drake power-ups HD

[talisa]

it'll be an amulet of protection

and yes, its shield-shaped.
the fact its shaped like a small shield is symbolic for that it provides protection

itll be an amulet hanging on a necklace

[Frost R17]

ah, interesting. Keep it up.

[talisa]

thanx

itll be a replacement for this item, which is another item that was taken from hexen2

my model is quite different perhaps, but the original model was just bleh


in the drake mod it provides temp protection from all attacks except melee

i have no clue what function it has in hexen2 though, and there isnt much info to be found about the item online

[MadGypsy]

The progress in post #270 is pretty good. I like how it is decorative but still simple. I don't know how much you have done to it since you posted it, but my opinion would be to not add any more details. Anything else you do can be handled with textures... that's just my opinion.

My other opinion is, the jewel is too pink. It looks kinda like some fancy (but gross) peppermint flavored candy. It's also completely opaque. I'm not sure what color you intend to make the amulet but I think the gem would look better as a translucent, deep red with a subtle but apparent gloss... especially if you make the amulet black or any dark metal color.

I still think it looks good though. It definitely has potential.

EDIT: one last thing. The gem looks glued on. Maybe when yu get to the texture stage you can add a dark line around the base of the gem so it appears inset... or just model that in...

[talisa]

thanx gypsy


yeah the gem i will of course change a bit, this isnt final for the gem or anything.
for now its just simply copied&pasted it over from the gems i made some time ago.

i was indeed thinking of making the gem be a deep-red color.
the gem is actually slightly transparent, but blender doesnt really show it, it dun handle transparency very well


think ill make the amulet itself be gold, but im not 100% sure about that yet.

[xaGe]

Red gem on gold would look nice. I like what you have so far simple yet looks good. More can be done to add detail with your texture work, so no need to over do the modeling aspect of it. Will you be adding the chain, string or whatever that used for putting around your neck like the one you're replacing that has it dangling?

[talisa]

thanx xage

yes of course it will have a chain or string hanging from it like the original model had.

hmm... string or a chain? what do you all think would fit better?

[xaGe]

the gem is actually slightly transparent, but blender doesn't really show it, it dun handle transparency very well.

..I can tell you why that is...


Maybe is how you have Blender setup or its just you're using Blender's internal renderer which is quick & good if your PC hardware is not the strongest, but its old and long in the tooth. Its lacking many features that most other modeling renderers have had for years. For that very reason Blender foundation got involved with working on its replacement "Cycles" which can render a rough version on the fly of what you're working on and show transparency, glass, gloss, shine, etc much better than the old internal renderer. The final renders it can produce are very nice. You would need to have materials/textures setup for you work in blender to render that stuff, its not magic. I'm not sure what version of Blender you're using, but think Cycles was in as an option, but not default since v2.67?

For what you're doing in making models for games you don't need Cycles, but its nice to see some aspects of your model as if they were something close to what you would have in game with transparency and shine if you were to use shaders for them in darkplaces or just to do quick WIP renders to share in the forums.

If you intend to continue using Blender and HEY why not! Then at some point you should explore the Cycles renderer specially if you ever plan on making renders of you work composed in a scene. Maybe tell a story, who knows where you may take your modeling "hobby".

Yeah I type to much!

[xaGe]

Easy answer, "chain.." I would like the look of that.

Not saying you would have to model the thing as actual links, but maybe work some magic with a texture effect? Necklace chains are usually so tight you can see only a pattern, but not actual holes like chain links.

I dunno...

Are you catching what I'm getting at?

String or chain?

Some examples:

[talisa]

@xage
yes i have most definitely considered going for that type of chain,
since a chain made out of actual links would easily have thousands of polys even if the links are extremely blocky.
and a string would be to un-fancy compared to the amulet itself.

a chain like the kind you posted would be a good compromise between fancy and poly-count,
cuz it wouldnt be much polys but still look fancy with a nice texture on it

[talisa]

just a quick test...

yes no? would this work or not?


of course if i do decide to use it ill polish the texture a bit,
but i just wanted your opinion on this texture first before i do anything else.


so you all think this texture would work for the chain ill be adding to the amulet or not?
if not ill look further, if you all think it does ill go ahead and fix the texture up and will be using it

[talisa]

some more progress i just made

UV-mapped the amulet itself and the decorations on it.
so the amulet itself is ready to be textured now

still need to add the chain and the parts where chain will attach to the amulet.
was thinking of placing half rings on top of the outer corners of the shield-shape and have chain be attached to those

[MadGypsy]

It might be a bit of work, but what if you didn't use half-rings? Half-rings are so - "everything that has a chain". There has to be some other way to afix a chain to something.



I'm not sure how you would make the above work but, it is an example of not using half-rings. I have another idea but it seems like nobody ever though of it or something cause I can't find a pic, so I'll explain it.

Imagine that the ends of the chain are little screws and on the top of the amulet were 2 cylinders for which the screws are twisted into. That would certainly make the modeling part simple, you just need 2 cylinders.

EDIT: The below image is actually of hanging lights but the way the top is connected to the chain is more or less what I was trying to say above. Actually, this gives you 2 options. You could make each end of the chain attach to the amulet this way OR make both ends focus on this one connection



here is another concept. You could simply turn my cylinder idea sideways and pass the chain through the whole thing.



Or you could cut a small slit at the top of the shield and implement this way



Also, don't be so quick to discount "string". It's good enough for The Olympics. Although there might be some unsaid rule about how amulets come on chains and medals come on strings... It is beyond the scope of this reply to research that.



That's about all I have.

[talisa]

hmm most of your ideas are way to modern imo gypsy
they didnt have stuff like screws yet in medieval times, and the item is something from medieval times
and the thing from the pic with the lights is also way to modern-looking for me

in medieval times everything had either chains or a thick string, so having a chain on the item would make sense

.

in other news.. i just made this in blender in an hour or so for fun just to try it out

it looks sooo good... but its so heavy on polycount
i made the links as low-poly as possible but even then still the chain is almost 3K polys

.....but it looks sooooo cool

soooo tempted to just say screw polycount and just make it be like this cuz it looks so awesome like this
what do you all think... is it worth the 3K polys, the superfancy looking chain?

[xaGe]

YES!

just a quick test...

yes no? would this work or not?

I like your 3000 poly count version as well, but its 3000! for a Quake mod?