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Invoker IX.blp

This bundle is marked as useful / simple. Simplicity is bliss, low effort and/or may contain minor bugs.
The Invoker Resource Set
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Hero Icon

Spells


Click on an icon to find its resource page.

To make Invoker's Spheres go to Object Editor
and set the target model to the follwing missiles:

Invoker%20OE%20Settings.jpg

See Invoker with matching voice, spells and icons:



Keywords:
Invoker, dota, 2
Contents

Invoker (Texture)

Reviews
15:35, 2nd Dec 2015 Misha: this just looks like a mass of copy-paste, filters, and squiggles, with a very flat look and no directional (light from above) highlights and shading. it feels alright, but its more for the forums.. 22nd Dec 2015 Archian...

Moderator

M

Moderator

15:35, 2nd Dec 2015
Misha: this just looks like a mass of copy-paste, filters, and squiggles, with a very flat look and no directional (light from above) highlights and shading. it feels alright, but its more for the forums..

22nd Dec 2015
Archian: Status changed to 'pending'. Please update the texture with your updated version so that we may review that.

15:30, 25th Mar 2016
Misha: well i'm tired of seeing this useful skin pending.. approved.

19:30, 22nd July 2016
Heinvers: This is not how we deal with resources. Back on pending due to inconsistent work all around the texture, coupled with a lot of filter work.
Do try rehashing it again and work on your texture work with brushes instead of applying insta filters.

8:47, 5th Sep 2016
Heinvers: Moved to Substandard section.
 

Moy

Moy

Level 49
Joined
Jan 25, 2011
Messages
2,381
Actually the concept looks really good. Although we also need to consider some things that needs to be fixed. Like the cape having a bad transitions making it look that the cape is divided into several parts and looks like it isn't connected. The leg part doesn't look like a leg and seems to be a CnP(?). Hair needs some more strands to make it look more sharp as it looks blurry at all. Armor could be more vivid especially the gold trim. You could also tweak the face, add him eyebrows and lessen the dark eyeshadows making him look haggard. Overall the skin lacks 'global shading'. I do know that you're making this look like Invoker from DOTA 2, but if you tweaked some things it could be more better and even great. I'm looking forward for this skin to be updated. Kudos!
 
say, do you mind tending to one legit thing about this texture? as far as i see, the texture has an overwhelming amount of graininess, which kinda hurts the appearance, imo. also the cape shadows could use being slightly stronger, and, the leg-cloth really should be modified, as it really does not look so good with the leg mesh, especially that big knee spike.. other than that.. i really don't see bad stuff, so.. i guess your update made the thing much better?
 
say, do you mind tending to one legit thing about this texture? as far as i see, the texture has an overwhelming amount of graininess, which kinda hurts the appearance, imo. also the cape shadows could use being slightly stronger, and, the leg-cloth really should be modified, as it really does not look so good with the leg mesh, especially that big knee spike.. other than that.. i really don't see bad stuff, so.. i guess your update made the thing much better?

I can blur it, but I don't understand why that is happening. It seems like it wasn't so grainy before.
I can try a few things. I can add deeper shadows to the cape, no problem. I think maybe even spread the waves out in the cap a bit too.
The Leg. I intended the leg to look like there was another piece of fabric under his cape. Like the actual character.
201207131114173485.jpg
but I agree it doesn't quite look right. The spike is the worst part. I know that with the Watcher/Runner model, you can snip out diamonds on the legs and remove that spike.
Any idea if that is possible for Kael? Also, assuming it is not, what else would you recommend? I could just make some boots that fit the model, but that doesn't really fit Inokver.
He's not really a big-boots kinda guy. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT:

UPDATED

  • Enlarged file to remove grain.
  • Added new shading on Cape.
  • New leg fabrics.
  • Stained teeth slightly yellow.
 

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with how some war3 models are shaped, i don't really see any other way than to move the cloth bit out of the way (probably with a few folds) and draw in a shape that fills up that knee spike like it should, while still being in theme with the character.. since i don't really know Invoker that much, i guess this depends on how much you're willing to adapt your own idea..

as for the graininess, what exactly are you using to make a texture?
 
with how some war3 models are shaped, i don't really see any other way than to move the cloth bit out of the way (probably with a few folds) and draw in a shape that fills up that knee spike like it should, while still being in theme with the character.. since i don't really know Invoker that much, i guess this depends on how much you're willing to adapt your own idea..

as for the graininess, what exactly are you using to make a texture?

I used only brushes. I think it happened when I reduced the size and adjusted the contrast and saturation. I increased the size to 512 and touched it up with blur and it seems to have corrected the issue.

As for the cloth idea. I did that and it looks better. What do you think of it now?
 
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I read a few things and touched up the leg, denoised, blurred, fooled with contrast and more denoise. It looks good in png format and looks good in BLP Lab but when I upload it to Hive 2 it looks grainy again. I'm attaching it here this time to show you the png and check if the blp is coming through alright. I also uploaded it. It looks bad as a submission. Seems like something with the upload went wrong. Could there be something wrong with my BLP Lab? or somehow the upload is corrupting it?

EDIT:

It's BLP Lab. I've never had this happen before. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong.
 

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blacklabel, be constructive.. you're not helping at all >_>

well.. now that we found the problem.. let's try a work-around.. have you tried to save a PNG into a blp via model editor's texture manager? ( mind that it can only replace existing blp in a folder and can't save outright, and also mind that you need to set the blp quality when saving to 100% in the properties, that are in the 'edit' tab of the model editor)

as for the face itself, now i can see that it needs just a bit more contrast and less eye-mask, if you want to
 
Level 28
Joined
Feb 18, 2014
Messages
3,574
have you tried to save a PNG into a blp via model editor's texture manager? ( mind that it can only replace existing blp in a folder and can't save outright, and also mind that you need to set the blp quality when saving to 100% in the properties, that are in the 'edit' tab of the model editor
Saving a PNG into a BLP won't make the original team color part turn into black?
 
But I've always used BLP Lab before. This makes no sense. I must be doing something wrong. The option for the alpha layer I set to "no changes." I looks a little better when I convert from 512, but it's still grainy. I have not tried to use model editor or model viewer. Both of those have the ability to convert. I can try that, but I would still like my blp lab to work.
 
That seemed to do the trick. Model editor is strange to me. I somehow associated extra file extentions with the program and then folders with those file types inside would not open because model editor was trying to open the folders. Anyhow, it looks better now and my folders are working again. Thanks for the help. I can go back and look into the stylistic things now.
 
Update:
Reduced shadow over the eye.
Increased detail on shoulders.
Added shadows on shoulders and body.
Reduced blurriness.
Increased all contrast and denoised.

All stages of progress:
 

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  • InvokerIX.png
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Moy

Moy

Level 49
Joined
Jan 25, 2011
Messages
2,381
You really do have problem with the blurriness.

The gold trim seems better but needs to be more clean (some parts are pixelated)

Hair seems to turn out nice but it needs more sharper strokes so it wouldn't bee looking blurry.

Finally, the shadows on his eyes seems to be intense. Maybe you could brighten up it a bit.
 
I'm sorry but I don't really see it and I'm tired of working on this. It's been almost 5 months in the process and I have updated it 9 times. Either approve or not, that's up to you. I think it is a great resource because it comes with a sample map with a voice sound set and an icon set. It's ready to be turned into an RPG of the life and times of Mr. Invoker, but hey if you think it's too blurry, just reject it.
 
I also don't encourage the use of the blur tool in this way.
The use of the burn & dodge tools isn't the most suitable solution for shading. A more accurate outcome could be obtained by using more tonal values.
This skin looks like you just burned and dodged (for shadows and highlights) your base colors, then blurred it excessively, applied high contrast and oversharpened it, resulting in a grainy skin.
You tried to fix it, but the final version looks -without exaggeration- blurry and undefined. You spent a lot of time trying to fix it.
The result would have been clearer and more defined if you had used more tonal values(more dark tones and light tones of the colors that you've chosen) from the beginning. Also, you would have spent less time making it.
The shading still needs improvements(pants, boots, chest piece, eyes' region ...).
 
Thank you everyone for all the support and advice. I've learned a lot. Next one will be much better. More brush color tones, less burn/dodge, more denoise, less blurr. Just better techniques all around. It's a process and all the input helps. It's a relief this one is approved - damn, I don't even play DotA much less give a crap about Dota2. But, it's been fun. Cheers!
 
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