ToniX and Pancake's Dota 2 thread

Pancake · Mar 2013

So, Tonix and I have decided to create a thread on our current adventures playing around with Dota 2. We're both students without much experience but hopefully doing these will change that

Submitted to workshop:

Slark: Ancient Imbued Spinal Blade

Workshop Page: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=136439733&searchtext=

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WubmKJGamBA

6289B2C9DBB6BADC6DD25832826C9AFB847A9B20

E73B4BCD54289F5E063150AE96C8F8A91D6F8E13

FDA5E54A4E8D00E043784BE84C4EE99324787CCB

In Progress:

Armor set of Frozen Entombment (Work In Progress)

We're currently working on an idea for a new set for the Lich character. We're still at the "basic shapes and all that" stage, so any feedback would be very much appreciated before we go any further.

Andyk125 · Mar 2013

Great concept and it will really fit slark as well!

A few things, it's better to start blocking out the most important shapes, so you can use it for the high poly. If you finished the high poly, you can start modeling the lod_0, which you use to bake your normal map. When you finished the bake you can start reducing the trilimit to the 400. This way the quality will be a lot higher and better!

The bones and detail can be easily acchieved using the normal map, that way you can keep the nice edge of the blade and it will look a lot better. If you don't know what i mean i can make a little draw over..

Good luck, this defenetly looks promising!

Pancake · Mar 2013

We were pretty eager to see how the shape fits in the hand, the low poly didn't take too long. After all, how a concept looks and how it fits in-game can be two different things :P

Definitely agreed though, now we've fixed the potential clipping issues we discovered with the test model we're going to move onto the high poly then afterwards reduce it down. See what we can strip off the bone to smooth up the edges

Andyk125 · Mar 2013

Pancake wrote: »

We were pretty eager to see how the shape fits in the hand, the low poly didn't take too long. After all, how a concept looks and how it fits in-game can be two different things :P

Definitely agreed though, now we've fixed the potential clipping issues we discovered with the test model we're going to move onto the high poly then afterwards reduce it down. See what we can strip off the bone to smooth up the edges

I agree that a concept is most of the time a lot easier than getting something in the game

But like always you want to stay as close to your concept as possible.. Did a quick paint over which I think will have a lot better reading ingame. It might not be my best paintover, but i think this way you will save a lot more poly's for the bone shapes..

Pancake · Mar 2013

Hey, thanks a tonne! We're really liking the wires you suggested and it'll help save texture space too. We'll definitely redo the low, Tonix is having a go at playing around with what you suggested now.

Pancake · Mar 2013

Taking your suggestion, AndyK, this is our slightly improved (I hope) base:

Andyk125 · Mar 2013

That's looking great, I think you will have a lot easier job from now on..
Keeping my eye on this one, really like the overall idea!

ToniX · Mar 2013

Hi Andyk, i just got my account approved for forum access today. i just wanted to thank you personally for your insights on a good base mesh. I prefer this way of doing things alot more and ultimately will have an easier time with getting a cleaner bake.

~Thanks

Andyk125 · Mar 2013

ToniX wrote: »

Hi Andyk, i just got my account approved for forum access today. i just wanted to thank you personally for your insights on a good base mesh. I prefer this way of doing things alot more and ultimately will have an easier time with getting a cleaner bake.

~Thanks

Haha no problem your welcome, looking forward seeing this one finished!

ToniX · Mar 2013

This is just an update to show the sculpt that Pancake and i did for this weapon!
we are fairly new to Zbrush so we are happy to take any critique if you can think of anything that could be improved. We realise the detail is alot and it will get lost in the baking process but we wanted to have fun!

darkartsofneko · Mar 2013

Wow, your zbrush work looks great! Even though detail is going to be lost, try to incorporate as much of it into the texture as well, so even if the normal map doesn't show it off a lot, the texture will help emphasize it. Good luck, can't wait to see more

ToniX · Mar 2013

Today i got the Re-topo's done for both LOD0 and LOD1, baked it down to as good as i could get it! Did a quick texture test, cavity, light map (thanks to pancake!) and the base colours. As of now it needs an AO, really needs some highlights etc and a proper painting job. The colours are too washed out, but we will fix that when we get the proper painting work tomorrow.

i am also thinking about reducing the scale. Thoughts welcomed!

Andyk125 · Apr 2013

Looking great! Maybe scale it down a bit..

Can't wait to see it finished!

ToniX · Apr 2013

Quick update with the texture work by pancake.
anyone who has experience with the art style of DotA2 feel free to critique it like crazy, i think it still isn't quite there yet, but i maybe wrong!

ALSO any suggestion on a name for it?

Andyk125 · Apr 2013

Looks really great! did you allready used masks on it?

I'm really bad with names, bone ripper or something

mrpresident · Apr 2013

I love it, I think it's a bit too large (more of a short-sword than a dagger) but I also think that size is necessary to be able to make out all the fine details in the fish skeleton. I wouldn't change this item, but maybe keep that in mind for future items when considering the detailing and item size.

Is that supposed to be the skeleton of an angler fish? You could call it the angler spine or something similar.

ToniX · Apr 2013

I tried putting some masks on it, but im not sure if they are actually working :P
but i havent spent a great deal of time on the mask side of things yet.

I totally agree with what you are say mrpresident, it's our first item for DotA2 and working with these constraints so it was very much a learning experience! Slark is a small character, so lets hope we can get away with him using an oversized dagger haha

like the idea of the angler spine!

Any advice on submitting our weapon to the workshop will be appreciated also

ToniX · Apr 2013

Thank you to all those who helped us with our development.

Here is the end result.
6289B2C9DBB6BADC6DD25832826C9AFB847A9B20

Our workshop page can be found here!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=136439733

Andyk125 · Apr 2013

Well done, the end result is awesome!

This will defently get into the game, can't wait to get a hold on it myself

There's one thing though that bothering me a little bit, and that's the end of the handle is pretty small. But when Slark holds it, it's not looking that bad.

ToniX · Apr 2013

I have recently added a video of the weapon, check it out if you haven't!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WubmKJGamBA

hopgood · Apr 2013

Congrats on your progress fellow Australian polycounter. Here's to seeing this in a chest in the future!

ToniX · Apr 2013

We're currently working on an idea for a new set for the Lich character. We're still at the "basic shapes and all that" stage, so any feedback would be very much appreciated before we go any further.

This time we have a basic name for it: Armor set of Frozen Entombment.

ToniX · Apr 2013

We have been playing around with the above concept. We want to incorporate the chains similar to how the default set has their chains, using dedicated joints. I was wondering if anyone has any information of how something like this can be incorporated into our own custom set. Any tutorials would be lovely. I assume that it has been binded to the joints just from looking at the maya file by valve. anyway if anyone has some kind of insight on this particular area, i would love to hear a response

ToniX and Pancake's Dota 2 thread

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