CrossBow (textured & rendererd in Substance Painter)

CB_Productions

Update #3: 

Can now be purchased on the UE4 marketplace: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/animated-light-medieval-crossbow

Includes a dynamic rain and blood shader, have a look here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vVSgc7gmDw&feature=youtu.be

Update #2: (now rendered in UE4)


Original Post:

So, this is my crossbow (still WIP, rope not properly textured, trigger is missing).

But wanted to get some feedback. Let me know what you think and what I can do better

PyrZern

I'd probably make the wood texture's color more orange/brown so it doesn't appear so.... bland. And some man-made scratches on the wood. Maybe the metal bits cleaner as well...

CB_Productions

PyrZern said:

I'd probably make the wood texture's color more orange/brown so it doesn't appear so.... bland. And some man-made scratches on the wood. Maybe the metal bits cleaner as well...

Thanks for the feedback! It was going for a more dirty look. But I will give the more cleaner look a try. 

How would one go about adding man-made scratches with Substance Painter? Do you paint them manually or use a Tool for this?

CB_Productions

PyrZern said:

I'd probably make the wood texture's color more orange/brown so it doesn't appear so.... bland. And some man-made scratches on the wood. Maybe the metal bits cleaner as well...

Okay, so I changed the color of the wood a little bit and also made the metal cleaner.

The screws are now in a bronze color.

Any tips on how to push this further? I am unsure on how to add further details to this.

CB_Productions

Little update - now rendered in UE4: 

The Rizzler

Not sure there's a lot more you can do, it doesn't look like you've dented the metal through sculpting but that's implied a bit in the texture? If not then sculpting would add a bit more detail. Other than that you would have to model more geometry. I guess there's one thing - when metal meets wood for an extended amount of time, it can stain the wood - so some subtle staining where the metal contacts the wood might add a bit of interest. 

CB_Productions

The Rizzler said:

Not sure there's a lot more you can do, it doesn't look like you've dented the metal through sculpting but that's implied a bit in the texture? If not then sculpting would add a bit more detail. Other than that you would have to model more geometry. I guess there's one thing - when metal meets wood for an extended amount of time, it can stain the wood - so some subtle staining where the metal contacts the wood might add a bit of interest. 

Thanks for the feedback. 

If I wanted to add some geometry. What kind of details would you suggest to model?

CB_Productions

Here's another shot of the clean version. The blood in the first shot is not baked into the texture but rather uses a dynamic blood mask (inside UE4). That way the amount of blood can be altered during runtime.

The Rizzler

CB_Productions said:

Thanks for the feedback. 

If I wanted to add some geometry. What kind of details would you suggest to model?

Sorry, I missed your post. Just googling 'old crossbow' and I'm getting some really interesting designs, e.g



note the additional spokes at the front and the engraving/embossed floral metal parts
There's this one too, which is surprisingly colourful 



You might be able to add some pattern work onto yours in the texture, but what I meant was you'd need to make the model more technically detailed for it to be a more impressive piece. One detail I really like is the little gate entryway you can see in the second picture @PyrZern posted where the limb enters the body. It's little details like that that give props a lot more character and life - maybe something to think about for your next project rather than getting set back with this one. All in all the model and textures are good - it's just I think there are more interesting crossbow designs to work from, is all! 

CB_Productions

Now available on the UE4 marketplace: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/animated-light-medieval-crossbow

And a video can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vVSgc7gmDw&feature=youtu.be