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Art-Machine's RPG Weapons Thread

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Hi guys, me again.

Well I'm well underway on my next reel project : I'll be making a pile of RPG style weapons. Swords, Shields, Staff, Clubs, Wands, Axes etc... With a wide variety of cultural styles and materials. The idea behind it all is to quickly build up a lot of varying props in a short time. From the traditional to the imaginative, I hope to cover a good spectrum.

Here's the first entry, A dagger/fencing sword hybrid I designed some years ago in a sketchbook. It can be used for fencing at medium range, and has that dagger blade for slashing when too close for swordplay.

DagueEpeeLayout03-Small.jpg

More to come later. :thumbup:

Replies

  • ZeroCartin
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    ZeroCartin polycounter lvl 16
    Wow, thats really kickass. Is the illumination burned to the texutre, or is it illuminated on the scene? Id like to see the texture work if its possible! Keep up the great work!
  • Hatred
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    Hatred polycounter lvl 18
    great!, ive never seen such a interesting sword, the desing is just awesome
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    Are we gonna see a fencing moogle? ;D

    Really nice work. Can't wait to see more.
  • A.Kincade
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    A.Kincade polycounter lvl 9
    The hi and low turned out pretty legit.

    The end of that sword is going to be nasty on the way out of someones body. :)

    Cool concept. Good execution.
  • imb3nt
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    imb3nt polycounter lvl 14
    Looks really good. I'm really liking how your textures turned out.

    Looking forward to seeing more as you finish.
  • Renaud Galand
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    Renaud Galand polycounter lvl 19
    Nice style ! Love it :)
  • Art-Machine
    Hey guys, always nice to hear your comments.

    Making really fast progress on the sheath. In fact it's finished! Really glad i made it too, because it seems to really make the piece as a whole a lot more believable and unified somehow, when you see it inside there.

    DagueEpeeLayout04.jpg

    I'll post textures and Zbrush shots later, right now i want to keep on this roll!
  • Art-Machine
    Thanks for the kind words all, I wasn't sure anyone would like it lol.
    Is the illumination burned to the texture, or is it illuminated on the scene? Id like to see the texture work if its possible! Keep up the great work!
    The texture has no baked in lighting other than occlusion and cavities. The rest is all being done live in max by the normals and specular. I can show a closeup of the hilt later to demonstrate. As for textures, I'll post that stuff a little later too, when i have time to take the shots.
    the bolt holding the dagger attachment to the hilt seems like it would block a crucial area that a hand would fill.
    Yeah i agree it looks a little out of place, but i don't think if would keep you from holding it well if you imagine the size of each finger around the handle. I would imagine your knuckle would often hit it as you grab or release it though. I might shrink it a little more.
    Are we gonna see a fencing moogle? ;D
    LOL Actually I was thinking about doing a moogle knight variation of that model you're referring to. Might work on that once the main portfolio is done.
  • Pope Adam
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    Pope Adam polycounter lvl 11
    Great weapon, i really like the texture. I'd love to see a version of the texture with the lighting baked on to it :P
  • Shogun3d
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    Shogun3d polycounter lvl 12
    I don't know if the crease in the knife sheathe portion should run all the way down, but it does look nice.
  • onionhead_o
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    onionhead_o polycounter lvl 16
    excellent work. i would love to c this in a game. I used to be a sword nut, who draw swords most of the time.
  • Thegodzero
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    Thegodzero polycounter lvl 18
    Very very nice! Its vibrant, but not overly so.
  • erik!
    I could use something like this in Oblivion or Fallout even! Moar plz
  • trevor87
    I liked to see some other colors on the hilt, just it up a little.
  • whats_true
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    whats_true polycounter lvl 15
    Do you have a 3quarters view?
  • Art-Machine
    Hey I'm back again with a new weapon. Quite a different style than the last one.

    The Skyserpent : The legend of Yu'Yetl and the Skyserpent teaches us victory belongs to the warrior who not only strikes out, but can also grab hold and pull his enemy off balance. In the spirit of victory, this macuahuitl has been designed to stike out with one edge, and grapple foes with the other.

    SkyserpentLayout02.JPG

    Hope you like :poly124: More to come.
  • JasonLavoie
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    JasonLavoie polycounter lvl 18
    Damn... that, is fucking ace :)

    Any chance we can see the flats? Seems like a really cool texturing style you got there.
  • Richard Kain
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    Richard Kain polycounter lvl 18
    In terms of physical design, I don't think your first sword would work very well in a practical environment. The "Knob" under the knife portion (inside the handguard) would get in the way of a person's hand gripping the handle. It would constantly be an annoyance. Also, I think that there could probably be some hefty polygon optimization to the low-poly model. I'm seeing quite a few extraneous polys that don't contribute directly to the silouette.

    On the other hand, the overall easthetic is very pleasing. I like the actual visual design. I also think that you have done a fine job of translating the 2D design into 3D space. The texture work is also quite solid. I can easily imagine an RPG character wielding this in-game. Despite the technical quibbles I applaud this effort.

    This second blade just screams "pirate" to me. The combination of wood, bone, and flint is most curious. It's like a very ornate tribal weapon. Very curious design. I noticed you are putting chunk of stone on the back of the blade just about the guard. I'm not sure why that chunk is included. It is eating up extra polys while offering little in the way of detail, and I can't think of any reason why that portion of the blade couldn't be wood as well. Still, this is some great work. Looking forward to seeing more weapons.
  • warby
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    warby polycounter lvl 18
    love it :)

    i don't care at this point anymore if something is normal map + specular +
    light sources or all hand painted/photo texture as long as the final RGB values on the screen kick ass ! and they sure do here !
  • Art-Machine
    I assume flats means textures :P I was already putting them together as promised:

    SkyserpentTexture.jpg

    DagueEpeeTextures.jpg

    Thanks for the continued enthusiasm guys it's keeping me motivated :poly136:
  • Art-Machine
    In terms of physical design, I don't think your first sword would work very well in a practical environment. The "Knob" under the knife portion (inside the handguard) would get in the way of a person's hand gripping the handle. It would constantly be an annoyance. Also, I think that there could probably be some hefty polygon optimization to the low-poly model. I'm seeing quite a few extraneous polys that don't contribute directly to the silouette.

    On the other hand, the overall easthetic is very pleasing. I like the actual visual design. I also think that you have done a fine job of translating the 2D design into 3D space. The texture work is also quite solid. I can easily imagine an RPG character wielding this in-game. Despite the technical quibbles I applaud this effort.

    This second blade just screams "pirate" to me. The combination of wood, bone, and flint is most curious. It's like a very ornate tribal weapon. Very curious design. I noticed you are putting chunk of stone on the back of the blade just about the guard. I'm not sure why that chunk is included. It is eating up extra polys while offering little in the way of detail, and I can't think of any reason why that portion of the blade couldn't be wood as well. Still, this is some great work. Looking forward to seeing more weapons.
    You're looking very realistically at my weapons and i respect that kind of attention to detail. It's true there's bound to be a lot of unrealistic stuff in here, but i remind myself of crazy weapons in games that make no bit of practical sense at all, and comfort myself that at least i put a reasonable ammount of logical thought into mine. :poly124: My main priority is the visual impact with a reasonable degree of believability and i'm glad you approve of that part.

    As for the extra piece of blade on the Skyserpent, I'm glad you noticed : It's used for cutting vines and other survival cutting needs seeing as i would see this used by Mayan style jungle warriors. The oposide edge you'll notice is a flat area of wood that can be used for crushing foodstuffs or as a foothold for slicing through something tough (like your enemy's wrist to make a nifty hand trophy). So it's like a utility knife of sorts not just a weapon.
  • BuCC
    Cool weapons, especially the skyserpent. I feel it would fit very much into an awesome movie portraying pirates, aztechs and steam engines :D

    Also I was quite impressed by your mindreading abilities when fastreading through the thread, Art-Machine. It's not a lot of people out there who can qoute something from the future and reply to it before the words are actually typed (ofc. I then realized the truth of the matter and were both relieved and dissapointed).
  • Imogia
    Wow.
    Pretty efficient modeling combined with very good texturing, that hurts :)
  • Richard Kain
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    Richard Kain polycounter lvl 18
    As for the extra piece of blade on the Skyserpent, I'm glad you noticed : It's used for cutting vines and other survival cutting needs seeing as i would see this used by Mayan style jungle warriors. The oposide edge you'll notice is a flat area of wood that can be used for crushing foodstuffs or as a foothold for slicing through something tough (like your enemy's wrist to make a nifty hand trophy). So it's like a utility knife of sorts not just a weapon.

    Ah okay. Yes, that makes perfect sense. The forward edge of this sword/club wouldn't really be practical for slicing things. (with the staggered spikes and all) A small edge embedded closer to the hilt would be practical for focused cutting. (especially vines)

    Any criticisms I make based on a model's relation to reality are just for observation and reference. The knob I mentioned on the first sword looks good from an aesthetic perspective. It shows how the knife portion is attached to the rest of the blade. And at the end of the day, the polygonal character who will be wielding it isn't going to complain about comfort. Like you said, the appearance of the thing is what is most important here. Keep em' coming, these weapons look great.
  • Art-Machine
    Since people seem to be taking an interest in the finer points of my designs, I thought some may enjoy this little insight into the Skyserpent's patterns/shapes. Having a back-story makes the design process so much more fun.

    The image of the great Skyserpent of legend is integrated into the weapon. Along with his great flowing whiskers which are said to momentarily split the sky in a luminous flash while battling rainstorms to return the sunlight.

    SkyserpentLore.jpg

    Crappy sketch for now but i plan to work it more later.
    Also I was quite impressed by your mindreading abilities when fastreading through the thread, Art-Machine. It's not a lot of people out there who can qoute something from the future and reply to it before the words are actually typed (ofc. I then realized the truth of the matter and were both relieved and dissapointed).
    What are you talking about exactly? I can't be that good a mind reader since i can't figure it out lol.
  • X-Convict
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    X-Convict polycounter lvl 18
    Nice work Art-Machine, definitely a fun style! I like the skyserpent and the colors you have going on in the texture. Right now the sword texture feels too brown - incorporating some blues to hint at some reflection from the sky should make the metal pop more - you have a lot of nice color and value changes on your skyserpent texture, if you apply more of that into the sword I think it will look great. :)

    Keep it up!
  • steady
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    steady polycounter lvl 18
    great work! awesome thread
  • Mcejn
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    Mcejn polycounter lvl 12
    Truly awesome work! If you don't mind, could you explain a bit on how you generated your normal maps? I'm sorry but I can't really tell how you went about creating these great models; whether you used a high-poly mesh or not, or if you just painted the textures right out on the UV's or used some other method.

    If you could shed some information I'd greatly appreciate it! Can't wait to see more.
  • jaball
    Very cool, the second sword is hella cool!
  • CerealDemon1
    Very well made models
    Grade A stuff =]
  • Art-Machine
    Here's another for you guys, by popular request i baked the metal this time :\

    I'm having trouble keeping my presentation uniform across weapons because ones like this are so long you have to include cropped close ups to show any detail. I hope this layout works well on future pole weapons at least.

    I'll write out the text too since it's a little small.

    House Vampyr War Scythe
    Few who dare tread unwanted through the hallowed
    cloysters of house Vampyr escape the sting of the
    War Scythe of its elite guards. Though it can easily
    decapitate, horrified witnesses describe its hooked
    blades used to impale and restrain fleeing trespassers.
    The guards then fall upon the offender, fangs drawn.
    Spilling blood would be an awful waste of a meal.

    WarscytheLayout01.jpg

    Hope you like.
  • Art-Machine
    Thanks for everyone's continued interest!
    Nice work Art-Machine, definitely a fun style! I like the skyserpent and the colors you have going on in the texture. Right now the sword texture feels too brown - incorporating some blues to hint at some reflection from the sky should make the metal pop more - you have a lot of nice color and value changes on your skyserpent texture, if you apply more of that into the sword I think it will look great. :)
    I was going for a very golden/copper feel on that one. If you look at something like a trumpet, not much blue on there especially indoors. But since people have mentioned this more than once, I'll take some shots with a blue bounce light for the final presentation, thanks for the input.
    Truly awesome work! If you don't mind, could you explain a bit on how you generated your normal maps? I'm sorry but I can't really tell how you went about creating these great models; whether you used a high-poly mesh or not, or if you just painted the textures right out on the UV's or used some other method.
    I usually sculpt a high res and bake from that, then texture from there.

    I have a pretty industry standard workflow so far as i know.
    -Base model in Max or Maya
    -Sculpt in Zbrush
    -In-Game topology in Zbrush
    -Unwrap in UVLayout
    -Bake in Xnormal
    -Texture in Photoshop
    -Set up in Max or Marmoset Toolbag (whichever gives the better result)

    Zbrush, UVLayout, Xnormal, Potoshop : All tools i would hate to work without!

    If i can give any specific tips, it would be to remember to sculpt the texture as much as reasonable. That being said, don't go nuts with noisy over detailing for no reason, it's a balance you have to reach with experience i guess.
  • onionhead_o
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    onionhead_o polycounter lvl 16
    how did u achieve that perfect shine on ur scythe? is it all on the spec map?
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
  • Art-Machine
    Wow that last one didn't cause much of a stir did it :poly134:
    Thanks you 2
    How did u achieve that perfect shine on ur scythe? is it all on the spec map?
    I assume you mean the really hard white highlight areas. In that case, it's just the specular from that Marmoset engine, i put the spec sharpness almost to max and moved sliders around til i got something nice. I didn't love what that engine did to the first 2 weapons but it did a sweet job on this one.

    The spec map is just the diffuse. Also i guess clean normals played a part in the clean specs. Here's the textures so you can figure out what's baked and what's spec.

    WarscytheTextures.JPG

    Next piece is gonna be a shield. Concept finished today.
  • Muzzoid
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    Muzzoid polycounter lvl 10
    lols, its cool but its not really as fancy as the other 2 :P. Keep it up im watching this thread with anticipation.
  • sama.van
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    sama.van polycounter lvl 14
    haha I didn't see this thread before!

    Really cool stuff I really life the color. My favorite one will be the first one!

    Haha if you continu to create stuff like that you'll give my motivation back about normal mapped stuff! ^_^
  • buddikaman
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    buddikaman polycounter lvl 18
    This is amazing work dude. I absolutely love the modeling and texture style. Thanks so much for taking the time to show us your textures and answer questions, ive learned alot.

    Keep it up!

    -Buddikaman
  • morte
    Wow awesome! Th wampire scyte rules!
  • Art-Machine
    Thanks guys, real quick post before bed. This time around it's the Phoenix Shield (I hope you can see why it has that name). It's meant to be a kind of lantern shield (smallish shield with blade catchers and an attacking blade).

    PhoenixConcept.jpg

    Here's a screen grab out of max. Is it hard to believe the texture is 256x256? Anyway, I'll look into taking fancier shots later, as well as posting wires and stuff.

    PhoenixLayout02.JPG

    Bed time!
  • nrek
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    nrek polycounter lvl 14
    Amazing weapons Art-Machine. The consistency in both style and quality is really great. I look forward to checking out the textures for your shield. Keep it up.:thumbup:
  • Wheel
    Really loving your stuff. Great concepts, awesome execution and jaw dropping textures.
  • MoP
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    MoP polycounter lvl 18
    Cool stuff, I like the combination of normalmapping with slightly stylised diffuse textures.
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    beautiful work, what are these for? you working on a game project?
  • woogity
    wow extremely nice stuff i love the war scythe and its backstory. story is crucial imo to a good design :)

    -Woog
  • doc rob
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    doc rob polycounter lvl 19
  • Kovac
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    Kovac polycounter lvl 18
    ^^ what they've said :) I love watching this thread, keep it up!
  • Art-Machine
    Thanks all,

    Here's the technical parts :

    PhoenixWires.jpg

    Textures, actual size.
    PhoenixTextures.jpg
    what are these for? you working on a game project?
    No, these are for my portfolio. The idea is to not stop at just making nice pieces but also present my abilities in all parts of the creation process. A to Z.

    Lately i had been designing and making many funky weapons at work anyway, I knew how fast i could pump these out on my own time.
    wow extremely nice stuff i love the war scythe and its backstory. story is crucial imo to a good design :)
    Absolutely, It's also half the fun. :poly121:
    Having a good clear story and function gives any design a better start.
  • cycloverid
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    cycloverid polycounter lvl 15
    I really like the designs on these - they look so clean and unused! They would work well in a Final Fantasy style game.
  • Art-Machine
    Hey guys I'm back again :)

    This time i wanted to make a more 'brutal' piece to offset the more elegant stuff so far.

    Siege Plank : This large shield of 'pavise' classification reaches shoulder height on the average man. They are carried into battle by the snipers in the horde armies from the Outlands. The heavy blade at it's base is thrust into the ground to provide freestanding cover at shooting range. It also doubles as a decapitation device, used on the mortally injured after battle. Enemy arrows are not removed after battle, kept as a symbol of it's efficacy and in testament to a sniper's seniority.

    SiegePlankLayout02.JPG

    SiegePlankWires.jpg

    SiegePlankTextures.jpg

    This is the last weapon for a while I think, got a good batch done and it's time to diversify my portfolio in another way. Definitely going to stick any new weapons i design in this thread later though. :)
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