I'm seeing no difference between that fairly long and complex procedure and just taking the blue channel, inverting it and auto levels. You're basically acting as if there's lights on the X+, X-, Y+ and Y- axes and adding them up.
mhh if you have the oringinal model in maya, just use actorX to export it as a classical static mesh, using the axmesh (which opens the staticmesh exporter) command instead of axmain (which opens the main aX window)
Nice job. I like it. Although, wouldn't it have been easier to orientate the major pieces of the ship-uvs to the texture-axes, so the hull-paint could have been easily done with a simple flipX/flipY?
Thanks for criticism. It seems all of the complains, even the ones from my friends are because this hook looks more like an axe. I will try to fix it. Again thanks ^^
Fantastic work vimkerk! I'm curious as to how you made the linen wrap around the ax handle. It looks really fantastic and it's something that's always been a bother for me.
Really enjoyed the demo on the 360. Controls felt tight and the mechanics seem nicely balanced between shooting and melee. The power axe is a great weapon to carve greenskins with :D
This is something I did last week - It took me just under two days. Breakdowns and more details here: http://www.artstation.com/artwork/modern-axe-for-the-forest