[Chivalry] - Agatha Knight - Lion Set
polycounter lvl 10
I'll be making armor and weapons based on a lion. I think the helmet could be used for multiple classes, but for now I'll assign it to the knight.
Since I'm just starting right now, here's my reference sheet:
Reference sheet:
I'll have a blockout done soon, will post updates.
Since I'm just starting right now, here's my reference sheet:
Reference sheet:
I'll have a blockout done soon, will post updates.
Replies
But yours is looking much more practical than how I envisioned it in my head. Nice job! Looking forward to seeing the end result.
I may remove the neck guard as well, as that is not actually a part of the helmet and may not fit within the contest rules. The helmet also closes without collision, so I may submit this as a closed version. Maybe both?
I redid the back plating, it wasn't working out aesthetically, too many conflicting curved lines. As well, I have removed the neck guard, mainly because I am not sure if it will count for the final piece, and it's triangles I can throw instead towards the helmet. The hinge area on the jaw was also redone, it's less blocky now and flows better into the head.
I have some more work to do on the top half of the helmet, damages and metal work to match the jaw and back plates. Right now I'm just experimenting with the effect, trying to see how far I want to push it. Looking at the assets in the game, they don't have much in the way of metal work, but they do have scratches and gashes. I may also redo the eye loop trim piece, that's one thing I'm not fully sure if it will work or not.
If you have feedback, please let me know before I go ahead and finish this thing!
Also, I like the idea of the teeth serving as protection against anything that's shoved into the knights face. But the upper teeth look like they would block the knights vision quite a lot.
Maybe more teeth on the upper jaw, but thinner, like some kind of grid?
with the bars being the lion's teeth
But the gladiator thing could work as well!
Oh and yes, this is a runescape helmet from the days when they were cool.
Here's where I am at tonight, kinda stuck because I've got a nasty seam running down the center of the helmet, and I'm not sure what I can do to fix it. If you know the solution, I'd love to know! Geometry clocks in at 1198 triangles for both the open and closed states of the helmet, using 1 texture map for both.
I made sure to import the map with the green channel flipped, as well as setting the texture group to CharacterNormal. This normal map is from xNormal. As a side note, bringing an object space map into Handplane and converting it to an Unreal specific tangent space map actually gets a more noticeable seam.
If this is the issue i'll edit you post with the answer.
Another possibility is your FBX export. Try unchecking smoothing groups and letting Unreal rebuild the tangents and such on import.
Also, you could ignore it and just add in some texture weathering or overlayed normal noise so the seam is less noticeable.
So yeah, I'm basically done with this asset now until I figure out what I did wrong with the normal map. I may do some other tweaks later in the month right before I submit the asset if I can think of anything that needs changing. It's always good to let something sit and come back to it later.
The open version clocks in at a total of 1156 triangles, and the closed version is at 1198.
Now to move onto the weapon[s?]! Sketches incoming.
1. When exporting your .fbx out of Maya/Max/whatever, make sure you export the Tangents and Binormals under the export settings. However, this does not export the Binormals from what I have been reading (it's a bug with the .fbx file format), which is ok though as the results I got are pretty solid.
2. If you are baking your normal map in xNormal, make sure you use the same .fbx file for baking. .obj files do not contain Tangent/Binormal information, so there may be some discrepancy in the final results.
3. If you are using Handplane to convert your object space normal map into a tangent space normal map, again, use the same .fbx to get the best results.
4. Import your asset into UDK
4a. Under the import settings, turn OFF "Import Tangents". If you read the tooltip, it will explain that it imports Tangents and Binormals. However, again, .fbx doesn't contain Binormal information due to either an oversight or bug.
4b. Turn ON "Explicit Normals" under the Static Mesh/Advanced dropdown
Here's what my import settings look like:
Doing that got me this result, which has basically all but fixed the issue:
If I go back and rebake my normals in xNormal with my .fbx file, I may get marginally better bake results, although it would take a microscope to see the difference. The normal map I am using in my final asset is just a Tangent Space xNormal map.
I hope this is helpful to someone!
And thanks for the normal map tips.
I still have to play around with the handle area, replace the spiral with some proper leather wrap. And below that section, right now it's boring and feels too heavy. I also need to think of a good pommel for this; although never really used in combat on a Pole Axe/Halberd, the pommel should still look nice of course.
I may trim down the blade size (increase the cutout area) or increase the hammer side to give a better overall balance to the weapon though, as it is a bit lopsided right now.
Thanks for that, it was helpful.
http://i.imgur.com/U6MdSaW.png
Crits appreciated
Steam Workshop Page
Main Presentation Image
Highpoly/Low Poly Wireframe
Texture sheet
Pollaxe Reference Sheet
Helmet Reference Sheet