Ohh new fire thats handy! Managed to take off the a bit of the shine above, looks a little bit better now, still have no idea what I did
turns out it was a problem with the spec map
Does that match up enough with his other pieces so it doesn't stick out?
You really need to work on your spec map (mask2_R). If you look at any of the other default texture masks for Clinkz, the areas on his armor where the materials are made of cloth are almost black (about 5-12%) and have subtle gradients into some lighter gray tones. The portions that are golden are the opposite of this; they're practically 100% white.
Try something like that and you should get some nice contrast on your item, without it looking like it's made of plastic.
It's still really glossy and the colors are muted because of it. I would drop the spec down as low as possible but still allow some specularity when the highlights are at their brightest.
Dropped some values significantly and this is the result
looks more like the other bits now, gotta fix those horns though
You really need to work on your spec map (mask2_R). If you look at any of the other default texture masks for Clinkz, the areas on his armor where the materials are made of cloth are almost black (about 5-12%) and have subtle gradients into some lighter gray tones. The portions that are golden are the opposite of this; they're practically 100% white.
Try something like that and you should get some nice contrast on your item, without it looking like it's made of plastic.
took your advice and redid the whole thing
could there be an issue with my textures making it look glossy?
Does this still look out of place? I can't tell, been working on it too much, I need a break...
(texture is WIP trying various things out)
If your mesh has little in the way of defined countours (aka it's a relatively smooth, organic shape), then the angles of incidence may be causing the rimlighting to wash out your details. Spent some time on the mask2's Alpha (scale exponent) and Green (rimlight) channels to bring out the contrast more.
@bn20 Well it seems I'm not the only one having specular problems. I can only seem to get the right colorations in the night lighting.
Also, I get the impression that my coloring is really plain and boring, but most of my other attempts to make it "busy" have come out all wrong. Anyone have any ideas as to how to make it less "meh" without going insanely over-detailed?
I need some feedback on my Workshop frame.. I think this may be too dramatic in lighting and too simple in frame? Items that are presented on the character always look more convincing to me. Low res render until I finalize it. Feedback needed, I want to submit this thing tonight.
@Rik I think the background is too busy and contrasty right now. I also think simple borders are best. You want the border to make your item stand out on the page, but not draw attention away from the item itself.
Finally had some time to continue some work, made the lowpoly & slightly worked on the lowpoly's textures, any further suggestions?
I'm not good with straps http://p3d.in/S2Wha
The Cape stands as the only heirloom recovered from the home once destroyed by that vicious gale years ago. Providing warmth, protection, and peace of mind, Lyraleis Cape of Currents serves a constant reminder that the wind will always have her back
The Cape stands as the only heirloom recovered from the home once destroyed by that vicious gale years ago. Providing warmth, protection, and peace of mind, Lyraleis Cape of Currents serves a constant reminder that the wind will always have her back
thats a good example for everyone here, dont rush on posting and spend some time on the beauty shot, that really matters...
You make a great point Tvidotto, i recently released a few items, rushed the beauty shots and it really had a big impact on the reception of the items. I updated them, but once they have been pushed down on the weekly popular list and fallen off the front page of new items its pretty hard to recover.
Okay here's my real Doom sword haha, I uploaded a version last night but instantly didn't like it and once I saw it with the flame particles I knew I could do better so here it is!
Okay here's my real Doom sword haha, I uploaded a version last night but instantly didn't like it and once I saw it with the flame particles I knew I could do better so here it is!
Kind of a success, i managed to get a custom particle in the viewer by using the old style with extraction to dota test main folder, made a new particle using pugnas default particle system, added some arcs and twisting axis, the screenshot does not show that clearly but it works. Now i just need to be able to get the controlpoint to stick to the small stone instead of pugnas default controlpoint.
Nice call on updating that sword Bronto, and love the gradients going on in your textures.
Also i see you mention quads instead of tri in your requirements above? i hit a nice red error message if i dont work with a tricount on these.
@paskie - would love to see a write up when you have the entire process down. Im yet to fiddle with the particles in dota but wouldnt mind giving them a go with the help of a starter guide.
Also i see you mention quads instead of tri in your requirements above? i hit a nice red error message if i dont work with a tricount on these.
Whoa, really?
I just assumed at first that polycounts given were in triangles but as I started making more stuff I stumbled into the fact that I was able to use x amount of quads so I just assumed that's what they mean by polygons.
My sword is 492 triangles and both the LoD1 limit and LoD0 limit is 350.
I just assumed at first that polycounts given were in triangles but as I started making more stuff I stumbled into the fact that I was able to use x amount of quads so I just assumed that's what they mean by polygons.
My sword is 492 triangles and both the LoD1 limit and LoD0 limit is 350.
Yeah although im finding not all of the limits are consistent (differs on the website, source and editor)
I need some feedback on my Workshop frame.. I think this may be too dramatic in lighting and too simple in frame? Items that are presented on the character always look more convincing to me. Low res render until I finalize it. Feedback needed, I want to submit this thing tonight.
if i may suggest, take the border off and make your bockground not so pixelated, you can get the image again or give it a blur
the image is really nice, well done =]
you could create a light at the left up corner of the image a little on the back of the char to create a rimlight and stand the character from the background, can be a directionnal light without shadows
@bn20 Well it seems I'm not the only one having specular problems. I can only seem to get the right colorations in the night lighting.
Also, I get the impression that my coloring is really plain and boring, but most of my other attempts to make it "busy" have come out all wrong. Anyone have any ideas as to how to make it less "meh" without going insanely over-detailed?
you can study the original one and get some details from there
also some passes on multiply/screen over would help like
-occlusion
-gradient (same as the valves texture guide)
-lightbake
Lol, I had a whole block of text typed up to talk about modifying your item budgets, but Paskie beat me to it ages ago. So here's his post to refresh your memories...
Check the npc_hero.txt and put in the right polybudget and texturelimitations from the dota2 technical requirements.
You'll find that file under dota/scripts/npc.
Just go into that file, ctrl+f doombringer (or whomever), and change the values as you need.
@bn20 - I still think your purple is off, it's far too light, and you need some shading. Either strengthen your AO map by adding a second copy on top of the original and adjust opacity, or bake out a point light map to get some stronger shading.
Hehe, it's really hard to get the particles in place as you see Can't seem to find the right alignment. Thats four different particles and not one is even close. I'll be back....
I'm sure it's been asked before, but how do we compile to get jiggle bones to work properly? I've got something that needs to move like clothe but it won't compile in the in game compiler. Thanks in advance!
So,wind's cloak is one-sided in 3dmax?
How do we go around it?
Extrude to get faces on both sides?
Wind's original cape is 1 sided, and 350 / 250. However, Valve has said that they don't want us using 2 sided materials and so if we want surface to show up, we need to add polys there.
I modeled the outside of my cape and then put a Shell modifier on it, then deleted whatever polys I didn't need.
I finally was able to get my item accepted into the dota model viewer, but now after binding my weapon to the joint, the object is floating in the air away from the hero. I have tried moving the pivot point to match the joint and attempted to scale the model up, but to no avail. I am using maya 2012 just a heads up. Thanks in advance.
@Ex4000 - looking good. Its hard to tell now but your color values are looking bright, once you start testing your _mask files you might find it blows out your specular.
I just assumed at first that polycounts given were in triangles but as I started making more stuff I stumbled into the fact that I was able to use x amount of quads so I just assumed that's what they mean by polygons.
My sword is 492 triangles and both the LoD1 limit and LoD0 limit is 350.
I'm actually pretty certain it's 350 triangles not quads... even though the importer accepts up to 350 quads everything on the technical requirements page says triangles. Such as 3,000-4,000 triangle limit for lod1 for an entire character: http://www.dota2.com/workshop/requirements . Considering heroes like templar assassin have a 1250 limit for 1 piece of equipment... if that was a 1250 quad limit that would be 2500 triangles right there.
If anyone can confirm it's actually a quad limit I would be ecstatic, I've been killing myself playing it safe by making sure my models have fewer tris than the max polys.
Does anyone have an accepted item that went close to the limit using quads not tris?
I finally was able to get my item accepted into the dota model viewer, but now after binding my weapon to the joint, the object is floating in the air away from the hero. I have tried moving the pivot point to match the joint and attempted to scale the model up, but to no avail. I am using maya 2012 just a heads up. Thanks in advance.
Im not sure if its works for maya but
Reset the xform.
Snap the pivot to the origin.
Make sure you have only the bones you need skinned to the item.
@Ex4000 - looking good. Its hard to tell now but your color values are looking bright, once you start testing your _mask files you might find it blows out your specular.
Im going to work on the normal and specular today and ifs its to much I can always tone the colour down.
I'm actually pretty certain it's 350 triangles not quads... even though the importer accepts up to 350 quads everything on the technical requirements page says triangles. Such as 3,000-4,000 triangle limit for lod1 for an entire character: http://www.dota2.com/workshop/requirements . Considering heroes like templar assassin have a 1250 limit for 1 piece of equipment... if that was a 1250 quad limit that would be 2500 triangles right there.
If anyone can confirm it's actually a quad limit I would be ecstatic, I've been killing myself playing it safe by making sure my models have fewer tris than the max polys.
Does anyone have an accepted item that went close to the limit using quads not tris?
My Bounty Hunter mask got accepted into the game and it's 340 quads with a limit of 350 polygons.
In fact out of my whole Bounty Hunter set which was accepted into the game every piece gets close to the given limit while going way over with triangles. If it goes a single quad over (and I've tried) it won't work inside the importer, I'll get the error saying the polycount is too high.
Unless I've done something magical with the importer it seems to be quads; I've done it with my items for Doombringer, Pudge, Naga and Bounty Hunter and they all work fine.
Yeah that is a little confusing Bronto, cheers for discussing it though was worth going over .
And i like where that bugs going, i was toying with the idea of doing a collection of insect additions, but ended up with a huskar dagger in the works, somehow lol.
I finally was able to get my item accepted into the dota model viewer, but now after binding my weapon to the joint, the object is floating in the air away from the hero. I have tried moving the pivot point to match the joint and attempted to scale the model up, but to no avail. I am using maya 2012 just a heads up. Thanks in advance.
Same issue here. Which skeleton are you using for reference, the decompiled one from the game or the one from the website? Also, Z up or Y up?
The in-game compiler not only counts it's polygons as triangles, but it also uses the LOD1 budget, not LOD0. Point in case, the in-game compiler needs some refinement to get the proper budgets and have it match up with what's written on the workshop's website.
Just edit your script if you need a higher budget, or even if you just want to take beauty shots with high-res textures.
Replies
You really need to work on your spec map (mask2_R). If you look at any of the other default texture masks for Clinkz, the areas on his armor where the materials are made of cloth are almost black (about 5-12%) and have subtle gradients into some lighter gray tones. The portions that are golden are the opposite of this; they're practically 100% white.
Try something like that and you should get some nice contrast on your item, without it looking like it's made of plastic.
Dropped some values significantly and this is the result
looks more like the other bits now, gotta fix those horns though
took your advice and redid the whole thing
could there be an issue with my textures making it look glossy?
Does this still look out of place? I can't tell, been working on it too much, I need a break...
(texture is WIP trying various things out)
This basic breakdown may help (pay attention to Valve's assets) - starts a 2:40:
It also helps to keep in mind that the test-preview lighting is really harsh at times.
Also, I get the impression that my coloring is really plain and boring, but most of my other attempts to make it "busy" have come out all wrong. Anyone have any ideas as to how to make it less "meh" without going insanely over-detailed?
I need some feedback on my Workshop frame.. I think this may be too dramatic in lighting and too simple in frame? Items that are presented on the character always look more convincing to me. Low res render until I finalize it. Feedback needed, I want to submit this thing tonight.
Teamed up with Marshak, a concept guy, for this one. You can see his concept here.
The poly budget and facial blends made it so that the belts on the face weren't viable but the hair on its own is still cool enough. Dem side burns.
Done with Pudge for now. Moving on to Queen of Pain stuff soon.
I'm not good with straps
http://p3d.in/S2Wha
The Maniacal Miner set is now up on the steam workshop!
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=98095591
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=98101044
First item shipping out! Feel free to Upvote if you like it.
Upvoted
You make a great point Tvidotto, i recently released a few items, rushed the beauty shots and it really had a big impact on the reception of the items. I updated them, but once they have been pushed down on the weekly popular list and fallen off the front page of new items its pretty hard to recover.
@Rik - nice work!
@Hawt Koffee - quick turn around on that release, i like that you gave him a pipe
@frump - i like it better without the straps, and would totally get him this hair.
Okay here's my real Doom sword haha, I uploaded a version last night but instantly didn't like it and once I saw it with the flame particles I knew I could do better so here it is!
For reference, here is my last version:
New version does look better. How many polygons?
I had to make it all one mesh, breaking up those teeth just added way too much to the polycount.
Also i see you mention quads instead of tri in your requirements above? i hit a nice red error message if i dont work with a tricount on these.
@paskie - would love to see a write up when you have the entire process down. Im yet to fiddle with the particles in dota but wouldnt mind giving them a go with the help of a starter guide.
Finally got this to my liking. Click-able
Big thanks to everyone who helped me out
Whoa, really?
I just assumed at first that polycounts given were in triangles but as I started making more stuff I stumbled into the fact that I was able to use x amount of quads so I just assumed that's what they mean by polygons.
My sword is 492 triangles and both the LoD1 limit and LoD0 limit is 350.
Yeah although im finding not all of the limits are consistent (differs on the website, source and editor)
Scuse the hasty nasty example
How do we go around it?
Extrude to get faces on both sides?
good news is that you can improve a lot your texture
your masks are just grey, in a rgb enviroment it means that you are using all the maps for each stroke
you should work on each map separatedly, because they work a lot different
here are my masks for the last courier
hope that helps
if i may suggest, take the border off and make your bockground not so pixelated, you can get the image again or give it a blur
the image is really nice, well done =]
you could create a light at the left up corner of the image a little on the back of the char to create a rimlight and stand the character from the background, can be a directionnal light without shadows
you can study the original one and get some details from there
also some passes on multiply/screen over would help like
-occlusion
-gradient (same as the valves texture guide)
-lightbake
a quick and dirty fix for that is just copy the mesh and invert the normals
now you have a twosided cape =]
Just go into that file, ctrl+f doombringer (or whomever), and change the values as you need.
@bn20 - I still think your purple is off, it's far too light, and you need some shading. Either strengthen your AO map by adding a second copy on top of the original and adjust opacity, or bake out a point light map to get some stronger shading.
im doing something different this time, im scaling down the resolution on the bottom parts of the model
here is an image of the two models overlaping
Looking awesome man!
New javelin for huskar, thoughts?
Wind's original cape is 1 sided, and 350 / 250. However, Valve has said that they don't want us using 2 sided materials and so if we want surface to show up, we need to add polys there.
I modeled the outside of my cape and then put a Shell modifier on it, then deleted whatever polys I didn't need.
I finally was able to get my item accepted into the dota model viewer, but now after binding my weapon to the joint, the object is floating in the air away from the hero. I have tried moving the pivot point to match the joint and attempted to scale the model up, but to no avail. I am using maya 2012 just a heads up. Thanks in advance.
@Ex4000 - looking good. Its hard to tell now but your color values are looking bright, once you start testing your _mask files you might find it blows out your specular.
I'm actually pretty certain it's 350 triangles not quads... even though the importer accepts up to 350 quads everything on the technical requirements page says triangles. Such as 3,000-4,000 triangle limit for lod1 for an entire character: http://www.dota2.com/workshop/requirements . Considering heroes like templar assassin have a 1250 limit for 1 piece of equipment... if that was a 1250 quad limit that would be 2500 triangles right there.
If anyone can confirm it's actually a quad limit I would be ecstatic, I've been killing myself playing it safe by making sure my models have fewer tris than the max polys.
Does anyone have an accepted item that went close to the limit using quads not tris?
Im not sure if its works for maya but
Reset the xform.
Snap the pivot to the origin.
Make sure you have only the bones you need skinned to the item.
Im going to work on the normal and specular today and ifs its to much I can always tone the colour down.
In fact out of my whole Bounty Hunter set which was accepted into the game every piece gets close to the given limit while going way over with triangles. If it goes a single quad over (and I've tried) it won't work inside the importer, I'll get the error saying the polycount is too high.
Unless I've done something magical with the importer it seems to be quads; I've done it with my items for Doombringer, Pudge, Naga and Bounty Hunter and they all work fine.
Anyway, here's what I'm working on now;
Yeah that is a little confusing Bronto, cheers for discussing it though was worth going over
And i like where that bugs going, i was toying with the idea of doing a collection of insect additions, but ended up with a huskar dagger in the works, somehow lol.
Same issue here. Which skeleton are you using for reference, the decompiled one from the game or the one from the website? Also, Z up or Y up?
Just edit your script if you need a higher budget, or even if you just want to take beauty shots with high-res textures.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=98532436&searchtext=