hey fellows,

So, i got this concept from warhammer universe and i tried to make it,
just for practice.I Made this asset from scratch within 72 hours.It had to be as lowpoly as possible.But i genuinely feel that this can be improved further.(I hate making patterns in Photoshop :P)

Also it has just a defuse map of 1024X1024.no spec no normal no other map just diffuse.I had to do give everything in diffuse.

Please comment it brutally.....i want to improve my texturing.

uploading both the concept and my model(marmoset/wireframe).

looks good if it was suppose to be a realistic style. If your going for a warhammer look id suggest never use photos in your texture...if im wrong and you didnt then i apologize now... I suggest you use a round brush with the pen pressure on and paint from dark to light...

The polycount indicates that your model is meant to be seen from a distance. With that in mind, your texture should be
-low resolution
-clean
-very readable
It's none of those things.

In addition, you have photo-realistic details (the rust and metal textures), mixed with some obviously not photo-based details (the bolts, etc). Your texture doesn't look cohesive, as a result. It clashes with itself.

You also have some obvious mirroring of textures. Try to cover up mirror-seams. Either put more geometry over them, or texture in such a way that there is no seam, or the seam looks like it's supposed to be there.

@snake85027 - thanks man.I had never done this warhammer style prop before as soon as i got the concept, i approached it with realistic style.As far as highlights go i used burn and dodge tool.I totally get your concept of moving from dark to light, what i got is you should imagine a source of light with a direction and then paint your light and dark areas.Am i right??

@dirigible - thank you so much for that insightful tip.

I never thought it to be as an RTS prop, i approached it with realistic style.But i totally get your point of mixing my phot-realistic details with non-photo realistic details.in the end that is surely not making my texture look cohesive.

Thanks guys, hope to redo this asset soon with your points in my mind.

So, in the end what i got is - Should I hand paint this asset?? and not use photo based texture??

Make a high res too, even if the intention is not to grab a normal map from it, an AO can always be grabbed and used to break up the low res textures. A little more color variation too. Last, beat that sucka' up! Make a scratch brush and using that AO pass to tell you what would stick out more will guide you to where the scratches would be.

Originally Posted by ageless

So, in the end what i got is - Should I hand paint this asset?? and not use photo based texture??

It depends on the style you're going for. If you want it to be photorealistic then you should use photos (or get really good at painting). But you should use your photos sparingly. Don't just put tons of rust and detail on everything. Also if you want it to be photorealistic then you need to make sure that the details you texture in by hand (the bolts, etc) actually look totally realistic.

Making something photorealistic can be a lot harder than making it look stylized, but it's up to you what you want it to be.