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[DagonOfSolitude 56]

Thank you daoudalqasir. The decorations are mediocre though and could be significantly better. I will retexture and remodel some parts of the gladius (if you're referring to the gladius and not the hand and a half sword). I'm not satisfied with the results, the imperial "akatosh" symbol wasn't meant to be black but it didn't look good being engraved since the ambient occlusion did not take it into account and therefore it had no shading. The floral designs on each side of the symbol aren't that great either since the AO map doesn't recognize them and it doesn't apply shading/shadows to them. I could paint the shadows in manually...

Something like this would have been fantastic - http://images.supremereplicas.com/is/image/maskworld/sr-121803-1?$mainshot-2$

But that stuff is usually achieved via sculpting. I don't have access to Zbrush or Mudbox to do that. Blender has it's own sculpting tools but I am not that familiar with them and I know they are not as powerful or user friendly as the Zbrush and Mudbox tools are considering they are software specifically designed for sculpting. I can try modeling in floral details. It's just much more inefficient to do so.  

[daoudalqasir 8]

Idk man, I think sometimes simple is better, especially with roman style stuff.  My only reccomendation would be that the grip could use a little more texture work to look more leathery. 

Edited 12 July by daoudalqasir

[DagonOfSolitude 56]

Very true sometimes simpler is better. 

are you talking about the grip on the hand and a half sword? that's leather. But the grip on the gladius isn't.

I modeled a new weapon based on a Roman Spatha last night. And also I am reusing parts to create different variants and weapons for the Empire - 



Rest of the renders of the Spatha and other variants
http://imgur.com/gallery/yug2Y

Several more crossguards, pommels and blade variants and different types of metal on the blade and hilt and also wooden hilts are going to be included. 




SPATHA V2 COMPLETE  SWORDS OF THE EMPIRE - 



Rest of the renders of the Spatha V2 - http://imgur.com/gallery/fwJEX

The T and S underneath the crossguard stands for Tiber Septim the first Emperor of the Imperial Empire

The Empire is Law - The Law is Sacred

Edited 12 July by DagonOfSolitude
Spatha V2 Complete

[Lux 40]

Outstanding Gladius! My compliments man!

[jackdarkness12 2]

Working on maps for RPG maker game

[daoudalqasir 8]

@DagonOfSolitude I was refering to the Gladius, whatever material it is supposed to be it seemed a little too smooth compared to the amount of detail on the rest of it. But your swords are amazing man, I absolutely love the roman style stuff, and would love to see that era weapons applied to other cultures of tamriel, like a Seax for Nords or a Khopesh for Khajits. There was a modder for oblivion who I thought did a great job at making historically based weapons for each of the games races. http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/users/72638/?tb=mods&pUp=1 

I'm totally new to this but am aplanning on devoting this summer to learning a bit of 3d moddeling and if you have any advice or any reccomended tutorials i'd really appreciate it. feel free to DM me. 

[DagonOfSolitude 56]

I remember Oblivion's realswords mod. It was one of my favourites at the time. 

I'll consider modeling other weapons for the other races and factions down the line. Although for the Nords I think later Nordic era swords would be brilliant. Considering there is a mix of newer and older fashioned weapons and equipment all over Skyrim. 

For example the Legion uses Roman era and inspired equipment yet there are knights out there with full plated armour and great swords. Which I actually enjoy as it's a basket full of different and awesome stuff rather than just one type.

Hans Palm - Millenia's tutorials are usually pretty good. He has one uploaded on youtube on how to model an m37 shotgun. It may help you understand high and low poly modeling. Although learning a software's interface is usually the most difficult step at first but once you get the hang of it and understand how to model properly, you'll be churning out stuff in no time.

There are plenty of tutorials out there, all you need to do is look on youtube. Some apply to modeling in general so it doesn't matter what software you're using and some tutorials are software specific. 


@jackdarkness12 looks good bud.


Modeled the scabbard for the Spatha V2, rest of the renders here - http://imgur.com/gallery/YAp1Q

Edited 14 July by DagonOfSolitude

[SamuraiHealer 31]

These are amazing, but that scabbard looks similar in width to the blade, and not as if the blade is inside it.

[DagonOfSolitude 56]

It is quite a snug fit. I could make it thicker if it's not realistic. But it sure does fit otherwise there would be clipping issues 

Going to import it into Skyrim this evening. Will post screenshots here if it looks good if not. I'll post in the Help & Advice section.

EDIT: Imported into Skyrim, the textures look pretty bad as usual. At first they were way too bright, so I just darkened them in Photoshop but that's not the only issue. the cubemap seems to be washing out the engravings, It doesn't look like shiny metal either. I'll continue to play with the textures and settings and hopefully get a good result in the end so I can then go ahead and add the other versions with different metals and grip materials.

The version you see in the ingame screenshot is supposed to be Gold with a "damascus" steel blade with a ivory/bone grip. The scabbard is made of gold and leather on the outside. 

Rest of the ingame screenshots - http://imgur.com/gallery/DaBo3





EDIT 02: Made a topic in the Help & Advice category with the texture sheets and nifskope screenshots provided. Since I am struggling with getting the textures to look good within Skyrim.

Edited 17 July by DagonOfSolitude

[SamuraiHealer 31]

I've been looking at it, and I think I'm a little off since my sword's a katana, with a wooden saya (sheath).  It's a lot different than leather sheaths I've (just now) been looking at.  

[Argor nash35 1361]

Some katanas have wooden sheaths though, so they don' have to all be leather.

Dagon of Solitude, love the sword, but I think the textures could use some upgrades. The blade itself is rather bland and all one flat color. Adding more AO, highlights (especially to the edges to make it look a bit sharper), and shadows ( especially on the hilt to accentuate the engravings and edges) will make it stand out more. The hilt itself seems both a bit too shiny and not detailed enough. As it is, it looks too much like plastic and not wood or metal or whatever it is you were going for (ceramic?) I would add some sort of detail overly of the material you are making it out of. 

Again, love the sword, just my twenty cents  

Edited 18 July by Argor nash35

[DagonOfSolitude 56]

 @Argor nash35 the textures are definitely bad, they are supposed to look like they do in Substance and Marmoset Toolbag shown in the renders. Yet I can't seem to get to get them to appear properly in Skyrim, these are the texture sheets - http://imgur.com/gallery/JhBak

I'm also not happy with the blade either ideally I'd like all metal parts to be shiny and reflective like InsanitySorrow's Thegn - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51544/? 

The golden parts on the hilt are supposed to be metal. The grip is supposed to be ivory/bone. It appears brown in game because I darkened the texture sheets in Photoshop because the sword appeared way too bright and whitewashed upon import.

The scabbard is leather and metal. 



 

Edited 18 July by DagonOfSolitude

[Yaranik 14]

Still, a great work in progress! I like what you're going for with this.

[Argor nash35 1361]

Yeah, just got to play around with the spec and gloss variables in nifskope in relation to your m spec map and the one in the alpha of the normals to get it right, but you'll get it, looks great still

[DagonOfSolitude 56]

Ahah! Figured out what the issue was.

The specular maps in the alpha 1 channel in the normal map .dds files weren't saving because I hadn't set it to save the alpha channel in PS upon saving as a .dds. That's why the normals were glitched out in Skyrim.

Looking a lot better now but not perfect. I'm studying other weapon texture sheets. And notice that the diffuse maps on some weapons are quite dark while mine is quite bright. I reckon if I darken the gold parts and the blade in the diffuse map it may look better. 

The sword and scabbard's specular maps have different brightness values which I should have made consistent. I can quickly fix that though no problem.

The blade is shining nicely, I think I can get it looking neater though. I got rid of the "damascus steel" pattern since it didn't look good or realistic to how damascus blades are supposed to look. I'll see if I can mess with the pattern and come up with better results if not I'll keep a plain old normal steel blade. 

I'm going for a polished look though rather than the usual dark grey dull blades that most swords in Skyrim have. So far it's not exactly got a polished look but it's close, it's easier to see how shiny it is in game though. The screenshots don't show it very well.

As for the gold, It's still looking a little "plastic" but I reckon I know how to fix it by tweaking the diffuse and specular maps a bit and maybe another cubemap may make a difference too. 

The ivory/bone grip is still shiny but that's because I didn't mask it out in the specular map. I will mask it out and see how it looks in game, some Roman swords had polished ivory grips and that's what I am trying to replicate for this sword. As it's supposed to be for Imperial Captains. The steel variants will be for regular Legionnaires. 

So once this sword starts looking decent I think I can then go ahead and make more variants and finish up the Spatha V1. I also plan to make some shields for the Empire based on Roman scutums but smaller, probably will be heavily based on the shields from Ryse.

Sorry about the bad screenshots. The guards were threatening to throw me into the Riften dungeon for leaving a sword lying around in public. So I was forced to take screenshots in a more secluded area and the Thieves Guild Cistern was the closest place.

More screenshots - http://imgur.com/gallery/hW59d

Edited 21 July by DagonOfSolitude

[indridcold96 8]

So i've been wanting to make this armor for some time, finally decided to sit down and draw it, i'm happy with the results,although this version lacks the feet parts and the cowl it's good for a first version, now that i decided what parts i want in the armor i can remake it to look better, this version also lacks the feet parts and the cowl

The concept of this armor is simple, it's an armor made from the pieces of armors collected from fallen enemies, i alsso wanted to give it a menacing and rustic look, to make the metal pieces look like they are battered and worn

[DagonOfSolitude 56]

Working on two Imperial shields. 

These are heavily inspired by Ryse: Son of Rome

High Poly (WIP) The one on the right is ready to be baked, just lacks a low poly. The one on the left still needs more details and adjustments.

The handles are supposed to be horizontal instead of vertical but if I made it that way then when the character blocks the shield wouldn't be straight but held at an angle which would look a little odd. 







Reworked the Gladius as I did not like the first version, I've modeled them in a modular fashion so I can switch out blades, grips, pommels and peens/nuts or whatever those caps are called that are commonly found on the pommels of swords. More renders - http://imgur.com/gallery/AaytS There are 4 different types of blades based on the Roman historical blades that have been discovered.

Edited 28 July by DagonOfSolitude

[Atello 20]

Something I've been working on having played around with the temple of the nine-divines. This is the start of the "front door" to what I want to eventually be a scots baronial style manor.

[Munnin_Crow 20]

Hello everyone, I was perusing the various Provinces threads and came upon a Khajiiti mounts and saddles discussion with an excellent picture I used as a basis for my project. Whereas the thread discussed making Senche/Sench-raht saddles as a Common, Anequinan (desert/plains), and Pelletine (jungle) styles with one each, I thought I would create Pahmar saddles in the same styles.

As I began, I analyzed the common saddle from the Senche. It is an Arabian saddle design (for the most part), and via my searching on google, I wound up with a mislabeled 18th century Qi Dynasty Chinese saddle. (I discovered the mislabel as I researched it further after initial modeling).

Modeling the saddle, I used a ripped Senche-tiger mount from ESO (to be replaced with a new Pahmar model) to shape the blanket and the pad, followed by the saddle and straps. Texturing was fun process, though the UV Unwrap was an interesting process in 3dsmax, having to redo it 8 times throughout the day, with 4 of those times having the model fully UV mapped before I would delete or add to the mesh, undoing it all.

For the rug, padding, and saddle, I used Arabian and Chinese rugs (turns out there aren't many differences between most Oriental rugs). I started with the red saddle first, though the first rug I used was the peacock blue rug.

And finally, I have the gold plates on the front and back. I attempted to find a nice Arabic pattern to fit with the Khajiiti styles, but all I found were either the wrong shape, or of the wrong (and very religious) art. I ended up drawing out my own pattern and embossing it in Photoshop as best I could. The patterns on these plates depict the Khajiiti moons, and the winds sweeping across rolling sand dunes. The diamonds are meant to resemble starlight/moonlight, as a couple can be found buried in the sand dunes.

Front panel

Back panel

My next step is to create the bump maps and specular maps and do some test imports to Skyrim. Once I have the process done, I will go and design some Pahmar saddles for Anequina and Pelletine in the Arabian and Indian (India) styles respectively. Considering making a common saddle for each, and then a military saddle as well.

 

Update 1: Here are some screenshots of the cats in Skyrim. I think the blue saddle is my favorite.

So I used the horse as a basis, but am considering having the Pahmar use the Sabercat skeleton and animations. Otherwise I'd have to animate with a fresh skeleton (which won't be too bad, all things considered). A couple features I'd love to implement is for the Pahmar to be a companion that you can equip a saddle on to ride them, and for both player and Pahmar to have mounted attacks.

Nothing like riding on a big cat as it pounces and mauls your enemies. I think dragons should prove an interesting challenge.

Not sure what the black sections are, nor what is causing them. The Creation Kit doesn't display them. I think the Pahmar need to go to the vet.

 

Update 2: Tweaked the mesh for a smoother appearance.

Low poly-count is retained, while bumping up the quality of smoothness. I'm quite pleased with the results.

Next, I need to add a specular map and bump map to enhance the texture details, and make it not as shiny.

 

Plans:

- Combine Follower and Mount systems

- Equippable Saddles

     * Rimmen Common + Military Saddle

     * Anequinan Common + Military Saddle

     * Pelletine Common + Military Saddle

-Actual Pahmar mesh (No distinction from standard lions, tigers, etc. in appearance)

     * Different breeds? (tiger, lion/ess, jaguar, etc.)

 

Edited 28 July by Munnin_Crow

[The Old Ye Bard 168]

Hello everyone, I was perusing the various Provinces threads and came upon a Khajiiti mounts and saddles discussion with an excellent picture I used as a basis for my project. Whereas the thread discussed making Senche/Sench-raht saddles as a Common, Anequinan (desert/plains), and Pelletine (jungle) styles with one each, I thought I would create Pahmar saddles in the same styles.

Hidden Content

 

Update 1: Here are some screenshots of the cats in Skyrim. I think the blue saddle is my favorite.

Hidden Content

Update 2: Tweaked the mesh for a smoother appearance.

Hidden Content

 

Plans:

- Combine Follower and Mount systems

- Equippable Saddles

     * Rimmen Common + Military Saddle

     * Anequinan Common + Military Saddle

     * Pelletine Common + Military Saddle

-Actual Pahmar mesh (No distinction from standard lions, tigers, etc. in appearance)

     * Different breeds? (tiger, lion/ess, jaguar, etc.)

 

I'm married, but oh gee, oh boy, would I ever like to propose to you right now. I'm the Creative Director & Project Lead on Elsweyr — that's a fantastic start on turning some of our beautiful concept art into reality, look out for a PM link to Elsweyr's Discord, pal.