Sword WIP

Shilo

Hi,
started a sword from a concept I probably found from here.. so props to the
unknown concept artist. Anyway, I'm looking from some input on tri count,
flow and overall look. What do you fellas think?
Low poly is around 1170 quads. No textures except quick and dirty normal + ao..

Shilo

Did some quick textures, mainly using ddo presets with little tweaks.
I'm probably gonna use those as a base and make just some small changes.
Also gonna add a wolfs tail on the handle. What do you think? Any tips for better material definition?



edit:thanks Bardler, that did the trick.

BARDLER

Use an image hosting site like imgur, photobucket, imageshack, ect

Shilo

Made textures a bit dirtier and darker. I still feel like it's missing something..

Optinium

I feel the dirtier texture hinders and conflicts with the geometry somewhat and makes everything harder to see, I reckon a nice 'hand painted' type texture would really make it shine

esPhys

Well, to start with the obvious you need to adjust the colour for the different sections/materials (unless this is supposed to be stone, or part of a statue). The blade looks good, but then the hilt, grip and pommel all being the same colour gets kind of boring for a fantasy looking weapon like this. I'm sure it would only take a few minutes to set up some layers to fool around with the colour of the various parts, and you can find something that you like.

One more thing, though this is more a matter of personal preference in this case. This looks like a realistic rendering of a more cartoony style of weapon in that it has a very thick blade, and everything is exaggerated. There's nothing wrong with that, love the style, but I think it might be worth increasing the size of the smaller details. Specifically the runes, and maybe the wolf's eye.

(I ended up doing a paintover of your last image to give a vague idea of what I'm talking about, specifically regarding the size of the eye and the engravings. Mostly so that you could see if you liked it or not. I'll take it down if you want though, just let me know. http://i.imgur.com/ot3rwDF.jpg )

Shilo

Really appreciate the feedback and paintover - no need to take it down.
I definitely need some contrast and color. Purple works nicely on handle, maybe something darker..gonna try blue tones also. I'm off to try colors and some handpainted overlay on the texture. Also gonna tone down the grime..will post changes later.

I'm probably gonna keep the lightning, I like realistic/semirealistic styles even if cartoonish.