Might be some junk data in the mesh? Try creating a box, collapsing to Editable Poly, attaching your mesh, deleting the box element. Might also be the Subiv Surface within Editable Poly. Try using a TurboSmooth modifier instead?
Great article. Unusually good for Gamasutra. There is definitely a lot to learn from Architecture, but like other disciplines which have crossed over into games it's important to remember that the game comes first. All elements must serve game play.
That element has 1 uv shell, so 1 smoothing group too. In the edit normals, select all normals, press break, and then press unify. Yes its a really lowpoly geo but you shouldnt have a this ugly smoothing...
Evolving sets seem awesome, but that's a bummer that you had to use the same textures (considering how small the dota texture sheets are to begin with... not much room to play around there) Huge congrats on being part of such a special and new element for the game.
Slowly creeeping along with this one, just getting all the elements in with a first pass before I go back and really start the details and making sure everything fits together As usual follow on Twitch for the process! https://www.twitch.tv/heath_alex
I think the whole stuff is spinning to much and too much synchronized. We don't wan't to see that it's a mapped mesh. If you want to simulate fire you should deform the path of the flames, spin elements at different speeds and so on.
It's not exactly the same, but you can create those objects, use autogrid for creation, and define it as a creation surface in the graphite ribbon's freeform tab, just move elements using local coordinate space. It's not exactly what you want, but it's close..
I haven't played D3 so I'm just guessing here, but with some smart ideas you can get lots of variations by just altering certain texture-elements, adding different colored glows for magical properties, etc.
Awesome plans! I think I'll be different and spend this week planning. In the last challenge, the things that I had the most problems with/consumed the most time were elements I didn't account for initially. Here's hoping for a better turnaround!
This is sweet. Anarchy in game franchises, if you're gonna ressurect a game then you're more than allowed to fuck it up. Doesn't mean making it worse just changing the conventions of what we are used to. It's like a new ip but with familiar elements.