Creating a Syandana

Syandanas are a fun canvas that will allow you to explore any faction’s art style and give our Tenno community an opportunity to find an individual look for their Warframes. While Syandanas offer creators a lot of freedom, there are some technical limitations and tips you’ll need to keep in mind to ensure your design performs well!

Modeling for games is well beyond the scope of these short guides. It certainly isn't rocket science, but it is the type of skill where you need more than a few hours to get the results you want. Luckily we live in a time with fabulous education resources available, and we recommend you do your research on how to get the most out of your tools.

Here’s one of our favourite resources to recommend to creators:

• A focus on weapons from our Assistant Art Director, Lucas Hug: https://vimeo.com/lucashug

Technical Guidelines:

• Syandanas are intended to fit all Warframes, and the attachment peg should be long enough to fix into both the most convex and the most concave backs.
• Triangle budget: 7500
• Double-sided polygons are not supported!
• Maps Authored at 2048 x 2048, in-game will be 1024 x 1024.
• Requires a full set of textures as per our texturing guide here.
• Attachment point needs to be along the upper spine. Tail Syandanas are not possible, sorry.
• Having the Syandana go over the shoulders, or attach too wide on the shoulders will cause clipping, and is an automatic reason for rejection.
• To get clean deformations you must have even topology in your low poly. You can see in the wireframe of the Uru that it is a very even mesh that allows it to bend fluidly:

Some tips:

It is very difficult to make a compelling piece that works well with all Warframes. We don’t want to handicap a compelling design, but please do what you can to accommodate the extremes like Saryn’s shoulders.

This image can be handy when you are concepting. It gives you a Warframe with a plain back in Hydroid, a complex one in Saryn, and a quick perspective grid built in:

To allow the Syandanas to function on more Warframes we have been using a "wedge” shape to give us more flexibility in how scarves connect. This low-key area gives the more complex Warframes a bit more clearance when the team attaches them to their backs.

The Syandanas need to be able to move plausibly. We don't recommend a lot of complex weight changes that are hard to communicate. IE: A large metal panel mid-way down a cloth chain transitioning back to cloth is difficult to simulate and it won't likely read well.

Artistically:

• As always, avoid contemporary references, pop culture, and 'meta' humour. While we have fun with this during holiday times your goal should be something that fits with the Warframe universe as it is.
• Your entry cannot contain elements from copyrighted works, reference to other IPs, or make use of any images or material that you do not own.
• While any Warframe appropriate style is welcome we are not looking for minor variations on the same idea. We are not looking for 50 variations of "regal cloak"; the more compelling and original your idea, the more we will appreciate it.

Checklist:

Prior to submission, please refer to the handy checklist below to make sure your Syandana meets all the TennoGen criteria: