Okay, a bit more work on the textures. Any major reccomendations, besides "Fix the blatantly obvious seam on the arm"? Sharper highlgihts, more muscle definitoon, etc.?
P.Fox. Sorry I meant to mention earlier and i saw a similar comment on the workshop page. he does look a bit crosseyed.
I also think you could improve it a bit with more color. And using color to tie in the top down gradient. I quick paintover:
If you put a dark blue fade on it I think it can make it pop a bit more and add some visual appeal. Maybe also work some blue into the dots
Markov, definitely bump up the saturation and contrast. Compare that shot of the original bat and yours. the orange arms on it stand out a lot more.
Trying to get my texture to really shine... got comments it was a bit boring/flat.
I think bumping up contrast helped. Also going to try and get astronger lightmap bake, try the bent normal G channel overlay and redo the bumps on the tail larger (along with finish painting the legs)
Do you think its better to resubmit the item or just update the workshop submission? I'll probably rework the eyes a bit and add a dark gradient from the bottom to the top.
@Baddcog: I think the biggest problem is that it looks as though the blue sections are flat colour. A lot of beetles have a sort of iridescent effect to them. The eye is also very plain... maybe try and give it a translucent glow effect? Or a tesselating hexagon pattern, like a fly?
I added more highlights and tried to define some more muscular structure. Look any better?
I am getting very annoyed with these seams, however.
Markovnikov: I think one thing that will help a lot is crank up the saturation on the skin. Last page when you were comparing your model with the default Bat, you could see a major difference in saturation. If you make it more vibrant it will look more 'alive'
@mark
Just curious, but did you sculpt in the muscle structures for your high poly sculpt. Those painted in features will look flat when you bring it into Dota. I'm not sure that you are aware of this but blender has a GLSL preview mode that will allow you to look at your model with the normal mapping applied.
Thanks for the earlier feedback guys! I enlarged the smallest looking fur bits at the legs and have pretty much gone with the Valve's bear model as a guide for the size over all. (pic found from the texturing guide under Point Light Map).
Here's some progress on the texturing of my LOD0 model so far. No masks yet and gotta do another color pass to breakout the white fur and bring some more blue with the details.
@Baddcog
Looking good man! Suggestions for the color: you could increase the contrast on the violet areas by painting in some darker shades of violet&blue. At the moment it looks like you have only one tone of violet in there.
OK, I reworked the base color. I'll have to completely redo the dots as they were all polypainted. . I think it'll give more variation. Also bake out bent normals for the top light info and reworked the gradient.
I'll look at eye stuff, thnx.
Mark. I think the saturation is better, maybe a hair more?
Neupher, looking good.
@Prag, i don't think you need to resubmit, just leave a note what changed and maybe before after shot.
Oy vey, I hope the wing shading hasn't suffered too much.
@baddcog: Definitely looking a lot less monotone. If you make the spec reasonably high, you should get a decent "sheen" to the carapace, and it'll end up perfect.
Just to let you guys know, the changes I teased on the beginning of this month are going to happen for the next month, we are going to get an sponsor =]]]
Sad to hear it Paskie, he's looking cool. Keep workin on him.
@Tvidotto. Sponsors sounds cool. I bought a set in the store also to give away this month... I can send to you or just send to winner myself.
Markovnikov,
it's looking pretty good, cool to see it in game.
I think I have the final color done, gonna check in game right now..
Used Tvid's tut for a refesher, also used the bent green channel. Also rebaked and got a better lightmap. But it seems the lightmap always bleeds my color. Had to boost the final tga contrast by 25% to get it back.
that looks incredible. I really love the design and use of the base colors. the teeth bother me for some reason though. I'm working on a turntable to present my model better. Its been about 5 hours and I've only done around 50/150 frames. Maybe I shouldn't have made the pedestal slightly reflective.
I removed the subdivide modifier and used the subsurface modifier in the cycles render engine to clean up the harsh faces in the mesh. this both fixed the play-dough like consistency and also cleaned up the pinching at the mirror seam. Is it bad that i'm using a high quality render to present my model?
updated the profile image with a better render:
edit:
i just finished the render, The render itself took about 11 hours on my i5 machine. Here is the final product. do you think i should add this to the workshop page?
Hey guys! time is running out this month, be sure to finish in time =]
We need to define next month pool, since we passed 2 months with people asking for a bigger pool I think we could go on the next month.
What you guys think of choosing one slot? we did that in the past broke in 2 months, one for dire and one for radiant. It worked so well that in the end Valve made a chest of the items.
Hey guys! time is running out this month, be sure to finish in time =]
We need to define next month pool, since we passed 2 months with people asking for a bigger pool I think we could go on the next month.
What you guys think of choosing one slot? we did that in the past broke in 2 months, one for dire and one for radiant. It worked so well that in the end Valve made a chest of the items.
Yeah, in the blog for the 6.82 update they mentioned no Diretide this year because they're working on something even bigger for early next year and don't want to have to delay it.
Frankly, I can't say I'm gonna miss it. If I see one more donger...
Yeah, in the blog for the 6.82 update they mentioned no Diretide this year because they're working on something even bigger for early next year and don't want to have to delay it.
Frankly, I can't say I'm gonna miss it. If I see one more donger...
I was just going to miss the candy game, but since it doesnt count for the mmr I will probably not miss diretide this year
so, you guys think it still worthy to keep a halloween theme with the normal theme? On TF2 the halloween is really strong every year
Last year we got some themed items in a chest right?
Trying to get my promo images wrapped up. had a friend working on Marmo renders but might not come through.. Trying it out but it is completely killing the specular on my beetle. Have no idea why the map is very similar to the original mount/disruptor maps.
Even the tick boxes don't change it at all. Now it's completely lagging out.
Yeah there was a halloween chest last year. I think we should go with that
Awesome
I started doing the artworks for the new month and will upload then tomorrow. A lot of good news for the next month =]
about the deadline @paskie@baddcog. Please don't let the deadline reduce the final quality of your work, if it is too close, take your time to submit when it is finished. You may be out of this contest but will give you more chances to get in game =]
Looking good guys! great job getting the submissions done in time.
Unfortunately, I'll have to forfeit this month's competition.
After testing out the rig in game, I realised how much of a mismatch the cat like animations are with my wolf's proportions (especially the neck). So, I've decided to rework on it for a little while to have it fit for Luna instead.
This time I'll be testing out the rig well before any texturing
They are supposed to be about helping each other out to improve but half the entries coming in seem to be last minute 'oh I got an item that will fit I will just post it'.
Not people involved all month helping each other to improve.
The mods barely posting at all, and imo they should be giving critiques, they are some of the best artists among us.
I busted my ass for a solid month (literally) on this one and yet it is almost a month later and NO word at all. I bought a new release courier off the store (to support a polycount artist) to give the winner. Who gets it? Others were talking about contributing prizes... nothing.
I thought my entry was pretty good from the word of fellow competitors but on the Workshop it was shit. Posted it in Dota workshop thread and my own thread asking for advice and got basically nothing in feedback.
I won a comp a few months ago and waited impatiently at the mailbox for weeks, never received the trophy OR got any word what so ever.
Last month and this months comp are basically the same. Last minute, one post 'here is all my entry stuff' with no comment for fellow artists. No comments from mods other than a few short 'good to see work posted' comments. No work in progress as it develops. Comments only for stuff people like. The only one I received was 'looks good'., nice but doesn't help me improve.
Sure Oct. has a Marmoset license prize so now people want to enter, they just don't want to comment and help each other out.
I just feel like these comps are a waste of time and nobody (mods included) really even care. I know people are busy and whatnot but I don't think I'm being impatient. It's been a full month since this competition finished and another is almost done.
They are supposed to be about helping each other out to improve but half the entries coming in seem to be last minute 'oh I got an item that will fit I will just post it'.
Not people involved all month helping each other to improve.
The mods barely posting at all, and imo they should be giving critiques, they are some of the best artists among us.
I busted my ass for a solid month (literally) on this one and yet it is almost a month later and NO word at all. I bought a new release courier off the store (to support a polycount artist) to give the winner. Who gets it? Others were talking about contributing prizes... nothing.
I thought my entry was pretty good from the word of fellow competitors but on the Workshop it was shit. Posted it in Dota workshop thread and my own thread asking for advice and got basically nothing in feedback.
I won a comp a few months ago and waited impatiently at the mailbox for weeks, never received the trophy OR got any word what so ever.
Last month and this months comp are basically the same. Last minute, one post 'here is all my entry stuff' with no comment for fellow artists. No comments from mods other than a few short 'good to see work posted' comments. No work in progress as it develops. Comments only for stuff people like. The only one I received was 'looks good'., nice but doesn't help me improve.
Sure Oct. has a Marmoset license prize so now people want to enter, they just don't want to comment and help each other out.
I just feel like these comps are a waste of time and nobody (mods included) really even care. I know people are busy and whatnot but I don't think I'm being impatient. It's been a full month since this competition finished and another is almost done.
Completely agree with you. I already said a while ago that comps ware getting a bit pointless, but it seemed like it was getting a bit more organized this month, and while I really hope this turns out to be true, that's not how it looks like right now.
People should be encouraged to participate a lot more. I know that lots of people are busy, but it's kinda infuriating when some people just show up at the end of the month with something that they did that fits on the theme and they post it on the thread, and I know I'm guilty of doing this in the past, but I've seen artists showing up at the last possible moment with an item, with very few or no progress pictures before submission, and no participation at all helping other users.
It's both an issue with the lack of organization and artists not taking the contest very seriously. On the first point, I personally offered help on organizing and maintaining the threads, since I'm pretty much working and browsing Polycount home all day and I have some experience with that from other forums, with a bit of an overhaul to the main post, and some more ideas from stuff like the monthly challenges over at 3D Art 'Showcase & Critiques', but apparently it was disregarded, as 'there is no need for help right now', something that I'm sure lots of people would disagree, specially since we're still waiting for winners since the July competition ended, that just makes everything worse. No point on even participating when the organizers themselves don't seem to take those threads seriously.
Again, yes, I know both Tvidotto and the participating artists are busy, but there needs to be some effort from both sides if anyone want those competitions to improve. We have the opportunity to host a monthly thread where everyone helps each other to improve as artists, with the extra of being able to win a cool prize at the end of the month, but right now, I don't think any of those two things are actually happening. We have people not participating and submitting items just because 'why not? I can get a trophy or whatever', and threads being really late and submissions not properly judged for over 3 months.
I already said this personally to Tvidotto, but still, I'd really love to help organizing those threads a bit better since I know you don't have much time to spare, and I know plenty of people who are a bit bummed on how the threads were handled lately.
Maybe the other people who do not write feeback on other entries feel like me, but I know I do not comment at lot (at all) but that is nothing agaisnt the artists, I just do not feel comfortable giving criticism publicly (yet, I hope !) and never know what to say. But hey the point of a forum is to interact with people. Then maybe I should not participate ! I am mostly just reading everything and pretty much only posting when I release something.
Then for the organisation, this is one of the reasons I stopped participating. Sure people are allowed to be busy, but then I do not think it is fair for the participants to keep them waiting for 4 or 5 months to just announce the winners when there are prizes like the polycount trophy and more now.
Replies
Okay, a bit more work on the textures. Any major reccomendations, besides "Fix the blatantly obvious seam on the arm"? Sharper highlgihts, more muscle definitoon, etc.?
I also think you could improve it a bit with more color. And using color to tie in the top down gradient. I quick paintover:
If you put a dark blue fade on it I think it can make it pop a bit more and add some visual appeal. Maybe also work some blue into the dots
Markov, definitely bump up the saturation and contrast. Compare that shot of the original bat and yours. the orange arms on it stand out a lot more.
Trying to get my texture to really shine... got comments it was a bit boring/flat.
I think bumping up contrast helped. Also going to try and get astronger lightmap bake, try the bent normal G channel overlay and redo the bumps on the tail larger (along with finish painting the legs)
Any suggestions?
I added more highlights and tried to define some more muscular structure. Look any better?
I am getting very annoyed with these seams, however.
Rise, Tomato Dragon, RISE!
Just curious, but did you sculpt in the muscle structures for your high poly sculpt. Those painted in features will look flat when you bring it into Dota. I'm not sure that you are aware of this but blender has a GLSL preview mode that will allow you to look at your model with the normal mapping applied.
No, I did not sculpt the muscles on, they were an after-thought I had post-bakes. Yeah, I'm a terrible person, so sue me.
If it really proves to be a problem, I can bake another normal from the colour map thanks to the Nvidia photoshop extension.
Minor Edit; Turns out I've had the specular turned off the whole time because it looks too shiny.
Here's some progress on the texturing of my LOD0 model so far. No masks yet and gotta do another color pass to breakout the white fur and bring some more blue with the details.
@Baddcog
Looking good man! Suggestions for the color: you could increase the contrast on the violet areas by painting in some darker shades of violet&blue. At the moment it looks like you have only one tone of violet in there.
I'll look at eye stuff, thnx.
Mark. I think the saturation is better, maybe a hair more?
Neupher, looking good.
@Prag, i don't think you need to resubmit, just leave a note what changed and maybe before after shot.
Oy vey, I hope the wing shading hasn't suffered too much.
@baddcog: Definitely looking a lot less monotone. If you make the spec reasonably high, you should get a decent "sheen" to the carapace, and it'll end up perfect.
Decided to push it more. I think this will be better.
This is what I've got so far.
Just to let you guys know, the changes I teased on the beginning of this month are going to happen for the next month, we are going to get an sponsor =]]]
@Tvidotto. Sponsors sounds cool. I bought a set in the store also to give away this month... I can send to you or just send to winner myself.
Markovnikov,
it's looking pretty good, cool to see it in game.
I think I have the final color done, gonna check in game right now..
Used Tvid's tut for a refesher, also used the bent green channel. Also rebaked and got a better lightmap. But it seems the lightmap always bleeds my color. Had to boost the final tga contrast by 25% to get it back.
update!!
comparison
i kinda wanna see a meme made out of the one to the left
@Baddcog - That beetle is looking really awesome. It's come a long way.
thx, I upped the contrast quite a bit. helps make the fur pop a bit more. The painted gradient helps quite a lot to.
Figured as long as I was doing a mount I might as well bust out a set. Was a long hard slog for a month solid but I'm wrapping it up just in time.
Storm Scarab Summoner
Gah, Why Valvo WHY??? Only one disruptor set on workshop forever. I spend a month busting butt on one and they add one this week.
I removed the subdivide modifier and used the subsurface modifier in the cycles render engine to clean up the harsh faces in the mesh. this both fixed the play-dough like consistency and also cleaned up the pinching at the mirror seam. Is it bad that i'm using a high quality render to present my model?
updated the profile image with a better render:
edit:
i just finished the render, The render itself took about 11 hours on my i5 machine. Here is the final product. do you think i should add this to the workshop page?
We need to define next month pool, since we passed 2 months with people asking for a bigger pool I think we could go on the next month.
What you guys think of choosing one slot? we did that in the past broke in 2 months, one for dire and one for radiant. It worked so well that in the end Valve made a chest of the items.
Cheers!
Awesome, I will give one too, you can give it by yourself and make the winner even more happy =]
I'd be down for that!
Heroes like Lich, Undying, Necrophos, Death Prophet, Clinkz, Wraith King, etc.
Mostly (Un)dead and demons maybe?
We made weapons before, I think head would be nice.
@schnoodle suggested about helloween, we could add an special category for Halloween themed items. Since we are going to have multiple prizes =]
Lets talk to Volvo about that.
Head items also cool.
No Diretide this year? they announced that?
Yeah, in the blog for the 6.82 update they mentioned no Diretide this year because they're working on something even bigger for early next year and don't want to have to delay it.
Frankly, I can't say I'm gonna miss it. If I see one more donger...
I was just going to miss the candy game, but since it doesnt count for the mmr I will probably not miss diretide this year
so, you guys think it still worthy to keep a halloween theme with the normal theme? On TF2 the halloween is really strong every year
Last year we got some themed items in a chest right?
This looks great! Awesome job! It really stands out.
Even the tick boxes don't change it at all. Now it's completely lagging out.
Awesome
I started doing the artworks for the new month and will upload then tomorrow. A lot of good news for the next month =]
about the deadline @paskie @baddcog. Please don't let the deadline reduce the final quality of your work, if it is too close, take your time to submit when it is finished. You may be out of this contest but will give you more chances to get in game =]
Ahhh... Got it up..
Storm Scarab of the Stormy Steppes by Voodoo [aka Baddcog]
Went ahead and completed a set for this one. 6 items all together. (Beetle is the entry)
Unfortunately, I'll have to forfeit this month's competition.
After testing out the rig in game, I realised how much of a mismatch the cat like animations are with my wolf's proportions (especially the neck). So, I've decided to rework on it for a little while to have it fit for Luna instead.
This time I'll be testing out the rig well before any texturing
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2147098
For the next month we are going to get the winners of the previous one to be featured on the first post.
I am also creating a fixed judge group, changing it every month is delaying a lot the winners decision.
Please, let me know if everything there is fine
They are supposed to be about helping each other out to improve but half the entries coming in seem to be last minute 'oh I got an item that will fit I will just post it'.
Not people involved all month helping each other to improve.
The mods barely posting at all, and imo they should be giving critiques, they are some of the best artists among us.
I busted my ass for a solid month (literally) on this one and yet it is almost a month later and NO word at all. I bought a new release courier off the store (to support a polycount artist) to give the winner. Who gets it? Others were talking about contributing prizes... nothing.
I thought my entry was pretty good from the word of fellow competitors but on the Workshop it was shit. Posted it in Dota workshop thread and my own thread asking for advice and got basically nothing in feedback.
I won a comp a few months ago and waited impatiently at the mailbox for weeks, never received the trophy OR got any word what so ever.
Last month and this months comp are basically the same. Last minute, one post 'here is all my entry stuff' with no comment for fellow artists. No comments from mods other than a few short 'good to see work posted' comments. No work in progress as it develops. Comments only for stuff people like. The only one I received was 'looks good'., nice but doesn't help me improve.
Sure Oct. has a Marmoset license prize so now people want to enter, they just don't want to comment and help each other out.
I just feel like these comps are a waste of time and nobody (mods included) really even care. I know people are busy and whatnot but I don't think I'm being impatient. It's been a full month since this competition finished and another is almost done.
Completely agree with you. I already said a while ago that comps ware getting a bit pointless, but it seemed like it was getting a bit more organized this month, and while I really hope this turns out to be true, that's not how it looks like right now.
People should be encouraged to participate a lot more. I know that lots of people are busy, but it's kinda infuriating when some people just show up at the end of the month with something that they did that fits on the theme and they post it on the thread, and I know I'm guilty of doing this in the past, but I've seen artists showing up at the last possible moment with an item, with very few or no progress pictures before submission, and no participation at all helping other users.
It's both an issue with the lack of organization and artists not taking the contest very seriously. On the first point, I personally offered help on organizing and maintaining the threads, since I'm pretty much working and browsing Polycount home all day and I have some experience with that from other forums, with a bit of an overhaul to the main post, and some more ideas from stuff like the monthly challenges over at 3D Art 'Showcase & Critiques', but apparently it was disregarded, as 'there is no need for help right now', something that I'm sure lots of people would disagree, specially since we're still waiting for winners since the July competition ended, that just makes everything worse. No point on even participating when the organizers themselves don't seem to take those threads seriously.
Again, yes, I know both Tvidotto and the participating artists are busy, but there needs to be some effort from both sides if anyone want those competitions to improve. We have the opportunity to host a monthly thread where everyone helps each other to improve as artists, with the extra of being able to win a cool prize at the end of the month, but right now, I don't think any of those two things are actually happening. We have people not participating and submitting items just because 'why not? I can get a trophy or whatever', and threads being really late and submissions not properly judged for over 3 months.
I already said this personally to Tvidotto, but still, I'd really love to help organizing those threads a bit better since I know you don't have much time to spare, and I know plenty of people who are a bit bummed on how the threads were handled lately.
Then for the organisation, this is one of the reasons I stopped participating. Sure people are allowed to be busy, but then I do not think it is fair for the participants to keep them waiting for 4 or 5 months to just announce the winners when there are prizes like the polycount trophy and more now.
Also ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Belkun President