SC2Mapster

ZBrush, no I don't like zbrush, I don't like the UX and the UI, I actually do modeling and unwrapping in MAX, use Mudbox for sculpting, that I use for the Normal map, 3D Coat for the ambient occlusion map and lining out my diffuse map, together with Photoshop and xNormal to bake the texture

Mindtex, never heard of it, need to check that :)

Btw, you do know ripped models from other games, other than Blizzard's is against the policy, right?

T.

I've known that for a very long time. I'm also not putting that into a Blizzard game, else I wouldn't want to get rid of the lighting information. I build private projects exclusively. So you don't need to worry about it.

I grabbed Mindtex off of steam. It isn't as powerful as nDo but I've gotten pretty good results with it so far. I haven't tried using AO maps in sc2 before, though. I don't think I could see them when I tried (?)

@IskatuMesk: Go

I use the AO maps as a layer with the wireframe so I know how the light hits the surface, and where I don't need to put too much time on details

Private projects, hein, anything you would share to show of ;)

T.

Nothing relevant to sc2 I'm afraid. Most of my projects for this game haven't really petered out into anything noteworthy, at least not yet. The editor is a huge turnoff and every time I try to get into it I immediately get frustrated and end up turning away. It's kind of funny because that long ago it was all about graphics that were preventing me from making big projects in games like Homeworld 2 and Supreme Commander. I was able to do technical stuff but never make the actual content. Now it's the reverse, haha. I showed some of the more recent stuff in my thread, like some Unreal 3 scenes and some sc2 particles I made from scratch using frames out of FumeFX. Stuff like that is easy for me... making all the content work in the editor and being patient with its slowness, that I just can't do.

Right now I'm between Sc2 and Unreal 4 trying to decide if it's even worth trying to make projects anymore. I'm just getting too old for it, I think. I can't commit to work like I used to be able to. I just don't have it in me to focus.

So, you do your entire UV work in max, eh? I've heard from so many places and people how 3ds max's UV system is not really that good. But I just went through a day of messing around with UV's on a WoW model trying to fix them up and I don't see how it's so bad. What does your workflow look like for UV'ing a big model from scratch?

@IskatuMesk: Go

big models, I always cut them up into tiny pieces, fingeres, hand, arm, upper body, lower body, legs, feet face, hair etc.. than I put everything back together, and try to fit it in the UV Unwrapper square ( or whatever you wanna call it ) I use the relax tool a lot. The less important stuff I keep tiny, the more important stuff I go big :)

T.

Quote from TaylorMouse: Go

Download the newest script here

Import m3 Script

T.

Oh can this version finally import models that previously it couldn't ever since HotS came up? (as they gave some error and failed to import) Just tested and it can, that's great! No one could do anything without a working importer.

Here is a little something I've been working on

• Base model is based on HotS Tauren
• Texture is based on the alpha release of HotS
• Texture on the totem is partially from wood from HotS, rest is mine + team colored
• Only 1330 Tris

Time to rig

T.

Woah, awesome. How is the Medivh one go btw?

Rigging & skinning is done, started with the animation

Little Wip on Stand anim

T.

A few suggestions if I may...

The player color looks very "projected" on. Something I would consider doing is "weathering" the color range so it more appears like it is painted in the wood detail and not just projected on. Using the diffuse as a blend mask for its texture might work.

The Tauren himself appears to be drenched in water with the way his specularity is set up. A Gloss map could be used to mask it out and add some more variety to his highlights, especially with hair and the hooves, that shouldn't be as glossy. High specularity highlighting tends to add a lot of noise in RTS view and doesn't look terribly pleasant close up. The way the trunk looks, for example, is about perfect.

You avoiding clipping the hand and shoulder into the trunk and bending the arm so it's flattened out, so you're already doing way better than Blizzard did in WoW. Keep going!

Looks great!

Some suggestions from my side:

I'd say it would also help if you gave him a darker mane.

Akin to the wc3 model or the WoW model

As it is, you have a brown tauren with a brown mane with a brown totem and a bit of team color. Quite a lot of brown in brown, and hence lacking a lot of contrast.

Also, looking at the original tauren model, it would be maybe nice to give him some bracers to give him a bit of extra detail. They could be team colored, but they don't have to.

If you don't mind, here a small painted over screenshot of what I mean.

This tauren is a good example of model, which would benefit from using gloss map, because horns and hoofs have different specularity power than the fur. Also, wood is different from both.

Nice model but the furr textures of the new ETC are way better, for All the Other parts of the model i can say that are very well fine! It will be OP as he was on WC3?

About the golss map on the tauren.

Make a 255-white texture, paint in 220-grey the log, and 180-grey - the fur. Put it in the most logical, and practically used place for the gloss map - alpha channel of spec map.

Set it as gloss map in sc2 material. Increase material's spec power. It's a list of "small", "tiny", etc, - you pick custom and set something like 80 to start with.

Also, it may be slightly useful, from the point of view of the physics based shading approach, that the parts, where the gloss map is bright, should be darker on the diffuse texture, because more light get reflected without contacting with the diffuse layer.

But we can take into account, that horns and hoofs are a bit semitransparent, and have a little bit of its own emission, so, you may have to create one more material (as a composite material layer) with add mode, and use diffuse as an emissive, and gloss as mask.

But this is actually unnecessary.

So, back to the main material and gloss map. The darker the gloss map, the lower the spec power parameter locally, so specularity spot gets bigger. Black gloss map means specularity spot covers 100% of the texture and works like emission.

So, it may be sensible to make spec map darker where gloss is darker. So, it may be solved by moving the spec and gloss maps to another additional add mode material, and using gloss map both as a gloass map, and as a mask, so spec map will look less briget when gloss is not bright.

Or you can jsut edit the spec map this way and keep everything within one material.

Now you have to adjust the parameters to achieve the most naturalistic look. I said to use 220 and 180 grey shades for wood and hoofs, but they may need it brighter or darker, just look at model and decide. Usually soft like dDo generates reaslistic gloss maps, but your model is simple, so you can do it manyally.

And finally, you need to pick the correct spec power and spec multiplier values for the material. Just play with them in a wide range to see what you can achieve, and you'll find the best looking combination.

Oh, and one more last thing. You can also add an environment map with fresnel -> standard -> power = 0.3. And use the gloss map as environment mask. Because glossy surfaces have it in real life. You can find environment mpas in sc2, their names start with "Reflective_".

@Zolden: Go

thnx for the tutorial,

finishing up the animation first, then the portrait. when i get back on the texture, which is now nearly all based on HotS, looks already better, but I will certainly try your tips Z

T.

Finished my tauren model

Model by me ( based on the new HotS ETC model) Animation by me ( based on the original WC3 Tauren animation) Texture based on multiple HotS textures and the community input

Download contains:

• Tauren model (m3)
  • Stand
  • Stand 2
  • Walk
  • Attack
  • Attack Slam
  • Death

• Tauren portrait model (m3)
  • Stand
  • Talk
  • Talk 2

• orc-tauren-spell-pulverize.dds -> passive spell that he had in WC3
• btn-unit-orc-tauren-new.dds -> unit button for the summoning of the unit in SC2
• orc-tauren-new-wireframe.dds -> unit image when it is selected in SC2
• orc-taurenportrait_static.dds -> the static portrait for SC2

Here is a little pic

Download

Enjoy :)

T.

Have you tried importing the new character models from WoW into 3DS max yet?

I tried doing the .m2 import for them and there's an error. Seems all other models work though.

Hey D, that is not my script, so I can't help you there, I did once do a script like that but it only imported non animated models.

T.