[WIP] Ultramarines Venerable Dreadnought

Krypten22

Hi everyone!

I recently started a project to help me practice my Substance Painter to UE4 workflow. It's an Ultramarine Venerable Dreadnought from the Warhammer 40k universe. I'd just like to share my progress and see if anyone has any feedback for me at this stage.

Here's my High Poly:




The Low Poly:





Here's my current progress with the baking and texturing too:








Here's the texture so far:





Still early days with this so any feedback or critique is welcome!

Thanks!

Brian "Panda" Choi

Good start.

Needs edge highlights and more discoloration

Krypten22

Thanks @Brian

 I've started looking at more discoloration and edge highlights. Need to break up the discoloration more and paint some more masks. I'm very aware that a lot of assets done in Substance tend to all have the same tiling masks and textures, so I'm trying to use my own generators where I can.



I've also stuck my low poly with normals onto Sketchfab. It's my first time using it to present a project, so I wanted to include it.


model

Krypten22

Got this guy into Unreal so I can start setting up the materials and a render environment. It's worth noting that I'm using assets from Necro's Bone Box and his Rock Box on the UE4 Marketplace for the bits on the plinth.


Textures are still a WIP, but I like having stuff in-engine while I develop them so I can check them in realtime.

Krypten22

Been squirreling away at this, here are some texturing updates!









Not sure if I like the left gold panel, so any ideas or feedback would be very helpful to help me improve this!

Bonus render in UE4

Brian "Panda" Choi

I'm realizing what's been offputting about the model.

There's a lot of mechanical details you've left out, decreasing the believability of the model.

A big one that stands out to me is the left arm.  How do those fingers bend?  Issues like this are sustemic across the model.

Here's an example of an appropriately detailed dreadnought.

Krypten22

Thanks for the feedback Brian, I completely agree!

I've remade the power fist arm and I'm going to model some more accessories such as logos and greebles to add to the finished model!

Krypten22

Small update, just starting to look at adding damage and general wear and tear.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Pelvic elements need more detail.  Can't easily tell how the thighs rotate from the pelvis.  Or how the midsection rotates as well.

Once again, this detailing issue is systemic across the model, not just hand.  Assault cannon also looks too simple as well; could benefit from more detailing.

Krypten22

Thanks again for the feedback man, really appreciate you taking the time! Think I'll take a step back from texturing and presentation to correct the things you mentioned, starting with redoing the assault cannon and arm.

Here's the current UE4 presentation, any pointers/changes on this I can make would be great!

Krypten22

Been a while since I posted here, I've been busy with other projects unfortunately! Made a few updates, mainly with the textures and UE4 presentation as deadlines are looming! Any CC on the presentation or textures would be awesome as lighting in engine isn't one of my strong points

TheLittleJay

Right now the lighting if pretty flat, which isn't fitting at all for the this glorious warrior of the Emperor. 

Look up 3 point lighting. The gist is that you'll want a few different lights around the model, illuminating what you need to see as well as adding a small highlight to the edge. Remember that contrast between light and shadow is what will make a model 'pop' or not. Look at this dude: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/kyNlx for example, there are some very nice shaded and lit areas that really give the image more depth. 

You could also play around with adding a dash of colour into the lights, that can often spice things up very nicely. If this dreadnought is mid-battle, then you could use flames / explosions / plasma bolts as light sources too. 

Krypten22

Thanks for the feedback! 

Lighting's definitely not one of my strong points so I've had another go. I've also added a slight red/orange tint to the key light, and a blue tint to the fill light for some extra contrast. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction!

 
Really digging the idea of some particles such as plasma and flames so that's something I'll definitely look at! 

Krypten22

Doing some tweaks here and there, I've dirtied up the helmet a bit, increased the shading and AO on the wax parts and added a particle effect from the UE4 shooter demo. Also changed up the lighting to give more contrast in highlights and shadows.



Any critique or pointers on my lighting would be great! Thanks

Krypten22

Calling this guy done for now, thanks to those that helped along the way! You can check out the finished product on my Artstation page here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ebZyJ

Bonus renders