OSP Medieval 3D Art Narf's Transitional Armour Pack (Updated 07/19/10)

[Spongly]

The fur does look a little odd, but overall the Rus armour has been spectacular, and that Kuyak armour is no exception. I'm loving this stuff - it would make a great addition to native giving the Swadians and Rhodoks more of your European transitional armour, and the Vaegirs your Rus armour. Great stuff.

 

[Rule zum Rabensang]

wow - fur or not, this armor looks absolutely great.

I think maybe I'm done with the Rus stuff now.

any plans for what's next? 

 

[FrisianDude]

Holy hell, that looks awesome, the fur as well.

 

[Narf of Picklestink]

Then why won't you just delete the fur? I'm sure it will look better without it  though the current version is pretty decent. Great stuff.

Although a decent boots would be just perfect

It's not that simple.  The fur is integral to the model, not put on over top.  Deleting it would mean re-modeling, re-uv-mapping, and altering/adding to a massive amount of the diffuse.  I'll add some AO (forgot to put it on the fur) and see if it looks any better.  Maybe tweaking the normal map will help too.  And maybe I'll just end up redoing the whole damn thing.  I was trying to do it low-poly, since I already went overboard with the details on the rest of the armour, but I might just have to throw in a few extra semi-transparent planes to get some fur sticking out at various angles.

Maybe I will do some appropriate footwear before throwing in the towel, though.

Pity. I think Rus armours offer such wonderful variety...

I get it- that's why I wanted to make some.  The problem is that I'm just not getting how they're supposed to look.  With the western stuff I can tell at a fairly casual glance what's authentic, and I have little difficulty imagining what a warrior's kit should look like.  After all, I've been seeing these images all my life.  With the Rus stuff, I just have no idea.  I've dug up every image I can find off the net, and done hours of research, and while I'm better informed than before, I still have no idea if the armour I just made is in any way historically accurate (frustratingly, I suspect not).  So I'm finding the design element of these armours to be very frustrating and tedious, because I can't formulate a clear image of what they're supposed to look like, and after I finally decide on a design, I second guess myself and waste hours redoing work.  Maybe I'll come back to them once I've done more research.

As to the release eta- no idea. 

As to what's next- no idea.

 

[othr]

They drew often from the Byzantine designs and those are quite well documented.  Perhaps some 13th century Byzantine equipment

 

[Zimke Zlovoljni]

They drew often from the Byzantine designs and those are quite well documented.  Perhaps some 13th century Byzantine equipment

I'd kill for European type surcoats over mail from around 1250 and other stuff with that level of detail!

Excellent stuff Narf, perhaps you'd be interested in doing some Kipchak/Cuman and Mongol armours from around 13th century?  There is a severe lack of those and what's there looks, well, terrible...

Would you consider making a middle of the 13th century armour pack, Narf?  (Sorry I just couldn't resist asking)

 

[Obi Juan Kenobi]

They drew often from the Byzantine designs and those are quite well documented.  Perhaps some 13th century Byzantine equipment

That's a good suggestion; i'l playing 1257mod now and i'm not that fond of their byz armours...

 

[SMST]

Narf, would you at any point consider making OSP packs that enhance the whole look of the Native factions? The current armors are perfectly fit for Swadians and Vaegirs, but they are just too awesome for the game right now. There is just too much discrepancy in art style. If there would be some "cultural" packs, however, every troop would be as great as the other.

Right now, we have Middle European armors for high-end Swadians and Eastern European (or Rus, to be more specific) for high-end Vaegir troops. Some Viking style armor for Nords, some Arabian-styled clothing and armor for Sarranids, some Mongol or other Steppe people equipment for Khergits and some more western-to-central Europe stuff for Rhodoks would be great.

I am not demanding this. I am simply suggesting a direction to go for your excellent artwork, and I am well aware that it would be a tremendous task for you. The simple reason why I am still posting it: It would be totally freaking awesome.

 

[MrExpendable]

Then why won't you just delete the fur? I'm sure it will look better without it  though the current version is pretty decent. Great stuff.

Although a decent boots would be just perfect

It's not that simple.  The fur is integral to the model, not put on over top.  Deleting it would mean re-modeling, re-uv-mapping, and altering/adding to a massive amount of the diffuse.  I'll add some AO (forgot to put it on the fur) and see if it looks any better.  Maybe tweaking the normal map will help too.  And maybe I'll just end up redoing the whole damn thing.  I was trying to do it low-poly, since I already went overboard with the details on the rest of the armour, but I might just have to throw in a few extra semi-transparent planes to get some fur sticking out at various angles.

Maybe I will do some appropriate footwear before throwing in the towel, though.

Pity. I think Rus armours offer such wonderful variety...

I get it- that's why I wanted to make some.  The problem is that I'm just not getting how they're supposed to look.  With the western stuff I can tell at a fairly casual glance what's authentic, and I have little difficulty imagining what a warrior's kit should look like.  After all, I've been seeing these images all my life.  With the Rus stuff, I just have no idea.  I've dug up every image I can find off the net, and done hours of research, and while I'm better informed than before, I still have no idea if the armour I just made is in any way historically accurate (frustratingly, I suspect not).  So I'm finding the design element of these armours to be very frustrating and tedious, because I can't formulate a clear image of what they're supposed to look like, and after I finally decide on a design, I second guess myself and waste hours redoing work.  Maybe I'll come back to them once I've done more research.

I posted in this thread a while back, Narf, about a game (XIII Century: Blood of Europe) made in Russia. I've also posted some screenshots of the game in my post back then. I thought they might be useful to you.

I've been playing XIII Century: Blood of Europe lately, and I think the game does a pretty damn fine job at portraying the equipment of various soldiers - especially Lituanians and Russians. That's why I'm posting some screens of the game to show off some of the soldiers:

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Note the heavy Varangian lamellar armour on the Russian cavalry - a piece of armour I've always wanted to see in Warband.

 

[Billman]

its very easy to make a russian armor...look at this.
http://www.1186-583.org/IMG/jpg/piotr2_int-2.jpg
your helmet is good.
then you need a normal chain mail with a heraldic cape, thats all.
easy to make and looks nice 

btw: you just change the helmet et voilá you got an european knight 

 

[Obi Juan Kenobi]

Yeah, it's easy as long as you use that kind of photo to make models...

 

[Billman]

ah well narf has almost finished his work...he just needs this cape with any image on it...
im sure he knows how to make a cape.
ps: look at dejawolfs viking byrnie, it has a cape too and rus armor is very similar 

 

[othr]

They drew often from the Byzantine designs and those are quite well documented.  Perhaps some 13th century Byzantine equipment

I'd kill for European type surcoats over mail from around 1250 and other stuff with that level of detail!

Excellent stuff Narf, perhaps you'd be interested in doing some Kipchak/Cuman and Mongol armours from around 13th century?  There is a severe lack of those and what's there looks, well, terrible...

Would you consider making a middle of the 13th century armour pack, Narf?  (Sorry I just couldn't resist asking)

Are you stalking me you silly little man?! 

I'm sorry for this stupidity Narf, removing my posts below, waste of space!

 

[Von Krieglitz]

Narf, I am unable to judge if your work about russian armor is accurate, but your work is all the manner the better ever done in any video games I have seem. I will be curious to have the opinion of the "Rus XIIIth century mod" team about your work.

 

[shades_o_grey]

If you have the time, some better scale armor would be awesome too Narf. It works for so many cultures, that anyone that enjoys eastern type armor could use it.

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[Narf of Picklestink]

its very easy to make a russian armor...look at this.
http://www.1186-583.org/IMG/jpg/piotr2_int-2.jpg
your helmet is good.
then you need a normal chain mail with a heraldic cape, thats all.
easy to make and looks nice 

btw: you just change the helmet et voilá you got an european knight 

That image tells a lot less than you might think... What's under that cloak, for example?  What era is the reenactor portraying?  Is is historically accurate?  What sorts of colors and decorations would his clothing have?  For that matter, what does the clothing he has on look like?  What fabrics were they made from?  What do the decorations on his belt and so on look like?  Would he have any armour on arms and legs?  And on and on.  It really takes a lot more planning than just 'easy, make some mail'.

As an example of how little that photo tells us, I happen to know who that guy is in that pic, and he is seen in many photos in this kit: http://www.1186-583.org/IMG/jpg/piotr.jpg  If that's what he's wearing under that cloak, you'd never know it from the pic.

Anyway, I didn't think so many people were actually interested in these Rus armours.  Maybe I'll change my mind about leaving them. 

 

[Sahran]

Narf, I've got a book by David Nicolle of Osprey fame which I think can be much more authentic when it comes to the depictions. Rather than the usual illustrative method in Osprey where you get a 'rendition' of how a soldier might have looked based on a few primary resources, what's in the book is sketches directly lifted from the primary source illustrations/carvings - essentially it's taking a picture of them and filling in some details. When I'm free this weekend I'll see what he's got for Russia (1060-1360 basically) and if there's anything good I'll scan it for you. The one caveat is that they wouldn't offer you the kind of vivid details a full sized picture like the mounted fellow and other pictures in the topic. But what it would do is give you essentially a 99.999% authentic view of how a Russian soldier would look.

Though I gotta see if they've actually got stuff for the Russians, although I am fairly confident they would since there'd be a lot of illustrative resources from churches and such.

 

[Trueten]

Well, I for one could also post tons of pics of medieval russian warriors.

 

[Narf of Picklestink]

By all means, post away.  Or even better, send 'em via pm if you've really got tons.  And thank you. 

 

[FrisianDude]

Anyway, I didn't think so many people were actually interested in these Rus armours.  Maybe I'll change my mind about leaving them.

Only make what you want to make.