Tower Shield WIP....Critiques welcomed :)

beansauce

Hello! This is my experiment WIP shield. I say experiment because it's sole purpose is to just help me learn substance painter. I'd love some input on this.

The bolts are not finished. If any substance guru's could tell me how to mask off a section based on the normal painted on so I can add edge ware I'd be super grateful. I'm also looking for ideas on how to make the back look more interesting.

Thanks in advance and have a great day!

Credit for concept goes to MuYoung Kim : http://muyoung.artstation.com/

BucketOfNuggets

I don't really understand the design. it look really really heavy and cumbersome. I think the metal is too thick. Is there a reason the beam in the middle is there?

Also with the amount of erosion on the metal, I'd expect to see more damage with the wood. The wood at the moment look really flat. What created the circle scratch in the middle on the wood?

I could be wrong but with shields, aren't they made so that the blade will bounce/glance off?

Brian "Panda" Choi

I'm with @BucketOfNuggets
Thick is cool, but thick is almost ridiculously heavy for real life.  The combat ready steel shields they actually made are surprisingly thinner than what we conceive of fantasy armor usually.  Think Witcher 3 for a good example of realistic metalwork.

Thin it up, and exaggerate how thin you initially think it to be.

See if you can add in subtle off-hues to the facades of the steel and wood.  Might give it lsightly more body.  A similar principle people sometimes use for handpainted textures.

beansauce

You both make a great point on the overall thickness of it. I would imagine that it is very heavy. I was trying to focus on the design from the concept as closely as possible. Assuming that there aren't any shields like this in real life. It's concept kind of kills it's functionality (there really is no reason for that middle beam lol).  I just thought it was a cool concept *shrug*.

The wood is flat and too clean yeah. The circle was just me playing with ideas. I'll probably end up throwing on some painted symbols or insignia on it. 

Thanks for the input

purplekami

The others have made really good points on what to change, some of the stuff that I would like to see personally is that if you're going to do erosion and battle damage it would be neat to tell a story through the wear and tear. Have specific areas where the shield would be hit more often than other areas.
I really like this so far though, keep on that substance wagon!

beansauce

@purplekami

Yeah they all make very valid points, and I'm making changes to the overall model right now. It's funny how you mention that I should "tell a story" on this piece. Originally, I wanted to add some deep claw marks going across the whole front side but I decided to skip the whole zbrush process because my only goal at the time was to just learn substance. Over the last day I got some good critiques not only from here, but from my peers and yeah, I'm going to have to go back and change the overall model anyway so I might as well go all the way. I learned a great deal so far with substance so I feel like I did accomplish something even though I kind of have to go way back in the process. Thank you