Torchsiders textures

RazorBladder

Not too long ago HandSandwich put his 3 Darksider's Lowpoly weapons up for SDK in the lowpoly-thread here: http://boards.polycount.net/showpost.php?p=1089003&postcount=3893

So here's my contribution, bare in mind I'm not aiming for the Darksider's rendering style so it's more of a reinterpretation.
The jury is still out on these textures so any crits would be greatly appreciated, I know in truth these textures aren't done but I'm at that sticking point.

vcortis

Hey, this is looking like a really good start. I'm not exactly sure what style you're going for but a few things stick out that seems like they're detracting from your work.

The first is the use of very dark, what looks like black tones. In areas on the gun, hilt of the sword and down the middle of it, and the handle of the throwing star and the deisgns/underside of the blades.

All of that needs to be lightened up to a darker gray/blue or dark brown... something.

Your small scratches along the edge of the blades also need a shadow. That sould be easy to do and you did it on the larger scratches.

Just push it a bit more, and add in some more color.

It's hard to say exactly what it needs since I'm not sure what style you're going for though.

moose

i agree, they are extraordinarily dark. The glaive works ok being dark in spots, because it helps accent the blades and shape more. The sword is a little difficult to read.

Torchlight is pretty bright, but i think pulling the values up slightly with these to emphasize their shape more would go a long way.

RazorBladder

Hmmm, looks like I'm gonna have to view these suckers on a proper monitor, currently I'm restricted to the screen of a laptop so it's hard for me to judge when moving my head an inch changes how it looks
My main intention with some of this however was to have it intentionally dark as some of the metal on the gun and glaive are supposed to be black high contrast metal. As for the sword detailing in the center, I've been struggling with the rendering of this for a while, initially I went for a fleshy look, but I've since changed it to a dark stone. Any suggestions on this part in particular would be a great help.

Thanks for the crits so far, images should periodically update as I make changes.

EDIT: Ok I edited the textures above, can someone tell me if this is better or if the textures just seem washed out as they seem to appear on my screen?

chris89

It looks fine at work here. Sure the dark areas are very dark, but it looks like its part of the style. I like em (though a slight black point bump wouldnt hurt to be honest)
People nowadays seem to be too scared to "break" the fake "rules". I think this style is pretty cool and done a lot back in the days.

I my opinion the shading could be a bit less directional/less strong as it makes the throwing blades a bit confusing for me.