yeah it's probably going to be physically attached to the armour I think cause that's the way I remember the models! But i take the point that it should be damaged in some way.
To make it I just got a poly cube and extruded it to the rough shape of a leaf. Then I put a lattice deformer on it to tweak it a bit. Then I converted to subdivs. I then drew a curve that roughly matched what I wanted in terms of direction and then duplicated it to form the bottom layer on one side. I then duplicated it again to make the top layer. Then I duplicated it to the other side and applied lattices to each side to curve it on to the armour a bit more. The jewel in the middle is just nurbs nothing special there (lofting etc.)
Thanks for the crits though, I'm gonna do some more c + c for everyone when I finish the leg texture tonite.
Alan
Technical Director - Framestore
Currently working on: Your Highness
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