Art Test for a local Studio

SniperGirl85

Doing an art test for a local studio and have to model an old keg with a 1.5k poly limit, 2k textures, and the cork at the top had to be new. Still working on it and was wondering if anybody would be able to critique what I've done so far. First art test and am honestly extremely nervous.

Bartalon

I don't know what the art style is that they're asking for but as far as looking like an aged keg I think you got it down.  Nice distribution of grunge in believable places, especially where it builds up between the grain and against the metal rings.  Without a concept reference it will be hard to say how close you're hitting to home, and no wireframe prevents us from critiquing your polygon efficiency.

The feet seem a little bit neglected.  Somewhere I would definitely expect to see some dirt would be on the feet, but they are even cleaner than the barrel.  There's also the question of functionality.  How are these pieces being held together?  Looks a bit rickety with a single cross beam down the middle and no nails, pegs, dowels, brackets, or other indications of assembly.

What else I can say is if these shots are any indication of a showcase shot, your presentation needs work.  One light source in a white room will only get you so far.  You'll definitely want multiple lights to show off your surface definition to give a strong initial first impression.  It might help to ground it on something like a table or cement slab or something.

Hope this helps & good luck

ArNavart

Iron bands don't lay on the wood evenly on the upper part they're below wooden planks and on the lower parts they're above it. Wood texture is too even and flat, there's no any damage dent or wear on it and maybe it's also too saturated, iron bands could use some edge wear.  And a wood line crosses the iron band in the second image.

Jaston3D

Hey! So its an okay start! I'll list some crits that haven't been said already (all of the above are valid and you should implement)

- First and one of the most important! More geometry! There looks to be a ton of faceting going on in your model right now. I'm assuming your not that close to the polycount yet.
- Right now I think the wood planks are tiling too much. Its really effecting the scale perception and weight of the barrel. So less planks across the barrel.
- Once you get that nailed down and you still have some geo to spare go ahead and add some edge loops to a few selected planks and extrude a few of those polys at the rims to break up the top and bottom rim edge. Subtlety is key here.
- Now that you have your model set up a little more. it'll need a normal bake. By the looks of your model it only has normal info in the tiling textures and no actual baked normal? Gotta get ride of those super hard edges on that valve. baking from a highpoly will fix that.

Don't panic with all these critiques, just get to work.

Eric Chadwick

If you're asking for art critique, Career & Education is not the place. Moving this to 3D Art Showcase & Critiques.

SniperGirl85

Thanks for moving it, Eric Chadwick, and my apologies for putting it in the wrong location. 

Saw the critique from Bartalon this morning and and didn't notice the other ones. Will work on the other  critiques later on tonight. Thanks so much for looking at it. Here are a few updated pictures of what I ended up changing so far.
Added 3 lights at various angles/brightness levels with only the main light casting shadows. Do guys think I need to add more? Added soem edge wear/scratches to the metal rings. Thinking I should add to make it more noticable on the rings. Also, added an overlap section that is being held down by rivets . Added grunge/wear toward the bottom sections of the keg



ArNawrt, ok, thanks, will make the boards more uneven later on tonight and decrease the saturation of them as well. 


Jaston3D, sitting at 755 quads, or 1,366 triangles. In the instructions I was given I can use up to 1,500 polygons. It being a game studio, I'd assume that's 1,500 triangles, but they were not that specific. Will beef up the geo on the parts that would be facing player, and bake down what I can to make them appear less sharp. Will also make a high poly mesh and bake it down. Great idea and honestly should have done that originally. Will also widen the boards as well


Should have an updated pic with that later on tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest depending on how long it takes. Thanks everybody so much

Bartalon

If the guidelines of the art test are ambiguous, you can and should ask for clarification.  They shouldn't have any problems providing specifics.  There's a chance they could mean polygons/quads and not triangles which means there's a chance you're only using half the budget you were allotted.  An extra 1600 triangles could bring out a lot of the details you are forced to keep flat or omit, such as the metal bands, structural details for the frame, more form to the spigot, etc.

PixelMasher

the lack of clear material definition is really holding this back. make the metal more reflective/metal like and the wood more rough. Look at a lot of reference images of the different material types and how they should be reacting to light. and yea, desaturate that wood a ton.

SniperGirl85

Bartalon, thanks for recommending that I contact them. You were right it''s 1,500 quads, not triangles Gives me much more geo to play with. So seriously, thanks.



With the higher poly limit I remodeled it and retextured it. Varied the plank thickness, desaturated everything but the cork, raised the roughness value of the wood to make it more dull as recommended. I ended up increasing the cork size on the top to closer match the reference that was giving to me by the company, which is something that I ended up missing modeled the original. Think I'll add more dirt/wear on the top and along the legs. Is there anything else that people could recommend before I submit it to the company for the art test?

Really want to thank PixelMasher, Bartalon, Jaston3D, and ArNavart. You guys are freaking awesome. Seriously, thank you guys so much for the recommendations

PixelMasher

nice work dude, this looks 100x better

SniperGirl85

Thanks PixelMasher for everything. Also, thank you Bartalon, Jaston3D, and ArNavart. You guys really are great. 



Ended up posting it to my Art Station as well. Gave you all credit in the description for helping me https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lKn1z . Will probably submit it tomorrow to the company. Won't lie, I'm a bit nervous about it.

Thanks again