[Feedback] Barrel Prop – Texture Critique Needed

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  Eric Chadwick admin

  Sep 18 2025

  This looks really good for a first try, kudos! 
  
  First impression is you could crop more tightly, and use less blank space. This will make the props larger on your audience's screen, which is always better. For example:
  
  
  Another thing is they could use some staining on the wood behind the iron hoops. Usually you see some dark leech stains.
  
  Where is the hole to put the liquids inside it?
  
  Another thing to improve this would be to be more selective about where the scrapes and damage should appear. The current damage looks randomly-placed, but on a real barrel, the wear will be concentrated on some areas and less on others. Generally where the barrel scrapes against other things.
  
  Some photos as inspiration. I searched "old wooden barrels" to find these, then looked for visually-interesting examples of wear-and-tear. The more visually-interesting you can make this prop, the more likely it will be to jump off the page and into someone's memory.
  
   
  
  

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  rafiii triangle

  Sep 19 2025

  Eric Chadwick said:

  This looks really good for a first try, kudos! 
  
  First impression is you could crop more tightly, and use less blank space. This will make the props larger on your audience's screen, which is always better. For example:
  
  
  Another thing is they could use some staining on the wood behind the iron hoops. Usually you see some dark leech stains.
  
  Where is the hole to put the liquids inside it?
  
  Another thing to improve this would be to be more selective about where the scrapes and damage should appear. The current damage looks randomly-placed, but on a real barrel, the wear will be concentrated on some areas and less on others. Generally where the barrel scrapes against other things.
  
  Some photos as inspiration. I searched "old wooden barrels" to find these, then looked for visually-interesting examples of wear-and-tear. The more visually-interesting you can make this prop, the more likely it will be to jump off the page and into someone's memory.
  
  
  

  Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! Cropping tighter and adding more realistic wear like staining and a bunghole are great points I’ll work on. I also appreciate the reference suggestions—they’ll really help me push this further. Do you have any feedback on lighting and presentation? Something I should work on.

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  okidoki greentooth

  Sep 20 2025

  Eric Chadwick said:

  
  Where is the hole to put the liquids inside it?
  

  Wooden barrels weren't (and aren't) only used for liquids.. Also the bung hole in one of the starves might be not visible form this views 
  
  But nonetheless one might have a tighter (pun intended) look at the staves because the are done "watertight" even if filled with non-liquids. Depending on the use case of the model (realism?) on might also think about the roundness of a barrel.. because the usually they do not come as 16-vertex polygons.. (but now this might be seen as nitpicking..  ).

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