I'm beginning to have my process in place for creating the bonemold armor. It requires a pile of textures and some alphas, but I wanted to start this thread to get some opinions on the look of the surface. I don't really want any discussion on the design of the example helmet. That needs to be done in the concept art threads.
There are several views on the lore about the creation of bonemold, but I'm going with it being like a plaster made from human bones that is formed in modified chitin shells. I went with a surface that is a combination of plaster and dried mud to give it some good crack effects (thanks for that alpha Rav).
The color above is far from final but I will be leaning more towards the palette of the morrowind bonemold as opposed to the single color of the skyrim bonemold.
As for what pieces are being made, there are a lot. I think we are doing five full suits, one small shield, four tower shields, and a fat handful of extra helmets. To get all of this done within the next 500 years I'm trying to kitbox as much of the modeling as I possible can, and I'm going to have a set process for the sculpting. Which is why I would like to get some opinions on the surface detail results of my first trial.
Nice, the variety will be great for resinworking (Bonemold and Chitin's crafting station). Marverique, a Bethesda employee, explained how it is made around the time of Morrowind's launch:
- Christiane Meister (Marverique)
Really nice to see these sets being made now.
I like it! The dull, rough looking texture is consistent with the materials used in its production. A little more micro-cracks would be a good addition, though.
Great. It need some details, possibly which demonstrates traces of this item production: traces of polishing, traces of moulding, small seal of master, who made this helm. Maybe you can make painted variant.
I like the form but it's looking a little blobby. It needs more contrast, carve the striations up the side a little deeper.
If i remember rightly there was a seam around the top as if the top section was a lid sealed onto the sides.
You might try getting some nice darker redder patternation in the crevices with a curvature map and use the convex as a mask to quickly filter on some wear and tear.
Curvature colouration:
Don't forget your areas of rest though
Wear and Tear:
The scuffs you can see on the crabs back would look cool round the top rim maybe a shallow sword knick or two as well.
This one in particular reminds me of the bumps on the surface the helms and other armor parts on Morrowind's bonemold:
Kind of hard to see but there are a bunch of them on the side.
They might be air bubbles from the drying process of the bone-resin plaster, or perhaps formed from small dents on the chitin shell, but regardless of which way they formed, it could be a nice detail to add.
I also just wanted to say that I really like the color variations you have, gives a nice mix of the bonemold and resin colors.
You could argue that it might not have the bumps because they are sanded down to make the finished product look nicer. Depending on the house that has commissioned the armour, the bumpy vs smooth style can be a way of differentiating between Redoran/Hlaalu.
Thanks for all the feedback guys. I'll try some bumps to see what it looks like. I would think the craftsman would fix the mold instead of fixing every helmet that comes out of it, but that's just me. I'm trying to keep it from looking at all similar to chitin because that material is already very heavily used in the game. Of course, I will always defer to what looks best so I'll see what it can come up with.
Personally, I think some tool marks, more drying cracks, and a good scratch mask will help a lot with the visual interest. The armor pieces that are associated with the great houses will also have a lot of symbols added.
I'm going to get to work and try to have more posted soon.
Personally I'd love to see a chitin version of that helm that matches the Dragonborn heavy chitin set. That would look sexy.