Treasure Chest Texture Help

CandyStripes05

i usual enjoy doing high poly models, or low - never enjoyed the time spent on the maps (normal/diffuse/spec/etc) but i want to change that and i figured i would start with a small prop : )

did the high and low, got what i think is a good solid baked normal map, but now im on the texture itself which i believe as always been my weak spot

low poly (2059 tris):



baked + rough texture:




what my diffuse looks like thus far:




any pointers would be great, i haven't decided if i want to do the handles rusted gold as well or change them to steel and match the lock (which obv i haven't really gotten to yet) - my goal is to polish this as much as possible and include it in my portfolio

thanks in advance : D

Jessica Dinh

The colors/values between your metal and wood right now are very similar, it's hard to tell the materials apart from a little distance. Also the color of the highlights on the wood is making it look kindof like metal, I wouldn't make the highlights so warm and saturated. I would create some edge wear on your metal rims and add some dirt-buildup in obvious places, such as around bolts.

YoutLeaderVal

Do you want it to look rougher? If you're using Photoshop, I'd go in more strongly with the dodge and burn tools. Right now the wood looks a little like it's all the same value, almost like a cartoon, whereas the metal is more realistic and detailed. Hope that helps.

Jessica Dinh

Hmmm, I would actually be really careful with the dodge and burn stuff. If you are new to texturing, the effects can be difficult to control and end up looking rather overdone and cheap. Someone with a well-trained eye can spot the dodge and burn immediately, so I would say it's best not to, really. I would just play with hue/saturation and brightness/contrast adjustments, or simply go in and paint what you want.

CandyStripes05

i ended up changing it from a gold brace to a base metal like iron for two reasons

1) gold doesn't rust - so that was a fail on my part
2) iron has a much better looking contrast in colour to the wood

so this is where im at currently, any thoughts? (still the lock goes untouched)

.morph3us

what makes metal look like metal is its reflections.

you should make a spec map for this and implement an hdri into your scene.
also the wood is kinda uniformly brownish, add some color cariation into it.
though it looks kinda blurry right now...
looks like u put a bevel and emboss into your diffuse...

Jessica Dinh

That is a good decision with the metal. Maybe you should start thinking of making a spec map soon. That being said, you could probably make your diffuse metal darker and have the spec map metal be a lot lighter to make that material pop. Also, it would be easier to see your work if you changed your render bg from black to grayish.

BlvdNights

The metal should be much darker than the wood in terms of diffuse. Metal is pretty dark, you should let the specular map handle the brightness in the metal.I personally disagree with your assessment of the metal and wood contrasting well at this point.

CandyStripes05

actually no i didn't use any bevels or embosses in my diffuse at all - for the wood its just some adjustments to my normal map

i already adjusted the metal to be a little bit darker right after i made this post, didn't click in till after i uploaded the pic...... but i was planning on a spec map, just thought that was best done after the diffuse? the hdri dome sounds like a great idea, iv done it before but didnt even think about it for this project : ) and i will change the bg for the next render, thanks everyone

Baddcog

The main issue i'm having with it is that there doesn't seem to be a distinction between the lid and the body. Does it open? does it have hinges?

Typically the body would have a horizontal metal trim to hold it together (which you have) and the lid would also have one (which you don't have). Then the latch (missing) would be hinged to the top part and go down over the ring on the bottom, then the lock would go in front of the latch.

CandyStripes05

you caught me, my original plan was to make the separation crack visible in the texture work.. and when that looked like complete crap i moved on to other aspects of it... thank you for reminding me that people do in fact notice these things and i cant simply ignore/forget about them

i guess im pretty happy with what i got so far. so i have no reason not to rework in the separation and latch - back to my normal map i go : )



oh and there are hinges, il post a front and back shot next time

megalmn2000

Metal texture looks flat. Add more specularity on non-rusty metal surface, so it can shine a bit more. Same thing with the locker.

CandyStripes05

thanks everyone for the feedback, i think im calling this one done : )

Jessica Dinh

Hey, turned out pretty nice! Although I still think the warm, bronze highlights on the wood look a little off, the metal turned out great, and the chest looks a lot better with the seam and hinges now haha. Onward with more texture practice! xD

Limewax

A detail spec map on that metal and a detail normal on that wood... woulda made this thing POP