📜Building a Better Pipeline📜
This week I'm continuing to make progress on November's asset pack, and I wanted to show you all the beginning stages of modeling/texturing and give you all an insight into my far from linear production pipeline.
⛓️💥Old Pipeline Problems⛓️💥
The images above depict the beginning frameworks for both "The Beholder" and the "Storm Caller's Blade", and the references I'm using to loosely guide the design choices for each. In a typical asset production pipeline, I usually create the model and the shaders in tandem with each other, tweaking both the shape and the textures throughout the entirety of the process until I am fully satisfied with each. And once everything is done, which is usually at the last minute, I would rush to create the singular group nodes for each shader for a neat finish.
This, however, has proven to leave a few mistakes in the functionality in each shader in the past, especially since it is my least favorite part of the asset creation process. So, as I began building next month's assets, I set out to improve my pipeline by building the shaders first.
🔨A New Solution🔨
Because this is a brand new style I've never tried before, I wanted to make sure I had the shaders right from the start. Instead of keeping my shaders messy, and really only readable to me until the very end, I took the time to study the World of Warcraft style that I am replicating at the beginning to create a shader that could be universal for most textures and materials I would have to make for this asset pack. There are some acceptations, of course, but for the most part, by duplicating the node group and making a few adjustments to the already existing parameters, I am able to achieve a wide variety of material looks within this WoW style of shading. And paired with my recent study in better hard surface modeling techniques, creating these assets has felt far smoother than anything I've ever made, which will allow me to add some additional effects to a few of these assets that I've never tried before...
⛈️Making Visual Effects⛈️
Once I complete the models for each asset in this pack [the models you see above are still very much works in progress, don't worry 😅], I will set out to add some magical visual effects such as swirling smoke and stylized electricity to the two assets you see in this post to give them much more life and vibrance. I am particularly excited to add the electricity to the Storm Caller's Blade, which will rise from the hilt into an electrical arc forming at the tuning fork inspired tip of the sword. I've had my eyes set on the visual effects scene for a while, now, and am so glad that my first major step into that field will be through this asset pack that you all get to share in if you are a paying member.
✨More to Come✨
I plan on sharing the several tutorials I am following to achieve these visual effect styles with you all in the Patreon discord once the pack releases, and I'll also be including a video breakdown of the universal "Digital Illustration" shader techniques I am using as a part of the asset pack itself when you download it so you have a much better grasp of how to build your own shaders in this style if you would like to!
I've spent most of my time this month studying and working on this pack for you all, which has unfortunately delayed some of the Banner of Souls goals I had for this week. However, the creation of this pack has been a huge help all of its own in refining the style of Banner of Souls. So you can plan on seeing some animation testing mid-November should everything go according to plan, haha 😅
But in the meantime, I hope you are all having a wonderful start to your week! God bless you all, and I will see you soon for the next asset update!