Old Portfolio Piece - Re-work or Scrap?

jhoythottle

I made this piece in college. I can't remember how many texture maps there are, but there are way too many. It's high poly in some spots and low in others. I can tell it needs some work in places, but I've been looking at it for years now and I don't know where to prioritize or if I even should. Just by looking at it, where are its strengths and weaknesses? Should I take the massive amount of time to over-haul and re-work the whole piece or just scrap it?




Original concept by Keith Thompson:

Carabiner

I like what you've got going there, but I do think it would need quite a bit of work to revamp. I actually think the whale itself is very well done, and you could keep most of that as-is.

For me, the part that seems the most "off" is the buildings: they seem almost doll-sized, I think due to their lack of detail? It really throws the scale off for me. If it were me, I'd go in and add lots more detail there and not have so many straight 90 degree faces. I also think that the curvy part of the harness, with the gear, is a bit lacking in detail as well (plus the texture looks a bit low-res) so I'd work on that too.

Does that help? I think it's a really neat model and quite unique, so personally it seems like it'd be worth it to revamp.

jhoythottle

Yes, that makes a lot of sense. The comment about 90 degree faces really struck me. I must really have a blind spot for this piece - I just realized how much more stylized the concept is. Mine is so blocky! And yes, the large texture detail makes the objects appear much smaller than they should be. Thanks, this helps a lot!