Looking for Feedback on Small Scene

FancyMug

Hello Polycounters
I've been working on this small scene for the last couple of weeks. I'm hoping to get some feedback on composition, lighting, textures, Roughness values, basically anything and everything. 

Main Goal: I want the scene to tell a story (Environment storytelling)
 
I do believe there is a lot of room for improvement but I'm not really sure how to go about moving forward (I feel I've hit a wall), so I'm hoping some feedback will help me move forward. The lighting needs some improvement. I struggle with lighting. 

Thanks.

AgelosAp

Hey @FancyMug , I can tell there is a clear effort to implement the storytelling you mentioned, and the overall quality of the assets is good.
It is a little scattered though, there are classical elements like the gold box and the briefcase itself and then there is the military grade knife, and the CDs which are contemporary(?).
Also the placement of the objects is a little sterile, you could overlap the journal on the left with the note-book for instance, I feel like now you are trying to display those items in their entirety too hard.
What is the story you want to tell with this? Is this a murdered musician/spy perhaps?

FancyMug

Hi @AgelosAp. Thank you very much for the feedback. 
The main story of the scene is that an important Data disc has been stolen by a military agent type. The music book is arbitrary, I just needed something to hide the Disc. Having the audience not know the actually story, I was hoping to sell the idea that someone was hurt and that something important was stolen. 

I did not think about the time frame of when these objects were created/used and how they are kind of clashing in the scene. Good point. I was just thinking "what would be the best object to use that will get the point across and looks interesting". 

Yes, I was definitely trying to show off the roughness/texture work that was put into the assets, and I purposely placed lighting so that it would give some good contrast between roughness values, while trying to light the scene the best I could.

I think the next step is to move the objects around so that it looks less sterile and more interesting while keeping the roughness values of the objects playing well with the lighting.

FancyMug

Small update:
 I moved a couple assets around and changed the lighting a little bit. I think the slight change has made the "messiness" look more natural. 
All C&C welcomed. Thanks. 

Ashervisalis

I feel like the book needs to have something done with regards to the point where the knife intercepts the pages. It's too clean of a stab and isn't really selling that the book has been stabbed. Plus, there is blood on the blade, but even though the blade has been stabbed into the paper, the only blood on the paper in that area is from the fingers.

The blood marks are my second issue. Someone with a bloody hand touched everything far too carefully, and with completely flat fingers, all pressing down equally. There isn't any smudging of these hand prints, which I think should be placed a lot more in a dirty/uncareful manner. If the owner of the briefcase got stabbed, and then the killer was rifling around looking for something in particular, the smudges wouldn't be clean, long finger marks. The second and third hand prints would also have a less blood than the primary prints.

The suitcase is made really well. My only crit with it is that the leather looks somewhat new, but the metal arms on the inside (holding up the other half of the brief case) have a little too much grunge on them.

I agree with AgelosAP on the timeline thing. People stopped using briefcases like this in the 70's (although this briefcase looks older than that), and then there are CD's and a military grade knife. It would settle a lot nicer if it was a knife from the 1940's or something. The knife does look cool, though!

FancyMug

@Ashervisalis Thanks for all your feedback. I appreciate it. 
I tried to do some google searches for books that have been stabbed but it is surprising difficult, so I took the liberty to stab a couple books of my own that were similar to what is in the picture. To my surprise there really wasn't that much in the case of wrinkles and such. The book pages really just kept the same shape. I contemplated whether I should put a few wrinkles on the page to add to the "cool/interesting" factor, but decided against it since I thought I wouldn't be able to make it look convincing. 

Nice point with the blood smearing, I'll have to go back and change that a little bit. As for the location of where the blood is placed, I was trying to sell the idea that the person knew exactly where to go and no rummaging was necessary. 
Thanks for the critique on the briefcase. I completely agree with you and will need to make some changes. Thanks.

I wish I would have thought about the time period of when these assets were made/used lol. Will remember for the future.
Thanks again.