Finished!
Theme is practical espionage gear. The kind of thing a real spy might have on him. A concealed, small form factor pistol, a passport, and a gentlemanly watch.



Here's some other eye candy. A knife replacement I made for the Spy before this contest existed. It's not eligible, but posts without images are boring!


Double Agent animations by Sparkwire!

You Tube

Yesssss...

Your items in the TF2 Contribute thread have been sweet. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

yep premium quality :]

Originally Posted by Swizzle

Yesssss...

Your items in the TF2 Contribute thread have been sweet. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Ha, I had the exact same reaction to your thread! Love the hats and stuff that you've made.

Noors: Thanks man. Glad to hear good things from people who got into the game.


Okay, I was not going to reveal my ideas in case of idea theft, but I realize that's not really the point, you still need the execution! Tell me which ideas you like best. Should I go with Spy or Pyro? WAR!

Here's some ideas I don't have concepts of or scanned concepts of:
Briefcase Sapper - Sits on the ground beside the sentry, "incognito". Doesn't alert the engie, but is very visually obvious. Slower Sap speed to account for being harder to notice. Better for situations where the engy is away from his gun.

Double barreled Flamethrower - Wider spray, less damage, shorter burn (liquor fueled, killing a demoman replenishes more ammo than other classes)

Pyro Sunglasses - Fires can get pretty bright, shield your eyes with these styling shades.

Flare Gun with a magazine - Semi-auto, shorter burn, less damage. Gotta jazz the design on this one up. Not much of a concept for it down there. :p

Potato Gun Molotov Launcher - Flare Gun/Shotgun replacement. Slower Reload, shorter range, more damage/ longer burn. Not only fire, but glass shards hit the enemy scoundrel! PVC tube with attached air compressor.

Passport - Replacement for the Disguise Kit. Every good spy needs at least 9 aliases and 9 passports to go with them. Ideally could display image of class and random player name on the page. This is an old model and if I choose to do it I will start from scratch. Stamped at all different terminals, Dustbowl, Gravelpit, Goldrush, etc. I think I saw that on a TF2 themed post card.

Have to vote for spy, that "passport" equip has a lot of potential.

Please read this thread.

Originally Posted by adam

Please read this thread.

It's all in good fun.

As a huge fan of the game I find it hard not to think about how the items will affect my player experience when included in the game. It's just something interesting, not going to affect my actual design decisions. Gameplay thoughts are just secondary; something for people to read about. When you create something it's hard not to think it through.

So far, I've come up with all of the little gameplay tidbits after solidifying the weapon concept in my head.

Why so much bones? Is it bendable?

Originally Posted by Fragus

Why so much bones? Is it bendable?

I modeled it flat, so I added a bone for each edge loop to have total control over the shape. If I were to make that again I would do it differently. I think I tried with fewer bones and couldn't get what I wanted. The second chain is for the pages to have their own bones so they can bounce around.

First off, I aplogize for once again lacking images. I'll try to rectify this tomorrow.

The overall theme or style will be elegant shiny weapons. Ambassador style, like the knife I made previously. A mix of wood, polished metal and engraving. Sleek and Curvy where applicable.

Didn't get much done today in the way of actual modeling. I did though, make a choice on which class to do. I'm sticking with the Spy since I still love the passport idea.

Informer's Icepick: Knife replacement. S resourceful spy uses whatever is in his environment to get the job done.

Provocateur's Pocketwatch: Invisiwatch replacement. Probably based on a real watch. Making use of a normal map for fancy engraving. Inlaid wood stuff.

Double Agent: Revolver replacement. No spy leaves home without a concealed backup pistol in the case that he loses his main. Probably based on a Walther PPK but custom fit to the style of TF2 and my theme. Maybe silenced?

Burn Notice: Revolver Replacement. Based on the m1911 handgun but tailored to suit the style of the game and my theme. Same idea as the Double Agent, just a different design.

Counter Intelligence Credentials: I have an image for this one! The aforementioned passport disguise kit. The model is basically done, I just have to figure out how the rig will work and UV it. Planning to have the official french passport seal on the cover. Will do a paintover showing the page layout that will become the texture.

Looking forward to seeing your work for this! I remember watching your knife progress and it turned out really well. If you can get that same level of quality in all of your items it'll be some tough competition.

Zipfinator: Thanks mang. I'm hoping I can achieve the same level of quality as before. Shouldn't be hard as I still remember how and what I did.

Here's tonight's progress. Made a sort of concept template for the watch and then I modeled it. Still have to work on the concept to finalize colours, materials, interface and the design on the front.

I am lucky I have a pocket watch. It made it a lot easier to model; I just took a couple pictures and was on may way. I didn't have to spend hours finding good refs.

Tell me what you think!

Impressive designs!

Buck: Thanks! Hope they are good enough to be included.

Okay, I suck at posting in my own thread. I need to add some interest in here. I'll keep posting more frequently as I make progress.

I'm doing things in a bit of a strange order, getting all of the base models out. Soon I will probably be switching to finishing one at a time and further refining the designs. I just want to have a good jumping off point first.

Here's some progress I made last night. I got a start on the pistol. I'm basing it on the Derringer style of concealed pistols. I will be making it top loading instead of the way most of these guns are.

Downloaded a program to make screenshotting progress a hell of a lot easier. Cuts running photoshop to crop and save out of the equation. I should have gotten something like this a long time ago...

Anyway, here's an update on the where the gun's been going. Nearly done the model on this one, I think, just a few more details and tweaks. The hinge near the trigger and the black piece on top are the modifications to the gun's design which make it top load and combat effective. Not final colours or anything, just there for preview and to help differentiate shapes while modeling.

The watch looks way too much like the deadringer : \

Originally Posted by Ikimono

The watch looks way too much like the deadringer : \

In that it's a pocket watch and it's round, yes.

Side by side there are a lot of differences but it should be apparent without that. I just got a base model down. I'm going to expand on the design and make it more interesting and unique, hopefully. If not I can always drop it and come up with something else. I want to make a hat...

I believe a derringer has been made and submitted already, but this one is better in my honest opinion.

Originally Posted by Frump

In that it's a pocket watch and it's round, yes.

Side by side there are a lot of differences but it should be apparent without that. I just got a base model down. I'm going to expand on the design and make it more interesting and unique, hopefully. If not I can always drop it and come up with something else. I want to make a hat...

What if you made it so the spy had like 3 watches on his arm, "The Timely-Mann's Triple Ticker"
:o ?

Originally Posted by Ikimono

What if you made it so the spy had like 3 watches on his arm, "The Timely-Mann's Triple Ticker"
:o ?

I like this idea. Maybe you have longer cloak, but with each depleted watch you are more and more visible...

Also, Frump, so far I really like the passport and gun idea, both look really nice. Especially the passport is one of the few excellent ideas out there for a disguise kit replacement.

Originally Posted by Ikimono

What if you made it so the spy had like 3 watches on his arm, "The Timely-Mann's Triple Ticker"
:o ?

I like that idea, someone should do it. However, for my purposes it doesn't fit my theme, which is practical spy equipment. A passport, concealed backup pistol and a pocket watch.

Originally Posted by Luxy

I believe a derringer has been made and submitted already, but this one is better in my honest opinion.

Yup, I never doubted one had been. Short of making a completely original gun design, I bet every common model has been done before. This gun fits into my theme perfectly and I like how it looks. It's all about the execution, gotta set mine apart.

Is there a way to view the other submitted community items? The original blog post said they were going to make a community site for it but I haven't seen one yet.

Originally Posted by Frump

I like that idea, someone should do it. However, for my purposes it doesn't fit my theme, which is practical spy equipment. A passport, concealed backup pistol and a pocket watch.

Have one that has "French time," one that has some sort of "James Bond" elements to it, and one that is the cloaking countdown meter?

Originally Posted by Frump

Is there a way to view the other submitted community items? The original blog post said they were going to make a community site for it but I haven't seen one yet.

More than likely no. I would also like to see what has been submitted so I don't accidentally waste time or something like that... : \

Looking really nice! Missed this thread the past few days since you post before I wake up and it gets buried right away. I really like the pistol and the pocket watch looks like a solid start. Keep it up! I want to see that pistol textured sometime over the next few days!

Originally Posted by Zipfinator

Looking really nice! Missed this thread the past few days since you post before I wake up and it gets buried right away. I really like the pistol and the pocket watch looks like a solid start. Keep it up! I want to see that pistol textured sometime over the next few days!

Yeah, posting at bad times is a recurring problem... I get home from work at 6pm and can't get any work done before that. Then I work until midnight or so and post it late. Late for pacific, even later for eastern time. Not much I can do insetad. Maybe post half updates or progress every few hours?