Unique Items

[scobar]

the inside of the cloak and the outside of the breastplate were supposed to represent a scale similar to that on the bottom of a snake.  If I made them all black, they would not give much contrast when worn together.  I tried to make it a dark enough shade of green so that it would still be a great assassin armor, however, if there is any improvement anyone thinks can be made, please suggest it.

[Sir Fishy]

i might suggest making the inside of the cloak a bit brighter in green because it looks black or making the armor a bit darker i dont know im not an assasin so im not very good at critiqueing or however its spelled. though it doesnt really need to much improvement looks great.

[scobar]

better?

[Sir Fishy]

lol i never said it was bad, but now it looks simple amazing great for an assasin. Great job.

[LordOfNecropolis]

very nice quite amazing

though just a bit constructive critisizm: the cloak doesn\'t look much like what an assain would wear it looks more mage-like i would consider changing that flarey thing on there and replace it with a hood also maybe make the helmet a little less shiny...though then it wouldn\'t be as cool and snake-like

not that it\'s not good just a few comments don\'t take it the wrong way

[scobar]

Thank you very much for your critisizm!  I also agree about the cloak thing, and I even made it with a hood at first, but it looked too plain, and I needed to add something distinctive of the armor set it belongs to.  Therefore I added the Cobra neck instead of a hood.

Also did you mean the blue glow was the shiny part or the helm itself?  The glow was only put there to show that the helm had teeth, it does not exist on the item.  Also, if you\'re basing the shine on the ss of the model wearing the helm, I did not fix it up enough to look good, I was just giving a quick example, so the helm did look too shiny.



*EDIT

And So the Forbidden Scales lay in their illuminated tomb, hidden from the discovered world.  The legendary treasure has been a dream of many an explorer, yet it has eluded everyone for all of this time.  It would make one very fortunate treasure hunter the most lethal of assassins or one of the richest of merchants if it were found...

[Maxximus]

Good stuff, scobar. Creepy!

[DraGonFisT]

the cloak is damn nice....how much ?

[sekhmet]

Seeing you are so good at creeating this stuff, maybe you could put together a small howto? Wat kinda programs you use, do you start of with some base model?  This way more people could get up your level, I wouldn\'t mind being one of them for instance.

[LordOfNecropolis]

well i ment the helm wuz a bit shiny on it\'s own but it looks better now

and very nice armor the lil claw things comin off the boots is really  cool

[scobar]

Elyxadra was a young girl who would follow her mother on walks through the forest.  her mother studied magic and the essence of nature, but Elyxadra quickly became interested in the areas her mother wouldn\'t venture into.  Elyxadra\'s mother warned her to stay away from the dark parts of the forest, and the dark side of the essence within.  Her mother was very much aware of the evil magic that could be drawn from nature, but would never think to use it.  This made Elyxadra curious.

Late at night, Elyxadra would sneak from her room and into the forest.  There she learned of a magic more powerful and agressive than that her mother was studying.  Elyxadra became enchanted by it, and she learned and practiced it.  As Elyxadra continued her disobedience against her mother, her appearance began to change.  She also grew very thirsty, a thirst she couldn\'t quench.  One night she saw another creature with similar characteristics as she had.  She watched as the bat drank blood from another animal\'s neck.  She followed this example and found the reason for her thirst.

Elyxadra drank the blood of many creatures of the forest at night, but one night, her mother caught her sneaking out of her room.  After a short struggle, Elyxadra had found herself more powerful than even her mother.  She broke through her mother\'s defensive spells and attacked.  Elyxadra drank all of her mother\'s blood then let the limp body fall to the ground.  Her craving for blood began anew, but this time she wanted only human blood.  Elyxadra tormented the town by the entrance of the forest.  She killed and drank from at least one unfortunate soul per night.

The Mage guild in the town pretended not to notice as they has all along known of Elyxadra\'s dark power since the death of her mother.  They were busy crafting a mighty axe out of the most powerful staff!  The guild leader would use this axe to challenge Elyxadra.  

So the guild prepared and waited as Elyxadra entered the town.  She recognized the ambush immediately as her powerful senses outmatched each of the mages.  Yet as a group, their powers managed to paralyze Elyxadra.  The leader of the guild then took the axe, crafted from a staff and slowly cut into Elyxadra\'s neck.  As the blade cut, Elyxadra whispered a curse, but the curse could not be finished, as her head was soon dissconnected, and the words of the curse hardened Elyxadra\'s blood to the axe.  The mages, afraid that Elyxadra could rise from the dead crafted her head into the axe.  Thus giving the essence of Elyxadra to the axe.  

Descendants of the Mage guild that had slain Elyxadra are said to be guarding the axe, keeping it hidden from society.  For if the axe is weilded again, it is said that Elyxadra will steal life from the victim and give it to the one holding the axe.  Her powers are even strong enough to surpass the defense of the Forbidden Scales, and thus giving the weilder absolute offensive power.  \"I swear that \'Elyxadra\'s Bite\' Shall never be again released upon the world as long as I live,\" states each mage before they are assigned to guard the blood-thirsty axe.

and here is a picture of the legend axe.  The blade has been sharpened, but the blood of Elyxadra remains on the face.
Elyxadra\'s Bite:



ps. sekhmet, a howto on this simple axe is being created...

[scobar]

Sekhmet this is for you and anyone else interested in learning how I construct my items.  Please ask any questions you have after reading it so that I can help you out even more.

This tutorial is for Photoshop 7, the only program I\'ve used for my images so far.
Please follow along with the pictures as you read:

First you have to imagine the item you\'re about to create.  If it includes anything too complicated to construct using enhancements to shapes, then you\'ll have to build it/them first.  For this example, I\'ll build the skull I used in the axe.

1.  First think of all of the shapes that need to be defined alone and draw them on separate layers.  Box one shows each shape I used in the skull: Head, jaw, dimple, eye socket, teeth, teeth definition.  
*Color does not matter so I use contrasting colors to easily see each layer.

2.  Box 2 shows the view of all of these layers positioned correctly before any enhancements were applied to them.

3.  Box 3 shows the skull after enhancements were made to each part.  To use these enhancements, simply right click on the layer and select \"Blending Options...\"

Head
- bevel&emboss + contour to give a 3d look
- texture to give it a bone look
- drop shadow to shadow the lower jaw
Dimple
- bevel&emboss + correct contour to give it a crater look
- texture to match bone look
- gradient overlay with the dark part starting at the deepest part of the dimple to give the crater a better 3d look
Eye Socket
- gradient overly(same as dimple)
- used a darker gradient to give it a deeper look.
Teeth
- color overlay (white)
Teeth Definition
- opacity 80%

4.  color and shade change
First, you need to save your image.  Save the layered photoshop file by clicking \"save as...\"
Save the single photo of all layers binded together using \"save for web...\"
close your ps layered image and open the file you just saved for web.
now you should have a single layer.  Select that layer
goto Image>adjustments>hue/saturation to change the color.
goto Image>adjustments>brightness/contrast to change the shade.

5.  tilt
goto Image>Rotate Canvas  

6.  Return to step 1, but this time draw all of the pieces of the item.  Here I drew a shaft, handle, bloodstain, top, blade, crystal, and added a the skull.

7.  Goto step 2...here you see the axe with all of the pieces layered correctly.

8.  Here is the final pic after some enhancements.

Shaft
- texture to make it wood-like
- bevel&emboss + contour for 3d look
Handle
- bevel&emboss + contour for 3d look
- texture for a metal handle look
Bloodstain
- bevel&emboss + right contour for a more glassy look
- satin for a darker glow inside
Top
- right bevel&emboss + contour for a metal effect
Blade
- bevel&emboss(chisel hard style) + contour to make metal blade effect
Crystal
- outer glow
- bevel& emboss + contour with a glassy look
Skull
- no change

and when everything was put together, it became the finished product.


I know that I have been very general in this howto, so please ask any specific questions you may have.  I\'d be glad to answer them.

[Half_Pint]

That is absolutely incredible, Scobar!  You are truly talented!    That looks like a very nice dwarven axe...  

*drools*

[Phinehas]

Dude! Scobar! You rool! You haven\'t joined a guild yet by any chance have you? lol Stand by for requests.

You make it sound so simple. Like all those simple bits and pieces to the skull. Simple, my foot! I couldn\'t draw a single one of those elements if you were sitting next to me telling me what to do! I repeat, you rool!

[sashok]

good job.  everything looks great.  I love to see when people work with layers in photoshop.

some crits for you:

the chest armor looks like a straigh wall with just that texture, well it\'s not a big thing but maybe make a little shade to look like bumps for chest/abs.  same goes for rest of the armor, the textures you chose are great but it doesn\'t look like it curves if you know what i mean.