FMP: Kled - Pedestal

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I admit that over the past few weeks I've gotten a little tired of my Ashe project. Fortunately I had one more project to finish presentation for - the dear Kledward Teach, which I was looking forward to get back to. Unfortunately, my laptop did not share my enthusiasm :D I think the continous daily overuse of it (ZBrush + 3dsmax + PS + PureRef + Hannah Montana soundtrack on Youtube open at he same time) caused it to get slower in the past few weeks, so much so that the textures which normally loaded in a minute in 3DCoat took 15 minutes to load (+ 2 crashes) and subsequently also took 15 minutes per each autosave :D Well, I tried to use the time strategically and write this blog during the loading time. If Hannah Montana taught me something, it's that Nobody's Perfect and I definitely can't blame my laptop for not being perfect - everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days and "If things don't turn out the way you plan, figure something else out! Don't stay down! Try again!" *religiously chanting as I reload my Max file for the 10th time :)))))*

For the presentation, I wanted to go for a simple pedestal. Katia was super helpful and suggested I use the Bilgewater ARAM map as a reference for the concept. I liked the base for the turrets a lot, so I chose to do a pedestal with similar shape/materials :) She also gave me some more awesome feedback on the metals and bounce light which I will show applied later in this post.
Pedestal reference: Bilgewater -Butcher's Bridge by Jeremy Page

Basic modeling (old textures in max):


Hallelujah, everyone loaded in 3dcoat :) Replaced geo + re-assigned the textures. The model is not rigged/posed yet though, just a provisional pose to check the scale. I wanted to block the colours out in Photoshop but then I found out that I get errors when importing/reimporting things in and out of PS. I did not have time to troubleshoot or re-install so I just went with the fact that I won't be able to use Photoshop for this one. I then did the color blocking in 3dCoat texture viewer.


Again, I hate how much I sound like I'm complaining but I'll rather cover my back than pretend nothing's happening :D So just to prove that I'm not making stuff up, this is what I got every time I tried to export to PS:

for about 10 minutes, with a crash following :D I'm saving to my external drive, and have enough space on my disk, and the .3b file only has 500 MB which should not be that much considering there are 3 different objects and some layers, so I'm not sure what's up. I'll look into it when I have more time though.
I started with a rough sketch, concepting the cracks as I went. I chose a little bit of a different colour palette than the Bilgewater one because it seemed a bit too contrasted and I wanted the pedestal to be understated in comparison to the Kled&Skaarl models.
I defined the forms&cracks with simple painting in 3dcoat. I added some moss to suggest the Bilgewater vibe.

 
I applied Katia's Kled feedback - bounce on boots, legs, arms and clearer read on the sword, along with the green "oxidization bits" which can be seen  for example in the new  Default Gangplank skin texture and add to the Bilgewater aesthetic.
I then got some very helpful feedback from Jordan which made me realise how much skill I still lack in form definition and painting in general :D I applied the feedback on the pedestal and on Skaarl. Still missing a form shadow and additional Skaarl's drool which I will want to add - these will be added when I pose them. I'm also thinking of using alphas to add some flying drops of drool to make it a bit more dynamic :) 


I'll probably go over the pedestal again when I lose the tunnel vision. I can try to rig them in the meantime .)

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