My basic idea was to create a "native type" warrior for the contest in order to toy with many different features i hadn't yet explored in blender susch as: scuplt mode, texture paint, particles, physics, unwrapping, normal baking, rigging... yeah, that's pretty much everything you can find in blender. :D
I must precise that this was my first attempt to rigging in blender (I come from 3DS Max) so the character is moving quite correctly but It is far from perfect I'm also not sure I used a "clean" method to rig (i.e. I sometimes linked meshes to the bones...). I also don't like texturing (yet?!). So you shall feel very free to improve the texturing and/or rigging if you'd like.
I tried to make it easier to animate with the use of cloth for his clothing and cap. From the little time i spent in testing, I assume that it's working well. You should feel free to improve that too.
Anyway, I hope you'll like my model. If you improve it, please tell me and send me a link, that would be great! Good luck to everyone for the contest and happy blending! (by the way, the blender community is awesome!)
Thank you.
I rigged the body and tried to adjust the vertex weights to what looked "natural", I mostly parented the other parts (gloves, mask, shoes,...) to the apropriate bones and removed the vertex groups that didn't concerned them (for example, i only kept the toe and foot vertex groups for the shoes). I don't know if it was necessary but it seemed natural.
I had tried blender years ago before starting learning computer graphics for my studies. Then I switched to 3DS Max for school and I rediscovered it after. I think 3DS Max is very nice for architectural stuff (some sweet tools) but it was crashing a lot and it seems that the updates are just added on top of each other so it looks very messy inside. Also blender is free so if I'm proposed some freelancing job, I can do it without having to pay a huge amount for a license. Moreover, I'm discovering the comunity which is awesome, I like its spirit of sharing over paying to get things and addons.
I hope my explanations were clear...
I think the proper tag to enter the contest is "FantasyContest" all one word. I would hate to see your blend overlooked because it didn't have that tag.
Yeah I figured it out later,it is my first swap and contest so I was all stressed up and stuff ;)
This is a really cool design. The hairpiece is a nifty look -- I'm trying to figure out how you got it all to work. So what caused the switchover to Blender?