Tuscany Farm Cart

Krissleh

I made this cart as part of a collection of themed props to use in Second Life. The platform is limited to diffuse textures only, so all shading/highlighting must be baked onto the color texture. The cart is modeled in Maya, and textured entirely in Photoshop.Critiques on texturing/shading/model are encouraged and welcomed!

Benton

It looks awesome! You did a good job, it almost looks like there is a normal map on it.

kippernicus

Great job. Looks really nice. Would you mind posting a screenshot with no lighting?

SaferDan

Its nice! A couple of things though! Atm your rust is very noisey and very uniform. I would take some noise out and put some more non rusted metal in there.

Also your wood colour is very uniform as well. I would think about changing the colour of some of the beams to create some contrast. For example the beams on the sides seem to be getting lost, or change the bottom supporting beams just to mix it up a bit!

Looks nice though!

Krissleh

Here is a render with 100% ambient lighting, no environmental Kippernicus.

Krissleh

Hey SaferDan! Yeah, I can see what you mean there, especially after running out a version with no lighting effects. I'm in the middle of touching up the rust right now, so that is not looking so hot at the moment. I'll take a stab at the wood re-toning, since that will affect the rust as well.

edit: The rust is a layer in photoshop, it wasn't actually baked in. I see how my doing that kind of made the metal pieces uniform. I'll give that some more attention as well.

Also... this is the first time I've posted to any online forum, so I'm really loving the feedback and suggestions. Thank you!

kippernicus

Ah, yeah that shot without the lighting really helps. Thanks for posting that. I agree with SaferDan on the noise issue. I might even suggest taking it a step further and reducing the business/noise on some of the wood pieces, especially the railings along the top of the wagon. Maybe throw a brightness/contrast or exposure adj. layer over your wood texture and see if playing around with that helps. Lookin good dude!

Krissleh

I've cooled down the rust a LOT in this version, building up from a black base with bluish highlights and working the rust layer in lightly. I've also toned down the rust stains quite a bit, and tried adding in some cooler tones as a wash, multiplied over the wood textures to try and pull out some of the shadows and lightly tint the darker areas.

I'm feeling pretty good about this so far, especially after looking back at the previous renders. This is with a full ambient flood, so any shadows are purely texture driven.

kippernicus

Oh yeah, that's looking much better. Nicely done. Maybe brighten up the metal a bit or change the paint on it to a more contrasting color to add some visual separation. Personally, I like how you chose to represent the metal in your first post, minus all that noise you have already fixed. Great job, Krissleh. This looks really good for being just a diffuse texture.

Krissleh

I agree, Kippernicus. The rust was giving me a little pause for thought, due to the lack of contrast to the cart body. After a good sleep, though, I brightened up the rust, bringing back some color and touched up the wood shading slightly.

Here is another render as well as the wireframe and UV.

Krissleh

The next step for this model, after the texturing is locked away is breaking it down into 3 separate LOD models. I missed an opportunity to optimize the outer side panels of the cart bed by making the larger panels and the uprights contiguous (like the inside walls). However, I'm feeling it's a bit too late for that. I only noticed the problem toward the end of texturing. Something else to look out for in the future.

Krissleh

One final update before I move on to the rest of the environment. I added a slight dirt pass that was suggested in another forum, and this is what I've come up with. This asset can pretty much end up anywhere, once I release it, so I feel the slight addition is better than a serious dust over.

SaferDan

Yes! This looks awesome man! Alot better from your first post! Nice work!

kippernicus

Very sexy. I'd take that cart for a ride any day, if ya know what i mean.

Great work!

Krissleh

Hahaha! Thank you very much, SaferDan and kippernicus for the terrific feedback and suggestions. You really made guided me in the right direction!

kippernicus

You're very welcome! I'd love to hear what you have to say about the project I'm working on right now, if you don't mind. It's under the tag "Astronomer's Tower". I should have another texture update on there in the next hour or two.