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Rigging and Sculpting Questions

Hello I'm Sherlock, I have been looking at all the great Dota items here on the forums for a while but this is my first official thread. I've run into a few snags and need some help to continue.

A couple weeks ago I decided to try making some 3D models. I had been making some personal concept drawings and wanted to see what I could do with them. I have been using blender to practice (after watching hours of videos hehe) and have sucessfully made two meshes so far.

My first mesh is a shoulder piece, it is all meshed out and I now want to get the rigging right by attaching it to the shoulder. This is where I have my first question since I can't find a video that attaches non-weapon pieces. How do I attach the shoulder piece correctly so that it floats properly and won't sink into the flesh? Once attached to the bone do I simply eyeball it and move it until it appears right? Any helpful videos would be really appreciated, because as I said I have only found videos that attach weapons.

So second on my query list is regarding sculpting. As I learned from making my shoulder piece, it's very easy to go overboard on the tri limit. When I see other users workshop submissions that use sculpting, I wonder how they fit in so many details. This includes things likes scrapes, dents or even larger details like raised edges etc. How is it possible to fit so many details through sculpting without raising the polygon or tri count? Also, are these details able to be implimented ingame or is this simply used for uv mapping and texturing? And finally, are there are free sculpting tools that can be used to recreate these effects, or is low-poly work just as acceptable without fancy add-ons?

If anyone could help me to understand these concepts a bit better or give any resources on the subject I would really appreciate it. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pics of my works soon, it's been a blast so far!

Replies

  • Renu
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    I hope no one will mind if I write here. I also have problems with rigging.
    I'm working on a cloak for the Rubick. And I try to attach it for several days, but nothing helps. I use different bones, but what happens is that the cloak changes form.
    It looks awful, and does not resemble my cloak.
    I've tried many combinations, but only once I got to save the shape of cloak. But the size of the cloak became smaller than the actual model.
    In any case, for some reason I was not able to repeat it (I used the same bones, but the second time it did not work. Yeah, weird)
    Can anyone suggest how can I solve the problem?
    By the way, I use FBX file when I rigging, because I have some problems with the materials when I use SMD
    Thank!
  • heboltz3
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    heboltz3 polycounter lvl 9
    Ey yo Sherlock!

    I haven't worked with sets, but I would imagine the process would be very similar to that of weapons, but instead of attaching and weighting them to the bones for the weapon, you would just position it where you would want it to be, then weight it 100% to the bone that would affect it, most likely the shoulder. I'm not sure if freezing transforms would hurt or help the process, but it would be worth a shot freezing first and trying it out, just for good rigging etiquette.

    Renu, I'd imagine it's a serious skinning problem. Perhaps start by weighting the cloak 100% to a bone higher up in the cape hierarchy and try importing it. Looking at the skeleton i'd suggest "spine_3" Then just work the progress through the hierarchy until the cloak deforms the proper way it should.

    Hope this helps the both of you :) I'm new to the dota scene, but the fundamentals shouldn't be too different haha
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