Unity Community Art Challenge - January 2015 - Thor's Hammer (Mjölnir)

Thank you very Belar!
I did as you instructed me,it needed to put a comma in the end!
Once again thank you very much my friend,and i wish you the best of luck on this contest!

 

Hello Avenger!
I love your idea and the design you came up with!
I would suggest you decrease just a bit the sharpness filtrer! It causes you artifacts!
Try a value between 8-12

Too much sharpness it will make it look unrealistic and will cause artifacts! Too low sharpness will result in not translating the details as you wanted to right?
So 8 to 12 values worked better with my hammer!I hope they will do for you's as well!

Once again really nice design

 

Hi nikos667

Thank you Glad you liked my design, and thank you for the advice with sketchfab, Will give those changes a try. Nice entry too

 

Turned the sharpness to 10, hope this works Thanks again nikos667

 

@Belar - Thanks. We have a fix coming so that the last tag you enter will be saved, even if you don't press (space) or (,) after it.

@Avenger84 - I've added the 'ucac5' tag for you. Great work.

@nikos667 - Very nice!

@Mr-Brett - Have you tried adding an emission map manually in the Material Editor?

 

Glad to help Avenger! Looking forward to see your final piece!

Make sure to add a glow effects and if it's possible color correction!
I'm sure it's gonna shine after all of this effects!

Lots of game engines use those effects today so...why not take the advantage out of them in the sketchfab

 

Hi, yeah I did but I realise now that it was too faint and barely perceptible. So I boosted the map a lot and re-added, now it's working

That's looking really good!
Did you try adding the writing to the spec map? I think that'd look pretty good, could be wrong though.[/user]

 

Hello Mr-Brett!
Thanks for your kind words!

The writing is in the spec map! But i have reduced spec % so it doesn't reflect too much!

 

Still a work in progress, but fairly close to completion. Think I need to make things a bit brighter. Feedback welcome.

Still need to make the base/turntable.

"

"

 

Ah fair enough, that could be the bloom settings though.

 

Really nice clean lines man. Maybe it's the scene, you can control brightness in 3D settings on Sktechfab.

 

Aye. I'm going to revisit it tomorrow, I made some changes to the handle which meant I'm now well below the vertex limit, so I'm going to see if I can bring out some of the detail on the head as actual geometry instead of just Normal map detail. I'm also going to increase the size of the metal at the end of the handle to improve the silhouette, and redo the materials for the loops at either end and middle of the handle, as it's not really clear what they're meant to be.

 

My initial concept sketch Golden Mjolnir

 

Nice concept! Reminds me of a mixture of the death masks of the Pharaohs, and the Dwemer aesthetic from Skyrim. Look forward to seeing it made into a 3D model!

 

Thanks , started working on the 3D version, will add stuff as I go.
Btw nice warhammer you got, I love the glowing runic inscriptions especially, and the marble-like finish

 

Cheers. The finish is meant to be more like metal, I need to adjust the specular and gloss maps so it looks less like plastic or marble.

 

Oh my bad
It still kind of looks awesome even if the marble-finish wasn't intended
May I ask how you made perfect, seamless straps down along the handle of your Mjolnir? My straps always have seams along it unless I painstakingly paint the edges of the UV to match.
.

 

No worries, that kind of feedback is really important, material definition is something which is very easy to get wrong.

The Normal map is baked from a high poly model to a low poly model, and the handle is split where the ring in the centre has been placed so I can repeat the UVs. To prevent Normal Map seams form where the handle is UV unwrapped I created a split down the centre of one of the faces and split the smoothing groups there. Does that make sense?

 

Typically,it's very tiring to try to simulate metal surfaces using gloss and specular maps
That's why all new engines are using metallic,which are much better since you can get the metal surfaces accurately represented!I hope Unity 5 btw will have metalic maps! PBR is the big next thing it doesn't only change the graphics but also the artist's workflow!

Btw should we go with a metal like hammer? I thought mable is acceptable?

 

Yes as far as I know Unity 5 will have built-in PBR support. You can get PBR plugins for the current version of Unity on the Asset Store. I much prefer the PBR worflow to what is soon to become the "classic" workflow.

 

Looks like SketchFab is going to have PBR support in the future too, shame it doesn't have it right now!

 

Yeah it would be incredibly awesome!
Before this contest i didn't know about sketchfab,or i might had heard it in past but never actually used it before!
However it's a great tool to showcase your models and i'm gonna use it from now on!
So yeah you have a strong point there PBR support would be like a gift from gods!

 

Still not 100% finished. Continuing to play with values until it looks as metallic as SketchFab will allow, plus maybe a little wear and tear. I also need to make a turntable/display base for it.

This isn't part of the competition, but I thought you guys might be interested in seeing the real world Mjolnir prop based on the film version I made a little while ago. It was that style of overlapping leather wrapped handle that I replicated on my model for this competition.

 

Nice, you're losing the Marble-finish look. Maybe reducing the environmental reflection will help?

 

Done with this for now, don't have much time to do more or create a better concept.

Concept I drew:

 

Hi mrgesy
Like the concept and the model is it possible for you to clean up the seams on your handle it will look great if you do. Good Job

 

Here is my final entry for the contest tweaked it in Sketchfab and im happy with how it has turned out. Really enjoyed this challenge and all entries have been great .

Here is a shot of the hammer rendered in marmoset hope you guys like

 

@Avenger84: Thanks for the heads up, I didn't know how to clean up that seam but thanks to you, I went and tried.
Btw Nice job I like the bullets on the head-shield connectors! Now that's what we call an Iron Mjolnir!

Also here's my final entry:

Also here's my concept, the other ones I posted kept disappearing.


Also my UV and texture if there's anything wrong about it

 

Looking good, liking the hand painted gold. Nice work on clearing up that seam too, looks flawless now.

@Avenger84 Do you mind if I give a little constructive criticism? It's more of a technical issue than a purely a artistic one. Looking at the wireframe view you have a very mismatched polycount between all the pieces. The Iron man head in the centre is very dense, but the shield sections, which are larger than the head but still a spherical shape, are very low poly by comparison. You could probably afford to as much as half the polycount for the Iron Man head, and use that to increase the roundness of the shield sections, and detail where the shield has been split. There are also what looks like some redundant edge loops on the handle piece. How close to the 5000 vertex limit are you?

EDIT: Nevermind, saw on Sketchfab you're at 3700 vertices. If you're not making a display base for it then you've got some room for a little more detail where it's sparse.

 

Hi Guys

@ Mrgesy Thanks and your model looks great

@ Storm_The_Gates Your absolutely right the fact that I have very low shield geometry compared to the helmet doesn't really make sense in hindsight. I think at the time when I was constructing it I wanted the Helmet to be the focal piece of the Hammer and wanted the maps to look crisp and clean which is probably why I gave it more polys, again your right I could definitely bring down the vert count to by getting rid of some of the unnecessary loops I have and put those into defining the shape of the shields a bit better. If I have time I will do this, Cheers guys for the feedback any critiques I get are appreciated as they help me improve .

 

Storm _the_gates mr_brett mrgesy Nice work! and good luck I to had to use the more polys thought I would add a nordic rock stack and some damage. Good luck every one

 

Cheers! You've taken the classic symbol and done a great job with it, very well presented. Hold the heathen hammer high!

 

Thanks Storm may you be take by the valkyrie in there supple bosom to valhalla (when the time comes)

 

Good stuff folks! KEEP IT COMING! I want to see more!

 

Superb job my friend!
I really like the handpainted textures on it!
You executed it perfectly according with the concept you made!

 

Hey everybody!

Getting in late again this month! I've been busy with getting some things up on the asset store, but now that I'm in a holding pattern for a bit(waiting for approvals) I cannot resist joining in the fun!

Just blocked some stuff out this morning! Here's my first WIP image. Going for a little SciFi Techno-viking here -



Been watching this video on loop for some inspiration -

 

Man that viking's got moves! Never seen anything like this lol. Cool blockout, hurry up!

 

One week left! Good luck everyone, will we see a few more entries?!?

 

tested a few alternate Diffuse Maps but didnt really like where they were going, going to stick with my final entry really like the way it turned out. Thanks for all comments and critiques , the contest has been great with some great entries

Final Entry

 

Hey @mrgesy ! Yeah! Nobody messes with the TechnoViking! Thanks for the encouragement! I'm gonna need it! I will be working on the high-poly this afternoon and maybe retopology tonight. I love the awesome hand-paint job you did on your Mjolnir and the toon outline effect fits the style of the piece really well. Great work!

 

Thanks
Can't wait to see yours.

 

Been a little side-tracked . . . Still hope to finish by Saturday!

Here's the finished HI-poly - 5.3mil. verts - Gonna have to bring that down! On to retopology and bakes!

 

@VertexFiend that is one badass wolf head thunder hammer! Details done in Zbrush?

P.S. was checking out your Asset Store entries, very nice work. I've been playing around with Quixel and Substance to improve my workflow. Hopefully will start getting stuff up on the Unity Asset Store very soon.

 

Working on a carved stone display base for the hammer. I'm doing two different styles so that the hammer looks like it was forged by something magical and otherworldly, but the stone base was made by human hands. Going to try adding snow to it so it matches the environment map. I've got about 1900 vertices to play with still so should be able to fit in some nice detail.

 

@VertexFiend Wow love the high poly hammer looks great and all that detail is amazing ! Can I ask what renderer you use because it looks great.

 

VertexFiend looks cool like 40k cool! Storm_The_Gate looking great (had to rhyme) hurry hurry getting close to dead line

 

@Storm_The_Gates - Thanks! Yes, I take my low poly semi-subdivision-friendly block-out from Maya into Zbrush and add all the details there. Althrough, I can't wait for the new Low poly modeling stuff to show up in 4R7. Any day now supposedly! Yeah, I have worked with both Quixel and Substance. The thing that keeps bringing me back to Substance is the flexibility of the node based procedural workflow and it's much more interactive than Quixel. dDo is agonizingly slow if you are working at 4k or even 2k. Someone mentioned on a YouTube tutorial that I watched recently that one of the new Quixel Suite features is that it allows you to let it run in the background while you watch videos on Youtube as it is updating from tweaks. Ugh. To me, that is just too long to wait. I hope maybe soon they can break free of Photoshop, because I think really that is the bottleneck. Who knows? If you're interested in Substance and don't already have a copy, I think that if you join the current big Polycount competition, Allegorithmic is letting people use it for free for the duration of the competition. It's a couple months long so it would be a nice chunk of time to get comfortable with it! Good luck with the asset store! I look forward to seeing some of your work up there!

I really like what you've done with your hammer! The design is very believable and the details really make it look plausible but at the same time it has some great fantasy elements! I think the lightly stylized reality would fit really well in a game like Skyrim. I can't wait to see what you do with the base!

@Avenger84 - Thank you! That render was done right inside Zbrush. It has a pretty nice render if you take some time to tweak it. Also looking forward to the Keyshot integration in 4R7 though!

Your hammer entry is really creative! I love that you came up with an intricate back-story for its creation. I think like Storm_The_Gates mentioned earlier you could do a little work on optimizing and redistributing your mesh density, but I understand if you feel like you're finished for now. Working on these little mini competitions is nice because you get to learn a lot in a relatively short period of time! Keep up the great work!

@AnthonyMyers - Heh! Thanks! Yeah I have a weak spot for WH40K . . . I guess it shows! I see that you are probably a fan as well. That's an Eldar rune if I'm not mistaken! [edit - I just noticed it is your initials! It looks very Eldar though! ]

Your hammer entry is very cool! It looks very mysterious and ancient! Great mood with the mystic rock pile and everything! Great stuff!

Yeah! You're right! I've gotta hurry hurry and get this retopology done and bake this thing tonight if I want to get it textured for the deadline! Wish me luck!

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Here's a closeup of the high poly dropped into Toolbag2 just for fun! -

 

@VertexFiend Thank you for the positive comments about my entry I relly should try to optimise my hammer a lot better with the poly distribution. Once agan ur hammer looks great

 

Ok guys redone the topology of the Shields and reduced the polycount on the Helmet hope you all like im gonna call this done as my Final Entry

 

Wow! Awesome @Avenger84 ! This Is a HUGE improvement ! The silhouette of the shield reads so much better now. Great job turning that around so quick!