So Ficwill finally sends me the psd's of the blocks so I can do up the blockskins, and just at that same time I go and re-discover this webpage:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Phong_materials

I looked at it before and narrow mindedly concluded: too much work, no phong for us.

Well, after revisiting it with the bit that I've learned with the weapons I figured that the benefits would really be apparent. The workload seems to go like this for me, for a while I'm not working on anything then suddenly I've got almost a hundred textures to work on! Well, I'm more excited about doing the phong so I'll finish up one of the characters and you can follow along in this diary. After that I'll hit up the blocks and depending on how I'm feeling, there might be another diary for those too.

Anyhow, lets start with the obligatory BEFORE picture.


Here's our beloved Light Gunner

He's looking a little bit sorry in these pictures, so what I'm going to first do is spruce up the diffuse map a bit. (Remember, the diffuse is just the colors, the normal "texture") I'll go down a list of a few of the changes I'm planning on. They're mostly minor, but I figure while I'm down in there, It's worthwhile to fix 'em up.

1: When Ficwill made the diffuse on this early model, he was unaware of the ability to more smoothly blend textures. This resulted in somewhat grainy transitions between scratched and painted parts of the armor. I'll go ahead and do him the favor of aiding that blend a bit. (Don't blame him, it's like the most obscure procedure Imaginable in photoshop: http://www.cgtextures.com/tutorials.html see the blend if tut, Seriously... WHO PRESSES ALT??)

2: Here's an example of where I've added detail via the normal maps (simulated depth) that isn't reflected in the diffuse map. I'll go ahead and add that to make it look a bit more fitting.

3 & 4: The wireframe overlay that emphasizes edges has got a bit too much opacity in certain places. I'll tone the effect down.

So, off we go, I'm gonna actually work on this procedure as I go along in the diary so it won't be all in one like before. Later, I'll talk more about phong and go through the different choices I have to make.

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I think he is posting ahead, to let us know he will be doing it. I would expect the images to appear as he does them...

edit, if you do not play sf anymore, why are you so bothered?

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Good luck !

Cannot wait to see the finished article.

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here is a gold star for being nice love noca xx

Yeah, lynx is temp-banned for flamebait. Carry on, KG.

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It's 'Fik-Shus'

go for it! I really love these threads <3!

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Eh? I must of missed that screen of the 2.0 models! *droolz* :P. Journal seems like a great!

Wow, nice photoshop tutorial. And good luck on the phong stuff.

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my SourceForts prefabs. including flags, and re-use-able spawners, for both teams.
[14:24] Billeh.: I just caught my dad on porn.
you are a nice person, love noca xx

KG <3's Phong stuff. We <3 KG.

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Eat crayons, poop rainbows!

Try and aim for that look.

Great photoshop tutorial, that procedure seems obscure but I can see myself using it all the time now that I know it.

Phong shading, huh? Sounds too... sciency! If it makes things shiny, I'm down with it. I'm also looking forward to step #2, "added detail via the normal maps."

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This comment is entirely the opinion of Mudkip and doesn't reflect a final development decision one way or another. The topic is currently being discussed, and testing will take place in order to decide on the ideal course of action, based on decisions made during that discussion.