Lion Shield

jonathanbaker

Hello! This is my first post on polycount. I'm looking to get some criticism from outside sources to help grow as an artist. This is my most recent school project. Roast me!
model

MarcoAntonio

Well...If you could post quality pictures it would be a better help. From what I can see it looks ok in terms of modeling (I am not able to see much so I can not really tell).
In terms of design there are a lot of things to be said.  The first thing is that lion head: If you put a shield with that heavy looking thing then the most probably thing to happen is that the shield will incline to the front. That will not help to its user, who will have an opening for his enemies. More than a shield looks like a trophy. Something that I, or anyone, would put on the wall after a hunt.
The second thing are the spikes. The could look great but they would harm the shield´s user, because how shields are really used. I thing that Skallagrim has a great video explaining this...(he is a youtuber). 
The next time try to use some references. If you want to make something that looks like something that already exists (like a shield) then you want your model/design to have the basic propieties of what you are aiming for. For example, that lion head would be a carving on the wood or metal or there would be a part of the shield where there are not spikes (to let the user attack with his sword/spear without getting damaged).

jonathanbaker

MarcoAntonio said:

Well...If you could post quality pictures it would be a better help. From what I can see it looks ok in terms of modeling (I am not able to see much so I can not really tell).
In terms of design there are a lot of things to be said.  The first thing is that lion head: If you put a shield with that heavy looking thing then the most probably thing to happen is that the shield will incline to the front. That will not help to its user, who will have an opening for his enemies. More than a shield looks like a trophy. Something that I, or anyone, would put on the wall after a hunt.
The second thing are the spikes. The could look great but they would harm the shield´s user, because how shields are really used. I thing that Skallagrim has a great video explaining this...(he is a youtuber). 
The next time try to use some references. If you want to make something that looks like something that already exists (like a shield) then you want your model/design to have the basic propieties of what you are aiming for. For example, that lion head would be a carving on the wood or metal or there would be a part of the shield where there are not spikes (to let the user attack with his sword/spear without getting damaged).

@MarcoAntonio I assumed the model viewer would be the best way for someone to see that model as a whole. Is this not a commonly accepted way to showcase your model? As far as design, everything that you've said makes sense, and to be honest, I didn't exactly consider the actual functionality of the shield when designing it. I guess in my mind, with video games, anything goes. I imagine the owner of this shield being mightier than the average human, and very much utilizing the shield as a weapon itself. I used a reference image for this shield, however, I drew the reference myself. This was never meant to mimic reality. Thank you very much for your input, I'll certainly take it into consideration whenever I'm going for realism and designing my own objects.

MarcoAntonio

jonathanbaker said:

@MarcoAntonio I assumed the model viewer would be the best way for someone to see that model as a whole. Is this not a commonly accepted way to showcase your model? As far as design, everything that you've said makes sense, and to be honest, I didn't exactly consider the actual functionality of the shield when designing it. I guess in my mind, with video games, anything goes. I imagine the owner of this shield being mightier than the average human, and very much utilizing the shield as a weapon itself. I used a reference image for this shield, however, I drew the reference myself. This was never meant to mimic reality. Thank you very much for your input, I'll certainly take it into consideration whenever I'm going for realism and designing my own objects.

The thing is, that in a videogame not everything goes.Things are discussed over even months in the preproduction step and nothing is is established until it makes sense for everyone. If you try to make something and you say "this is that something" but it does not make sense because of how it is designed (compared with the reference object) then the next thing is going to happen: People will see it and say "ok it looks like it", but then (since it does not have the basic shape) they are going to think subconsciously that something is wrong. We associate subconsciously certein shape formats to every object and when we see something that names itself as an specific object but does not have the shape that we associate to that object, then we say that it is not that object. That´s what affects to inmersion (the most important thing in a videogame in my opinion).
That´s why concept art in the preproduction step is sooo important.