developer-dan

[developer-dan]

I made two rust skins, one today and one yesterday- there were both two little random ideas I had and decided to make them once i had the random burst of motivation. Both took me maybe 3 hours each at most- i’m getting better!

[developer-dan]

I haven’t posted in a while and have a lot to catch up on, but here’s a weapon I’m designing for tf2: a big ol’ bamboo stick for Demoman as a sword replacement! 

Its not very sharp, so it won’t do much damage- instead, it’ll be similar to the scout’s bat, meaning you swing it super fast doing a little damage each time. I also want to include some sort of combo element with the weapon, like maybe if you hit someone over and over, they go slower over time? Maybe stack bleeding? who knoooooooows

[developer-dan]

UHHHHH,,, MY DUDES?

This is the second skin i’ve got suggested, and i’m feeling reaaaaally good about this one. i’m keeping my fingers crossed pretty hard!!

[developer-dan]

Welcome to the first skin picks of the week!

This is a weekly post that I’m going to try to make where I highlight skins I want to see officially supported in Rust. Every Saturday I’m going to make an effort to showcase around 8 skins or skin sets and elaborate about why I like them or what I’d change if applicable. My goal doing this is to hopefully give exposure to skin artists as well as give feedback, and in turn take feedback from the rust community to see if they agree with the picks and would like to see them in the item store. This little selection is stuff I’ve had in my favorites as well as things I’ve seen recently.

A few hours a week I’m going to browse the workshop for skins that catch my eye in several ways, which I’ll highlight here:

Theme: Most importantly to me, I want skins to follow the same art direction as other models or materials in the game, or items that seem like they could be salvaged, hand made, or found in the current landscape. My idea on this is relatively loose, however, there are a few things I like to stay away from such as magical emissions, ancient items that look polished, or skins that show incredibly inaccessible materials like a butt-ton of platinum and gold. A little bit of any of these is fine here and there (don’t get me wrong, they look very cool!), and while you can make really impressive skins that sort of break these rules, personally I like to see skins stay stricter while still being creative. I think that’s what really shows how an artist can shine.

Design: I like to have an eye open for skins with designs that show a clear art direction, and sticks to one theme that it can execute well. I especially like when skins look really niche or can easily stand out compared to other skins for that particular item. This can be done a lot of ways, and I’m always excited to see what people come up with!

Execution: Execution is really important- you can have some really cool ideas, but sometimes they don’t always come together. If I ever see a skin with a cool theme and design but notice the execution is lacking, I always want to help that person strive to improve the skin. Sometimes its a software limitation, other times it’s inexperience. Either way, they have the creativity, and it’s important to notice those kinds of artists. Anyways, in execution, I like to look for good sculpts, a keen eye for proper material use, and detail to make things look plausibly realistic (with some room for more unrealistic ideas).

Oh yeah, also, I’m going to be using in-game screenshots only for these posts to eliminate any bias that pretty thumbnails have- I’m not saying thumbnails are a bad thing because the automatic ones are pretty bad, but sometimes it can maybe exaggerate the skin too much for my liking.

With all of that said and done, I’m going to talk about the 9 skins you see above!

Fallen bomb by Shedmon: I really like this skin. It’s a really creative interpretation of the mesh and the details on it are done awesomely. You can see the outer shell of the bomb peeling back revealing the hot explosive core, and all of the surrounding materials are used well enough to show the journey the bomb took; how it detonated or dud-ed, how scuffed it was from time being out in the wild for some time, and how it was dented from whatever impact it took falling down. Also, it’s rad as fuck to picture yourself cooking stuff using an atomic bomb!

Jaeger set by Mishka₪ and sfonsper: This set is freakin sweet. I love how well done all of the sculpting was to show off that fuzzy wool, and how every part of each skin looks super tactile. It shows a really good understanding of the materials used and every piece in the set was made with the same amount of effort and attention to detail. They all work so well together, and could easily work together with other existing or future skins. The use of the riot helmet is creative, and the entire aesthetic of aviator-gone-rebel fits the game super well!

Frost Wolf Mask by Veys: This skin is super cool. The grainyness of the paint, the really subtle specular differences, and the metal trimmings/depth of the shaped metal create a mask that I can easily picture a person in the world of rust creating for themselves to stand out, without being incredibly flashy. The continued artwork on the top of the head to show off the shape of the whole head also helps it stand out- more often than not, artists will stop at the face, and not really do anything super special with the cap. In this case though, it’s used in a nice way to really outline exactly what the skin's idea is- and It also goes without saying that it would go well with the frost wolf AK, of course!

Nemo by Shedmon: This skin is a neat interpretation of the boonie hat. It’s done well to the point that it looks like a new item in itself, and totally fits that dude’s beard. It seems like a simple idea too, but the extra detail put here and there on the skin keeps it unique and simple while still having that realistic tone to it. One itty-bitty change I’d like to see on the skin though is kind of a symptom of how skins work, but could be tweaked. When I loaded the skin in the editor, the diffuse around the cap was obviously erased because it had to be- however, so was the bottom of the hat’s lid! A bit of an oversight that should be fixed going forward. I understand that if it were opaque it would look strange from the sides, but you could still fill it in, and slowly ease into the alpha of the circumference of the hat. Still well done, though!

Deterrent by Moonfighter and xINFERNO: I notice that a lot of AK skins that are accepted are absolutely plastered in art from tip to toe. I’m not complaining of course, they look incredible and are way better than anything I could do for sure! But I think it would be nice if the skins could be toned back slightly or have some simpler skins introduced for variety. For example, in this skin, you have a nice little etching of a spirit zooming past with a small color palette of yellow, black, and white, the skin stings and really sends a message that your bullets are flying out the other end. It’s rusted to all hell, so it feels very cool to see in your hands (even moreso when they add viewmodel gloves- pls!). The ironsights are kept simple and not distracting, which I like- just a simple white crosshair. The scuff marks and scratches are also placed with some strategy and not willy nilly- one things for sure, and that’s that it looks like it’s been used quite a lot. spooky!

Laboratory Door by Mishka₪: The use of materials here is really cool, and totally conveys that idea of shoddily slapped together scraps that were used just to get a door down. In a way, it almost looks like it’s own tier of door, but not any stronger than wood. I say this because, like the sheet metal door and wood door (duh), there are visible planks underneath. But it’s done in a really good way! Also, i should point out that I really like the normal mapping done on the tarp. It feels like it’s really there, sagging from it’s eight and being pressed to the door by the pins. It has these really gritty outlines that I personally like; it’s sort of a personal taste, but I believe that it fits.

Hazard Garage Door by Underdog: This garage door is freakin sweet. The idea of a smaller door inside the large one is really interesting, and it’s obvious that some thought was put into it too. The door is cut up into sections to show that it breaks apart when the door is sliding upwards into the..... thingie up top. The massive bolts with the oozing rust dripping down feels very grungy and threatening, and the little details added for asymmetry like the gritty vent and posters/scratches really sell the idea of this big toxic door.

Tree Murderer by Me!: This list wouldn’t be complete without a me shilling out on my end. I had a lot of fun making this skin. My idea making it was that I wanted to have a funnier/more peaceful approach to tally marks. Instead of the tallies representing kill counts, it represents how many trees the little roleplayer using it chopped down. Since they spend a lot of time alone farming trees, it’s got a bunch of cute little etchings on it of trees, birds, logs, shrubs, etc- I chose the colorful little sheets of metal because I wanted something colorful to stand out from the handle and the black metal backdrop behind the paint. If the color doesn’t really fancy you, I also made a gray version here, but I think the handle needs to be redone for it to work that way.

Well that does it for week 1! If you’re interested in the lists or have more questions about my decisions or why I pick certain skins over others, let me know and I’ll try to talk. It’s fun making these lists and I hope to see these skins considered for future addition next Thursday!

[developer-dan]

I also make miscellaneous models on occasion when I can! I mostly made them during the VRchat craze... has that ship sailed yet? maybe not. Anyways! The low-poly orange robot dude you see is an OC of mine that used to be my profile picture on tons of stuff. I think it’s still my youtube icon, actually. 

Below that is a model I’m still working on for a friend online, based on one of their original characters: their tumblr can be found at http://8bitstickmod.tumblr.com/

I’m pretty interested in making more low-poly art and pixel art in general!

[developer-dan]

you guessed it! it’s rust skins! These are a really recent endeavor for me, and I got hooked making them once I gave the Substance Painter trial a try. During my one month trial, from December 1st to January 1st, I uploaded 13 skins to the rust workshop! That’s almost 1 skin every two days. I’m really proud of myself for making the most of my trial. So far, in just that one month of starting, I actually managed to get a skin suggested on the Rust skin trello, so that was really cool to see. I’m planning on improving with every skin and eventually making that extra leap to getting a skin added to the game. 

My workshop with all of my skins is here: http://steamcommunity.com/id/divadan/myworkshopfiles/

I also post my skins to twitter when I can, which is https://twitter.com/LiamMoffitt!

[developer-dan]

maps! i really like maps!! maps are fun! testing them is pretty neat, and so is making them. It’s really motivating and getting feedback from more experienced mappers helps a ton. tf2maps.net is a really amazing community, always offering help and a safe place to hang out in. I have a lot of kind words for the staff, moderators, and the members. I joined less than 2 years ago, and already feel like I’m at home.  

aaaaaaanyways, most of these screenshots are WIP detailing shots of a map I’m creating called arena_staple: a lot of people seems to enjoy playtesting it, even though arena is a typically despised mode. so that’s cool! The topmost screenshot is from a map I scrapped named cp_shady. it’s a medieval map. If you can’t tell, that’s why I scrapped it :P

Links to all of my maps and other stuff I’ve published for tf2 can be accessed here: https://tf2maps.net/members/diva-dan.23043/

[developer-dan]

Here’s some materials and models I’ve created for tf2! 

The first is a skin I made based on 60s interior decor, which you can find on the workshop here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1260433903

The rest of the stuff are things I’ve made for myself and the mapping community on tf2maps.net. The icebergs can be downloaded on tf2maps.net as props from here: https://tf2maps.net/downloads/diva-dans-ice-pack.5553/ (as featured on the nightmare before smissmas community event page!) 

And the spooky overlays (more than you see in the image) can be downloaded from here: https://tf2maps.net/threads/spooky-overlays-mini-pack.34781/

Team fortress 2 is easily my favorite video game, and I’ll always appreciate the fun and friends it’s given me :)

[developer-dan]

Here’s a small series of sculpts I did that I’m more or less proud of... haha. I used a free web based application called sculptGL to make these before I learned that better free options were available like sculptris. It’s pretty easy to use and it doesn’t take long to see some results after screwing around with the shapes you’re given.

[developer-dan]

First things first: SFM! Here’s a sample size of some of my posters that I’ve made over the years. I haven’t done much SFM recently but I’m interested in getting back into it. If I make tf2 related artwork, I usually post it on r/tf2.