xixax
10-19-04, 05:54 PM
I started out trying the sphere method shown by Spike (incredible orc by the way, armor and helm too). Unfortunately for me, the polycount became insane at a certain level, with most of those polys being hidden inside the cap of the helmet. I couldn't get enough polys then to move to the facial area of the helmet. Instead, I took my sketch and tried to roughly lay it out "flat" in Photoshop as an alphamask. Imported, spent a ton of time bending it into shape, and finally took it to render. Was a fun excercise in which I definitely learned a lot, one of the biggest steps coming from an "aha" moment contained in Spike's tutorial helmet (the ability to paint on a mask....).
Still, this would have been immensely easier if I could figure out how to work with blender or some other modeling software and was able to lay out the "ridges" in advance, could have really saved on poly count I think. Anyway, I've loved the "pounded metal" look since seeing it really for the first time in LoTR, definitely a homage to their style.
Still, this would have been immensely easier if I could figure out how to work with blender or some other modeling software and was able to lay out the "ridges" in advance, could have really saved on poly count I think. Anyway, I've loved the "pounded metal" look since seeing it really for the first time in LoTR, definitely a homage to their style.