Pretty good start. The metal doesn't really read like metal to me though. And the wood has scratches in it that look a bit out of place. Unless someone used a knife on the bench. And as a general tip, try to work more colour and gradients into your textures if you're doing handpainted textures.
I use 3dcoat and love it, although it should be said that I use it mostly for handpainted stuff. I prefer it over projection painting, the 3d brush makes for a very nice feel. Illo: 3dcoat actually has some really nice tools for straight lines and such. Splines, shapes etc.
Loving the hand painted texture work, your props look very good. Hopefully one day Ill be able to get into doing some handpainted work. The environment looks very close to concept art with the style you have there. So mainly your painting in the lighting in the diffuse maps?
If you're handpainting textures, you're more or less looking at illustration and fine art instruction. Their is very little difference betwen them compared to texturing for photorealism. CTRL Paint is a good source to stick with. I mean, even WoW generally says "There is one point light these textures are sourcing from."
If I remember correct there is an BL2 Art Dump in this forum and some of the Gearbox guys told something about there workflow. They use indeed normal maps at their models (including high poly sculpts) but they make heavy use of handpainted "scripts" so you can't really see the normal map at all. :)
I think that Allegorithmic are doing a great job on Painter. We are looking at version 1.0 here and I think it's a very solid release. Pretty sure they are aware of the "handpainting" needs of us game artists. They are listening to responses and thoughts so let them know what you want/need.
I am so intrested in handpainted stuff. I love this style. The colors are just great, and what fun looking items youve made so far One thing i might do though is just make the eyes glow on the sword.Not sure if your game engine supports it.
the head seems a little small or maybe jammed out of proportion by the metal shielding, and it's shame one can't see it, it's a great sculpt. Also, in my opinion the specular doesn't really convey any further information about the respective materials (is the armor made of bone maybe?). Do like the handpainted textures…
I retextured the brick house since it was all blurry and unclear. I'm gonna go for a more handpainted/realistic look. Larger bricks to avoid the blurriness. Got the tip by a friend to look at Dishonored and how they textured environment. So I will retexture everything in the same feel as this house. Old to the right and…
well if you have your basics down, the I suggest you learn how to sculpt. There are many applications for it when dealing with 'current' pipelines. Meaning stuff that's normal mapped and all that. I haven't touched a sculpting package since going to a company that handpaints everything. (and I don't miss sculpting either)