Looking for critique

StephLee

Hey guys,

I've just finished my first piece after a long pause. I was wondering if I could get some constructive critique on how I can make it better and what I should apply on future pieces. I want to learn and improve and have an updated portfolio. I appreciate any feedback you can give me. Thanks!

switz

Texture's pretty good, I think the arch could use a keystone - either the blocks are too big or the opening is too small.

BendE

I would actually go back and work on the texture a bit more. Everything seems very flat. Try adding in some easy Ambient occlusion painting on the texture where the general shadows would normally fall. Also, stronger highlights and darker shadows in the cracks and such could do you some good in combating the depth problem. Finally the stone itself seems very very clean ad polished. There is almost no texture or roughness on the rock itself. I'm assuming you are going for a handpainted/diffuse only style? If not, then you should definitely take advantage of the other available maps (normal/specular etc)

Catchingdusk

I agree with Switz's comment about the keystone. Bravo for going for the hand painted look!
I feel like you could push your texture further. Ie, have a fine dark line between reach stone. Right now you've got them at a mid-dark grey, which makes them appear fuzzy. By adding some darker sharp lines, you'll add more definition to your model through textures.
The hanging vines that are mapped to planes confuse me. I'm not quite sure what is going on there. (Maybe it's just the angle of the render you provided). Your foliage looks a bit flat. Some more lines to better define shadows on the bottom of the growth might help make it 'pop' a bit more.

Hopefully that helps! I'm looking forward to seeing more!

Di$array

Yeah I would definitely work on your values (light and shadow) more, even practicing on a single Stone brick then applying that knowledge to the rest of them. That way it will give the piece a bit more character and interest.

Another suggestion is to use a normal map to give some details that the light can play off. Lastly, your UV use is ok but you have a lot of waste in the bottom right hand corner. Try and maximise as much space as possible.

Overall its there, you just got to work a bit more love into the piece to make it sing. Maybe by include a bit of colour such as a red banner that gives some additional areas of interest. You've got some nice areas such as the hanging vines but you've went a bit OTT (over the top) is some areas.

Hopefully that is some constructive criticism that'll help you. But keep working at it.

StephLee

Thanks everyone for the replies! I was going for the hand painted look, I may work some of that into this to make sure I understand it then, before going onto another piece. Either way thank you so much!

StephLee

Hey again, I've finished a second piece based on some concept work for the game Torchlight. I focused heavily on trying to make the different planes pop out and put the texture on one smoothing group for my model. I made my texture 1024x1024, which I realize is probably too big for a bookshelf, but I'm mainly trying to improve and learn how to hand paint textures.

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beefaroni

The second piece is much improved over the first. With that said,

Looking at the arches, there looks to be a lot of focus on the areas in-between the rocks which look great. The bases and the edges of the rocks seem to be a bit bright compared to the rest of the texture. Also, I think adding in a few cracks would help a lot. Right now, there is moss growing all over the arches so the rocks are probably cracking somewhere. Adding that and a bit more discoloration to some of the rocks would push the arch much further.

Tobbo

I've got to say those strong gradients are confusing me. There's way too much of a change in colors in that gradient. It doesn't make sense, and it causes the eye to wander. I think I understand what you were trying to do, but I believe you overdid it. If you're going to have a gradient it should be much more subtle, unless it makes sense otherwise.

I also can't tell if that's supposed to be a glass window or not?
If so, the glass color isn't really reading like glass at all.

I'd really try and bring out some stronger lighting highlights. It's desperately needed on the cracks to make them pop more.


Cheers.

StephLee

Thanks beefaroni, I'll add some more cracks to the arch and try applying some of what I learned for the bookshelf to the archway. I know I need to get rid of some of the moss and work on making that pop out better.

Tobbo, so I should try graying out the gradient? Or make it more of the same color? I'll try working more on my highlights and the windows. I think I forgot to go back to them. Thanks!

So much to learn.

StephLee

Okay, so this time I'm working on specifically hand painted textures until I have at least 3 done, before I go back to modeling.

Basically my goal with this thread is to create about 5 models and hopefully improve as I practice. Its really hard to get straight back to things because of OT right now, but I'm working my best to try and get faster at making these so I can go back and improve my past models using what I've learned.

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I mainly focused on making this texture actually read as the material, and to practice my hand painted work.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Add a little hotter specular pop to the nails. They're kind of getting lost.

JacobRMooreArt

Your texture sets are very toony, which is not a bad thing. But If you are going to do toon, I recommend less muddiness to your textures. Clean up your edges on the textures and tone them down on the level of saturation.

StephLee

Okay, I brightened the nail color, desaturated it a little bit and tried to clean up the texture. I also changed the steepness of the edges, since someone mentioned that they had a kind of chocolate bar effect going on.

StephLee

Okay, here is texture swatch number 2. I was trying to do a sand/rock study, and my reference was real life. My attempt was for painterly, but I don't think I succeeded at that.

StephLee

Texture swatch #3 - I made this really simple to start for a quick texture. But now I'm trying to add more detail, like cracks and stuff in the stone. I'm having difficulties identifying what needs to be pushed next though.



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StephLee

I've pushed the cracks and details more to what I've been trying to do with some help from a friend who's been critiquing my pieces and detailing what needs to be done to push it more.

I am going to do a 3rd pass on this, to add some more surface detail to it, so it's not all flat color.



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STRIKER

looking much better! looking forward to the next pass

StephLee

Final Pass on the stone tile I did, and now I think I'll go and redo the archway.

StephLee

Started and finished another tileable texture, trying to learn how to get a consistent finish and really push it.

looprix

I like the pebbles n sand the best so far. Keep up the good work.

StephLee

Thanks a ton looprix!

ARX71

this looks good. i really like your style. keep up the good work. i think you can still push the cracks on your stone texture more. add some highlight on the edges of the cracks

StephLee

Thanks ARX71! I really appreciate the input.

StephLee

WIP - Xenogears. Painting Practice.

shadowalking

Nice textures

Obscura

Hi, using tileable textures would save a lot of time and texture space. When I look at your new picture, it looks like the whole wall is using an unique texture(maybe the floor too), that must cause extreme resolution requirements and extreme creation time. The good way would be to use tileable/repeatable rextures, and later, if the tiling is noticeable, or you want to add uniqueness, you can use blending techniques, like vertex painting, or other mask based blandings. I would recommend to use 1-2 tileable wood surfaces, one stony tileable for the ground, and an another tileable for the plaster (?). When this is done, and the visible tiling is disturbing (with good textures, it shouldn't really be visible), you can dive in how you can break it up with one of the mentioned things above. Good luck, keep going!

StephLee

Thanks Obscura! I hadn't done tileable's since I was going to paint in the lighting, but now that I think about it further, I could've just done that and then added lighting on top of it.

StephLee

Thanks Shadowalking!

System

The hanging vines that are mapped to planes confuse me. I'm not quite sure what is going on there.

________________________

Fifa Coins | Fut Coins

StephLee

I've had to take a bit of a break from what I was doing to set up some wedding plans, but here's something I wanted to contribute to the KKG Gamers for Good group before they stop accepting entries. I just worked it up today. If you want to participate you totally should! It ends July 20th!

StephLee

Here's my final submission for KKG! They stop taking submissions at midnight! California time! I collabed this piece with Avery Coleman!

StephLee

Sorry futcoinsboy, I was having trouble figuring out that piece when I was doing it. I'll be going back to it at a later date. Thanks!

StephLee

I decided to give myself a due date on this project. So while it's not completely finished yet, I will be working on it again in the future. I just have over done it and it's time to work on something else from start to finish.

My goal with this was to learn how to paint in the lighting on things, which is why I didn't use tileable textures. I was trying to make things look lit without the actual lighting and such.

theStoff

Deadlines always help I find. I'm liking your colors. I would say though that you need more contrast, especially if you're painting in the lighting. I also don't see any cast shadows, only a bit of ambient occlusion. For example I'd expect the shovels on the wall to give off a drop shadow. Also around the picture frames which currently seem to blend into the wall a bit. Keep at it though, you're on the right track.

StephLee

Thanks kosh! I really appreciate the feedback

StephLee

Metal Paneling! I had so much fun doing this texture, I'm going to do one more this week and then start on a new 3D project next week.

StephLee

Here's another swatch! I think I've got a 3D project to work on after this one. Going to look at my schedule I made up for this year. I know it's kinda floraly, it's been suggested that I just use one type of tree leaf next time and make variations of that. I'm getting faster at making textures and I think my depth is getting better. Cheers!

StephLee

Here is my current WIP. Going to get the model done and then paint up its texture!

StephLee

Finished! I admit fully to struggling with the metal textures as I haven't done a lot of that material. Looking forward to getting better. On to the next piece.




The goal of this exercise was more handpainting. I only did a diffuse in the attempts to learn how to add value to the piece.

StephLee

Dagger created and done using the concept for Allods Online by Vakon-art (http://vakon-art.deviantart.com/). Done in 3DS Max. Handpainted texture 1024x1024. Large texture was not intended, I just couldn't figure out how to resize the uv's without stretching. If anyone has some suggestions for that particular problem, please let me know!



http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ssgJNqXiEMg/VBogwryL_5I/AAAAAAAAAEA/-t-d8SueH48/s1600/Dagger1_D.jpg

StephLee

StephLee

Skull Axe done in 3DS max, handpainted diffuse texture. I'll be doing one more based on a simple pencil sketch to try and apply what I've learned from these past three. After that I'm going to try my hand at zbrush, those will probably take me a little longer since I'm out of practice.

Concept by firstkeeper. You can find more of her work at http://firstkeeper.deviantart.com/.

STRIKER

Hey Steph!

The last 3 are a huge improvement! I think a really good exercise you can do is finding a concept thats just line work, and trying to render the materials from what you've learned or gather some material refs. Try to avoid color picking and eyeball what you see in your refs.

This will help you learn color, materials, and value!

good work so far

StephLee

Thanks Striker! I will try that, I'd definitely been doing the color picking to get as close as I could. My next exercise is going to be a pencil sketch and see if I can recreate these materials, I'll definitely grab some refs so I can push them further. Thank you so much!

urgaffel

Yeah, your weapons show a massive improvement in brushwork and painting skills. Will be fun to see your continued progression

*edit*

Don't use white as a background for a texture that doesn't have white in it. What you've done with the most recent weapon is a lot better. The reason is that when your assets go into a game and the texture gets mip-mapped, you can see a faint seam if there's a high contrast between the texture and the background. Padding or having a darkish background fixes it or at least makes it less obvious.

Pet peeve is when people make foliage and have a really bright background and no padding, leaving a bright halo around all the leaves

StephLee

Thanks urgaffel, I didn't know that about not having white backgrounds, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you so much!

StephLee

Here's my next weapon, my husband drew this up for me. It has the wood, metal and wrap elements of my previous projects. We'll see how I do.

EiGHT

Steeeeeephh.
Last 3 knocked it out the park.
Only crit would be that on the last 3, the materials in the concepts feel a little more fleshed out then your finals.Though your finals were amazing I would like to see what they would look like if you pushed the materials a lil bit more.(Im currently trying to learn to do the same thing myself)

Here's some good ref of what im talking about when I say push your materials:

http://blog.sina.com.cn/pugui2001

Keep um coming Steph!!!!

StephLee

Thanks EiGHT! Yeah, I am definitely struggling with pushing my materials. I always get stuck on that. Thanks a ton for the link! That's some awesome right there!





Here's my piece using just the sketch w/o color, like I mentioned still struggling with the materials of the sword metal. I think I did a lot better with my wood this time and I tried to push the wrap. Took a couple passes at this one trying to make it better then the last three.

I'll be messing with some Zbrush next, we'll see how that goes, might take a few iterations to get the hang of it xD

MissMaddyTaylor

You're definitely making good progress!

I made a quick little gif on how I present my UVs. It's a little easier to look at and understand how the flats were textured. I'd also suggest saving your images out as higher quality JPGs or PNGs so they're nice and crisp! I hope that helps!

Also, are you bleeding these textures by hand?