Rune stone sculpt, looking for feedback

loggie24

Hi, been sculpting a rune stone for the past few days and looking to get some feedback as i'm unsure if i'm going in the right direction. Still WIP so things are missing.

Kar-re

Looks pretty good, i would focus a bit more on the overall structure of the rock and less on the detailing. Focus on the bigger shapes and such, but the detailing is pretty much on point.

I don't know how i would do with the inscription but the most effective is maybe sketching it in photoshop and then just use it as a alpha just before baking.
Good luck!

loggie24

Yeah, i think the structure of the rock is a bit unpleasing to look at. As for the inscriptions i use dam_standard for the bigger details and alphas for the letters, work fairly well.

Brian "Panda" Choi

What's the etching on the wall about? Is it a poem? Incantation? Is there a reason for a snake like pattern?

loggie24

Honestly, it's just me playing with my mind. If you translate the current letters you could find a real word though

mhofever

Looks like the language of Khuzdul.

Brian "Panda" Choi

I think most of the challenge then is the design of your runes. The rock has clearly been crafted and sculpted to allow a flat surface for these runes, so now you're making the prop ABOUT the runes.

The runes are now the focal point, not the rock. The rock is serving the rune writing.

Which means you need to spend time making the runes well design, read well, and look good.

That's your next step: work on the rune design. Make it meaningful, not interesting. Is it telling a story? Is it a lyrical script? An incantation? Instructions on how to craft barbituates meant for human consumption?

I totally understand the "just messing around," happens to me when I sketch as well. It will take effort to really craft this past "looks cool," and if you take that journey, all the more awesome! But that would be the next step beyond lackadaisical sketching.

loggie24

^this is great feedback. Thanks a lot guys

Brian "Panda" Choi

If you're not comfortable with the design you're creating, do yourself an easy solution and work from an existing reference!

Mesopotamian Cunieform seems to be underused these days, maybe use that as a Google search.

OctoKube

dude just have fun with it, I think you should focus more on making it look like rock before anything else.