I think it would probably help if you accentuated the rivets around the gold trims in the diffuse/specular more - have some grunge and dirt gathered around their edges to make them pop out a bit more. Currently it looks more like someone's done a thick gold paintjob over the whole thing, rather than having metal bits riveted to the surface over a long period of time.
I think it would really help this piece to include the elements from the concept like the fire and glowing eye bits to help contrast the metal and wood ... also the chains from the concept might add some more detail and silhouette interest.
i'd make the teeth the same metal like in the concept, the lighter gray color makes them look like nickel which isn't very cool looking.
i'd also have the iridescence in your spec map bulge around the bubbles, trace previous bubbles, and sweep to the edges of the bowl. not sure it'd even appear in such thick oil, but it's a neat effect. should play with punching the spec a little more, it could look terrible though.
Looking great so far but you may want to tune down the gloss in ue3 a bit so the metal reads more like metal, atm it looks like wax or something, should look more like in marmosemt imo.
Yeah, I've been messing with the spec all day, I think I need to add a cube map to get closer to the look of marmoset. I agree that the metal looks better in that screenshot. I'll give the oil spec a little more lovin', it hasn't really been worked on much, I just added it to see if I liked the look.
i personally wouldn't tighten the gloss all that much. metal doesn't have all that tight of a spec, imo. i'd keep it around that setting and make the spec do all the work by adding contrast to the texture but leaving it dark enough to punch edges with high specs. it may help to crank the spec multiplier in the unreal properties up to 2 or 3x its strength.
More tweaks, been working on the specular to try to give it a more metallic feel, worked on making the oil streaks form around the bubbles a little better, still not sure how much I like it. Also, it seems that Unreal compressed the hell out of the textures..
Doesn't that always blow, you work on it work on it, and it always looks better and better until you get it in engine and it just falls flat on it's face.
Anyway, this looks kick arse. I liked your version yesterday better overall though.The horns definitely look better in this new version.
Maybe try putting the ligher version over your older version and mask it to create brighter highlights around the skeletal ridges of the eyes and nose area, get the best of both worlds. Right now the lighter texture makes it look a bit pixelated.
Dunno if this will help, but i'll use the normals at times as a reference at 50% opacity and paint white on the areas that should pop up. Then put black under that and use that layer as a mask for the new brighter layer.
The discolorations in the oil is looking neat. Maybe try running an unsharp mask filter on your textures to get the details to show up more, Unreal is definitely compressing them compared to Marmoset, like the texture size got cut in half or more. Overall it's looking good though, very close to the concept.
Nice work so far! To get more definition on your textures, set their LODGroup parameter to either TEXTUREGROUP_Skybox or TEXTUREGROUP_UI. Although the texture will still have sorta nasty DXT compression, this way it will at least display at its natural resolution. UT3 textures with default settings only stream in up to 512x512, which seems to be the case here.
Crit:
- Its never been used before? Or the cleaned it meticulously after the last use? Probably over thinking it...
- Also don't forget about a heat source.
doc_rob - Thanks . Cool to see that one of the Mythic guys likes it, is this one of your concepts?
kaburan - Thanks man, the spec has been driving me nuts. I think it looks better now, but I'm saving the update for later when I've gotten more done.
ZackF - Yeah I've tried a ton of stuff to get the textures to look sharper, I've set them to the Skybox group, set LOD Bias to -1 and -2, tried deferring compression, etc. It looks better, but I think part of it may just be Unreal and the actual texture. I've also been fiddling with the specularity nonstop trying to get it to look right, I finally just had to stop so I can finish the base and chains.
Vig - Thanks! I thought about adding some oil spillage, let's just pretend they wipe it down after every pour . Although, realistically they can't even use it because of the spikes on the front of the pot, lol. I'm working on building a base for it, I should have it done today, I finally had to stop myself from tweaking the textures to try to get it to look right in Unreal.
i'd tip the hues in the oil into cooler colors, the red/orange isn't working imo, i think that's what's breaking the effect. id' introduce another color in the swirl to, add some contract in it so some areas aren't as specular, so you'll have some variety and interesting steaks of black swirled in there so it pops a little more.
i think some of your highlights are too uniform, the golden rim of the bowl for example has consistent edges. the approach i'd take is to try and brighten the top surface so rather than that value defining "edge here" it'd break it up and define some planes as well, and it wouldn't be so noticable.
i can't tell if you had or not, but the rusty drips from the spikes on the leg supports, those should be black in your spec, rust isn't shiney.
i'd redue the straps on the handle as well. not liking the yellow color, and it looks like the thickness isn't consistent. the blown out white areas, that seem to have been darkened after the fact, maybe it's the shading or lighting has a dodge and burn look which is something you normally want to avoid.
I really dig this though I hope if its unreal you have maybe a panning texture on your boiling couldren to give the illusion of it bubling or atleast moving?
Also maybe a emitter of bubbles on it as well
may I be so bold to ask as how you went through to your process of making that wood sculpted so nice in z-brush?
I have tried to sculpt wood before but not with good results so if you explain that would be awesome
I ended up taking a step back to work on some of the things that killingpeople mentioned and decided to work on the diffuse and specular some more, because I kind of rushed through it the first time because I was eager to see results.
I really dig this though I hope if its unreal you have maybe a panning texture on your boiling couldren to give the illusion of it bubling or atleast moving?
Also maybe a emitter of bubbles on it as well
Probably not, just because it probably won't be animated on my portfolio site.
may I be so bold to ask as how you went through to your process of making that wood sculpted so nice in z-brush?
I have tried to sculpt wood before but not with good results so if you explain that would be awesome
For the wood I just made an alpha from a wood texture off of cgtextures then used drag rectangle on a standard brush to 'sculpt' the detail. You could also use the alpha to mask it then sculpt it that way.
Great prop. I just have to say it kicks soo much ass in the Marmoset engine. Looks 50x better than Unreal. It really is the best engine ever. I wish it had glow maps. Great work!
Hey guys, went back and made some a lot of changes to the diffuse and specular, added the chains. Working on the ground plane for it now, got the sculpt done and maps baked, working on the diffuse and specular so hopefully I'll be able to post that tomorrow.
The spec on the trim still needs some tweaking, it's a little bright right now.
Nice work rob,why dont you try a bit of bloom and rim lighting in the marmoset editor.It would add some more interest to the prop.
Good work on this man!
Nice work you did there. I think that in your first shot the specular-effects for the spikes came out better. Maybe it's just because of light direction with shot you posted but in case you dimmed the specular for the spikes I would revert this change.
An other suggestion: If you want to show the asset with a floor I recommend that you add some kind of fortification for the bottompart of the frame. Because at the moment it very much looks like it just stickes through the floor. By adding some kind of geometry at the places where the frame intersects with the floor it will more look like the whole cauldron is really fixed to the ground. And considering the size and weight of this asset an achorage to the floor would give a better impression imo.
Vig - Thanks! I thought about adding some oil spillage, let's just pretend they wipe it down after every pour . Although, realistically they can't even use it because of the spikes on the front of the pot, lol.
Ahh yea that is a minor problem, unless the crank operates door on the bottom of the pot and it pours oil out of the bottom down a hole (I think they are called a Machicolation). The chain could operate both the opening in the floor and the opening in the pot.
Just a thought, could add detail to the base and work out any functionality issues people might have. Not that you really should worry too much about it.
Replies
I think it would probably help if you accentuated the rivets around the gold trims in the diffuse/specular more - have some grunge and dirt gathered around their edges to make them pop out a bit more. Currently it looks more like someone's done a thick gold paintjob over the whole thing, rather than having metal bits riveted to the surface over a long period of time.
I think it would really help this piece to include the elements from the concept like the fire and glowing eye bits to help contrast the metal and wood ... also the chains from the concept might add some more detail and silhouette interest.
now u need a emissive/illumination for the glowing eyes, just like wut MoP said
Show maps.
i'd also have the iridescence in your spec map bulge around the bubbles, trace previous bubbles, and sweep to the edges of the bowl. not sure it'd even appear in such thick oil, but it's a neat effect. should play with punching the spec a little more, it could look terrible though.
Otherwise really nice!
Thanks for the feedback guys, keep it comin'!
Anyway, this looks kick arse. I liked your version yesterday better overall though.The horns definitely look better in this new version.
Maybe try putting the ligher version over your older version and mask it to create brighter highlights around the skeletal ridges of the eyes and nose area, get the best of both worlds. Right now the lighter texture makes it look a bit pixelated.
Dunno if this will help, but i'll use the normals at times as a reference at 50% opacity and paint white on the areas that should pop up. Then put black under that and use that layer as a mask for the new brighter layer.
Crit:
- Its never been used before? Or the cleaned it meticulously after the last use? Probably over thinking it...
- Also don't forget about a heat source.
kaburan - Thanks man, the spec has been driving me nuts. I think it looks better now, but I'm saving the update for later when I've gotten more done.
ZackF - Yeah I've tried a ton of stuff to get the textures to look sharper, I've set them to the Skybox group, set LOD Bias to -1 and -2, tried deferring compression, etc. It looks better, but I think part of it may just be Unreal and the actual texture. I've also been fiddling with the specularity nonstop trying to get it to look right, I finally just had to stop so I can finish the base and chains.
Vig - Thanks! I thought about adding some oil spillage, let's just pretend they wipe it down after every pour
verybad - Umm.. sure?
i think some of your highlights are too uniform, the golden rim of the bowl for example has consistent edges. the approach i'd take is to try and brighten the top surface so rather than that value defining "edge here" it'd break it up and define some planes as well, and it wouldn't be so noticable.
i can't tell if you had or not, but the rusty drips from the spikes on the leg supports, those should be black in your spec, rust isn't shiney.
i'd redue the straps on the handle as well. not liking the yellow color, and it looks like the thickness isn't consistent. the blown out white areas, that seem to have been darkened after the fact, maybe it's the shading or lighting has a dodge and burn look which is something you normally want to avoid.
Also maybe a emitter of bubbles on it as well
may I be so bold to ask as how you went through to your process of making that wood sculpted so nice in z-brush?
I have tried to sculpt wood before but not with good results so if you explain that would be awesome
Probably not, just because it probably won't be animated on my portfolio site.
For the wood I just made an alpha from a wood texture off of cgtextures then used drag rectangle on a standard brush to 'sculpt' the detail. You could also use the alpha to mask it then sculpt it that way.
The spec on the trim still needs some tweaking, it's a little bright right now.
Good work on this man!
An other suggestion: If you want to show the asset with a floor I recommend that you add some kind of fortification for the bottompart of the frame. Because at the moment it very much looks like it just stickes through the floor. By adding some kind of geometry at the places where the frame intersects with the floor it will more look like the whole cauldron is really fixed to the ground. And considering the size and weight of this asset an achorage to the floor would give a better impression imo.
Just a thought, could add detail to the base and work out any functionality issues people might have. Not that you really should worry too much about it.