Creating Leg Armor Pieces

Leg Armor Pieces are a great entry point to the TennoGen program — they allow players to add more visual interest to their Warframe’s silhouette and allow creators to explore different styles and factions within the game’s universe. Since these armor pieces are placed in highly mobile areas on our characters, there are important guidelines and technical limitations you will need to keep in mind!

Technical Guidelines

Armor Pieces are intended to fit all Warframes, and the attachment peg should be long enough to fit into all leg shapes. It may be tempting to design a piece that fits closely around the shin, but with the diverse Warframe designs, a more generic attachment style is recommended to ensure it works on everyone!

There are general size boundaries that need to be respected to reduce clipping and ensure the armor pieces do not collide during walking animations. Any pieces that curve behind the knee towards the thigh can lead to clipping. If your armor extends towards the inside of the shin, make sure it protrudes forwards or backwards, not towards the other leg, as increased bulk here can cause the two armor pieces to collide.

You are welcome to push the envelope at your own risk. We reserve the right to reject pieces that unnecessarily go beyond the boundaries. Asymmetrical designs are welcome, but both legs share the same texture set, so plan accordingly if you go this route.

Technical Specifications

• Triangle budget: 5,000 total for both pieces.
  • Leg Armor submissions must include an armor piece for each leg.
• Maps Authored at 1024 x 1024.
  • In-game resolution: 512 x 512.
• Requires one full set of textures (both legs share the same texture set) as per our Texturing Guide.
  • 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.
• Attachment point needs to be along the front or side of the shin bones.
• Leg pieces should be submitted at 0,0,0 (world center) and oriented accordingly.
• Please adhere to our file naming convention: LegR.fbx and LegL.fbx.

Artistically:

• 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 "cool metal spikes"; the more compelling and original your idea, the more we will appreciate it.
• Like all other TennoGen pieces, Armor pieces must be based on a Faction.
  • We recommend looking at other armor pieces in that Faction for further inspiration, and to ensure you’re bringing a fresh idea to the game!
  • Ensure your armor piece 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.
  • Example reference: https://imgur.com/BlBV8hc
• Avoid pop culture, copyrighted, or otherwise out-of-universe references, as outlined in our Common Reasons for Rejection.

Checklist:

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