@baddcog they seem to be practical, this would be the simplest way to draw a curved blade from a sheath on your back, his hand will grab the blade, drag it out and go down in the normal position, the part that cuts pointing down.. so... this seems the only way to have them.. if other sets have the blades in a different way.. they are bad..
@Nobiru lich looks good.. sorry but I don't know if it has a story or something.. why would it be better then an other lich set.. but the sculpt looks good to me..
@ODD interesting bristle.. I like the weapon idea, however you need different proportions I think.. to make the fist visible in game.. also with the back.. they can't be all the same weapon.. and no bristles.. seems not possible.. that all the heroes in game would attack him with the same kind of sword.. I think the idea is good but needs more development.
@Nobiru lich looks good.. sorry but I don't know if it has a story or something.. why would it be better then an other lich set.. but the sculpt looks good to me..
Not really sure what you are asking but its a Lich set based on Etherain's rule over multiple kingdoms in life- so we went with the theme of fantasy regal clothing. Or did you mean you think its not interesting design?
trying to decide on the back piece. I still like the shield better, think it has better lines but decided to try a sheath style too.
The upside down blades make the sheath look wrong though imo. (looked better when I accidentally made it right side up the first time :P )
Opinions? (the new handle shapw on the sheath side will be used)
Do the sheathes cover the entire blade? From the pic it seems that only part of the sword is covered by the sheath, and it seems like its the blunt side right now. maybe throw some flat brown color on the sheath so we can get a better idea of how it will look
@pipotchi yes, sorry, I just finished reading lich's lore.. It fits, it's late to talk about design now anyway. Just that, it's hard to comment on something if the person doesn't explain why it's like that, what's the purpose, story.. etc. maybe when posting the 3d have a small picture of what it's meant to look like (the concept), the design approach, etc. Sry but I'm new here, don't know who is who or what the concept is for the scoulpt, it's pretty hard to comment on something without info on what it's meant to be.. there are already a lot of projects going on here.
@KungFu,
Yeah, all the swords are upside down on his back, unfortunately with this design I think it looks worse in the sheath. But I can't change that unless he fights with upside down swords
@Kite,
Did a quick and ugly paintover (replaced pic above). Now I'm pretty sure I like the sheaths less. The blunt side is covered because of how he stores them. I initially (not paying attention) made the sheath to cover the sharp side and it looked pretty good like that. Then when I placed on back realized I messed up so adjusted it.
The sheaths also eat up a lot more polys than a shield will and I think I'd rather put a little more detail into the swords. Some nicks, maybe a little more shape to blade.
I think the shield also makes them seem mounted up higher on his back, the sheaths make them look too low (they are both placed exactly where the originals are).
Aaalright, so in the interest of finishing on time, I am switching gears from my original courier idea and making a ward, which I hope will prove much easier to animate.
I have a concept based loosely on some of Earthshaker's art, but I also want a lot of movement in the ward.
QUESTION! In blender it is very easy to create simple animations like the GIF below that don't have mesh deformations. There is no need for bones, you just move your objects and create keyframes. I am wondering if this type of animation will import into source, or if I need to create bones and somehow use bones for the animation?
trying to decide on the back piece. I still like the shield better, think it has better lines but decided to try a sheath style too.
The upside down blades make the sheath look wrong though imo. (looked better when I accidentally made it right side up the first time :P )
Opinions? (the new handle shapw on the sheath side will be used)
I think the lines on the second version blend too much with the the swords and it will be hard to read at a distance.
Also, you may be planning to address this already but your triangle budget could be optimized for silhouette better. My wacom drivers decided not to load today so I had to use my mouse:
I've been a bit busy since the Lunar New Year is coming, so there hasn't been much progress.
I'm done with the baking. Not entirely happy with the result because there weren't enough polys for all of the details, but this will have to do for now. Also everything has LOD0 and LOD1 ready. I'm done with the texture on one of the two hairstyles. I learned some texturing techniques from watching Anuxi's stream and put it into practice, now I'm starting to enjoy doing the texture my wrist kinda hurt from all the mouse handling though.
Here's how everything looks without normal. Is there anything I can do to improve the bake/texture? Sorry for the long post
That top one is looking great, if I could make one suggestion it would be to pull the centre vertex on your flower in slightly to give more of a 3d effect.
You need to use bones for animation to work. How I would do this (I use Maya, but I'm sure there's an equivalent solution in blender) is to make a skeleton with one bone per piece. Constrain the bones to the blocks so that your existing animation moves them around and then bake that animation to the skeleton. Then remove the constraints and delete the animation from the geometry and skin them to the bones.
I did something similar to animate the treads on the Timbersaw courier I worked on recently and it worked like a charm!
Ok so this is the development for the top part of the storm, Spoke to Rocketalex and we agreed on the large collar and shoulderpads with no neck protection as the final for the neck piece. The rest needs to be discussed, as to what hair/mask we will do, if we do a mask or not.. here is the development:
Next and final phase will be finishing the Raijin armour (belt and belly area), and having everything together as the final concept. Coments and critiques are wellcome.
@reverendK maybe you would like to explain how the concept fits with dark seer's lore?
@Ewing the idea seems great, but the eye seems a bit small.. are you sure that is the right proportion? also maybe you should try some sketches in game.. see how visible the actual movements would be from the player view? I know they will be visible in portrait.. maybe try in sketch at least..
Hey everyone, I would like to join in on this! I am kinda new to creating content but I would love to collaborate. (concept, modeling, texturing) I have only 1 item up although I am aiming for more.
Hey guys, made a new concept for Mirana! Something a little more lore friendly The idea is that the Goddess Selemene bestowed Mirana with armour imbued by the power of the sacred luminous lotus (found in her lore).
I imagined that Selemene's lotus would look a little bluer, more like midnight rather than the usual pink lotus below is a small, atmospheric moodboard to establish the theme of this set.
And the concept I came up with! (although still need to do mount and etc )
Hey guys, made a new concept for Mirana! Something a little more lore friendly The idea is that the Goddess Selemene bestowed Mirana with armour imbued by the power of the sacred luminous lotus (found in her lore).
I imagined that Selemene's lotus would look a little bluer, more like midnight rather than the usual pink lotus below is a small, atmospheric moodboard to establish the theme of this set.
And the concept I came up with! (although still need to do mount and etc )
The concept looks cool, but I guess you could apply some color breakdowns, otherwise will look like a huge blue mass in game. Also petals have value and hue gradient as you can see in your references, you could use that in your favor
@ODD interesting bristle.. I like the weapon idea, however you need different proportions I think.. to make the fist visible in game.. also with the back.. they can't be all the same weapon.. and no bristles.. seems not possible.. that all the heroes in game would attack him with the same kind of sword.. I think the idea is good but needs more development.
Thanks for the comment man. I was thinking about different kind of daggers. Also all the sets created so far have bristles and look pretty similar on the back so I went with no bristles. More refined design:
maybe i should make the weapons in the back look like weapons of other heroes, but it will be harder to make it look similar to the basic bristleback.
Doing this one with my pal Prophet9, the idea behind it is that tidehunter found an sunken treasure of Kunkkas Claddish King and made use of it, props to prophet for the seal combo
@Stefco, great concept, love the seal idea and it's expression
@oDD yes, spikes, but from in game view (without zoom in), I am not sure that they will look like daggers / swords, etc. since the details will get lost.. they have to be really big to be vizible.
The concept looks cool, but I guess you could apply some color breakdowns, otherwise will look like a huge blue mass in game. Also petals have value and hue gradient as you can see in your references, you could use that in your favor
@MagnoHusein thanks mang! Sorry I'm not sure what you meant by apply colour breakdowns? Like include more colours / shades of blue so that it doesn't all look blue?
@kungfupanda WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS AWESOME GOKU HAIR??? that hair was seriously sick! so disappointed now lol.
@MagnoHusein thanks mang! Sorry I'm not sure what you meant by apply colour breakdowns? Like include more colours / shades of blue so that it doesn't all look blue?
@kungfupanda WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS AWESOME GOKU HAIR??? that hair was seriously sick! so disappointed now lol.
i think colour breakdown means you need modify colour and break it into pieces.
right now what he mean is view from far (or in game), it is 1 dark blue only.
so he meant more colour variant for the set i think.
Well, I spoke to Rocket, and he said that the hair may look bad since it's so big.. so we can't do both hair and mask and get a quality result, since the poly limit is pretty low, the only options would be hair OR mask, and still the hair would be a bit iffy.
So the mask would be the logic choice.. since it's more expressive (makes him look more jolly/happy) and is visible all the time in portrait view, as opposed to the hair that will be a bit visible from in game view, and not so impressive in portrait view..
@agito666 & @shock okay, that makes a TON of sense now. Thanks guys! Colour doesn't seem to be my forte haha.
@kungfupanda Hm, I think since you have the face twice, one on his head and one on his stomach, I think it's too much. Also, Storm already has a jolly and happy personality and face, so a mask is not necessary to emphasize that.
Although I may be biased I did really like that hair! Since he's got the power of Raijin, I thought it made sense for him to go super saiyan ;P
@cosmicsugar yes I like the super sayan hair too, but as visibility goes, the mask would be a lot more visible (you always have portrait view on, while in game you will see the hair but very small, the hair in portrait view doesn't even come close to the visual impact the mask has).
Maybe we will do like 2 styles, one with the super sayan hair and one with the mask, so player can choose, that will also increase the quality of the item I think.
Also, about your set, do value separation in black and white, make sure it reads nicely in black and white, then keep close to the values that make the petals read, and color them. This way you make it a lot simpler, you devide value and color, and solve each of them separately.
to be honest, when i play dota: the 2 things i look at is first on top of my heroes head and second the minimap . i never look at my avatars face. from that view of a gamer hair is alot more readable then the mask. u should take this other view into consideration
@KungFuPanda I'm loving the concept, however I agree the lack of hair looks a little out of place. I think you may still have a little bit of room to fit something like a small tassle/ponytail or 30-40 polies just to give it a bit more volume . I was able to make a round hat, with a ponytail and a hat raising bit for for the budget on my last storm spirit set.
oh quick word of warning, storm spirits back bones counter rotate during animations. I makes skining the waist section and rear of shoulders a real pain.
@Shock ..seems people are different.. :P I rarely look at my hero.. usually I know where the hero is and don't really focus on him in game.. map and where the hero needs to go.. that's my concearn when playing.. but when I take a rest I look at the portrait.. anyway.. maybe we do both
@ toasty yes, I'm thinking the same thing.. maybe a small hair with the mask.. thx
Ok, so here are the 2 versions of hair: mask + small hair and the large hair (super saiyan?), we will do both, as styles for the final item
From now on Rocket will do the modeling phase.
@Stefco, watch out for too much noise! But overall its awesome. Also the suction cups should be bigger.
@KungFuPanda, I like that set a lot especially the drums, maybe add a slight pattern to the cloth near his head? Just a slight pattern that reflects differently than the cloth material itself.
I much prefer the hair than the mask personally. Here is the lich set so far that me and Nobiru are making, with progress on colors. i think finally we reached something that works.. altho i will never understand lichs white socks
we also had to cut the small horns on the head. curse you tri limit T_T
@KungFu, I like the mask but it seems a bit understated next to the huge collar. Also a bit repetitive since he has the huge face on his belly.
The hair matches the scale of the belly and collar better imo. And it would be a piece that could combine with any set very easily and look good.
@Ghost, your concepting is coming along very nicely. I like the head you chose, the gem is probably best, maybe larger though.
@Pipotchi,
Stay frosty is looking pretty sweet. but the 'underarm horns' in the first one look best, matching the scarf that is. In the last pic they just don't match.
@Stefco, awesome concept, I agree the barnacles should be larger.
@Baddcog & Dilanka Yes the mask is small but it has to look really good in portrait view, any larger and it would have been like a witch doctor mask, also is close to the real japanese masks that drumsmen wear when beating a taiko drum.
The story if the set is that the god part of storm spirit is taking over and is preparing for war against mankind, because it was a man that imprisoned him in human form. So the god part wants to look as he looked before, when he was god mask + armour + drum set that produces thunder and lightning (the japanese god Raijin is depicted as a drumsmen, with 5-6 small drums, I just added a large traditional taiko drum, tied it with shiwenawa rope which is also traditionaly used on the drums to ward off evil spirits).
The size of the mask and small hair I think works well to show how large and strong his samurai inspired armour is. So every piece of that set has roots in traditional japanese folclore.
And e will do both styles, the large head and the mask, so if it will get in game players can choose the style they like, this should also increase the head item's quality in Dota2.
@Ghostdetector Thanks, happy that you like it, yes maybe I will add some texture there but in the texture phase.. will test how it looks.
whoah. i like your color changes. great colors of top in 1st and 2nd variation. and cool frozen shackles on his feet in the final paint @Stefco amazing conception) i like very much this face form. but i dont shure how you will realise this scetch in 3d.you do not through other variants of weapon? w8ing fore some progress of set too much!
hey cosmic, the head is now way better. also i like ur color options alot. my personal favourite is the bottom right one of those 4 on the left side. about the chest shape i would advise u to simplify the shapes a bit more. so the whole thing will not noisy ingame. also it will make ur design more clear and save polys for the lods, what will result it in a better quality.
Haha, i literally feel like stepping out of a cave having not checking this thread out for a while xD
@stefco: very nice tide concept you got there, he really needs something fresh and new like that. Also, congratz on the Axe set that's getting in, top notch stuff xD
@GhostDetector: i like the theme you set for the set there, pretty fresh and unique, but to me the design at the moment, i feel like it's lacking something, some fantasy-ish point of interest, something that would draw the focus (and the love) from the viewer at a glance. I think you should do some research on something myth/folklore/story around the theme to get something like that, otherwise the set looks very casual this way. Just my 2 cents
@cosmicsugar: very interesting mirana design, although as others already said, color still need to be finest, i really like the yellow/purple touch though, so i suggest to keep it up from there
@kungfupanda: wew raijin storm xD really cool set, very nice developement documented, like it a lot (maybe i should try to document my work too haha ). I have to say though, or it would feel like stepping on each other toes if i dont. I too am working on a raijin theme based storm set for a while now (maybe A LOT more mainstream than yours lol), but i was lazy and never got around to it, it got different silhouette though, and probably wont be finish in the near future ( definitely wont be finish before april-concept), just split it out so we can avoid any future troubles/assumptions though
This is my workshop but i've only got one item up.
I'm most confident doing 3D stuff. However so far i've drawn all my own concepts. I've also got some animation/particale experience but never anything for the dota 2 workshop.
Also, in the scenario that I can't find a team (not unlike this far in), can I be my own one man army? Or do I need to be part of a team?
Replies
@Nobiru lich looks good.. sorry but I don't know if it has a story or something.. why would it be better then an other lich set.. but the sculpt looks good to me..
@ODD interesting bristle.. I like the weapon idea, however you need different proportions I think.. to make the fist visible in game.. also with the back.. they can't be all the same weapon.. and no bristles.. seems not possible.. that all the heroes in game would attack him with the same kind of sword.. I think the idea is good but needs more development.
Not really sure what you are asking but its a Lich set based on Etherain's rule over multiple kingdoms in life- so we went with the theme of fantasy regal clothing. Or did you mean you think its not interesting design?
Do the sheathes cover the entire blade? From the pic it seems that only part of the sword is covered by the sheath, and it seems like its the blunt side right now. maybe throw some flat brown color on the sheath so we can get a better idea of how it will look
Yeah, all the swords are upside down on his back, unfortunately with this design I think it looks worse in the sheath. But I can't change that unless he fights with upside down swords
@Kite,
Did a quick and ugly paintover (replaced pic above). Now I'm pretty sure I like the sheaths less. The blunt side is covered because of how he stores them. I initially (not paying attention) made the sheath to cover the sharp side and it looked pretty good like that. Then when I placed on back realized I messed up so adjusted it.
The sheaths also eat up a lot more polys than a shield will and I think I'd rather put a little more detail into the swords. Some nicks, maybe a little more shape to blade.
I think the shield also makes them seem mounted up higher on his back, the sheaths make them look too low (they are both placed exactly where the originals are).
I have a concept based loosely on some of Earthshaker's art, but I also want a lot of movement in the ward.
QUESTION! In blender it is very easy to create simple animations like the GIF below that don't have mesh deformations. There is no need for bones, you just move your objects and create keyframes. I am wondering if this type of animation will import into source, or if I need to create bones and somehow use bones for the animation?
I think the lines on the second version blend too much with the the swords and it will be hard to read at a distance.
Also, you may be planning to address this already but your triangle budget could be optimized for silhouette better. My wacom drivers decided not to load today so I had to use my mouse:
That top one is looking great, if I could make one suggestion it would be to pull the centre vertex on your flower in slightly to give more of a 3d effect.
You need to use bones for animation to work. How I would do this (I use Maya, but I'm sure there's an equivalent solution in blender) is to make a skeleton with one bone per piece. Constrain the bones to the blocks so that your existing animation moves them around and then bake that animation to the skeleton. Then remove the constraints and delete the animation from the geometry and skin them to the bones.
I did something similar to animate the treads on the Timbersaw courier I worked on recently and it worked like a charm!
Next and final phase will be finishing the Raijin armour (belt and belly area), and having everything together as the final concept. Coments and critiques are wellcome.
@Ewing the idea seems great, but the eye seems a bit small.. are you sure that is the right proportion? also maybe you should try some sketches in game.. see how visible the actual movements would be from the player view? I know they will be visible in portrait.. maybe try in sketch at least..
i also have a little update on the lion
My workshop: Item
I imagined that Selemene's lotus would look a little bluer, more like midnight rather than the usual pink lotus
And the concept I came up with! (although still need to do mount and etc )
The concept looks cool, but I guess you could apply some color breakdowns, otherwise will look like a huge blue mass in game. Also petals have value and hue gradient as you can see in your references, you could use that in your favor
Didn't Vidotto say that it was a really bad idea to use the Polycount brand out of nowhere like that?
Thanks for the comment man. I was thinking about different kind of daggers. Also all the sets created so far have bristles and look pretty similar on the back so I went with no bristles. More refined design:
maybe i should make the weapons in the back look like weapons of other heroes, but it will be harder to make it look similar to the basic bristleback.
@oDD yes, spikes, but from in game view (without zoom in), I am not sure that they will look like daggers / swords, etc. since the details will get lost.. they have to be really big to be vizible.
@MagnoHusein thanks mang! Sorry I'm not sure what you meant by apply colour breakdowns? Like include more colours / shades of blue so that it doesn't all look blue?
@kungfupanda WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS AWESOME GOKU HAIR??? that hair was seriously sick! so disappointed now lol.
before, he had a great shape with that stormy hair.
besides that ifs ofc a great concept
also @ stefco i love ur artstyle!
i think colour breakdown means you need modify colour and break it into pieces.
right now what he mean is view from far (or in game), it is 1 dark blue only.
so he meant more colour variant for the set i think.
http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterArtGuide.pdf
i think interessting for u might be page 3 5 6
Storm spirit head:
LoD1 Triangle Limit: 300
Texture Size: 256H x 256W
So the mask would be the logic choice.. since it's more expressive (makes him look more jolly/happy) and is visible all the time in portrait view, as opposed to the hair that will be a bit visible from in game view, and not so impressive in portrait view..
@kungfupanda Hm, I think since you have the face twice, one on his head and one on his stomach, I think it's too much. Also, Storm already has a jolly and happy personality and face, so a mask is not necessary to emphasize that.
Although I may be biased I did really like that hair! Since he's got the power of Raijin, I thought it made sense for him to go super saiyan ;P
Maybe we will do like 2 styles, one with the super sayan hair and one with the mask, so player can choose, that will also increase the quality of the item I think.
Also, about your set, do value separation in black and white, make sure it reads nicely in black and white, then keep close to the values that make the petals read, and color them. This way you make it a lot simpler, you devide value and color, and solve each of them separately.
oh quick word of warning, storm spirits back bones counter rotate during animations. I makes skining the waist section and rear of shoulders a real pain.
@ toasty yes, I'm thinking the same thing.. maybe a small hair with the mask.. thx
From now on Rocket will do the modeling phase.
@KungFuPanda, I like that set a lot especially the drums, maybe add a slight pattern to the cloth near his head? Just a slight pattern that reflects differently than the cloth material itself.
This is what Vertical and I decided to do,
Any comments would be appreciated
we also had to cut the small horns on the head. curse you tri limit T_T
The hair matches the scale of the belly and collar better imo. And it would be a piece that could combine with any set very easily and look good.
@Ghost, your concepting is coming along very nicely. I like the head you chose, the gem is probably best, maybe larger though.
@Pipotchi,
Stay frosty is looking pretty sweet. but the 'underarm horns' in the first one look best, matching the scarf that is. In the last pic they just don't match.
@Stefco, awesome concept, I agree the barnacles should be larger.
GhostDetector: nice design!
The story if the set is that the god part of storm spirit is taking over and is preparing for war against mankind, because it was a man that imprisoned him in human form. So the god part wants to look as he looked before, when he was god mask + armour + drum set that produces thunder and lightning (the japanese god Raijin is depicted as a drumsmen, with 5-6 small drums, I just added a large traditional taiko drum, tied it with shiwenawa rope which is also traditionaly used on the drums to ward off evil spirits).
The size of the mask and small hair I think works well to show how large and strong his samurai inspired armour is. So every piece of that set has roots in traditional japanese folclore.
And e will do both styles, the large head and the mask, so if it will get in game players can choose the style they like, this should also increase the head item's quality in Dota2.
@Ghostdetector Thanks, happy that you like it, yes maybe I will add some texture there but in the texture phase.. will test how it looks.
whoah. i like your color changes. great colors of top in 1st and 2nd variation. and cool frozen shackles on his feet in the final paint
@Stefco amazing conception) i like very much this face form. but i dont shure how you will realise this scetch in 3d.you do not through other variants of weapon? w8ing fore some progress of set too much!
Decreasing the saturation made me sad xD
@stefco: very nice tide concept you got there, he really needs something fresh and new like that. Also, congratz on the Axe set that's getting in, top notch stuff xD
@GhostDetector: i like the theme you set for the set there, pretty fresh and unique, but to me the design at the moment, i feel like it's lacking something, some fantasy-ish point of interest, something that would draw the focus (and the love) from the viewer at a glance. I think you should do some research on something myth/folklore/story around the theme to get something like that, otherwise the set looks very casual this way. Just my 2 cents
@cosmicsugar: very interesting mirana design, although as others already said, color still need to be finest, i really like the yellow/purple touch though, so i suggest to keep it up from there
@kungfupanda: wew raijin storm xD really cool set, very nice developement documented, like it a lot (maybe i should try to document my work too haha ). I have to say though, or it would feel like stepping on each other toes if i dont. I too am working on a raijin theme based storm set for a while now (maybe A LOT more mainstream than yours lol), but i was lazy and never got around to it, it got different silhouette though, and probably wont be finish in the near future ( definitely wont be finish before april-concept), just split it out so we can avoid any future troubles/assumptions though
Here's a bunch of my WiP stuff.
This is my workshop but i've only got one item up.
I'm most confident doing 3D stuff. However so far i've drawn all my own concepts. I've also got some animation/particale experience but never anything for the dota 2 workshop.
Also, in the scenario that I can't find a team (not unlike this far in), can I be my own one man army? Or do I need to be part of a team?