Creating an Alt Helm

 

Whether you’re making a standalone alt helmet or a helmet for a Warframe skin, custom helmet meshes allow you to completely transform the look of a Warframe! The single most important thing to keep in mind when creating an alt helm is the connection between the neck and the helm: this must feel seamless to the players and we will have reject items which do not achieve this.

Modeling for games is well beyond the scope of these 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

Some tips:

• Keep the low poly of the character in your project scene and in your retopology application of choice. This will allow you to keep an eye on the connection at all times and let you make informed decisions.
• Even if your helmet is being accompanied by a unique skin, it’s important to consider how your helmet going to inherit the colour patterns of the Warframe’s body.
• Make sure that your Tint Masks reflect the same order as the default Warframe: metals should be on the same tint, accents on the same channel, etc. Doing so is imperative for the maximum fashion frame capability. Having the original textured model in your scene is a easy way to accomplish this.

Technical Specs:

• Triangle budget: 8000
• Maps: Authored at 2048 x 1024, in-game will be 1024 x 512 with your preference to orient vertically or horizontally.
• Requires a full set of textures as per our texturing guide here.
• Provide your own scrolling textures, and make sure any custom FX are given their own mesh (that still fits within the 8000 triangle budget).
• We don't encourage adding to the neck mesh, but if you believe you have a strong design concept that requires an attachment point on the neck to support the overall design, please make sure it is solidly connected to the helmet.

Artistically:

• We try to keep the original characterisation of the Warframe in mind, but push in different directions to give our community variation and the underscore different aspects of the character that might appeal to different people.
• “Anything goes” holds true here. Mag’s alt helms have floating elements (as she is the magnetic expert), and there is fun opportunity to amp up some of the original elements (make something look more like a diving helmet, more like earphones, etc).

Checklist:

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