PROLOGUE
Whenever I close my eyes . . . I can still hear my father's voice, as if he were standing right next to me . . . If only I could reach out once more, and tell them that I am grateful for all the things they have taught me . . . As I will forever carry their words, as long as I live.
"A man worth nothing without their shield . . . It has to be earned with hard work; as wielding it grants you the choice between life and death. And if used right, it can be turned into a deadly weapon that will strike fear into the most formidable,"
***
This shield that you hold before you, was made by Cassius; one of the finest blacksmiths in the realm. You have known them since you were nothing but a mere child: You trust them with your life and so do they. That is why you were deeply honored, when they decided to gift you this magnificent treasure: Light in weight, yet sturdy enough to repel any of your enemy's attacks. It is well balanced for your gracious physique, and it bares your family's crest that has been passed down for many generations. And as such, you use it well, to honor your name and your forefathers'—for this age and for the ages to come!
EPILOGUE
Well, I don't even know where to begin, as there is so much to tell; these past weeks were quite the ride! For one, the design of the shield has changed significantly—see below images for more—which ended up being a good choice. That being said, a lot-lot-lot more work went into this object, than I initially anticipated; which was both good and bad!
OF PRODUCTION
After finishing the sword, I revisited this object, and began to convert the high poly into something that I could potentially use within Unreal. Things were moving pretty-smoothly, until I decided to make some modifications to it: as in right when it was about time to texture the whole thing. Yeah . . . So-o-o by making this decision, I inevitably created a whole ton of work, and technically made it so that I had to start all over from scratch: had to dump the low poly model, with all its rendered maps, and create the new bits-and-pieces. But I did it anyway, because it felt the right thing to do, and I wanted more out of this object—like it being more impressing/meaningful, and implementing more procedural textures. BUT . . . things happened the way they did—often for no apparent reason–and ultimately resulted in a lot of unwanted frustration; on top of my already demanding IRL situation. But I didn't care, as I wanted to work on this project, and pressed on like a trooper: Like having to troubleshoot for almost a week at times, or completely redefining my workflow or render pipeline. Blender can be amazing, but the random issues made it difficult to get this far: Parts of the objects didn't want to render, or broke mid-render (e.g.: it mirrored/flipped/skewed the final maps, and had to redo the whole thing), things worked for "that one time" before then they decided not to, or how unforgiving procedural maps can be, etc. (the list could go on and on). Looking back, it was almost refreshing to work on those simple generated maps—the ones I posted below—as they took my mind off things.
Furthermore, this was the time when I thought of that small bit-of-a-story that I posted at the very-beginning. Wanted to add some personality to this shield, and make it something more than just an ordinary object; like the sword. This thought-process has reinforced my notion that the demo, and possibly the entire game, will focus on a handful of weapons and armor. Aiming to transfer their use that of a worthy experience, rather than just a simple—disposable—tool to reach your objects.
OF MATERIALS
First I made a simple leather, wood and rope texture, followed by the wrought iron (which I ultimately ditched for color composition, and made it into a semi-bronze texture; as well as modified the original style), and a grass, soil and bark for the small diorama. Make no mistake that these materials are fairly-basic–as you can see–and cannot even compare to those master-crafters' work out there. That being said, I've learnt a lot by doing so, and became slightly better at ditching traditional texturing methods. For those who are interested in how these were made, feel free to visit my Artstation website for more; or my Twitter page. O and I spruced up the logo while I was at it—the text is supposed to be smouldering.
APPENDIX - TEXTURES THAT WERE USED
