Home 3D Art Showcase & Critiques

Free Epic Lewtz! Six swords

polycounter lvl 14
Offline / Send Message
Isaiah Sherman polycounter lvl 14
Hey everyone,

This was a personal project I took on to expand my portfolio. I was informed entry level positions at bigger companies typically aren't filled by artists that have a lot of fully fleshed out characters and amazing castles or dragons in every project and that I needed to do something more basic.

So, I decided to concept up 6 swords that belong in the same set (or race) varying from level 1 to level 6, increase in rarity and badass-ness with each level.

I was aiming at keeping the tri-count at a moderate level, below 1k for the level 6 sword and below 250 for the level 1 sword. They consist of a 1024x512 rectangular diffuse and spec map each.

Here is what I have thus far. They're all at what I would consider a finished stage, but I would love to receive any feedback because there is a strong possibility I will be going back and editing these next month.

I was thinking about buying Torchlight so I could bring some of these in and see how'd they'd look in-game and with particle effects :)

shermanIsaiah_swordProj_marmoset.jpg

shermanisaiah_swordProj_viewport.jpg

shermanIsaiah_swordProj_wires.jpg

shermanIsaiah_swordsConcepts.jpg

Level 4 Sword diffuse map
level04_webD.jpg

Level 3 Sword diffuse map
level03_webD.jpg

Replies

  • Swizzle
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Swizzle polycounter lvl 15
    I have nothing constructive to say, so I'll just say that these are freakin' sweet.
  • Irreal
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Irreal polycounter lvl 10
    Ha, these are awesome. Maybe not enough variation between versions but maybe I'm just being picky.

    Oh and buy Torchlight. Ones of the best games of this year. You can't argue with $20.
  • stimpack
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    stimpack polycounter lvl 10
    I enjoy these alot!
  • Asherr
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Asherr polycounter lvl 18
    Very reminiscent of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King weapons.
  • Isaiah Sherman
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Isaiah Sherman polycounter lvl 14
    So the main crit so far is more variation between the swords? I can agree that 1, 4, 5, 6 are the strongest in diversity and that 2 and 3 (from transitioning between 1 and 4 respectively) need work. I will definitely keep that in mind.

    As for them being reminiscent of WoW weapons, one extra thing I tried to take a stab at was their stylization as Blizz internship apps are going on right now.

    Thanks everyone :)
  • Vrav
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Vrav polycounter lvl 11
    Very cool, and just to add a useless comment, if these were in a game, I would skip level four—just doesn't look as mean as three!
  • flow3d
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    flow3d polycounter lvl 18
    like the level-style presentation :D
    really looks like I'd want to upgrade that sword :)
  • skylebones
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    skylebones polycounter lvl 10
    Great idea for a portfolio. And these turned out awesome. Great work!
  • sampson
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    sampson polycounter lvl 9
    Very nice! love these... great work maybe some of the dirt on the swords could've been done better but a part from that...
  • Isaiah Sherman
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Isaiah Sherman polycounter lvl 14
    Thanks everyone!

    Vrav: I have had a few others say they really like the level 3 sword as well, I think it's because that's when it's getting away from being a low-level sucky sword but hasn't quite yet hit the high fantasy stage.

    Sampson: Any suggestions on what you would have liked to see with the dirt?
  • bounchfx
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    bounchfx mod
    yeah I would revisit number 4, but these are completely awesome. Buy torchlight and put them in!

    then give me the files so I can equip them :)
  • moose
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    moose polycount sponsor
    These look great :) Few comments:

    - they look great, but some reason the high-res'ness of them freak me out and diminish the quality
    - along with this, could go for some "dapled" stuff on the metal in spots to give it a more used feel.
    - the cross straps seem too similar in value to the blade. Why is something wrapped around it? Make them cool & interesting! Give it some pop with some highlight edges (even if its a labert style surface), maybe a lil shadow
    - as a whole it is very dark, think you could lighten the textures up about 50%
    - the hilt wrappings could be a bit larger, so they're easier to read
    - would be cool to have some fancy special gems on them
    - the embossed stuff/etched stuff is nice, wish there was more!!

    cool stuff!

    Another comment, which kind of applies, but wouldn't adhere much to it on these: It wouldnt hurt to be a little more modular with your textures and models. In the age of normal maps, everything *must* have a unique texture, but in the case of these oldschool weapons and junk, you can reuse a lot of stuff and get similar results. An example being, you could use one texture for pretty much all but the final two stages of that sword, with some creative UV mapping and modular texturing.

    I wouldnt redo anything here, but it is something to consider in the future.

    Getting them into torchlight is super easy as well, I have been mucking around with it as well and have a project going of about 80-100 unique weapons! fun times!
  • Isaiah Sherman
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Isaiah Sherman polycounter lvl 14
    Awesome crits, moose. Changing the bandaging / wraps on the swords won't be too difficult because I have them on their own layers, so I'll see what I can do to make them pop more. I can also paint it some of their edges a bit more to have the individual wraps show more prominently.

    As for lightening the textures, I could lighten them up a bit but on the 3 different monitors I have they seem to be consistent enough. I was going for an evil warrior black metal kind of look. If you feel they're very dark I can possibly revisit their overally lightness. Part of it may be from the post I did on the Marmoset "renders."

    As for gems I think I will stay away from that. They are supposed to be kind of a dark warrior race's weapons. I could do some thick metal protrusions that emulate a gem's general shape, though.

    I think I may do a bit more of the etched details on sword #5, at least a tiny bit of it to help tie in a progression of rarity.


    When I bring them into Torchlight I think I will bump this thread up and post the files if you kids wanna run around and kill shit with them :p

    Thanks!
  • fearian
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    fearian greentooth
    I love them! Will be (quite) a bit to high poly for tourchlight though... But give it a shot! I want to hit somethign with those swords in some game!
  • Proxzee
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Awesome! How long did these take?
  • Isaiah Sherman
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Isaiah Sherman polycounter lvl 14
    fearian: Yeah, I was reading that most Torchlight weapons range from 200 to 400, so my higher level ones are definitely high poly in comparison.

    Proxzee: I don't recall what the exact time was, but I would say overall the whole thing was probably about 40 hours or so. That's a really rough estimate. This was the first project I've used 3DS Max with so a lot of it was a learning experience.
  • man_o_mule
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    man_o_mule polycounter lvl 18
    this is an awesome idea for an art project. Might do something like this myself.

    I would have to agree with most of the crits here. they look really well done, but a few of them are very very similar. The differences might not cary over that well ingame. Definatly like 5 and 6 the most but that's to be expected since those are the ones with the most flair and color veriety.
  • engelik
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Very nice textures!

    I'd definitely bet on a bit more variations though, maybe an Axe, War Hammer, dagger..

    keep up the good work!
  • Isaiah Sherman
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Isaiah Sherman polycounter lvl 14
    man_o_mule: I feel I definitely be revisiting some of the features to differentiate them more.

    engelik: For this project, no. For another one, definitely.This project was focused around doing a single type of weapon that varies in rarity, a challenge within itself, as I stated in my original post :). Simply changing the type of weapon would defeat the point of this specific exercise.
  • Quokimbo
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    I think they look good...

    :thumbup::thumbup:
  • Tom Ellis
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    These are incredible, love your style man.

    I had shamefully never heard of Torchlight but I just checked it out after seeing this and it's awesome! If you could get these in and play with the particle effects that would be cool.

    I had a look at the tutorials for getting weapons in to TorchED and it seems they missed off some rather important info on how to do it... it's like 'build weapon... export weapon... make icon... and..... erm.... nothing'.!
  • Disco Stu
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    leather bands around the blade could be troublesome in real life but sweet nonetheless :D
  • Two Listen
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Two Listen polycount sponsor
    On the "highest level" sword, the biggest one that looks partially on fire type of thing...

    I'd remove that extra little blade on the handle that goes down towards the users hand. It isn't long enough to do any extra damage, and with the handle being shorter than the "lvl 4" type of thing, it really seems like it might pose a danger to the user.

    Other than that little thing being gone, I think they look great.
  • Devin Busha
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Wow, great work man! I love the style and can't wait to see more :D
  • Isaiah Sherman
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Isaiah Sherman polycounter lvl 14
    Quokimbo & Dev0205: Thanks :)

    Disco Stu: Oh let me tell you, everything about these swords would be troublesome in real life :P! Hell, practically any high fantasy weapon in RPGs would be troublesome :)

    Two Listen: I agree, I will remove that small blade part.
Sign In or Register to comment.