Thanks. I'm currently leaning towards 8 or 10. As for the theme, I'd be more comfortable doing something like Angelic, Core or Maker, as the other styles are a little more intimidating. Maybe it would be better to go outside of my comfort zone, though.
These are nice silhouettes, I like number 10 the most. It's simple, but the shape of the axe blade has a certain badass factor to it.
Also a fan of number 3.
8. Too many of them are a tad too clean unless you wanted 2/3 of them to be Angelic. If you were going Angelic I would go for 3. A-symmetry is always cool
@Haiasi: Yeah, most of them are too clean. These are just roughs to try to find cool shapes.
I tried some more variations on the style of 8, but I don't think I like them as much as 15 and 16.
15 and 16 are in Darksiders Core style. The bottom is supposed to be a skull with spikes coming out of it. The handle will be a femur with leather lashed around it. I might make a skull between the axe blades.
Here they are with the character scale comparison:
Which looks better - 1 blade or 2? I'm going to start detailing the concepts.
Looking good. I think it could use a little something extra in the blade area though. The pommel, handle, and the skull on the head all look great to me. Maybe some fleshy stuff growing between the skull and the blade?
Also wouldn't mind seeing some other silhouettes worked up like this one was.
@SgtNasty: Thanks. I haven't added details to the inner part of the blades yet, but I will son. I'm going to experiment with more handle and skull styles as well.
I've continued to work on the concept. Some parts are still pretty rough, such as the ornaments around the skull and the runes. I've been struggling with the shattered blade. Which version is cooler? Maybe the axe blades are too jagged, particularly in the double headed one.
It's getting better, I like all of the spikey bone detail and the breaks on the edge of the blade. However, I still don't get a good sense for what kind of material the blade is made out of. It also looks like there is a lot of detail in there and it might be getting too busy.
As for which one is better, I like the double bladed. It looks a lot cooler when compared to Death in the images above.
I like how rough everything is. Think I like the single bladed more, at least it makes more practical sense shere this dual one looks like it would easily injure death on wielding.
One thing you might wanna try out is rotating the skull to face the right side direction, where the secondary blade is right now. Many designs have put their main ornament on the front view ( which is for good reason ) so maybe it'll be worth to try something a bit different.
It's going great though. Will the blue runes be carved in and glowing?
That pommel is badass! The blades however need much more love. The runes you've done are a bit too distracting.
I also like how absolutely badass the dual blade variant looks with death, but I would definitely advocate some more asymmetry in them to be honest. Break up those shapes!
@Frump It's supposed to be really beaten up, jagged metal. Most of the DS2 reference images show the type of material I'm trying to go for, but I haven't done any shading yet. It might be getting too noisy. It's tough to find a balance.
@AimBiZ If I go with the double-bladed version, I'll have to scale the blades down a bit. I plan on trying some other placements for the skull. I was planning on having the blue runes carved in and glowing in the darksiders style.
@Maph Thanks. I'm not loving the runes either. Maybe I should just remove them. What kind of asymmetry do you mean, like a largish chunk out of one side?
I think I'm probably going to just stick with the double axe. I attempted to make thumbnail #2 from the first post into an angelic axe, but it didn't turn out very well.
Here are the ideas that I will experiment with tonight after work:
1. Kingdom of the dead style - Bone blades and crown
2. Faintly glowing fault lines
3. Big chip on one blade
4. Remove runes from blades and maybe skull
5. Have bony spikes from the handle extend over the metal, under the skull. Possibly clutching the skull and radiating out onto the blades.
6. Putting the skull in another spot (this will require an additional asymmetrical version)
I decided to switch from Darksiders Core to Kingdom of the Dead to really push the concept. I added glow, radiating bone branch things and claws clutching the skull. The design is mostly done. I'm trying out different color palettes right now.
Nice update, I think it looks pretty good. From a design standpoint looks done. For colour try using the example weapons as a starting point, and don't be afraid to go crazy with it.
Great stuff man. Loving that pommel, but it looks like it would actually deal more damage then the blade.
I would also do something about the transition from metal to flesh, it's a bit too abrupt as it stands right now imho.
I'm planning on giving the blades fewer, bigger spikes. Hopefully that will make it more intimidating. I'm not sure what I could do about the transition between the bone radiating from the skull and the metal blades, though I agree that it's a bit too abrupt.
I might beef up the wraps just a bit, and have them come off the mesh some, so when they bake the normal map will come out a bit stronger. This design is looking killer though, can't wait to see that texture!
I like your design and sculpt! one thing that sticks out to me as an interesting choice however is not to mirror the blade across (z), I would think you'd want all the resolution you can get for the skull side, having unique sides seems like it'd be pushing the 512. OR, im offbase and it'll look rad anyway
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. It was very helpful. I widened the handle wraps, made the horns more knuckley, elongated the nasal cavity and added some more dings and scratches.
@BluPanda - I considered 3 options for the skull:
1) Skull face on the front and back of the skull on the other side.
2) A squashed skull on each side.
3) One skull with a face on both the back and front.
I decided on method #1. It seems to add some depth and realism, as well as having the other side look different, but I'll have to sacrifice some texture res. We'll see how it turns out. I may regret it. #2 would have given me problems with the horns and spike.
@hannes d - The blade spikes were probably the part that gave me the most trouble. I'm past the point where I can majorly change them now. I'm not super pleased with them, but it's time to move on.
I guess it's time to do the low poly and bake, unless anyone can see anything else I could improve with the sculpt.
I created the low poly mesh tonight (1799 triangles). I've still got to figure out a couple of things with it. I'm a little intimidated by the thought of having to bake out the normals for all of these spikes and weird angles.
Here's the low poly with the normal map applied. More detail transferred to the 512x512 map than I expected. It's texturing and presentation time tomorrow. Lighting is temporary. The final presentation will be done in Marmoset.
Bake looks good. If you are going to use marmo, make sure you check how the bake looks there before moving on. I had some areas of my normal map look fine in maya but terrible in marmoset.
Replies
I like 7, 8 and 12. They look very interesting. Anyways, good luck!
Do you have any personal preference? Demonic, Angelic or whatever?
Also a fan of number 3.
I tried some more variations on the style of 8, but I don't think I like them as much as 15 and 16.
15 and 16 are in Darksiders Core style. The bottom is supposed to be a skull with spikes coming out of it. The handle will be a femur with leather lashed around it. I might make a skull between the axe blades.
Here they are with the character scale comparison:
Which looks better - 1 blade or 2? I'm going to start detailing the concepts.
I love the final image you have with the asymmetrical axe. Fantastic job at developing your silhouettes!
Is it obvious that the asymmetrical version is shattered? For some reason, I can't get the shards to look very good.
Also wouldn't mind seeing some other silhouettes worked up like this one was.
As for which one is better, I like the double bladed. It looks a lot cooler when compared to Death in the images above.
One thing you might wanna try out is rotating the skull to face the right side direction, where the secondary blade is right now. Many designs have put their main ornament on the front view ( which is for good reason ) so maybe it'll be worth to try something a bit different.
It's going great though. Will the blue runes be carved in and glowing?
I also like how absolutely badass the dual blade variant looks with death, but I would definitely advocate some more asymmetry in them to be honest. Break up those shapes!
Good job none the less man!
@akacg Thanks.
@AimBiZ If I go with the double-bladed version, I'll have to scale the blades down a bit. I plan on trying some other placements for the skull. I was planning on having the blue runes carved in and glowing in the darksiders style.
@Maph Thanks. I'm not loving the runes either. Maybe I should just remove them. What kind of asymmetry do you mean, like a largish chunk out of one side?
Here are the ideas that I will experiment with tonight after work:
1. Kingdom of the dead style - Bone blades and crown
2. Faintly glowing fault lines
3. Big chip on one blade
4. Remove runes from blades and maybe skull
5. Have bony spikes from the handle extend over the metal, under the skull. Possibly clutching the skull and radiating out onto the blades.
6. Putting the skull in another spot (this will require an additional asymmetrical version)
And Frostmourne style:
Here's a little more refinement on the latest color concept:
I would also do something about the transition from metal to flesh, it's a bit too abrupt as it stands right now imho.
I'm planning on giving the blades fewer, bigger spikes. Hopefully that will make it more intimidating. I'm not sure what I could do about the transition between the bone radiating from the skull and the metal blades, though I agree that it's a bit too abrupt.
Here's another WIP shot of the sculpt:
And an updated concept:
Love it!
T.
imo a little bit to much spikes on the blade
@BluPanda - I considered 3 options for the skull:
1) Skull face on the front and back of the skull on the other side.
2) A squashed skull on each side.
3) One skull with a face on both the back and front.
I decided on method #1. It seems to add some depth and realism, as well as having the other side look different, but I'll have to sacrifice some texture res. We'll see how it turns out. I may regret it. #2 would have given me problems with the horns and spike.
@hannes d - The blade spikes were probably the part that gave me the most trouble. I'm past the point where I can majorly change them now. I'm not super pleased with them, but it's time to move on.
I guess it's time to do the low poly and bake, unless anyone can see anything else I could improve with the sculpt.
Thanks, jeebs and Kraken.
That kind of stimulated my imagination in that direction, hahaha
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@Stinkhorse: I hated the skull for quite a while as I was working on it, then at some point it eventually started to look cool.
@XRevan23: Thanks
I created the low poly mesh tonight (1799 triangles). I've still got to figure out a couple of things with it. I'm a little intimidated by the thought of having to bake out the normals for all of these spikes and weird angles.
And an Easter Egg: