Elod Horvath - Environment and Prop Art

Elod.H

Hello everyone,

Thought there was no point of keeping my "art" to myself, so I`d like to share my work in this thread with hope of getting better at 3D and just being connected to the awesomeness that is Polycount..

Everything is still work in progress.

Feedback would be much appreciated and I`ll keep updating this thread as I go along.

Sword concept:



Marmoset 2 scene so far:



I am currently working on the crest of Silvermoon, based on this Blizzard concept:



Marmoset 2 screenshot:

Mawcos

Really nice! The only problem I see here is that your sword have a very stylized and handpainted feel to it, but the rest of the models are very life like which make sword seem out of place. If you try to texture/model the other objects like the sword (blizzard-ish)I think it would make much more sence. Don't know if you're already planning to do that but just saying

With that said, your sword looks awesome and I love the texture-work you've put in to it!

Elod.H

Hey Mawcos,

Thanks for pointing that out. It's true, I need to go ahead and handpaint the rest of the assets as well. I`m kind of going for a realistic - hand painted mix look and the rest of the models need that attention as well.

Elod.H

I`ve worked on the tablecloth a bit and created folds on it + adjusted the color.

I`m not a cloth/fold expert so I`d like to get some feedback if they look allright or any tips on how to better them would be most welcomed .

ivanzu

Render it out on a gray background,table is drawing too much attention.

Elod.H

True.

Cheathem

I hope you dont mind a visual critique: http://i.imgur.com/WN3fdBc.png
If anything it might give you some ideas
The sword itself is very nice though!

Elod.H

Hehe, that's a very good idea Cheathem . I am planning to add some effects to the sword as a last step + what you did there helps bring the focus to the middle more.

I`m working on the folds of the tablecloth right now. Critiques appreciated

Elod.H

Tweaked the textures here and there and worked on the tablecloth a bit more. I still need to add candles and the tabletop.

Moosebish

The scale of the other props leads me to feel like its a very small sword. More of a knife. The blade is only as long as the length of the book.

I agree with the other posters, that it doesn't fit well in the current scene. I feel like the sword is really well done and you've nailed the style. But the scene is working against you right now.

Elod.H

Hey Mossebish,

Thanks for the feedback! I've just re-read my thread opening post and I did write "sword" , but in fact this prop is more of a dagger really. Based on the details on it and it's royalish look, I believe this to be a dagger, hence it's scale.

Regarding the scene itself: do you feel that the textures are off on the other models compared to the dagger or the modeling and shape of the different assets needs to be changed in order to harmonize the entire scene?
Thanks again

Elod.H

I've done a bit of hand painting on the candlestick.

Elod.H

Based on people's critiques, I've decided that I need to go through some of the objects and rethink their design. First up was the book and I've tried to match it's style to that of the sword. Texturing is very basic still, just finished baking.
Would like to get some input if the new version of the book helps the scene more than the previous.



Next model will be the clock which might be scrapped completely for something completely new.

ivanzu

Put some "effects" on alpha plane which could connect those floating hand guard.Something like lighting bolts or flames etc...Might end up looking interesting.

Elod.H

ivanzu wrote: »

Put some "effects" on alpha plane which could connect those floating hand guard.Something like lighting bolts or flames etc...Might end up looking interesting.

Yeeh, will definitely add some effects around those parts. Thanks for the suggestion. At the moment I'll try to nail the entire scene and then onto that.

Elod.H

Hyello,

So, taking people's advice regarding the scene not being within the same style range as the sword, I've swapped out the clock for a papyrus roll model. Going to paint a table top texture + create alpha planes with some effects for the floating parts of the sword.
Shadows under the papyrus are buggy, will fix that as well.

dzibarik

thi sword looks sick

Elod.H

dzibarik: thanks, I hope to match the scene's quality to the sword's .



I've adjusted the lighting, although I can't really say it's finished... still needs to be better. I've also painted a table texture + adjusted some textures here and there.

Here are some of the texture flats.







I still need to create a candle which is the main light source of the scene + effects for the floating areas of the sword.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, every small hint, tip, criticism helps .

Elod.H

Hello again,

I'm trying to finalize the scene. Adjusted the lighting a bit, added a pattern to the tablecloth + created a candle with flame + a slight glare effect with plane.



Right now I`m concepting an effect for the floating parts of the sword.. it is painted over the image, hope to get some feedback for it. Made the floaty parts glow and look kind of "activated" to sell the look that something magical is happening that is keeping them float. Added some glowing runes to further emphasize this.

BagelHero

Looking pretty cool.
Just one thing; that's not a metalness map. That's a colored spec. They're not interchangeable, and you should be using a colored spec slot for those maps if you're not already.

See this if you're interested in going full PBR workflow for your stylised assets at some point. It's a good read, and a good example of how to make your stylised metals look like actual metal instead of plastic.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing this finished! Keep it up.

Elod.H

BagelHero: thanks for clarifying that. I somehow engraved the thought in my mind that PBR requires a Metalness map instead of a Specular map. It's all starting to make sense now .

Working on this on and off to finish it. Thanks!

Elod.H

Adjusted the colors and added the effects to the sword via alpha planes. I`m pretty much 99% done, waiting for some feedback to maybe change this and that. Will tweak the colors and lights tomorrow and calling it done.



Thanks for the help

DireWolf

I really like the sword, candle and scroll. Not too fond of the book. I think the coins are the weakest - details are too small with thin little lines that looks like it came out of photoshop filters. I think you may want to redesign it with bigger shapes instead of tiny little lines like that.

The gold of your table cloth looks even shinier than your coins. Not sure if that's intentional.

Another idea - your scroll looks quite aged, would be nice to see the same aging quality on other things.

Elod.H

DireWolf: yup, the coins always felt a bit off, they are based on a Blizzard concept as well, but because of the size of the details they might not be working too well in this scene. Thanks for pointing out that material issue as well.

Back to work then

BARDLER

You would get better results out of the shader if you take all that scratch and variation detail in your spec map and put it in your gloss map.

Elod.H

Thanks BARDLER,

Will look into what details I`m missing from Gloss that are visible in the other maps and make sense.

Elod.H

I`m having some issues with shadows at the bottom right corner of the image: I have 1 sided planes (turned backface culling off in Marmoset) as those rolled up paper parts on the papyrus. They are letting light through them. Was wondering if there's a relative simple way to solve this issue or do I need to add thickness to them?



Thank you

Elod.H

Hello again,

I had worked on the crest of Silvermoon last year, but never really got to finish it.
Old marmoset pic:


It was a shame really, and I felt like a jack@ass not to give it more attention, so I`m hand painting myself to the finish line.

Here is the concept:



Texture:



Marmoset 2 screenshot:

EarthQuake

Elod.H wrote: »

I`m having some issues with shadows at the bottom right corner of the image: I have 1 sided planes (turned backface culling off in Marmoset) as those rolled up paper parts on the papyrus. They are letting light through them. Was wondering if there's a relative simple way to solve this issue or do I need to add thickness to them?

Thank you

Adding thickness to them is probably your best bet, you can try to manually duplicate and flip the faces but this tends to cause shadow artifacts.

You could try dupe, flip, and then push a bit to separate the duplicated element, that might work, at that point you're basically just giving it thickness though.

AlexCatMasterSupreme

I think you need less objects in the scene, it's not clear what is the main focus. Or more focused lighting.

Elod.H

EarthQuake: thank you for the tips. Tried the duplicating method, but -as you mentioned- it caused artifacts. Eventually I did give it thickness, but at first it was not enough. The problem still occurred. As soon as I gave it a bit more the shadow issue went away. Something to keep in mind for future projects .

AlexCatMasterSupreme: thank you for pointing that out. I decided to go with the focused lighting in the form of adding vignette to the Camera. Hope it's more clear now.
I've also adjusted the lighting and some Camera settings to make everything pop a bit more. Here is the final image for the sword scene and for the shield as well.

Thanks for the help everyone!