Hand Painted Weapon (Feedback Needed)

ChiNguyen

Hello I'm currently a student and I'm studying hand painted stylize textures. I'm trying to mimic the World of Warcraft texture style and so far I've been struggling with choosing a good color palette and breaking up negative space. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to improve this?

Update

I did some texture studying and checked out resource that was provided for me. I reevaluated my design and scrapped the axe and decided to start over this time with a scythe instead. So far I am still on the concept stage and I'd like as much feed back on the color choice and design before moving on. I've been having a hard time figuring how to break up the colors on the handle so that the wood, bandage, and claw color doesn't look the same. Does any one have any suggestions?

MarcoAntonio

Hello @ChiNguyen and welcome!!!!
Well,  there are some things you could improve. The first thing I see is the polygon count.There are a lot of unneeded quads there. On the other hand, the colors are way too bright in the handle and the dark gradients are way too extreme.There is no harmony at all.

It is a nice start. Keep the hard work!!

ChiNguyen

@MarcoAntonio Would cutting down the poly count to half that amount be good or just in certain areas sush as the handle? I'll definitely lighten up on the dark gradients and dim the brightness on the handle area.

MarcoAntonio

Where to remove polygons is a matter of curvature and experience. Parts with a bigger curvature will require more polygons than parts with no curvature at all. Try to remove polygons. If the result is not that different in shading then your model didnt need those polygons.

On the other hand, you should look into other artists with a similar style you want to achieve. Just compare your work with theirs so you could understand what you could improve.

ChiNguyen

Do you have any artists recommendations for this style of texturing? I'm really new here so I don't know my way around yet. 

Brian "Panda" Choi

https://magazine.artstation.com/2018/09/blizzard-entertainment-world-warcraft-art-blast-character-art/

praetus

ChiNguyen said:

Do you have any artists recommendations for this style of texturing? I'm really new here so I don't know my way around yet. 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW54USAkyIJq1NNqEmHwgBNtXCaXK6eh6

http://3dmotive.com/series/hand-painted-dagger.html

http://3dmotive.com/series/hand-painted-texturing.html

And also Handpainter's Guild Discord
http://3dmotive.com/series/hand-painted-texturing.html

BrandonBerryCG

I feel like you should revisit the claw on the end. Its a really cool design but i think you could push it a bit further! 

ChiNguyen

UPDATE

Here's the model and textures for my new scythe. @BrandonBerryCG I changed the claw and I think it works better. I feel like I have improved but I don't know how to push this further to the blizzard style and I'm hoping to get suggestions. I feel like the bandages are lacking something and the lower half is a bit unbalanced in terms of complexity. I'm thinking about adding ornaments to the claw to break up the negative space. Thanks for any critique you guys can give!

Snafubar7

ChiNguyen said:

UPDATE

Here's the model and textures for my new scythe. @BrandonBerryCG I changed the claw and I think it works better. I feel like I have improved but I don't know how to push this further to the blizzard style and I'm hoping to get suggestions. I feel like the bandages are lacking something and the lower half is a bit unbalanced in terms of complexity. I'm thinking about adding ornaments to the claw to break up the negative space. Thanks for any critique you guys can give!

Big readability improvement Only comments in that regard is how many wraps are on the handle.. seems really densely wrapped. minor detail.

One step you should focus on is material definition. What's the green part of the blade? is it green-painted metal? or jade? the blade should obviously be metal but it doesn't have that shine yet. or if it's not supposed to be metal, idk.

keep going, and I encourage you to join the discord linked in the previous post. lots of real-time feedback there.

ChiNguyen

@Snafubar7 Thanks! I guess I'll need to do some material studies regarding the types of metal  and as for the wrap I'll decrease the amount and maybe use the wood underneath to break it up. 

ChiNguyen

I took the time to do a bit of a study on hand painted textures and tried my best to apply it to this. I felt like the claw was unbalance in terms of complexity and I thought about adding ornaments but reconsidered and added a glow instead. However, I feel that it can be improved. I also made some tweaks to  the bandages and feathers and added some ornaments.

@Snafubar7 I would love to join the discord but the link provided isn't working. Do you mind linking it to me?

BrandonBerryCG

I like the wooden claw much better and like where you are going with the glow effect on the bottom half. It balances it out nicely. But I think you should work on the lighting portion of it. Maybe harsher lighting instead of a soft glow. Also make sure you add light in between the 'claw' fingers. I'm referring to the second picture from the right, you can see the underside of the sphere isn't glowing or emitting light. It's shaping up to be a nice piece!

Snafubar7

Big improvement on the handle and base. Learning the metal materials just comes with practice and time, it got a little better. It's never an overnight transformation. Keep pushing on this if you really want to, but I suggest just starting a new prop for the sake of fresher practice, more repetition.

I sent you a message with a permanent invite link to the discord.