Top tip of the day™ - Metallic (or electrically conductive) objects have a colour specular map, generally a similar colour as the diffuse. Non-metallic objects tend to have a white specular map (or even an inversed diffuse map in the spec'). :)
Modelling looks good. But I think the main issue is that you have way to much information in your diffuse. Metal is defined by the spec/reflect/glossiness and putting too much info into your diffuse takes away from those.
The tree likely does have tiling, its just used in combination with a normal map for the trees volume. Combining two normal maps usually means that the diffuse output us multiplied, and means the diffuse has to be RGB 0.5 darker.
I had to try with some example. Tile diffuse and grungemap from cgtextures. I modelled a highpoly source from the diffuse and used it for generating normals, ao and curvature. Spec as shown in image was created in photoshop with the curvature data and a grungemap.
yes. Grumble grumble. turn you spec map into a mask rather than bitmap put the spec map in one slot, and the diffuse alpha in te other you can reuse the diffuse texture, just use the alpha component
You can load up a diffuse texture and bake that in xnormal, as long as your highres has uvs etc, auto uvs in zbrush should be fine. XN doesn't have any way to bake vertex colors to diffuse AFIAK.
Window > Relationship Editors > UV Linking , then just pick either texture centric or UV centric. So, for instance if you have a blinn with a diffuse, and transparency texture, you can link the diffuse to one UV set, and the transparency to another.
Your specular map really lacks contrast, and is missing the details like the scratches wich should be stronger in the specular than in the diffuse. Try a combination of: Dark scratch in the diffuse and strong/bright in the specular. This works for metal in general quite good.
Your scene is progressing nicely, especially from first page to you current update! For me, I'm really enjoying your sculpts but feel like your diffuse maps are of mixed quality. I'm seeing a lot of high frequency information on some while others have broader and bigger shapes. Some things look very photo sourced while…
Just to let people know, we are now releasing the character art test publically. These positions are still available so should you wish to apply then please see the first post. Just a reminder: we are unable to offer international visas for this position. RuneScape Character Art Test Deliverables for the art test Dagger…