probably won't look as cohesive.

JamesWarren

Thanks Ryan, very good advice as usual. I don't think I've been going about this the right way. The next thing I will do is create a rough sketch of the entire mace in zbrush that I like, then I'll see if I can integrate what I've made so far and go from there.

STRIKER

good point ryan.

and awesome progress james!

JamesWarren

Thanks Cody. Worked on the mace some more today. I still need to refine the goo and have it wrap around some of the skulls and crystals.

Skyerzz

Woah this came out of now where! Looking good man. I would show that there is something hard under the goo in the handle area to have it look more sturdy. Some stone showing through in the middle or something.

JamesWarren

Thanks Skyerzz.

Worked on the goo some more:

JVaughan

Loving the pile of skulls and rocks. This is getting to be really cool design.

JamesWarren

Finished the low poly. I had to go back and re-make the handle so it was symmetrical. At one point the entire model had unique UVs and the texel density really suffered because of it. This is a little better, although I kind of wish that I made a design that had even more symmetrical parts.

ScoobyDoofus

Woot! This is trucking right along man!

It looks like you've got some wicked texture seams to contend with. Maybe you've got a bake problem? Did you take the mirrored parts of your texture and move them out of the 0-1 texture space before you baked?

JamesWarren

Yea I made sure to move the mirrored parts over 1 unit. I went back and worked on concealing the seams some more by moving them to the cracks and less seen areas of the model. Hopefully this helps, although in my experience my seams will always look ugly no matter what I do.

I also moved some of the spikes to the bottom handle to try to create some more interest down there, looks not so great as it is though. I'm hoping to eventually make that look better with the diffuse texture by blending the colors.

ScoobyDoofus

That could work, but as long as you're still at your bake phase, why not just put spikes in the High Poly down there and re-bake? Probably look a lot better

JamesWarren

Worked on the handle some more, I'm glad I didn't settle for the old one.

JamesWarren

Texture progress:

JamesWarren

Tweaked a few things here and there, I'm calling this done now though. Overall I'm a bit disappointed with how this turned out, but I still learned stuff and gained experience nonetheless.

ScoobyDoofus

James, On the crystals, your edges are maybe too strong in your spec. Also, try making the spec a more neutral color or closer to cyan/green.

JamesWarren

Something a little more like this?