Scaling up

After several weeks of on-and-off on the Sentinel boot texture, I've decided to model out the scales on the instep and heel. No matter how I mess with the texture, I can't seem to get it right. The best I've come up with is something that could be passable for phalanges if I tapered them. Just not scales.

Not scaly enough

Fortunately, all is not for naught. By attempting to create the scales in texture, I've aligned them with respect to the model. Making the scales is now a matter of tracing the texture with a spline. I know exactly where I want them.

It's not a bad thing, come to think of it. The boots don't have a lot of geometry to them, so any texture details will, uhm, fall flat fairly easily. Modeling the scales will give me a bit more variation when the boots are viewed at an angle.

Time. Flown.

Work has been keeping me busy lately. Losing some of my day to travel time, but I guess that's how it goes.

I haven't touched the Sentinel Armor for a while. I was working on an entry for the Warframe Melee Weapon contest since it started and submitted my entry hours before the deadline. Despite reading dozens of pages of entries to make sure there wasn't anything similar (even searching for "hammer"), I got smacked in the face with an entry from the day the contest started (naturally, it was posted after I thought I cleared the page).

I've since deleted my entry and am left with a hammer that can't go anywhere but here. So, here it is:

Gouge: The jet-assisted war hammer.
Faction: Grineer
Description: Rocket on a stick. Two-handed heavy weapon. Rubberized grip with one hand on the lowest grip section to control the throttle/keep from letting go. Jet is active for every swing. Intake will bore into any target caught in the claws. Charred bits may or may not spew out the exhaust. Charged attack could be a 270 degree spin (starting at the wielder's right) ending with a 270 degree vertical smash (back to front). Flames encouraged.

I'm not that good with capturing aesthetics it seems (both my models and levels have been criticized specifically about that) and this time I'm inclined to agree. I had no idea how to make this weapon Grineer-ish and instead went with the idea that the race prefers things simple and a rocket on a stick is about as simple as it gets.

I wanted Gouge to look like it was put together with whatever was lying around. So, I pulled references from the Grineer tilesets with some peeks at their weapons (rockets have to come from somewhere and levels are the best places to look). The white text says "Greet".

But, with the effort for mostly naught, at least I had fun making it. I'll be getting back to the armor now.

Yay. 111th post.