Artstation challenge (props) Critiques for future improvements?

Larry

Hello guys, this is the first challenge i did on artstation. I really owe it to the polycount's challenges for paving my road as an artist
I didn't want to post this before my final submission, as i didn't find it fair for myself to change anything because of some advice.

So could you guys point out some things i could improve for the future? What is the most visible thing you notice first?
Thanks in advance!



And here's the link for anyone wanting to look a bit further.
https://www.artstation.com/contests/the-legend-of-king-arthur/challenges/70/submissions/45653

SeekeroflLight

Hey Larry, I think this is fabulous work! The only thing that jumped out for me was the side profile of the sword's blade, towards the tip seems thin. It is really difficult to find any flaws  in the work. Great job!

Larry

SeekeroflLight said:

Hey Larry, I think this is fabulous work! The only thing that jumped out for me was the side profile of the sword's blade, towards the tip seems thin. It is really difficult to find any flaws  in the work. Great job!

Thanks mate, really appreciate it !

LouisStelfox

Hi Larry, just stumbled across this thread and wanted to say those props are looking great! One area I think you should focus on is adding wear and tear to your props, as parts of the goblet and chest look a bit too procedural and cg 'clean'. What I think is lovely about your sword is that I can see bits of grime and dirt in the crevices of the handle which is great, but elements like the gold of the chest just seem a bit too perfect so take what you've done on the sword and apply it to the chest. Some roughness breakup will also help reduce this effect on things like the gold and the blocky texture you have for the chest's base, so dirty areas would probably be rougher, which you could totally do for the chests legs that rest on the floor.

Hope this helps!

Larry

LouisStelfox said:

Hi Larry, just stumbled across this thread and wanted to say those props are looking great! One area I think you should focus on is adding wear and tear to your props, as parts of the goblet and chest look a bit too procedural and cg 'clean'. What I think is lovely about your sword is that I can see bits of grime and dirt in the crevices of the handle which is great, but elements like the gold of the chest just seem a bit too perfect so take what you've done on the sword and apply it to the chest. Some roughness breakup will also help reduce this effect on things like the gold and the blocky texture you have for the chest's base, so dirty areas would probably be rougher, which you could totally do for the chests legs that rest on the floor.

Hope this helps!

Thank you very much Louis! Other people told me the same thing about the wear and tear. I realize especially the box is kind of flat,but i imagined it being in Guinevere's private room.And enhanced with magic.So that doesn't tell a "wear and tear" story and maybe i held back on it.
What would you do for damage in that prop, or a general prop that hasn't been exposed to damaging actions or erosion?
Is, at least,this type of gold-ish texture nice for a base, material wise? I kept it as a smart material in painter

LouisStelfox

Hi Larry!

Sorry for the very late reply (only go on polycount from time to time). What I would do is just spend a fair bit of time collecting as much real world reference of wear on objects that similar to the ones you are doing. Obviously you cant find real life pictures of a magical chest, but what you can do is look at other gold items (I.E jewellery) that are probably specially preserved and clean. One thing I thought of was the Crown Jewels in the UK. (I've attached an image with some quick annotations sorry if they're ineligible, and some of the things I might have said might just be from the photo rather than the crown) From the looks of it the crown looks pretty perfect, but if you look closely there are slight kinks and scratches on it from during when it was made. I'm just speaking in the hypothetical but that's how I might approach your chest asset. I'd say almost everything in real life has a sign of wear and tear, even if its only tiny scratches and roughness imperfections. I like the gold base you've got on there, I think it just needs some more roughness variation and it'll look loads better . I'm no expect on this so take away what you will but that's a bit on an insight to my thought process when texturing, Anything that can help make your gold look a bit more 'forged' might be cool too. I'm not sure how gold is cast and shaped to make jewellery and stuff so that might be a good thing to research into

Hope this helps!

Larry

LouisStelfox said:

Hi Larry!

Sorry for the very late reply (only go on polycount from time to time). What I would do is just spend a fair bit of time collecting as much real world reference of wear on objects that similar to the ones you are doing. Obviously you cant find real life pictures of a magical chest, but what you can do is look at other gold items (I.E jewellery) that are probably specially preserved and clean. One thing I thought of was the Crown Jewels in the UK. (I've attached an image with some quick annotations sorry if they're ineligible, and some of the things I might have said might just be from the photo rather than the crown) From the looks of it the crown looks pretty perfect, but if you look closely there are slight kinks and scratches on it from during when it was made. I'm just speaking in the hypothetical but that's how I might approach your chest asset. I'd say almost everything in real life has a sign of wear and tear, even if its only tiny scratches and roughness imperfections. I like the gold base you've got on there, I think it just needs some more roughness variation and it'll look loads better . I'm no expect on this so take away what you will but that's a bit on an insight to my thought process when texturing, Anything that can help make your gold look a bit more 'forged' might be cool too. I'm not sure how gold is cast and shaped to make jewellery and stuff so that might be a good thing to research into

Hope this helps!

Thanks a lot! Yea that's what i did, there is surface noise and roughness variation. I have studied quite a bit the way metals are bent/forged/finished, and mine has all those details, but then people told me it looks too procedural and doesnt have a lot of storytelling. I'm quite lost for now but i'll re-texture it while taking all the feedback you guys gave me cheers!