Weapon Skins Contest

[noveltyhero]

If you would have just read the topic, or at least browsed for DE replies, you would have stumbled across the following which was merely on page 3;

Sorry, that was mine too. I'm just being very paranoid because I would hate to see my work become void :S

[Tenta]

I have 0 experience with drawing or 3D Editing. Is there a way to learn stuff with blender quickly?

 

Can you guys make a little tutorial about at least how to change the skin, add background and add color/material or whatever it is on the weapon please?

Edited September 6, 2014 by Tenta

[Khunvyel]

Sorry, that was mine too. I'm just being very paranoid because I would hate to see my work become void :S

I very well noticed it was yours, which is exactly why I couldn't resist to reel in the irony of your recent message. Apologies ^^°

If you are paranoid, just don't post updates on your work publicly and only share it with people you trust or whose opinion you value, if you really need the artistic input. Though I wouldn't call that paranoid.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Khunvyel

[arch111]

Very cool. All thumbs up!

I might be missing the obvious, but can I do any paintjob ai want?

Like butterflies and flowers?

I wont do a silly theme, just wondering where the line is drawn.

[noveltyhero]

I very well noticed it was yours, which is exactly why I couldn't resist to reel in the irony of your recent message. Apologies ^^°

If you are paranoid, just don't post updates on your work publicly and only share it with people you trust or whose opinion you value, if you really need the artistic input. Though I wouldn't call that paranoid.

Ahh thanks

.

.

.

Unrelated question:

Which mapping is for energy color? Emissive? I have some parts I would like to assign to energy color for players to change

[noveltyhero]

Very cool. All thumbs up!

I might be missing the obvious, but can I do any paintjob ai want?

Like butterflies and flowers?

I wont do a silly theme, just wondering where the line is drawn.

So long as it works in-game (technically) yes! I wouldn't recommend butterflies and flowers though ;)

[Cyborg-Rox]

No one's replied to my question on page 5 yet ;-;

[Rekkou]

 

Normal map modification, only the cartridge for now. Took longer than expected, gonna start the barrel tomorrow.

[noveltyhero]

No one's replied to my question on page 5 yet ;-;

I'll try to explain it myself:

Diffuse-That is your flat texture for the model

Normal-Along with specular map, it gives depth to certain aspects of the texture regardless if the model is flat or not by telling the shader what to do

Specular-Related to the lighting against the weapon itself (only used this for open world so can't say 100% here), it is almost like a part of the texture that appears when light hits it, giving off an impression that in dark areas it is actually dark

 

Tint layers are for allowing players to color parts of the weapon to their choosing, make it white and then they can color it differently ingame (Does not affect initial texture)

 

Emissive, Opacity and Gloss are sort of additional "commands" for the shader, I am unsure which determines the energy color in the game but for now you can start on making a texture without these 3

 

There is a uvchart there, you can use that to see where each part of the weapon goes, it outlines each polygon

 

Tips:

-Always work in layers, when you want to risk with something (experiments with designs) make a backup copy (duplicate the layers through right click then hide them)

-Make sure color scheme works together for the whole weapon, it is easy to get lost in designs at the beginning

-Careful about copyrighted items (designers cannot stress this enough)

-Keep it organised when working, you will want to do so for later when you want to layer each part of the weapon into a category.

 

Hope this helped buddy! :)

[Unksen]

Vectis

 

AkMagnus

 

Dual Zoren

 

Aaaand, I'm done.

From Russia with love, you know.

Edited September 9, 2014 by DartAlpha

[ZeroJackdaw]

 

Unrelated question:

Which mapping is for energy color? Emissive? I have some parts I would like to assign to energy color for players to change

Energy color would indeed be the emissive property. So just provide another texture mask for the bright glowing bits. Color swapping would just be handled with code later. :D

 

-snip-

Ahh, as far as asymmetric designs like the ebony and ivory, not sure that that's actually do-able with one texture sheet, as most of the provided UV maps are built for a symmetrical layout. I haven't looked at the Akmagnus sheet too much but from what I've seen of the Scindo/Zoren sheet, it must have symmetry as the UVs overlap across the vertical axis. Likely the Akmagnus uses the same sheet for both guns to save space. You could make another sheet and assign two separate sheets to both guns but...that would likely take up necessary space and probably won't make the devs too happy (as they are trying to budget data consumption as much as possible).

 

-snip-

...Responses like this surprise me, because honestly...why would you do it for the plat? Yes it is nice of them to give it a way in this manner, but really, I would just be happy seeing one of my designs in game. Also, all contests have rewarded with untradable platinum...how is this different?

 

*shakes head* Be thankful that DE is even attempting to do this at all. Baby steps toward user-generated content is a beautiful thing, don't squander it because you're hungry for platinum. Enjoy the contest and have fun making something.

Edited September 6, 2014 by ZeroJackdaw

[Somedude1000]

I'm surprised no ones come up with a 'tooth and claw' or cyberpunk  theme, the current ones are lovely though :D

 

Time to procrastinate instead of learning to make those ideas real >.>

Lazy Tenno is lazy

[Hasaira]

it is necessary to install Perforce? it is used to what?

[Cyborg-Rox]

I'll try to explain it myself:

Diffuse-That is your flat texture for the model

Normal-Along with specular map, it gives depth to certain aspects of the texture regardless if the model is flat or not by telling the shader what to do

Specular-Related to the lighting against the weapon itself (only used this for open world so can't say 100% here), it is almost like a part of the texture that appears when light hits it, giving off an impression that in dark areas it is actually dark

 

Tint layers are for allowing players to color parts of the weapon to their choosing, make it white and then they can color it differently ingame (Does not affect initial texture)

 

Emissive, Opacity and Gloss are sort of additional "commands" for the shader, I am unsure which determines the energy color in the game but for now you can start on making a texture without these 3

 

There is a uvchart there, you can use that to see where each part of the weapon goes, it outlines each polygon

 

Tips:

-Always work in layers, when you want to risk with something (experiments with designs) make a backup copy (duplicate the layers through right click then hide them)

-Make sure color scheme works together for the whole weapon, it is easy to get lost in designs at the beginning

-Careful about copyrighted items (designers cannot stress this enough)

-Keep it organised when working, you will want to do so for later when you want to layer each part of the weapon into a category.

 

Hope this helped buddy! :)

Thanks for the help. Things are more clear now. So the actual texture would be the Diffuse layer.

For some reason though, there's no UV chart or Emissive layer in the Zoren .Psd file, and that's the one I wanna work on :/

Edited September 6, 2014 by Cyborg-Rox

[Khunvyel]

Ahh, as far as asymmetric designs like the ebony and ivory, not sure that that's actually do-able with one texture sheet, as most of the provided UV maps are built for a symmetrical layout. Likely the Akmagnus uses the same sheet for both guns to save space. You could make another sheet and assign two separate sheets to both guns but...that would likely take up necessary space and probably won't make the devs too happy (as they are trying to budget data consumption as much as possible).

Yeah I pulled a stupid. I thought the tint masks would be assigned on a code level as to which goes where, and hoped there would be a code hack going "Selecting channel 1 on the interface is dying channel 1 on right weapon, but dyes channel 4 on the left weapon instead." Basically a variable swap. But apparently that isn't going to work, which is a bit sad, but who knows if we're going to have such a thing in the future? At least here is me hoping :D

 

Baby steps toward user-generated content is a beautiful thing, don't squander it because you're hungry for platinum. Enjoy the contest and have fun making something.

Absolute agreement on this. I bet the least people get how much convincing and haggling with the marketing department of DE it required to put this out. Also, DE knows how much skins are being purchased, and how much they are accounting for the platinum purchases. Doing an average count on the playerbase then, I think they had their reasons for putting 25% of that sum. I could bet if that was a contest for making a model for a primary weapon from the ground up with textures including stats, sales cut for the creator would probably be around 5%... when they feel generous. But this is ultimately "just" a weapon skin.

 

But the fact they actually managed to make this happen, is such a huge thing in the gaming industry.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Khunvyel

[noveltyhero]

 

But the fact they actually managed to make this happen, is such a huge thing in the gaming industry.

Lol "gaming industry"?

 

It is not the first game to feature player created content nor the last, it is a big deal for Warframe but not the gaming industry ;)

[noveltyhero]

Thanks for the help. Things are more clear now. So the actual texture would be the Diffuse layer.

For some reason though, there's no UV chart or Emissive layer in the Zoren .Psd file :/

Sorry don't have that .psd, so can't help there but Emissive is confirmed to be for energy color

[Khunvyel]

It is not the first game to feature player created content nor the last, it is a big deal for Warframe but not the gaming industry ;)

You should perhaps read closer to what I actually wrote, and compare it with the actual outcome of the contest. Perhaps then a lightbulb will rise over your head.

[Ketec]

Could zoren get a model update for poly count for the event . at least rendered some parts look.. a bit  bad :/ Being a such a old weapon.

[noveltyhero]

You should perhaps read closer to what I actually wrote, and compare it with the actual outcome of the contest. Perhaps then a lightbulb will rise over your head.

I read what you wrote and don't see any lightbulbs around me >.>

 

Seriously though, what? The outcome? New skins for DE to sell, a way for the creative folks to make more platinum and a baby step towards player generated content in the official game with both parties winning.

I stand by my initial comment, big step for Warframe, no step for the "gaming industry". Why?

[noveltyhero]

Could zoren get a model update for poly count for the event . at least rendered some parts look.. a bit  bad :/ Being a such a old weapon.

You sure you aren't just rendering it without a normal map? Cause in that case yeah they tend to look very low poly 

[Cyborg-Rox]

Alright, I can't work with this Zoren .Psd file. It's using the original texture instead of a grey one like the Vectis and AkMagnus, so I have to manually remove the blue patterns, there's no UV chart to help me figure out what parts are where on the actual weapon, and there's no Emissive layer, so I have no idea where the normal energy colours appear. Please update the file, Rebecca.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Cyborg-Rox

[ultragamer111]

:c There is probably quite a few people like me who really want to participate but cant because of the price of photoshop and etc.

[Khunvyel]

 

 

List me a few companies that are effectively paying out money or the cash-ingame currency for user generated content from a percent based ( investment based ) point of view, and I might withdraw from my statement and admitting it to be false and uninformed. Because giving the player Platinum, even if it is untradeable or not, is just like giving them money that would normally be allocated for Warframe.

 

I don't talk about UGC that people can rate ingame, which has been done a plenty before.

I don't talk about UGC that is being only rewarded once, that has been done a plenty before.

But going in with a percentage cut from the actual sales is not something I've been seeing any time around. It is like contingent comission, where the company is thriving, you're getting even more money out of it. If we put it into perspective, Let us say the skin is worth 20 plat, so 5 plat to go the creator. That means if the item sells more than 200 times, the winner is getting more than he ever could from a design based contest. This item will continue to be available in the game for all new players to come. The chance for winning yet another contest for another 1000 platinum is not even remotely comparable to the continued cut from the original inception of the skin. This is like the offer for 2% profit sharing with the lead actors on the Star Wars Franchise back in the late 70s. I don't see Harrison Ford complain about that, even though he often stated to have wholeheartedly disliked the movie.

 

 

 

:c There is probably quite a few people like me who really want to participate but cant because of the price of photoshop and etc.

There are free alternatives listed in the initial post. You can very well work you way with Gimp 2.0 to do it with a bit of effort.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Khunvyel

[Cyborg-Rox]

List me a few companies that are effectively paying out money or the cash-ingame currency for user generated content from a percent based ( investment based ) point of view, and I might withdraw from my statement and admitting it to be false and uninformed. Because giving the player Platinum, even if it is untradeable or not, is just like giving them money that would normally be allocated for Warframe.

 

Team Fortress 2. There's like hundreds of user-created cosmetics in that game, and the creators of every item gets a percentage of the money for each item sold in the in-game store.