Just some rough line work and AO bake to map everything out. Might add a little more geo to the shoulders and thigh plates to sell the overlapping metal better.
I'm using the BPainter addon which is a pretty decent alternative to 3Dcoat especially since you don't have to leave blender. Just takes some getting used to the setup.
So that plan changed reeeeeaaaal fast. The process takes way too long for what I have time for these days so I'm trying to figure out a different approach which is based more on the original style of value fills with pixelated line work and adding color with some edge highlights. I'm also going to test out a stepped lighting shader and maybe use an outline shader on select parts of the mesh.
Still need to do some minor detailing and bake down the chainmail and clean it up but here's a WIP of what I'm thinking.
Here's a paintover I did for the footsoldier enemy (probably going to make changes to the design since it's now even more similar to the player character)
Got the new model in engine and ended up stripping the color out again, lol. Can't seem to break away from the original grayscale aesthetic but I'll probably do some more color experimentation.
I need to figure out how I'm going to handle character shadows soon, too. Since I intend to have a lot of enemies on screen I'm sort of leaning at the old-school "blob shadow" approach with just a plane and a black circle with soft edges. Could write a little bit of logic to have it still draw on the ground when jumping but otherwise keep it super simple.
I haven't been able to find a solution for dynamic shadows that doesn't completely destroy the dark atmosphere I'm trying to create so I've been experimenting with non-projector-based blob shadows. Since I want to have a lot of enemies on screen at once I thought this might be the better route to go.
I'd like to expand on this a little more with maybe scaling the shadow the higher the character is off the surface and maybe adjust the opacity as well but for now it's just some super simple logic.
Finally got around to making some updates to the base skeleton. I reduced the polycount by about 4k in just the fingers and toes and increased the head size a bit. Also playing around with getting the textures to read better in engine.
bout shadows hmm would be good to see some more of the character movements and such in them, right arm left arm strikes ect. Otherwise cool updates. If it is not do-able its not do-able, its cool just something i thought on first glance.
@iam717 thanks for the feedback! Honestly, I just don't know enough about lighting in Unity, lol. I'd like to get better shadows in the future but for now I'm just cutting some corners and going with a bit more of that PS1 method.
Excited to get back to this project and going to explore the hand-painted look again. Started cleaning up the textures on the base skeleton, keeping the values pretty clamped for this pass.
Thank you @Lord McMutton, I did have a lot of fun with the monochromatic look quite a bit; It allowed me to spend more time focusing on learning other disciplines without being so concerned with polished artwork.
Got my repaint for the skeleton enemy in a spot I'm happy with. Going to get some of the minor mesh adjustments updated on the rig and check him out in engine. Next I'll get to painting up the armor for the foot soldier variant.
Hands become a bit difficult to read when the fingers overlap. Maybe adding some AO and/or value gradients will help to contrast them in front of each other? On the other hand it's probably also depending on lighting (and movement during gameplay).
Hey, @Fabi_G thanks for the feedback! I definitely agree with the readability on parts like the fingers. I've been playing around with some more gradients and stuff so hopefully I can come up with a decent solution.
I've started polishing up some of the environment textures and discovered a pretty awesome tool in Affinity Photo called the "Pattern Layers" which allows you to visually see how your textures are tiling and paint on them without having to offset the texture and paint out the seam. Does PS have something like this that I'm just not aware of?
*PS does, it's called pattern preview under the VIew tab*
And doing some tests to see how the texture handles different color lights.
Some more environment WIP stuff. Still just geting some color applied to all the grayscale textures I've already done and trying to balance the values/hues with some light tests. I'm not sure I'm feeling the warm tones for all the stone so I think I'll play around with making it cooler once I finish this pass on the remaining textures.
Played around some more with the textures anf shifted them more towards a neutral/cool gray tone which seems to work better with what I'm thinking about for lighting. Going to have to do lots more tweaking once I get everything back into Unity.
I also started painting some bone sprites that I could use to create a tiling bone textures and started experimenting a little. I'll be doing some vertex color blending but I just tossed the texture on a surface so I could balance the colors a little better with the scene.
Snippet of the texture before color adjustments.
Still have a few more sprites to toss in there to get some more variation, too.
Played around a little bit with some vertex color texture blending with the bones, floor, and dirt. Also experimenting with some different lighting.
Still just testing things out in blender at the moment.
Thanks @teodar23, Darksiders is a big inspiration!
As far as the environment goes, I'm approaching it using techniques I'm learning from analyzing World of Warcraft environments, and, to an extent, Darksiders minus the use of normal maps. My goal right now is to try and build enough assets to make an environment look full but not take too much time since I have a very limited amount these days.
Thanks @Crazy_pixel! I've been having a lot of fun with it.
Been working on various rusty metal assets to help add some character to the scene. Need to do a pass on the cage and chains to help unify them with everything but figured I'd post a WIP since it feels like its been a bit.
I've been kit bashing together a new playable area that I'll be getting into Unity to test soon. Looking forward to set dressing and polishing this scene up.
Working on the collision volumes and I need to setup the lightmaps.
Thanks @Taunt, I'm glad you're liking it! I'm having a lot of fun working on it.
I've been doing some more set dressing in blender, really trying to fill up the space and make it feel like this place is just overflowing with bones. Still a WIP.
Finally starting to get back into the swing of things and getting back to some personal work. I reworked the test area a little bit to facilitate some gameplay better and to speed up expanding the level with the tileset.
Utilizing some super simple vertex color texture blending in Blender.
After struggling for a few days to resolve a light bake artifact I finally got something decent in Unity. I also experimented with more of a warm, putrid kind of tone to the lighting but I'm sure it'll get tweaked once I get some enemies in there and get a feel for how they stand against the environment. But for now, here's an update in engine.
Got pretty busy and fell away from this project for a while in the middle of reworking the textures for the player character. Trying to get back to it by doing some more concepting for the project. Here's a potential boss character WIP.
Finished this pass a few days ago and forgot to upload it. Shape cleanup and subtle form definitions. I've been working on a detail pass the last few days that I'm hoping to share soon and then I'm looking forward to modeling this guy. Might try something a little different but we'll see.
Replies
cool stuff dude!
Thanks @killnpc I'm really looking forward to reworking the enemies because who doesn't like to make skeletons!
Such a cool style !! Love the snappy animations
Thanks @MarchandVenter I'm having a lot of fun with it!
Just some rough line work and AO bake to map everything out. Might add a little more geo to the shoulders and thigh plates to sell the overlapping metal better.
I'm using the BPainter addon which is a pretty decent alternative to 3Dcoat especially since you don't have to leave blender. Just takes some getting used to the setup.
Got a general lighting/form pass done with some planar definition and color blocked in.
So that plan changed reeeeeaaaal fast. The process takes way too long for what I have time for these days so I'm trying to figure out a different approach which is based more on the original style of value fills with pixelated line work and adding color with some edge highlights. I'm also going to test out a stepped lighting shader and maybe use an outline shader on select parts of the mesh.
Still need to do some minor detailing and bake down the chainmail and clean it up but here's a WIP of what I'm thinking.
Here's a paintover I did for the footsoldier enemy (probably going to make changes to the design since it's now even more similar to the player character)
Trying out some toon lighting in blender
Painting weights getting the new model onto the Knight rig. I also picked up the Lazy Weight Tool addon for blender so trying that out.
Got the new model in engine and ended up stripping the color out again, lol. Can't seem to break away from the original grayscale aesthetic but I'll probably do some more color experimentation.
I need to figure out how I'm going to handle character shadows soon, too. Since I intend to have a lot of enemies on screen I'm sort of leaning at the old-school "blob shadow" approach with just a plane and a black circle with soft edges. Could write a little bit of logic to have it still draw on the ground when jumping but otherwise keep it super simple.
I haven't been able to find a solution for dynamic shadows that doesn't completely destroy the dark atmosphere I'm trying to create so I've been experimenting with non-projector-based blob shadows. Since I want to have a lot of enemies on screen at once I thought this might be the better route to go.
I'd like to expand on this a little more with maybe scaling the shadow the higher the character is off the surface and maybe adjust the opacity as well but for now it's just some super simple logic.
Finally got around to making some updates to the base skeleton. I reduced the polycount by about 4k in just the fingers and toes and increased the head size a bit. Also playing around with getting the textures to read better in engine.
bout shadows hmm would be good to see some more of the character movements and such in them, right arm left arm strikes ect. Otherwise cool updates. If it is not do-able its not do-able, its cool just something i thought on first glance.
@iam717 thanks for the feedback! Honestly, I just don't know enough about lighting in Unity, lol. I'd like to get better shadows in the future but for now I'm just cutting some corners and going with a bit more of that PS1 method.
Put together a quick gameplay video using the new player model. Can't wait to get back to this project.
Did a paintover of one of my sketches for a flying skull enemy idea recently. Might have to model it once I get back to this project.
The sketch
I love watching this progress!
Well done, keep up the great work!
Excited to get back to this project and going to explore the hand-painted look again. Started cleaning up the textures on the base skeleton, keeping the values pretty clamped for this pass.
I do love the grayscale aesthetic- it's very striking!
It benefits quite a bit from the enemies being skeletons, what with their bright bones contrasting with the mid-gray environments.
Also echoing the love for the proportions.
Keep at it!
Thank you @Lord McMutton, I did have a lot of fun with the monochromatic look quite a bit; It allowed me to spend more time focusing on learning other disciplines without being so concerned with polished artwork.
Got my repaint for the skeleton enemy in a spot I'm happy with. Going to get some of the minor mesh adjustments updated on the rig and check him out in engine. Next I'll get to painting up the armor for the foot soldier variant.
Some higher resolution images.
Very cool 🤩
Hands become a bit difficult to read when the fingers overlap. Maybe adding some AO and/or value gradients will help to contrast them in front of each other? On the other hand it's probably also depending on lighting (and movement during gameplay).
Hey, @Fabi_G thanks for the feedback! I definitely agree with the readability on parts like the fingers. I've been playing around with some more gradients and stuff so hopefully I can come up with a decent solution.
Alright, calling the textures on this guy done for now.
I got some great feedback from my buddies Roddie Reed and Patrick Morrison on the texturing.
Also on my artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xD3oB2
Updated the textures in the rig file as well
And a little Idle gif for fun.
Looking forward to getting everything updated in Unity and I think I'm going to play around with a subtle cube map on the metals.
Great Job, Bolovorix.
The material groupings read very well. The proportions and details are interesting.
Thanks @killnpc, I appreciate it.
This is awesome ! the new textures are great man, keep it up!
Hey @quockhanhlk thanks, I'm glad you're liking them! It's been a ton of fun and I'm looking forward to giving everything a similar treatment.
i love the colors in this!! the purple and brown fit so well and the metal gives such a good balance. really love how you textured it!
Thank you very much @rioosart!
I've started polishing up some of the environment textures and discovered a pretty awesome tool in Affinity Photo called the "Pattern Layers" which allows you to visually see how your textures are tiling and paint on them without having to offset the texture and paint out the seam. Does PS have something like this that I'm just not aware of?
*PS does, it's called pattern preview under the VIew tab*
And doing some tests to see how the texture handles different color lights.
Some more environment WIP stuff. Still just geting some color applied to all the grayscale textures I've already done and trying to balance the values/hues with some light tests. I'm not sure I'm feeling the warm tones for all the stone so I think I'll play around with making it cooler once I finish this pass on the remaining textures.
Skelly for scale
Played around some more with the textures anf shifted them more towards a neutral/cool gray tone which seems to work better with what I'm thinking about for lighting. Going to have to do lots more tweaking once I get everything back into Unity.
I also started painting some bone sprites that I could use to create a tiling bone textures and started experimenting a little. I'll be doing some vertex color blending but I just tossed the texture on a surface so I could balance the colors a little better with the scene.
Snippet of the texture before color adjustments.
Still have a few more sprites to toss in there to get some more variation, too.
Played around a little bit with some vertex color texture blending with the bones, floor, and dirt. Also experimenting with some different lighting.
Still just testing things out in blender at the moment.
Style is great, reminds of Darksiders.
But why is the env so low poly. Even if you target budget mobiles its still too low poly.
As far as the environment goes, I'm approaching it using techniques I'm learning from analyzing World of Warcraft environments, and, to an extent, Darksiders minus the use of normal maps. My goal right now is to try and build enough assets to make an environment look full but not take too much time since I have a very limited amount these days.
Been working on various rusty metal assets to help add some character to the scene. Need to do a pass on the cage and chains to help unify them with everything but figured I'd post a WIP since it feels like its been a bit.
I've been kit bashing together a new playable area that I'll be getting into Unity to test soon. Looking forward to set dressing and polishing this scene up.
Working on the collision volumes and I need to setup the lightmaps.
Dude...it's just amazing. This project looks really good
I've been doing some more set dressing in blender, really trying to fill up the space and make it feel like this place is just overflowing with bones. Still a WIP.
Here's a more recent WIP.
Utilizing some super simple vertex color texture blending in Blender.
But for now, here's an update in engine.
Here's a potential boss character WIP.
Shape cleanup and subtle form definitions. I've been working on a detail pass the last few days that I'm hoping to share soon and then I'm looking forward to modeling this guy. Might try something a little different but we'll see.
Any plans to package an indie game release out of this?