Need your input.
Hi there! I got into 3D in mid-2020 during the covid19 lockdown and since then I have been trying to improve and make myself ready for employment. In the initial year, I was afraid to touch topics like UV unwrapping, texturing etc because being a person from non-technical background, I could not understand any of this stuff. Fast forward to 2021, I started spending more and more time on my computer as I made my mind to get into the industry. I can now say that I am comfortable in concepts such as normal map baking, unwrapping and even beginner level texturing. Through this post, I would like to get your valuable input on some of my recent work. The question that I ask myself daily is that do I even belong in this industry? Seeing kids younger than me producing content that is just AAA quality just demoralizes my motivation. Nonetheless, I welcome all the critiques and guidance to "make it". Thank you.
Replies
this is good work! i think your use of grunge is on the cusp of excellence. it's very good. personally, i dislike noisy materials. however, i recognize it is a look that a lot of artists and projects intentionally aim for, especially for cost effective realism which captures a 'retro' 90's photo sourced nostalgia or grainy horror genres, so i cannot rightfully say it's an undesired look. the process in of itself, the fundamental of using 'texture', is valuable and should not be understated. i think my preference with grunge conflicts humorously. if i see grunge that looks like a wash of detail, a uniform overlay, in my mind, more often than not it looks bad. i feel grunge should service the form and be guided by it to enhance it. if i feel the application conceals the form, i wince a bit. but i also believe the opposite can be true, if it looks as if it was applied masterfully as a master artist might block a stroke with perfect color, edge, and value, to use texture AS an element of composition, for example to detract attention from the asset to fill out a background and bow it toward a focal point, then i'm impressed by it.
Hey! Looks cool, but along what killnpc wrote, I thing noise and edge highlights are a bit too strong in the albedo. I'd make sure to use all PBR maps.
If you go for very realistic style models, you could look for convincing scans, put them next to your meshes for quality benchmark and inspect the scans texture maps.
Other than that the assets themselves look a bit lost or isolated. Maybe a small environment would help to ground them, also story wise, and show how they hold up in an actual environment in engine.
Thank you so much guys for this valuable information and yes, I do agree with @Fabi_G about the isolated look. It's a bad habit of mine to just rush it all at the end and just get the render done but I certainly will work on the story telling aspect as well. Btw, what do you mean by "use all PBR maps"?
Thank you so much for your compliment and I absolutely agree with you. I beleive "over texturing" kills the overall feel of the asset and I unfortunately have also done that in a lot of my projects as well just like this knife and the scope. I think that it takes a keen eye and a lot of practice to perfect the use of grunges and generators when it comes to texturing.
Hey! By "use all PBR maps" I mean, confidently putting some information into roughness/glossiness instead of overdoing the albedo. The objects surface reacts to light after all. For example with the morse apparatus, the edges are likely more smooth from being touched often, while the cavities have more roughness, due to dirt/dust build up. Albedo variation can be fairly subtle. Reference images of the object in different lighting situations will help to figure out surface properties. But yeah, inspecting the asset next to a benchmark asset can also help.
I see. I'll surely keep these things in mind next time I'm texturing.
Really good work, love the textures on scope and silencers. I'd say try looking a bit more into light interactions with trasparent and semi-transparent surfaces(scope lense and booth door). Other than that, really good progress!
Would love to see it as a part of actual firearm(specifically silencer, would probably look pretty good on 1911 or 45 ACP). Also would make texturing it according to whatever it attaches for easier I'd say.
Hi there, Neely! Thank you so much for your valuable input. Yes, I do need to work on both my modeling and texturing skills a lot and I am working on it. I did use the opacity channel on the window glass of the phone booth but my excessive use of grunges and roughness has totally overshadowed the transparency. I am still learning to balance out things. Nonetheless, I appreciate your kind words and I certainly will keep in mind the things that you've mentioned. I am actually going to re-texture some of these since I now have a better understanding of how materials work. 👍️