Deathmantle Texture Complete

That took a bit longer than expected but for the most part the Deathmantle Male Armor is ready to go. I still need to get it working in game which is going to require some trial and error. I also will need to make some texture tweaks once I get it in game and working properly so that will be a bit of a time sync as well. In the meantime I have the Horse Armor, Female Armor, world items, and icons still to do. Whew.

Diffuse Texture Painting Process

I've been working on the diffuse texture Deathmantle armor for a day or so now, and I created a little document to help keep all my textures consistant. So I don't have to remember every layer setting, color, brush, etc. I could simply use this as a guide. I figured it might be cool to share as it may shed some light on creating diffuse textures, or people might just find it generally interesting. How do you create your diffuse maps?

Deathmantle Color Test 2

More progress on the color texture. Still needs lot's of tweaks but it's coming along. Enjoy!

The Process

Thought I would do a quick write up on my process for texture / model creation. This isn't THE way to do it, this is just how I go about building assets. This also isn't every single step and meant to be just a general overview:

1. Concept and Reference
   This step usually consists of a concept artist handing me drawn artwork or me going into Photoshop and cooking up some ideas. Sometimes I'll draw or paint over existing models or models that have similar shapes / silhouettes to get a general visual going. I'll also search around for pictures of materials, colors, and other designs I might want to incorporate.
   
   
2. Initial Model
   Here I block out the model shape and proportions. Try not to define things too much and just get a general feel and layout for the model.
   
   
3. Model Refinement
   After I have the model blocked out I go in and start refining sections piece by piece. It's important to not going into extreme detail on one part while another part is still in block form. You want to massage the entire model phase by phase so that it works into a more detailed form together instead of one part at a time. Not unlike how you would work with clay.
   
   
4. Model Detail Refinement
   Here is where I clean up the model, make sure polys normals are the right direction, weld where needed, smooth out topography and mesh flow. I'll also add accessories and other misc. details in this stage as well.
   
   
5. UV Layout
   Layout out UVs tends to be about 30-50% of the model building process. It's extremely important as it will determine how well your texture will look on your model. I UV the model in sections, using a UV Alignment Pattern (click save as to download mine). Bad UVs can make a great model look horrible or good UVs can make an "ok" model look fantastic. There are several UV tools out there to help with the UV process one really good one is Headus' UV Layout. Even with auto layout tools and helpers I do a lot of my UVs by hand. Keeping UVs straight and clean helps reduce seams and keeps the texturing process quick. It also reduces texture stepping as well. If you're going to texture in a program like ZBrush or Body Paint automated tools for UVs work quite well, and cause less concern but give you less control. Based on your concept and time constraints you have to decide what will work best.
   
   
6. Skinning (if required)
   Next it's time to skin and weight the model. Once this is done it's handed off to the animator and you can begin texturing. Some studios have the animators skin, some have the modellers do it, so it depends on your studio situation.
   
   
7. Normal Map (if required)
   There are several ways to generate normal / displacement / occlusion maps. One way is by hand. I often times create gray scale normal maps (like height maps) and use the NVidia filter tool for Photoshop to process the results. This works great as I can then use that gray scale image as a base for all my other maps. Another way to do this is to use ZBrush or MudBox to generate a very high polygon mesh and cook out normal / displacement / occlusion maps from that. This works great as well especially if you're working in an engine that supports these things. I use my base mesh to build off of and sometime go back and rework my base mesh to fit my changes (if required). If you plan on reworking your base mesh you will want to skin your model after this step (otherwise you'll have some very unhappy animators to deal with).
   
   
8. Specular Map (if required)
   I use my gray scale height map for this and make it fairly dark. Then I go in and paint in the highlights/dark areas where I want them with textured brushes to give the shine some variants and randomness. Some engines support specular color as well, I will do this at this stage or generate it from a program like ZBrush or 3DS Max.
   
   
9. Other Maps (if required)
   Here I create Alpha, Environment, Glow, SSS, Refraction, Gloss, Animated, Dual UV, etc. Whatever other maps you need to for your respective engine.
   
   
10. Diffuse (aka Color)
    The Diffuse map is your color. When I'm working with normal maps I try to keep lighting detail out of my diffuse, because it will interfere with all the other maps I've created. I do put in a lot of texture detail and use a lot of blending modes along with my gray scale height map I created earlier. Tonal variants and "world color" are really important to help make your model not look like a cartoon or it was made from ice cream (unless that's the look you're going for).
    
    
11. Ship It!
    

Deathmantle Color Test

I'm working on color textures now. Here's a color test for the Deathmantle's chest texture.

Deathmantle Horse Armor

Here's a new render to check out:



Rendered here is the normal, specular, and glow maps. Working on the color for both the armor and the horse armor next. Then female armor, and world items. Wee!

Plans for POWA Release 1

Here's what I'm planning for POWA Release 1, if I have time to pull it off:

Armor:

• Rogue Deathmantle Armor (male & female) [Current Progress]
  
• Deathmantle Horse Armor
  
  
• Warrior Warbringer Armor (male & female)
  
• Warbringer Horse Armor
  
  
• Priest Absolution Regalia Armor(male & female)
  
• Absolution Regalia Horse Armor
  
  
• Paladin Judgement Armor (male & female)
  
• Judgement Horse Armor
  

I also plan on including a few other things but I haven't nailed them down yet:

• Merchant to purchase armors from.
  
• Weapons and Shields.
  

If anyone has suggestions and links to pictures of weapons / shields they'd like to see let me know.

Software

Some people have asked what software I use so here's a short list:

Frequently Used:
3DS Max 9
Adobe Photoshop CS3
ZBrush 3

Occasionally Used (for various tools):
Silo 2
XSI 6
Blender
Adobe Illustrator CS3
Filter Forge

In the Deathmantle render I posted earlier I only used Max 9, Photoshop and Filter Forge. Everything in that render can be done with just those 3 programs (or just Max 9 and Photoshop). Also UVs are extremely important, a lot of people overlook them due to so much UV layout automation but if you abuse the automation the end result can end up being less than stellar. I'll post some of my UVs up later.

Hope that helps any aspiring 3D artists out there, good luck!

Pixhell's Oblivion WarCraft Armory (POWA)

Here's a render of some of the progress I've made so far.



All of the textures and models are game ready, but haven't been brought back into NifSkope yet to be made useable in game yet. I still have a lot of texture work to do. The base mesh was created from the Thief armor created by Bethesda. The head and shoulders I created from scratch. I also completely redid all of the UVs, as they weren't working well with what I wanted to do texture wise. This armor is based off of the Rogue Tier 5 Deathmantle armor from World of WarCraft.

I'm planning on doing additional armors, and horse armors to match each set as well. If I have time I may do some weapons as well.

I'll have some more stuff to show after the holidays.

Enjoy!

Hello Mod World ...

I decided to create some new art for my art portfolio and decided to throw together some artwork for Oblivion while I was at it. Watch this space for more ... stuff ... =)