I manged to sneak some time in on making the previously mentioned suggestions. See below..
Your thoughts? I think anything is better than the solid black I had going on. You can trust I'll never do that again. Anywho, I think I've about squeezed this lemon dry. I'm ready to take what I've learned and run with it on the next texture. Maybe one or two more wood studies and then on to something like metal perhaps? I'm open to suggestions and still greatly appreciate all the help!
Thanks! That really means a lot to me coming from you guys. :poly136:
My gears are still turning on what to do next. So far I've narrowed it down to some kind of dark chunky tree bark, or maybe some kind of wall that combines stone and wood. There's also an opportunity to texture some custom weapons created by a friend on the Torchlight forums. Hell, I'm stoked just to be doing something new. Anything is a possibility at this point.
Regardless, My #1 priority is for the next study to be a challenge and something out of my comfort zone. It's really the only way I'm going to improve. That said, I'll should stop blabbing about and get crackin. Keep an eye out and thanks again!
Alrighty, I think I've found something I'm ready to spend the next few days on. Here's a quick lava & rock ground texture I started tonight. Very much a work in progress. I'm really going to try and keep things playful, vibrant, and simple this round. Really trying to zero in on the texture style found in Torchlight. You guys hold me to it! As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated.
The ambient light that the lava gives off would be bright on the rocks. For the most part that is your darkest part of the rock. Maybe try to incorporate more of the light from the lava onto the rocks.
Yeah, I think on that tex you'd get some real bright lava highlights around all edges of the rock, but the top flats would be pretty dark. Yours is opposite of that, most of the light should come from the lava imo.
Quick update here. Took another stab at the lava / rock texture with above feedback in mind. Not sure how I feel about this one. Rendering in this style feels pretty unnatural at the moment. Might have to step back and do some more research.
Tis pretty loud aye? I've still much to do. Regardless, Happy Holidays everybody!
great inspiring thread .
I think you should add some more dark colors in the last image. keep it up!
Thanks! More dark colors. /check
second that... all that.
It actually looks like its glowing, which looks really good. Huge improvement.
Now the rocks need a bit more detail.
Thanks! I was curious to see how the glow would fly. All this illumination and ambient lighting business is quite challenging. Rock detail and tiling issues are on my to-do list. I love watching these textures take shape!
Crits:
It's more like cobble stones with lava for grout. As if round rocks where placed in the lava rather than the lava crust cooling and being separated as the molten rock underneath keeps shifting.
- The cool parts of the lava are jagged and almost like lightening and blend into the molten parts.
I don't think you need to animate the texture, but working in those jagged edges and the outer edge molten blend will probably help.
Vig: That's an awesome reference! It really makes me want to do some kind of animated texture. About your crit, I agree. I must have some deep psychological attachment for stone work because it really does look like lava grouted cobblestone. I've GOT to stop doing that! I'm probably going to start from scratch and shoot for something exactly like the reference you posted. Thanks again!
With that said, I made a few minor adjustments and am going to put this attempt to rest.
From this thread alone, I've learned that you can't let not hitting the mark the first time get to you. It's never a failure if you're able to learn something new. For example, I discovered a few nifty work-flow tricks and learned a good bit on ambient lighting. You guys are a great help and I really appreciate it. I never expected for things to take off like this. It's motivated me to get up (before 12!) and get to work. Anywho, back to the drawing board!
Baddcog: Sounds simple enough. I might just have to give that a shot. Thanks!
*Update*
Alrighty, finally something to show! I've been working on the next lava attempt and tried to take things as close to completion as possible. My main goals for this attempt were to get away from the cobblestone look, give the illusion of each bit breaking, and work on a better tiling pattern. I also wanted to try and keep things from getting too complex. Enough jib jab, here's the beef..
As always, your feedback is most welcome! Classes & Work will be starting back up for me soon, so the updates will probably be a lot slower. With that said, I think it'd be cool if we had an ongoing hand painted texturing thread (Similar to the Lowpoly 500 Tri threads). What do you guys think?
My sisters name is Devin...
I think the chunks of lava could be bigger, unless its like a 3rd person rpg (top view) or something. and the tops of lava look a little plan, you could also vary line size a bit more.
ZacD: That's cool, I've only known a few other people named Devin. About the texture, yup! I'm shooting for something generic enough to fit into an rpg like Diablo or Torchlight. Now that I look at it tho, it kind of reminds me of something that could fit in the a top-down RTS like Starcraft. Kind of like...
The next picture would be the Command Center sinking of course. All joking aside, thanks for the crit! I'll definitely work on it.
i'd second everything ZacD said - without the sister part !
while the tiling itself is far superior to your first boxy try i seen in your sketchbook it looks like you've been cast away with your previous success.
don't get me wrong on this - i'll try to explain on this. with me it has always been, when i made a huge step (for me ) i always rushed the next texture a bit and i got the feeling with this lava texture as well.
you seem to have spend work on the tiling effect but all the nifty little texture detail on your previous lava texture has gone.
like ZacD said, with breaking up the same line size everywhere i bet this will look a lot better as well as giving at least a tiny amount of volume to the lave (both read and dark parts).
also i think the tiling should be scaled down a bit - like on your previous texture, because the different parts are really small and i think it might look not so when its scaled over an entire lava block of doom !!!
in general i gotta tell you, if you had fixed the tiling on this try i'd call that finished - cause that piece was just nice looking - I'd call that finished after sorting out tiling issues
anyways, i just wanna tell you - your attitude is really exemplary. you listen and everyone can see how you progress - your thread should be spread over the internet to all the people that don't listen and therefore don't progress in skill
i'll be definately having an eye on this thread - keep on going !
Very cool, this latest lava version is the best yet, I think. Nice subtle glow effect, and yeah it does look like it'd be right at home in an old-school RTS (which is always good!).
BTW, if you ever need more Devin, you should listen to Devin Townsend!
The only beef I have and its a pretty minor one, is the semi-uniform thickness of the spacing of the lava between the islands of rock. But if not done carefully it could wreck the tiling by giving too many unique spots that could repeat badly so for me it would be a trial and error sort of thing to see if its really worth varying the thickness too much more.
Acumen: First and foremost, thank you for your honesty. I read your reply this morning and it really hit home. There's definitely a lack of detailing effort on my more recent attempts. However, while I feel there is some truth in me being "cast away" with my previous textures, I'm honestly just experimenting and searching for a balance with detail. If this were music, I'd liken it to me trying to understand when NOT to play a note. I hope that makes sense. However, if my art is suffering and coming off as lazy, I might not be ready to tackle that kind of concept yet.
That said, I really like the look of http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/...2e32d6d0_m.jpg as well. I feel I've learned enough with tiling to go back and bring it to a more finished state. Lastly, thank you for your kind words. It really means a lot
MoP: Thanks! I'd really like to do an RTS tileset in the future. About Mr. Townsend, pretty freakin epic! I especially like Deadhead. Definitely something I can get down to while painting.
Vig: Thanks man! I agree about the spacing between each island. Originally it was a lot less uniform, but it had some pretty bad landmarks when tiled. I'll definitely have another look tho. Trial and error is what it's all about
I had typed out a badass reply... with all kinds of helpful stuff... but i'll just get to the meat and potatoes of it.
my computer sucks...
1. Your tests are all valid, the work doesn't look lazy. If you're trying to solve a problem, focus on that problem... get the information you need, and move on... sounds like you're doing that.
2. The new texture looks good, with the exception of that lack of detail that you're already aware of (which is also providing you with a lot of useful information) and the uniform lines...
I offset the texture by 132 pixels and changed the layer to darken. Got some pretty interesting results, which you can see here:
Just a quick offset to see what the result would be (thought it would address some issues with uniform lines... )
It did that, but it also tells me that you don't have to have clearly defined cobblestone ground work style lines to make it look like hot moving magma ground.
The difficult thing about lava is that the line thickness is always changing. Especially if it's fluid. SO you wouldn't want the player walking on the cobble stone lava pieces...
I would use the cobble stone pattern as your transition to a lava texture.
I'd say that you're doing all the right stuff though... don't change your game plan with learning these techniques... then after you're done learning what you need to know, make a badass texture set of magic and intrigue
just read my reply again, and even though i tried to use 100 smilies it still may come off harsh
really was not my intention to imply the word lazy. lazy would be when someone does something on purpose which you clearly don't !
ah, just move on and forget my gibberish
nfrrtycmplx: Thanks man! I'm really digging the example you posted! Specifically, I like how the lava seems to be weaving under the earthy bits and illuminating them from below. I also think the line variation looks great as well.
With that in mind, I think I've learned a real valuable lesson. It's about imperfection. I had a quick look around and aside from Scarlett Johanson, nothing is perfect . This concept might seem like common sense or somewhat depressing, but I'm seeing that it's the imperfections that ground things in reality, give them character, and make them feel natural. All my attempts thus far have been WAY too cold and programmed looking (aka the cobblestone look).
I could write pages on this light bulb going off over my head, but I'll just get to the meat and potatoes myself..I'm seeing things differently now.
Acumen: No worries man! It was me, not you who implied the lazy part. Your comment was honest, constructive, and made with good intention. I can't tell you how much I value that kind of "straight up" feedback. Please never stop doing that!
As for everything else, back to the drawing board I go!
Alrighty, back to it. Time to focus on leveling up the ole' texturing skill once again. To start things off, here's a recent page of studies exploring the Torchlight style. I'll be texturing A LOT of low poly Torchlight stuff soon. Crits & Comments welcome as always
Achillesian - Thanks, you're right about the cloth. I winged the folds and it definitely shows. I'll do a bit more research next time
JacqueChoi - Glad to hear and thanks for the pro tip! Just curious, are the effects you mentioned something you usually keep in mind while painting, or do you tend to knock them out in post with adjustment layers?
Vig - Much appreciated man! I inadvertently let things go dormant while working on my foundation studies and sketchbook stuff. Seeing the recent boom of "I got a job" threads has really motivated me to get back to work.
Alrighty, now some art. Here's a WIP shot of a weapon I'm texturing for a Torchlight mod. I should mention that the concepts and models are created by two different people on the team. I'm very interested in learning the entire process, but knocking things out this way lets us focus on what we're good at.
Trying to stick as close to the concept as possible. I'd say I'm about 60% done at the moment. Mainly the hilt to redo and adding more reflection to the blade. Got to push the contrast as well. Anywho, I'd love to hear from you guys . I've got plenty more weapons to do and am hoping to use some of this in my portfolio.
i like the black lines from the concept so maybe incorporate that, but i don't remember if torchlight adds a black outline to everything or not, maybe just a little more contrast and fixed light source look too it, since there isn't really realtime lighting in torch like wow...
I am new to PC, and I am glad I came. This is something that I have been looking for, for some time. I am also learning a lot from this thread. I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of tuts for hand painting textures. I have already checked out the few that are posted in this thread, so anymore would be a great help.
Achillesian - I like the black lines as well. I'm holding off on them at the moment, but I think towards the end I'll put in some really dark saturated color to push the contrast as shown in the concept. I'm on it
Chrissx2 - Much appreciated!
Jungsik - Great to hear! That makes two of us
Dismembered - Welcome to PC man! To be honest, I learned the most from the tutorials and people around here. There might be more out there, but I think it really just boils down to looking at others work and lots of practice. I'll see if I can find any super links tho. Until then, goodluck!
*Quick update* Reworked the hilt and pushed the contrast a bit more. I'd say I'm about 80% done (knock on wood) and will let this simmer for a day or so to take in feedback / look for a new perspective. Can't wait to see this in game!
*Edit - I think it's worth mentioning that it's important not to get too obsessed with something like the hilt. I just realized it won't be seen much in game with the player's hand covering it and all. Lesson learned*
The hilt looks good. Your highlights are too strong though with that nearly pure white (at least on this monitor). I'd bring that down some and then just create a really thin bright line where the dark and light sides of the blades meet.
So something more like your first WIP, but push the darks a little more, then add in some very subtle thin strokes for highlights to make things look sharp.
i think the model itself is adding a lot to it being too clean and regular looking because it seems to be mirrored instead slightly assymetrical like on the concept - so that's something you can't change but only suggest to the modeler.
texturewise i think it lacks all the brilliant little details, cracks and bruises that all your other textures had on your practise sheet you posted earlier. it's totally straight and uniform and just doesn't look like a brutal weapon to me but more like a stylized letter A for printdesign. i wish i could do a proper paintover like all the other cool artists in this forum, but i just can't - i suck miserably
i can see a delicate difference in the shading detail. it's not as straight and regular as you painted it in. see ingame pic here: http://www.efflixi.net/images/torchlight.gif
there's gradients and cracks in it too, but more vital and flowing - not like an illustrators look. i think if you push here and pull there and mix some more tiny detail in there to get rid of the straight rectangular look, you'll get yourself a pure winner !
lots of blablabla again - i get really lost on these forums
edit: i was mainly talking about the blade - the handle looks 200% better, imo
Vcortis - Thanks! I agree about the highlights. I think I pushed the contrast a bit too much and killed the little gradations I was working on. I'll pull it back and give the the white line tip a shot. Makes a lot of sense.
Acumen - Many thanks for the links! I can see what you're talking about things being too clean. I'm feeling the same way and will do my best to F things up a bit.
I think I've got what I need to go back and finish things. I'll be cracking away at it tonight and tomorrow. Found an awesome little nugget about using masks for texturing in JasonLavoie's Demon's Throne Environment postmortem here. Very nifty and nondestructive. Exactly what I need.
Alrighty, last WIP shot before I bunker in and finish this bad boy. Pushed the contrast a bit more and added a minor light source below to increase readability. I'm not really feeling the inner triangle part or the edges surrounding the hilt. I've got to do something to break up those straight lines.
It's so.. clean! Are you going to add any texture to gritty it up a bit? Other than that, looks fab. Are you going for a more flat stylzed look, or more rendered?
Hey did a quick paintover... maybe I'm getting too far away from your original concept, but I just think the middle area of the blade is too dark. I also think you could use some grittyness in that middle area and add in some more hues and values. I also brightened up your hilt some and shifted the color slightly more orange to add some nice contrast.
Edit: Now that I look at this again I think the entire blade is a little too saturated with color too, you should probably tone it down by 15-20%.
Saiainoshi - I agree. Things really are looking far too polished and unnatural. I got so wrapped up with rendering the metal that I totally deviated from the looser stylized look. What's funny is my little Torchlight studies took a fraction of the time this has. I think I know what needs to be done at this point. I really appreciate the pointers you tossed my way.
Vcortis - Solid paintover man, thanks! I especially like the little bolt elements on the sides. They really help make the blade feel constructed and not magically held together. I agree about the other points you raised as well. /noted
I know I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but I think I see what everybody's talking about now. I won't make excuses, I'm just going to go back and do it again until it looks right. I think the lesson I've taken away here is that it's better to have too much than too little. No more of this Mr. Clean skimping around on things business.
I wouldn't start it all over again Devin, i really think (as far as matching the concept) you're there. As a portfolio piece that is perhaps the most important part, especially when the concept really doesn't allow for much liberty.
What kind of material will this have in game out of curiosity? Shiny, flat etc?
You bring up a good point Achillesian. I've been struggling since the beginning on how much I should stick to the concept (So much that it feels like painting by numbers), to how far away I should go to spice things up. This being my first experience, I think I played it a little too safe. Perhaps I'll just finish up the current version for the folks I'm working with, and then have another go without worrying so much. I believe the blade is supposed to be shiny metal in game.
This thread is all kinds of awesome, love the hand painted style and it's definitely admirable to see you putting so much effort in to really develop your skills.
Just a thought, try showing your work with something like a mid-grey background, the black makes it difficult to properly judge colour and value I think.
EDIT: It looks like those shots with a black background are from your diffuse map which would explain it! Ignore my suggestions then!
Replies
I manged to sneak some time in on making the previously mentioned suggestions. See below..
Your thoughts? I think anything is better than the solid black I had going on. You can trust I'll never do that again. Anywho, I think I've about squeezed this lemon dry. I'm ready to take what I've learned and run with it on the next texture. Maybe one or two more wood studies and then on to something like metal perhaps? I'm open to suggestions and still greatly appreciate all the help!
gogo more!
My gears are still turning on what to do next. So far I've narrowed it down to some kind of dark chunky tree bark, or maybe some kind of wall that combines stone and wood. There's also an opportunity to texture some custom weapons created by a friend on the Torchlight forums. Hell, I'm stoked just to be doing something new. Anything is a possibility at this point.
Regardless, My #1 priority is for the next study to be a challenge and something out of my comfort zone. It's really the only way I'm going to improve. That said, I'll should stop blabbing about and get crackin. Keep an eye out and thanks again!
Baddcog: I agree, thanks! I'll be working to correct that today. Well see how it goes.
Tis pretty loud aye? I've still much to do. Regardless, Happy Holidays everybody!
I think you should add some more dark colors in the last image. keep it up!
Now the rocks need a bit more detail.
Thanks! I was curious to see how the glow would fly. All this illumination and ambient lighting business is quite challenging. Rock detail and tiling issues are on my to-do list. I love watching these textures take shape!
Crits:
It's more like cobble stones with lava for grout. As if round rocks where placed in the lava rather than the lava crust cooling and being separated as the molten rock underneath keeps shifting.
- The cool parts of the lava are jagged and almost like lightening and blend into the molten parts.
I don't think you need to animate the texture, but working in those jagged edges and the outer edge molten blend will probably help.
With that said, I made a few minor adjustments and am going to put this attempt to rest.
From this thread alone, I've learned that you can't let not hitting the mark the first time get to you. It's never a failure if you're able to learn something new. For example, I discovered a few nifty work-flow tricks and learned a good bit on ambient lighting. You guys are a great help and I really appreciate it. I never expected for things to take off like this. It's motivated me to get up (before 12!) and get to work. Anywho, back to the drawing board!
scroll_anim x,y (speeds)
For a decent water fall speed in the y plane:
scroll_anim 0 -0.75
(I think that's it anyway.)
You could probably add
rotate_anim 0.3
(i think) to make it have a slight rotation and be less apparent that it tiles, and maybe look more like above.
Baddcog: Sounds simple enough. I might just have to give that a shot. Thanks!
*Update*
Alrighty, finally something to show! I've been working on the next lava attempt and tried to take things as close to completion as possible. My main goals for this attempt were to get away from the cobblestone look, give the illusion of each bit breaking, and work on a better tiling pattern. I also wanted to try and keep things from getting too complex. Enough jib jab, here's the beef..
As always, your feedback is most welcome! Classes & Work will be starting back up for me soon, so the updates will probably be a lot slower. With that said, I think it'd be cool if we had an ongoing hand painted texturing thread (Similar to the Lowpoly 500 Tri threads). What do you guys think?
P/s - You guys can call me Dev btw
I think the chunks of lava could be bigger, unless its like a 3rd person rpg (top view) or something. and the tops of lava look a little plan, you could also vary line size a bit more.
The next picture would be the Command Center sinking of course. All joking aside, thanks for the crit! I'll definitely work on it.
while the tiling itself is far superior to your first boxy try i seen in your sketchbook it looks like you've been cast away with your previous success.
don't get me wrong on this - i'll try to explain on this. with me it has always been, when i made a huge step (for me
you seem to have spend work on the tiling effect but all the nifty little texture detail on your previous lava texture has gone.
like ZacD said, with breaking up the same line size everywhere i bet this will look a lot better as well as giving at least a tiny amount of volume to the lave (both read and dark parts).
also i think the tiling should be scaled down a bit - like on your previous texture, because the different parts are really small and i think it might look not so when its scaled over an entire lava block of doom !!!
the scaling on this was great, imo:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4212913851_0a2e32d6d0_m.jpg
in general i gotta tell you, if you had fixed the tiling on this try i'd call that finished - cause that piece was just nice looking - I'd call that finished after sorting out tiling issues
anyways, i just wanna tell you - your attitude is really exemplary. you listen and everyone can see how you progress - your thread should be spread over the internet to all the people that don't listen and therefore don't progress in skill
i'll be definately having an eye on this thread - keep on going !
BTW, if you ever need more Devin, you should listen to Devin Townsend!
The only beef I have and its a pretty minor one, is the semi-uniform thickness of the spacing of the lava between the islands of rock. But if not done carefully it could wreck the tiling by giving too many unique spots that could repeat badly so for me it would be a trial and error sort of thing to see if its really worth varying the thickness too much more.
That said, I really like the look of http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/...2e32d6d0_m.jpg as well. I feel I've learned enough with tiling to go back and bring it to a more finished state. Lastly, thank you for your kind words. It really means a lot
MoP: Thanks! I'd really like to do an RTS tileset in the future. About Mr. Townsend, pretty freakin epic! I especially like Deadhead. Definitely something I can get down to while painting.
Vig: Thanks man! I agree about the spacing between each island. Originally it was a lot less uniform, but it had some pretty bad landmarks when tiled. I'll definitely have another look tho. Trial and error is what it's all about
my computer sucks...
1. Your tests are all valid, the work doesn't look lazy. If you're trying to solve a problem, focus on that problem... get the information you need, and move on... sounds like you're doing that.
2. The new texture looks good, with the exception of that lack of detail that you're already aware of (which is also providing you with a lot of useful information) and the uniform lines...
I offset the texture by 132 pixels and changed the layer to darken. Got some pretty interesting results, which you can see here:
Just a quick offset to see what the result would be (thought it would address some issues with uniform lines... )
It did that, but it also tells me that you don't have to have clearly defined cobblestone ground work style lines to make it look like hot moving magma ground.
The difficult thing about lava is that the line thickness is always changing. Especially if it's fluid. SO you wouldn't want the player walking on the cobble stone lava pieces...
I would use the cobble stone pattern as your transition to a lava texture.
I'd say that you're doing all the right stuff though... don't change your game plan with learning these techniques... then after you're done learning what you need to know, make a badass texture set of magic and intrigue
Good job man.
D
really was not my intention to imply the word lazy. lazy would be when someone does something on purpose which you clearly don't !
ah, just move on and forget my gibberish
With that in mind, I think I've learned a real valuable lesson. It's about imperfection. I had a quick look around and aside from Scarlett Johanson, nothing is perfect . This concept might seem like common sense or somewhat depressing, but I'm seeing that it's the imperfections that ground things in reality, give them character, and make them feel natural. All my attempts thus far have been WAY too cold and programmed looking (aka the cobblestone look).
I could write pages on this light bulb going off over my head, but I'll just get to the meat and potatoes myself..I'm seeing things differently now.
Acumen: No worries man! It was me, not you who implied the lazy part. Your comment was honest, constructive, and made with good intention. I can't tell you how much I value that kind of "straight up" feedback. Please never stop doing that!
As for everything else, back to the drawing board I go!
One thing you might want to try for these props, is a very slight gradient to dark from top to bottom.
And also a very slight gradient so it desaturates near the bottom as well.
JacqueChoi - Glad to hear and thanks for the pro tip! Just curious, are the effects you mentioned something you usually keep in mind while painting, or do you tend to knock them out in post with adjustment layers?
Vig - Much appreciated man! I inadvertently let things go dormant while working on my foundation studies and sketchbook stuff. Seeing the recent boom of "I got a job" threads has really motivated me to get back to work.
Alrighty, now some art. Here's a WIP shot of a weapon I'm texturing for a Torchlight mod. I should mention that the concepts and models are created by two different people on the team. I'm very interested in learning the entire process, but knocking things out this way lets us focus on what we're good at.
Trying to stick as close to the concept as possible. I'd say I'm about 60% done at the moment. Mainly the hilt to redo and adding more reflection to the blade. Got to push the contrast as well. Anywho, I'd love to hear from you guys
Chrissx2 - Much appreciated!
Jungsik - Great to hear! That makes two of us
Dismembered - Welcome to PC man! To be honest, I learned the most from the tutorials and people around here. There might be more out there, but I think it really just boils down to looking at others work and lots of practice. I'll see if I can find any super links tho. Until then, goodluck!
*Quick update* Reworked the hilt and pushed the contrast a bit more. I'd say I'm about 80% done (knock on wood) and will let this simmer for a day or so to take in feedback / look for a new perspective. Can't wait to see this in game!
*Edit - I think it's worth mentioning that it's important not to get too obsessed with something like the hilt. I just realized it won't be seen much in game with the player's hand covering it and all. Lesson learned*
So something more like your first WIP, but push the darks a little more, then add in some very subtle thin strokes for highlights to make things look sharp.
Looking good though man, all of your stuff.
texturewise i think it lacks all the brilliant little details, cracks and bruises that all your other textures had on your practise sheet you posted earlier. it's totally straight and uniform and just doesn't look like a brutal weapon to me but more like a stylized letter A for printdesign. i wish i could do a proper paintover like all the other cool artists in this forum, but i just can't - i suck miserably
you know even the tiny sword on this pic:
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/134/d/c/You_have_gained_a_level_by_Devin_Busha.jpg
has more crack details than that bigger weapon model.
i can only judge from the fanwork people made here and the random screenshots i collected via google atm, but if i look at these pics:
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/641/shatteredemberblade.jpg
http://www.efflixi.net/images/torchlight.gif
http://www.platformnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Torchlight_Classes.jpg
http://savedelete.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/125.jpg
i can see a delicate difference in the shading detail. it's not as straight and regular as you painted it in. see ingame pic here:
http://www.efflixi.net/images/torchlight.gif
there's gradients and cracks in it too, but more vital and flowing - not like an illustrators look. i think if you push here and pull there and mix some more tiny detail in there to get rid of the straight rectangular look, you'll get yourself a pure winner !
lots of blablabla again - i get really lost on these forums
edit: i was mainly talking about the blade - the handle looks 200% better, imo
Acumen - Many thanks for the links! I can see what you're talking about things being too clean. I'm feeling the same way and will do my best to F things up a bit.
I think I've got what I need to go back and finish things. I'll be cracking away at it tonight and tomorrow. Found an awesome little nugget about using masks for texturing in JasonLavoie's Demon's Throne Environment postmortem here. Very nifty and nondestructive. Exactly what I need.
- Dev
Edit: Now that I look at this again I think the entire blade is a little too saturated with color too, you should probably tone it down by 15-20%.
Vcortis - Solid paintover man, thanks! I especially like the little bolt elements on the sides. They really help make the blade feel constructed and not magically held together. I agree about the other points you raised as well. /noted
I know I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but I think I see what everybody's talking about now. I won't make excuses, I'm just going to go back and do it again until it looks right. I think the lesson I've taken away here is that it's better to have too much than too little. No more of this Mr. Clean skimping around on things business.
Back to work!
What kind of material will this have in game out of curiosity? Shiny, flat etc?
Just a thought, try showing your work with something like a mid-grey background, the black makes it difficult to properly judge colour and value I think.
EDIT: It looks like those shots with a black background are from your diffuse map which would explain it! Ignore my suggestions then!