[DS2] Axe, Nix

Nix

Edit: latest progress:





Original post:

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Gonna attempt to do one of each weapon type. Here's what I've got so far for axes (the silhouette would be something like an insect).

LuCh!

ooh, i like the spine,
how the upper part is connected to the handle isn't so clear though,
what i make of it is that most off the upper part is on one side of the handle, wich would make the axe very unbalanced,

AdamOstridge

Love everything about this design, really nice work. I would say that the head to haft ratio seems a little unbalanced for a two-handed weapon and the haft needs to be longer but I may be wrong. Looking forward to seeng this one progress!

Nix

Thanks for the comments. I agree with the crits so far, and looking back at it, the bone axe felt a bit meh to me anyway, so I decided to go with the insect one.

tsabszy

love it!

BoBo_the_seal

nice and creepy!

Nix

Thanks! : D

Here's a quick blockout:

SgtNasty

I like the concept, I think it's the best of the three entries you have. It's very darksiders-y, but the bug twist gives it some nice uniqueness. Good luck with the sculpt.

Nix

Thanks : D

Bit of progress:

Nix

More progress! Gonna duplicate the legs later and mess with the duplicates to make them slightly different.

Vysuki

I love this, the detail is coming along nicely, especially adding the tiny teeth in the between the blades. (on the above right pic). Are they eyes going to be lit?

knickerbockers

This is sick, I love this design.

SouthpawSid

it's the mean eating pitch black alien of doom from hell !!

so dope

Nix

Vysuki: Yeah I think they will be.

SouthpawSid: Hah! I remember those guys. So scary


Here's some more progress. I'll still make some more adjustments and add some damage here and there before I'll call the sculpt done. Any crits?

Daven

This is looking so rad. Keep up the awesome work!

jmt

Cool design! The shapes are very organic and interesting. Is it supposed to be impaled on the stick or gripping it? It doesn't really look like it would stay on while being swung around if its just clutching the end of the handle.

Is there a story behind the design? The handle (especially pommel) matches the design of the creature, so it seems like it's part of it.

Nix

Thanks!

The bug's not being impaled on it, it's kinda supposed to look as if it's holding on. I guess it's not really an insect but a corrupted weapon, so maybe the weapon would've originally been a solid piece that just kinda got morphed in the shape of an insect holding a weird insect like stick thing? So the upper bug part is really just solidly attached to the handle part, even if you wouldn't think so.

Then again, if it really was just a bug sitting on top... you know how powerful a grip some insects have. :P

I didn't really think of a story or anything. Originally I didn't know what to do with the handle so I just tried to give it an insect like theme, but I guess looking back at it you could say it's two different creatures holding on to each other?

Nix

I went back and messed with the silhouette a little, also added a bunch more details. And I kinda tried to make it look as if the legs were kinda merged with the handle, all grown-in like, but Idunno if I managed to make that work, I might just revert that. Any thoughts? Does it look like it might fall off otherwise?

Stinkhorse

It feels like the space between it's legs needs something, like a jewel or stone or something.

Nix

Maybe I should just impale him on the handle? Like he was in the concept, haha.

Stinkhorse

That would certainly fill that space, and it's stomach, and whatever other nightmare organs it might have in there, yeah.

Nix

Here's a test bake, still some glitches to work out (especially that annoying middle seam problem around the axe blades) and also I used a lower res sculpt just for testing, so it's not looking as sharp as it will eventually.

The lowpoly sits at 1664 triangles right now. It was said we had a couple hundred to play with, so I hope that's gonna be ok for tri count? If not, I'm sure I can shave off some more.

SgtNasty

Looks great to me. I think 1600 is cool. If I recall correctly, Bobo said we can go over by 300 if needed, so I can't see why 1600 would be a problem. Sculpt turned out great, I look forward to seeing this textured.

Stinkhorse

Wow look at that. Nice job.

Nix

Thanks! : D

Some texturing progress, still needs work as well as a specular and glow map, but it's getting there.

Nix

Here's the completed diffuse, gonna add a spec map and glow map tomorrow. Any thoughts?

brian86

mind blown. love it, blows mine out of the water lol

Nix

Glad you like : )

Updated with spec and glow. The glowy points in the carapace were just a random idea, dunno if it works.
(edit: oops, uploaded old version)

tsabszy

great sculpt and texturing skills!!! love the chaotic/damonic feel too. i think it could be slightly darker as now it feels a bit too bright for me, but maybe it's only me.
anyway it's wonderfully done!

Nix

Thanks! I didn't end up making too many more changes to it, mainly due to lack of time. Here's my final submission image.

Funky Bunnies

i dig this lots, nix
nicely done!

Nix

Thanks man, really happy you like.

Since we weren't allowed "fancy" rendering effects in the submission image, I thought I'd just have some fun and make an extra shot with all the bells and whistles. I love marmoset.

While I'm bumping anyway, does anyone know if there are any kind of standards with regards to spec map brightness? Mine is pretty dark, and I just turned the spec intensity in Marmoset way up, thinking I could get the best range if I did that. But I see a lot of people's spec maps are quite bright, so I'm wondering if I did it wrong?

RD75

Love your piece it looks great! what program did you use to bake out your normal map?

Nix

Thanks! I still used Blender's built in bake functions for this one, but I'll be using Xnormal for anything else I do from now on, I think.

RD75

oh ok I've tried using the one in maya but i'm not totally satisfied with the results maybe ill give xnormal a try

jmt

This turned out very well. Congrats on top 5. I hope you make top 3.

imijatov

Very strong texture work and organic shape to the overall mass. I'm a big fan of spikes and eyes, so double the props on that. Good job, man!!

Nix

Thanks a lot, appreciate the kind words And congrats to you too jmt, and good luck! Your axe looks badass

Orb

Dude, one of my favorite axe, you deserved to be on top 3 for me..

Laviathan

That is one sexy demonic axe man great job I like it a lot!

Nix

Orb: aww thanks man, I definitely see where the winner's axes were more readable though. (:

ChaosEidolon

Man...yeah I was sad yours didn't make it. The competition was so tough for the axes. A badass piece by any measure!! Awesome job.