Aitnar, could you post all your Mask textures? It may be your metalness channel isn't strong enough. Also, don't use a full white or full black texture as the shader will just read it as a null channel, put a little dot of the opposite color in the corner or something.
Hello everyone, here is my "concept art" (if you can call it that) for a DK item, i did it a long time ago, never had the will to comeback to it, till now, so for today, just dropping a rough sketch that will be later polished and coloured before modelling. The idea, at least for me, was to abstract what DK meant as a hero and put it into an item, i think the end result its cool even if my drawings are crude, hope you like like it, would love to hear some inits on the idea.
Will update some time around tomorrow at this same time.
So i decided to go ahead and start colouring right away, just to get a feel for whether the colour i though about in my head where ok or not, so far this is how it's coming along:
I still have to figure out the hilt, haven't figure what i want to do with it yet, i think the general idea of how it is coming along (have it be part of the wings, and possibly a generic hilt coming down) would be ok, but i would love to have it have more personality.
Also an alternate version, would love to know which one you guys think looks better:
Ok, i'm not sure what happened. I rebuilt Mask1 and Mask2 from scratch. Mirrored them to be exactly like Dragon Knight's maps, and it worked. :D:D:D:D:D
Thank you everyone! It's been a real challenge, and I learned a ton! It feels amazing to get this finished. I only need to make a few tweaks and it will be on the workshop.
Aitnar: Looks like you fixed your problem! looking much better now
Hundertwasser: Looks interesting! The dragon eye is a cool idea!
gamedivisionuk: Sweet! I like the reference to greek helmets!
@Sukotto - I sure did! I just need to make the advertisement images and it will be all wrapped up. I'm liking the sword you made. It's very interesting. I like it.
Well, i ended up settling down for one of the 2 possible "layouts", ad decided to go ahead and add details, shadows and whatnot. I'm not specially good with colours, but i think its coming along ok.
The twitch wip videos shows they were uploaded on July? Is that when you started this set? How long did it take?
@Q-ro It's a good idea overall, I'm not sure you should put in those very small yellow spikes though. As an example, instead of having 16 small spikes, make it 8 bigger ones, most people don't notice that small detail when playing. It will just look like yellow dots next to the blade.
I agree with danpaz3d, you also don't want to deal with allocating that many polygon's to a bunch of tiny spikes.. it could hurt your overall silhouette. Topology flow dictates how well your normal maps will bake and read in game.
@Q-ro It's a good idea overall, I'm not sure you should put in those very small yellow spikes though. As an example, instead of having 16 small spikes, make it 8 bigger ones, most people don't notice that small detail when playing. It will just look like yellow dots next to the blade.
I agree with danpaz3d, you also don't want to deal with allocating that many polygon's to a bunch of tiny spikes.. it could hurt your overall silhouette. Topology flow dictates how well your normal maps will bake and read in game.
You both bring up really good point, haven't thought of that, thanks, i'll change work on fixing that and will post back with final results.
Quick questions, what is the method you guys are using to render your item on its own?
I was searching Dota2 last night to see if there is a way to render the item on its own, but couldn't find any such feature in-game.
I then found a Dota2 Shader v2.3 here on the forums, tried it out in Max, but each time I applied my .tgas, the item would be invisible. Rendering would just show it in gray scale.
How do you guys render yours on its own?
Another question, is the small image of the item the 'Marketing' image when submitting an item?
Quick questions, what is the method you guys are using to render your item on its own?
I was searching Dota2 last night to see if there is a way to render the item on its own, but couldn't find any such feature in-game.
I then found a Dota2 Shader v2.3 here on the forums, tried it out in Max, but each time I applied my .tgas, the item would be invisible. Rendering would just show it in gray scale.
How do you guys render yours on its own?
Another question, is the small image of the item the 'Marketing' image when submitting an item?
Thanks all!
That script is meant for viewport rendering, all you do is just Alt + W on 3ds max to maximize the viewport and take a screenshot with those shaders on. You also need to activate the textures in the plugin.
Another workflow is just using the slate material editor to add a diffuse and manually paint the marketing materials.
The big marketing image is used as those sliding banners in-game or when browsing the collection pages.
Quick questions, what is the method you guys are using to render your item on its own?
I was searching Dota2 last night to see if there is a way to render the item on its own, but couldn't find any such feature in-game.
I then found a Dota2 Shader v2.3 here on the forums, tried it out in Max, but each time I applied my .tgas, the item would be invisible. Rendering would just show it in gray scale.
How do you guys render yours on its own?
Another question, is the small image of the item the 'Marketing' image when submitting an item?
So finally, i have settle for the final design of the item, its only the drawn version 'cause i think i do better with actual pen and paper that with drawing tablet, any way, here it it, the definitive design of the sword, i took into account what you guys told me regarding really small geometry that may be impossible to appreciate from afar.
You will probably never see it in game. It could also cause some noise once it's baked down and resized for game. Always keep in mind where details are visible in game as well as how small the item will really be.
So I remade the shield (sculpt so far...) Aitnar, I hope you don't mind I just copied the horns from your suggestions..:
And in the meantime I've also started on the horse. Which I'm not sure I'll be able to finish. Still not very happy with the top-hair, redid that like three times already. I did learn a lot though
Hey guys, I redid my main photo, and wanted to get some feedback. How does this look?
Looks better but it still looks a bit naked, I think you should add some effects on top and bottom of the blade. Check out the workshop what the other artists do, it's usually smoke effects, some shine, backlights, sparks, bokeh light/dust and etc. Study some on the workshop.
Think I'm done with the sculpt now, but still unsure if I should add some wear and tear on the blade and dragon. Kind of liking it without scratches and undented. What do you think?
I'm almost finished! I think I'll still need to make some corrections though...
@ Aitnar: That came out nice (and clean, which unfortunately I can't say about my model Probably not enough texture space..). I like the presentation and personally think it's enough.. can't really think of anything you could do to greatly improve on it. I'd probably put it parallel to the screen instead of in perspective but I don't know why. But I think the model doesn't really have any features that stand out extra in perspective.
@ Paskie: I really like your model. The original DK sword doesn't have any dents (at least not in its texture). I don't think he really needs them.
@Tectonic: interesting shape, but looks kind of bulky.. but it might look good on CK, I don't know.
@Sucotto: Well.. very nice It looks a little too solid for abaddon for my taste though.
Replies
Will update some time around tomorrow at this same time.
I still have to figure out the hilt, haven't figure what i want to do with it yet, i think the general idea of how it is coming along (have it be part of the wings, and possibly a generic hilt coming down) would be ok, but i would love to have it have more personality.
Also an alternate version, would love to know which one you guys think looks better:
Thank you everyone! It's been a real challenge, and I learned a ton! It feels amazing to get this finished. I only need to make a few tweaks and it will be on the workshop.
Thank you all, again. You're all awesome!
EDIT: Just some more views & poses
My sword for DK
Hundertwasser: Looks interesting! The dragon eye is a cool idea!
gamedivisionuk: Sweet! I like the reference to greek helmets!
Update! Textures and in-game!
The twitch wip videos shows they were uploaded on July? Is that when you started this set? How long did it take?
@Q-ro It's a good idea overall, I'm not sure you should put in those very small yellow spikes though. As an example, instead of having 16 small spikes, make it 8 bigger ones, most people don't notice that small detail when playing. It will just look like yellow dots next to the blade.
You both bring up really good point, haven't thought of that, thanks, i'll change work on fixing that and will post back with final results.
I was searching Dota2 last night to see if there is a way to render the item on its own, but couldn't find any such feature in-game.
I then found a Dota2 Shader v2.3 here on the forums, tried it out in Max, but each time I applied my .tgas, the item would be invisible. Rendering would just show it in gray scale.
How do you guys render yours on its own?
Another question, is the small image of the item the 'Marketing' image when submitting an item?
Thanks all!
http://www.marmoset.co/
No need for a marketing image unless you made, say a loading screen
That script is meant for viewport rendering, all you do is just Alt + W on 3ds max to maximize the viewport and take a screenshot with those shaders on. You also need to activate the textures in the plugin.
Another workflow is just using the slate material editor to add a diffuse and manually paint the marketing materials.
The big marketing image is used as those sliding banners in-game or when browsing the collection pages.
This may be a little unrelated to your problem, but, if you use blender, you can try this shader http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/69403#comment-42945, a quick guide on how to use it can be found here http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=164916498
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970920364/myworkshopfiles/
Question, how do you make the image a link to the workshop?
@ Aitnar: You really should give your presentation shots more love. Slapping on a background, 3D render and an overlay isn't enough.
oh thank you so much for this, i had no idea it could work on blender!!!
Your welcome, i found out about it just a week ago i wasn't aware of its existence either, its nice to hear i was able to help somebody out.
Question, how do you edit recorded fraps videos so it doesn't show the whole screen?
This model reminds me a bit of Bristleback. I think it could work for him reasonably well too. Looks good so far either way. Keep it up
With
Or
Without?
So I remade the shield (sculpt so far...) Aitnar, I hope you don't mind I just copied the horns from your suggestions..:
And in the meantime I've also started on the horse. Which I'm not sure I'll be able to finish. Still not very happy with the top-hair, redid that like three times already. I did learn a lot though
The Screaming Banshee by Sukotto and Stefco
EDIT: I resubmitted it to the store, but have not yet finalized it yet. I want to hear what you all think.
Looks better but it still looks a bit naked, I think you should add some effects on top and bottom of the blade. Check out the workshop what the other artists do, it's usually smoke effects, some shine, backlights, sparks, bokeh light/dust and etc. Study some on the workshop.
@ Aitnar: That came out nice (and clean, which unfortunately I can't say about my model
@ Paskie: I really like your model. The original DK sword doesn't have any dents (at least not in its texture). I don't think he really needs them.
@Tectonic: interesting shape, but looks kind of bulky.. but it might look good on CK, I don't know.
@Sucotto: Well.. very nice
The shield design came out really well! However, the texture looks like it still needs some polish. Overall, it's coming together nicely.