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Warhammer Desk

Em.
polycounter lvl 17
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Em. polycounter lvl 17
Had to jump on the I *heart* Warhammer/Mythic bandwagon, saw this concept and just had to model it.
Still working on the textures and adding details like the book sitting on top.
The desk/props are 950 tris, x2 512 diffuse textures.
Crits and comments welcome, of course, thanks in advance.
EDIT:: forgot the concept..whoops blush.gif
Concept::
warhammer_concept.jpg

desk_wip10.jpg
desk_wip11.jpg
desk_wireframe.jpg
Textures::
desk_texture2.jpg
props2.jpg

Replies

  • cholden
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    cholden polycounter lvl 18
    STOP!...hammertime!

    Don't do anything else until you make that skull the best looking warhammer skull ever. You must realize the importance of the skull before you can give the same quality to the rest of the piece.
  • Matabus
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    Matabus polycounter lvl 19
    [ QUOTE ]
    STOP!...hammertime!

    Don't do anything else until you make that skull the best looking warhammer skull ever. You must realize the importance of the skull before you can give the same quality to the rest of the piece.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Quoted for absolute truth.
  • Em.
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    Em. polycounter lvl 17
    I'm still working on givin the skull that special Warhammer lovin', I swear (along with the rest of the textures)!
    Will update with a better skull soon.
  • Rhinokey
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    Rhinokey polycounter lvl 18
    Work a lot on the skull, and candle wax textures, they seem to have black outlines all over almost as if it was an illustration. The melted wax is the biggest offender of this, the model itself looks pretty good. work more on your textures and this could be a good piece.
  • Em.
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    Em. polycounter lvl 17
    Small update, full bright screen-cap, working on getting the skull and candle wax right. Thanks for all the crits, they've helped a lot.
    desk_wip12.jpg
    props3.jpg
  • The Umbrella Man
    Hey Em. I would say the biggest thing I see is the stretching on the texture on the desktop and textures not tiling correctly in other spots. Hope you don't mind but I did a paint over to show you what I mean.

    paintover.jpg

    Everything else look good, save to say you may need to tone down the shadows on the wax.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 19
    Stretch the model upwards and shorten the feet to match the concept. Always try to match the concept as much as you can.
  • Wells
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    Wells polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    Stretch the model upwards and shorten the feet to match the concept. Always try to match the concept as much as you can.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    definitely. current proportions are off by quite a bit.

    make love to that skull until it is your wife! do it! WAAAAAGH!
  • Em.
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    Em. polycounter lvl 17
    Umbrella Man:: Those problems should be fixed, thanks for that.
    Justin:: Thanks for pointing that out, I knew something was off, just couldn't see it.
    Sectaurs:: Skull sexification in progress.

    Made adjustments to model proportions, and a little more work on the skull, more updates later. Thanks everyone for the crits, keep em' comin'. : )

    desk_wip15.jpg
  • MAUL0r
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    MAUL0r polycounter lvl 18
    lookin good! watch those candles... the alpha for the flame has a white edge on the top.
  • Em.
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    Em. polycounter lvl 17
    MAUL0r:: thanks for pointing that out, I scaled some things up and didn't get a chance to do a little clean-up.

    Here's another small update before I leave town for the rest of the day. More edits to the skull and wax, wear and tear to the desk and proportion editing. Next I'll be making the book that sits on the desk, more texturing, and some UV adjustments. Thanks again for the crits. smile.gif
    desk_wip17.jpg
  • cholden
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    cholden polycounter lvl 18
    coming together lots better. Books, candels, scrolls, pen all look nice

    Woodgrain overpowers the wood's shape, enhancing the highlights/shadows can fix this, and be sure your grain all runs a direction that makes sense.

    Finally, that skull still needs a lot of work, it's just too distorted and cartoony. Think more realistic, with a painted look and slightly wonky/whimsy.
  • Em.
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    Em. polycounter lvl 17
    Alright, another update. Spent a little more time on the realisim of the skull, thanks for explaining it that way Cholden, made the approach a lot clearer. Also changed the direction of some of the wood grain, enhanced shadows and highlights, and added the book sitting on the desk.

    desk_wip21.jpg
    Screencap::
    desk_wip21_fullbright.jpg
    Textures::
    props4.jpg
    desk_texture3.jpg
  • cholden
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    cholden polycounter lvl 18
    Now there's a skull! Keep pushing the wood material's lighting. I mean REALLY exaggerate it beyond what you have here (possible bake an AO, and hit those highlights harder), and you'll have a great piece.
  • Wells
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    Wells polycounter lvl 18
    yes! skull looks great.

    but now that you've revealed your abilities, you need to bring the rest up to the same level. The wax/candle texture especially stands out, sitting on top of that skull. Try faking some sss on it and get some warm tones in the shading. Right now its kind of grey and muddy and very 'drawn'.
  • aesir
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    aesir polycounter lvl 18
    I really dont like that wood texture. It looks a lot more like UVs that have been horribly stretched then wood.

    The grain needs to curve and form knots like these:
    http://www.primatestudios.com/images/articles/painting_wood_grain/fig_12.jpg
    http://www.kitchendoorsonline.net/images/royal-oak.jpg
    http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/CRT/CRT248/009315IL.jpg


    You'll be hard pressed to find wood that has perfectly straight grain all along one axis...
  • jgarland
    It's certainly coming along. The latest update looks a lot better than the first. smile.gif

    One thing I'd change, and I'm surprised that nobody else has mentioned it, is the rolled-up scrolls in the left shelf. They look very flat, like they're just floating there right now. Try adding better shadows to them.
  • Em.
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    Em. polycounter lvl 17
    Quick update..warmed up the candles, started to work on bettering the wood texture and also started to add depth to the scrolls. I'll post another update later. Thanks again for all the crits. grin.gif
    desk_wip22.jpg
    props5.jpg
  • Steakhouse
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    Steakhouse polycounter lvl 18
    Hey this is starting to look really nice. Though with the new lighting model on the candles, wouldn't the feather pick up some of the color as well?
  • zenarion
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    zenarion polycounter lvl 17
    Really sweet smile.gif
    How about putting some weak omnis where the candles are and baking in their lights? Your concept seems to have a really wel-defined lightsource/sources.
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    thats an abusively low polycount on the feather
  • Rhinokey
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    Rhinokey polycounter lvl 18
    you are really starting to shine on this piece. the only thing now i see as a major problem is the wood, for one,

    the grain is way overpowering, I actualy would have found a nice wood overlay to use as a base to start with and worked with it. you may can fix it a lot just by taking your wood grain layer and lowering the opacity on it by.. 50% at least.

    Lighting. The lighting on the wood now.. seems to be a clouds layer of some sort. think about your light (actualy in making warhammer we would not paint in much lighting since we will be using lightmaps. but in this piece its fine if you want to make it look pretty) I would suggest baking your lites in from a couple of omnis simulating the candles, plus one or 2 simulating ambient light. Or you could do it the hand painted way, i'd make a layer then lay down some solid colors for light untill you get them placed where it looks real, then fade it out and paint it up to look nice.

    watch wood grain direction, on the feet part you have the grain going one way on the top, then it sudenly goes the other way where the foot swoops down think of how wood works, the grain is fibres flowing up the tree, the darker grain is the rings in the tree cut as a crossection. tehy should go in a certain direction
  • Em.
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    Em. polycounter lvl 17
    A little update, I adjusted the lighting to reflect a candle-lit atmosphere, I also lightened-up the wood grain and changes some of the grain directions. I also upped the polycount in the feather a little. I haven't gotten around to messing with light maps yet. Thanks again everyone for the crits, you guys are awesome. smile.gif
    desk_wip26.jpg
    Screencap::
    desk_wip26fullbright.jpg
    Textures::
    desk_texture4.jpg
    props6.jpg
  • IronHawk
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    IronHawk polycounter lvl 10
    latest update isn't showing up for me. Progress so far has been excellent though.
  • John Warner
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    John Warner polycounter lvl 18
    woahh bizzare. it'll bet if you just scaled that whole thing vertically, except for the candles, it would not only match the concept more but be a lot more ascetically appealing.
  • Cubik
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    Cubik polycounter lvl 18
    The whole thing feels like it should be shallower, it looks too deep right now. Try pushing those claws back, they look way too long. Check the concept and fix those proportions.

    The candledrip is looking really thin, it is nothing at all like the waterfall of wax in the concept.

    The open book would benefit from some unique uvs so you can match the frazzled look of the paper in the concept. Map its black cover to one of the others and use that space for the paper.

    The inkwell and "featherstand" needs to be shinier, if you can't use a specmap, try painting some fake reflections and highlights similar to what you have done on the candels.

    Will you bake shadows? The wood right below the stack of books is just a confusing mass of brown right now without the defining shadows of the concept. All of the surfaces could do with some shadows to help with readability. This would fit with the art-direction ingame too, since from what I can tell by looking at screenshots, everything seems to have shadows and highlight baked and no specmaps, but I'm sure that one of the polycounters working at Mythic can correct me on this.
  • Em.
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    Em. polycounter lvl 17
    Finally got a chance to get some work done for the first time in a couple of days.
    Thanks for the crits, John and Cubik, very good points that I've implemented this pass(minus baking shadows). I'm still tweaking the wax "waterfall" coming off the candle.

    desk_wip29.jpg
    Screencap::
    desk_wip29fullbright.jpg
    Textures::
    desk_texture5.jpg
    props7.jpg
  • Em.
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    Em. polycounter lvl 17
    Alright, another update, crits&comments welcome as always. Max is going wonky on me so I still haven't been able to bake shadows, hopefully I can fix it.
    desk_wip33.jpg
    desk_wip33fullbright.jpg
    desk_texture6.jpgprops8.jpg
  • pliang
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    pliang polycounter lvl 17
    Awesome painted details...but where's them worn edges?
  • rooster
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    rooster mod
    cool stuff! have you thought about vert lighting this? I think it would give it much more character than your raytrace render
  • Em.
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    Em. polycounter lvl 17
    Thanks for the crits, I found a few minutes and upped the wear and tear on the edges. I tried to play with some vert lighting, but Max kept crashing on me, I don't know what's up with it lately. Thanks again for the comments, anyway... update!
    warhammerdeskbeauty.jpg

    warhammerdeskfullbright.jpg
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