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 is ensuring the connection between the neck and the helmet feels seamless.

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 independent research on how to get the most out of your tools.

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.
• 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 an easy way to accomplish this.

Technical Specs:

• Triangle budget: 8,000
• Maps should be authored at 2048 x 1024.
  • In-game resolution 1024 x 512.
  • Up to your preference to orient vertically or horizontally.
• Requires a full set of textures as per our texturing guide here.
  • Non-Metals at roughly 50% luminance, or 128 on a 255 point scale.
  • Metals at roughly 80% luminance, or 186 on a 255 point scale.
• If you want to add a special scrolling texture to your emissives, you need to provide us with the file!
• Any custom FX should be given their own mesh (that still fits within the 8,000 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:

• Pay special attention to the front and make sure to avoid placing details in the exact places where you expect to see an eye, nose, mouth, etc. While some of the in-game designs vaguely hint at facial features, the goal is to heavily abstract the “face”.
• We try to keep the original characterisation of the Warframe in mind, but push in different directions to give our community variation and 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).
• Ensure your helmet includes design elements from its chosen Faction!
• Do not use gold as the metal color (unless allowed in the Faction guidelines).
• Keep the construction of this piece in mind — how would it have been made? How do the various elements work together?
  • Simple panels and “toothpaste-y” swirls do not meet the detail level you’d see in-game.
  • Complex layers of materials are necessary to make this item fit in-universe.
  • Here’s an example of this complexity, when applied to Tenno metal details.
    https://imgur.com/BlBV8hc
• Match tint order with existing cosmetics for that Warframe to encourage mixing and matching pieces.
• Avoid pop culture, copyrighted, or otherwise out-of-universe references, as outlined in our Common Reasons for Rejection.

https://www-static.warframe.com/images/steamworkshop/HeadRange.jpg

Checklist:

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