Game asset practice

Neeraz · Dec 2019

I am new to game art.
Chose to work on this small project, for practice.
I seek critique, to not to do same mistakes again.
Hope its likable.
Thank you.

Violin:
9K Tris (without strings)
https://www.artstation.com/neeraz

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/ee/ob17ahvzskoi.png

Taylor Brown · Dec 2019

Lovely work, keep it going

Neija · Dec 2019

Hey Neeraz,

first off, cool asset. The model and bake look nice and clean. 9k tris is not cheap for a game prop, but okay for a first-person/portfolio asset. The textures are alright, but I feel like you could easily make the asset more shine with a few more tweaks here.

First off, when looking at reference it seems like most violins are a lot glossier. There are surely exceptions, but with props, it's often a matter of what the average person would expect an asset to look like to make it convincing.

This also gives you some more room to play with gloss values at points where the varnish has been damaged.

The second thing I noticed is that I can't really tell how old/used this violin is supposed to be. It has some dirt and scratches and looks a bit dull overall, so it doesn't tell me a lot

Think a bit about what happened to this instrument. How old is it? Has it been used a lot or just layn around in a case for a long time? Or is it completely new in the showcase of a violin maker ( so it might also have a mark or a sticker on it)? Has it been used by kids to practice or does it belong to a professional musician?

Those kinds of questions give you hints about what kind of damage or dirt makes sense here. Also, think about which parts of the instrument would be touched a lot, those are the spots where it should look more worn off.

I would try to go a bit more extreme with either the damage and or make it really clean and high quality looking. At the moment it's somewhere in between.

Some more things I noticed:

First, I feel like the strings could be a bit thicker at more metallic looking, they don't pop as much from the black background as in most reference i saw.

Second, the black material of the fingerboard and tailpiece seems to have some even grunge on them. Look at some reference again, decide whether it's made from plastic, painted wood or metal. If it's supposed to be dirty, make sure the dirt is not quite so evenly spread, but more in the cavities and parts that are not often touched and hard to clean. Also, I saw that most of the times the pegs are black, which gives it a little more contrast in the upper part, but that might also come down to taste.

One more thing about the model itself: When looking at reference from the back of a violin it feels like it could be more rounded. Yours seems to be rather flat. Also, often the direction of the wood grain seems to be horizontal instead of vertical and has a seam in the middle, which probably has something to do with the way violins are built. Often when building assets that are built by craftsmen in the real world, it's really helpful to go on youtube and search for a documentary about how things are actually crafted.

Some simple ornament like this one has https://www.long-mcquade.com/18793/Band---Orchestral/Violin/Carlton/CVN100---4-4-Violin-Outfit.htm ( the two think black lines at the edges of the body) could help to give it some more identity, but that's taste again.

And the last thing I'm not quite sure about the field of view you chose for the first shot, it feels a bit like the asset is tapered down towards the neck. Maybe play a little with that, but this might also just be me..

Hope this is helpful, keep it up

Neeraz · Dec 2019

Hi Neija,
Thank you at first, that was amazing.
I will follow on the feedback and improve as.
Thanks again.
Cheers!

Neija · Dec 2019

Happy to hear that, one more general advice I was given and found really helpful: search for whatever you are building on artstation and find the artwork you like the most. Analyze what you like about it, try to imitate that and of course also find out whether there are things you don't like,which you want to handle differently. This is often also helpful in terms of presentation.

Carabiner · Dec 2019

A few technical things - I've been playing cello for 20 years and know violins well too.

- The purfling around the edges doesn't actually protrude out like you've done. It's a thin strip of dyed wood that's inset into the rest of it, not protruding up like you've done here. Here's a reference for that:

- As @Neija pointed out, the shape of the violin is slightly off. There are lots of orthographic views of violins available online. The shape of the outer edges is really important and distinctive and plays a big role in how it sounds. Here is an example of one of those violins (you can find more on that site). If you overlay yours onto it, you'll see that the side curves and placement of the f-holes is slightly different. Those placement details are actually really important here in getting it to read correctly as a violin.

- Neija's points about wood grain being horizontal on the back are important too. And yes, sometimes violins do have a seam in the back if the piece of wood they're using isn't large enough for the whole back.

- The spacing should be even between the 4 strings; yours have more space between middle 2. Also, the strings get slightly thicker from (viewer) right to left, because they get lower in pitch going that direction.

- The violin in general looks slightly thin, and the edges ARE a place where the top and bottom will protrude slightly. Take a look at this image:

Image: https://maestronet.com/forum/uploads/monthly_2017_04/saddle.jpg.709fad7562ed073f4cb1801e59257195.jpg

You can also see that there's visible wood grain on the top and bottom -- those are separate large pieces of wood that are glued to the sides and shaped. You can also see detail on the place where the tailpiece attaches.

Game asset practice

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