[WIP] Sig Sauer p320

Geekson

Hey guys! Here is my second (almost) finished work. 

Now I'm stuck with textures and rendering. In general, I don't really understand how to make it look interesting without tons of scratches and worn edges. There are a lot texturing tutorials, and almost each of them about technical side - filters, buttons, hotkeys, and etc. But I've never seen something really fundamental. Of course, I believe I will be better with every finished model, but it would be cool to increase speed. And same with rendering.  So I will be glad to hear any advice or critique.

artstream

Hey nice modeling! I recently finished a Sig myself.  A note about your modeling, in the future I'd soften your edges a bit on your high; you're getting some artifacts where the low poly is trying to compensate for the difference between the high (mainly along the slide --- this is where I had most of my issues as well).

In terms of texturing detail, instead of scratches and worn edges, why not history like oil, finger prints, a bit of dust in the crevices? Tell a bit of a story with it.

Has it been cleaned recently? Fired recently? Was the last user sweaty on their palms? 

It looks like you already have some of that on the grip (it looks like you have a curved "slash" where one of the pieces would move, as well as some oil/residue build up), so I'd push that further (whether on this piece or your next). 

Also, in terms of rendering, if you're using the new Marmoset Toolbag, drop a shadow catcher in there to help "ground" your scene. Shadows can make a huge different in presentation. 

Geekson

artstream said:

Hey nice modeling! I recently finished a Sig myself.  A note about your modeling, in the future I'd soften your edges a bit on your high; you're getting some artifacts where the low poly is trying to compensate for the difference between the high (mainly along the slide --- this is where I had most of my issues as well).

In terms of texturing detail, instead of scratches and worn edges, why not history like oil, finger prints, a bit of dust in the crevices? Tell a bit of a story with it.

Has it been cleaned recently? Fired recently? Was the last user sweaty on their palms? 

It looks like you already have some of that on the grip (it looks like you have a curved "slash" where one of the pieces would move, as well as some oil/residue build up), so I'd push that further (whether on this piece or your next). 

Also, in terms of rendering, if you're using the new Marmoset Toolbag, drop a shadow catcher in there to help "ground" your scene. Shadows can make a huge different in presentation. 

Thank you for the feedback! Though I'm not really sure about softening edges - I thought these artifacts are about low polys smoothing groups. Also, I followed your advice about the story and added some subtle wear according to this reference.


But rendering... It just ruins my efforts of creating nice materials. Boy, I hate this part of workflow! I'm still struggling with good lighting setup. I just have no idea what good lighting is, and that's the main problem. I would appreciate any advices for improvement of render quality.

Geekson

I'm just gonna leave it like that. Maybe I'll return later to make some laser sights, flashlights or whatever.