Ye ol'Blaster (image heavy)

kodde

Hey people.

My first complete model+texture project since ages. Intended as a FPS player weapon. Critique is welcome and appreciated.

Main reference is a random "medieval crossbow" image from google. Materials in texture are from cgtextures.com. Used Maya, Photoshop, Crazybump and xNormal. Lots of time spent on learning while doing.

MoP

Model, normalmap and unwrap are nice, good job there. It is a tad plain in terms of design but I guess that matches the reference - it might have been cool to try and make it a bit more interesting in silhouette or volume here and there (especially the back end).

The texture is what's letting it down a bit now, IMHO. It feels like a strange mix between realistic and cartoony, but not in a way that seems intentional.
It's possible that the way you've lit the render isn't helping either. In general it looks very bright (faaaar too bright for a medieval crossbow, it's made of treated wood, tends to be much darker and more reddish than yellow).

The wood grain feels far too thick and it's inconsistent too - you've just slapped the wood grain over all the details, like that panel on the top of the stock, so it looks like a fake plastic toy instead of a real thing.

I think if you took another pass at the textures and rendering setup and either went all-out stylised (TF2 maybe?) or all-out realistic (grainy wood, chipped metal etc) then you'd end up with a nicer result. Probably wouldn't take that long to do a good pass over the texture either if you had a good idea of what you were aiming for.

Keep it up!

t4paN

I think it should have some rust and dirt and generally have a look like it's being used in wars and stuff. Right now, it looks like it came out of Ye Ole' S-Mart Guns and Ammo department, ρε πατρίδα.

fortheweekend_

It might just be me, but the wood colour is a bit bright. other than that i like it

PixelGoat

I think the wood on the side look weirdly stretched... did you use the smudge tool or liquify to make it or something?

kodde

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm itching to give the texturing another go, need to find some spare time for it.

I will change the lighting to make it a bit darker. Texture will be refined to look more gritty and used, will redo the wood texture.

Pixelgoat> Can't remember, but I don't think so. I probably tweaked it a whole lot in other ways though. [url="http://www.cgtextures.com/texview2.php?id=19795&PHPSESSID=b5d773cf25850f676c921b1258c2a9d4]Here's[/url] the original wood texture.

00Zero

i cant see pics.. tried refreshing too

kodde

00Zero wrote: »

i cant see pics.. tried refreshing too

Yeah I noticed this morning. Seems like my ISPs webhosting isn't all that reliable, at least not lately. Works now as I am writing this.

dfacto

I think you really need to work on the wood and the whole thing will improve immensely. You've got a nice cartoony texture on the string, arrow and metal, but the wood looks like a photoshopped product and just doesn't fit at all. Look at the TF2 Pyro axe handle, which does cartoony wood beautifully.
http://pnmedia.gamespy.com/screenshots/phl/49564401.jpg

It's subtle, has no real wood grain, but you know it's wood. Not saying you need to do that with your crossbow, but it does call for a lot more subtlety.

vj_box

take care of the wood and the as said,add more history to it.
Right now its kinda plain. The model is neat. you just need to eye on the wood details which is more prominent. The wood might look more Raw and bumpy,like its hand made and might even have some taped or something wrapped around.

Cheers
Vj