I think it needs more "pop." The texture itself could use some more work. I suggest increasing the power of you Ambient Occlusion to give that depth. There's also that weird UV area in the indent of the well that you should clean up. On the modeling end, it looks alright, but the well could be modeled a little differently.
One thing I noticed topology wise is that your overall asset is quite low poly (which is fine), but then a lot of your polycount seems to be dedicated to the rope (which is very thin/small).
In other words, you should try to dedicate your biggest amount of polygons to the elements of your model that will draw the most attention to. Not a small element that is barely visible. :thumbup:
It doesn't look like your normal map is really having any effect on the mesh, just looks like a diffuse texture.
I'd also suggest eventually learning how to sculpt and bake.
You can get by for now with just using reference images and photo shopping them into a texture but eventually you're going to want to sculpt high detail meshes and transfer the details by baking down to the low poly.
Using bakes will give you way more control over your mesh and material and it will make making changes to your UV's and mesh a lot easier further into your projects.
and Your normal maps will looks much better than the generated ones you're using now.
What are you using to render this with? Is this in a 3d package or game engine/marmoset?
If there is anyway to push up the intensity of your normal map for your roof tiles, I'd look into that. Your textures are great, and the normals look good in other areas. However the tiles look very rough, texture-wise, but the normal maps aren't showing or pushing that "rough" feel. They look just as smooth as the metal bucket and wood post.
For your rope, don't use a cylinder for the sides, just use a cube and smooth the edges. For its shape, look at its silhouette from a far, and use that to find where you can cut out edges. When it comes to low poly, the model's silhouette is a huge factor, since you can fake a lot with textures and baked in lighting. I'll try and post and example of what I'm talking about.
Yeah , i have much to learn texture wise, that well only has a normal and diffuse, and a poor specular, working on improving always, learning Mudbox/Zbrush as we speak , that render is just in max with mental ray.
On a side note, i take it you are ment to bake ambient occlusion from your high res, and use as a sort of detail/shadow map in photoshop when texturing? anyhow i'm still a learning student, tips and tricks to point me in the right direction are much appreciated, thanks..
Thanks again, you guys help alot
Anyhow here is what I've been working on today, yet to have added a specular map but any tips so far?
If you're making these assets for games, it may be beneficial to display these in an engine, too, to show that you know how to put together items in a game engine pipeline, and get them to run and be pretty in real time. UE4, UDK, CryEngine 3, Unity or Marmoset Toolbag are all great for this.
If you want to keep rendering in your 3D program, please light your scene correctly and turn on shadows/final gathering/AO/everything in options. I've got no clue where your light source is in these.
Yeah have done, I'm familiar with UDK and Unity atm, will take a look at those articles now, thanks, and the models are not for a game, just I'm making at least one asset a day to increase my learning curve, and posting here for constructive criticism, I'm fairly comfortable with unwrapping and modelling, although, after everything I make i feel i could of done it better , or differently, so any and all feedback is much appreciated, I will listen.
Still got no idea where your lights are. Sorry I'm harping on this, but presentation is important, even (hell, especially) on learning projects.
This also doesn't look much life your ref anymore.
Feel free to move on to a different project, but maybe try to use PBR/more modern methods for something. Get a cubemap and proper lighting in it, and thoughtfully define your materials with gloss/roughness.
Yeah sorry , will look into lighting techniques , found them sites on spec and gloss you posted rather helpful, thanks.
Renders are in max still, using daylight system, not to intense.
If your goal is to make game ready assets, you should be exporting these to a game engine, or at the very least into marmoset toolbag. There are issues that crop up in exporting that you'll need to know how to solve, so best get started on that now.
HighPoly is on the 1st image i posted about this container. Although it isn't super high poly keeping things basic for now, working up.... still used it to project normal maps onto low poly version via XNormal.
Replies
http://frankvanderwel.blogspot.com/2012/03/mayan-walkway-progress.html
Use a method like this and you could get that well needed depth
In other words, you should try to dedicate your biggest amount of polygons to the elements of your model that will draw the most attention to. Not a small element that is barely visible. :thumbup:
I'd also suggest eventually learning how to sculpt and bake.
You can get by for now with just using reference images and photo shopping them into a texture but eventually you're going to want to sculpt high detail meshes and transfer the details by baking down to the low poly.
Using bakes will give you way more control over your mesh and material and it will make making changes to your UV's and mesh a lot easier further into your projects.
and Your normal maps will looks much better than the generated ones you're using now.
If there is anyway to push up the intensity of your normal map for your roof tiles, I'd look into that. Your textures are great, and the normals look good in other areas. However the tiles look very rough, texture-wise, but the normal maps aren't showing or pushing that "rough" feel. They look just as smooth as the metal bucket and wood post.
For your rope, don't use a cylinder for the sides, just use a cube and smooth the edges. For its shape, look at its silhouette from a far, and use that to find where you can cut out edges. When it comes to low poly, the model's silhouette is a huge factor, since you can fake a lot with textures and baked in lighting. I'll try and post and example of what I'm talking about.
As others have said, your renders are strange, looking almost diffuse-only. What are you rendering in? Do you have spec/gloss maps?
On a side note, i take it you are ment to bake ambient occlusion from your high res, and use as a sort of detail/shadow map in photoshop when texturing? anyhow i'm still a learning student, tips and tricks to point me in the right direction are much appreciated, thanks..
Thanks again, you guys help alot
Anyhow here is what I've been working on today, yet to have added a specular map but any tips so far?
Not Perfect, but yeah better without that noise, any helpful advice for spec and gloss techniques?
http://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn/pbr-theory
http://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn/pbr-practice
If you're making these assets for games, it may be beneficial to display these in an engine, too, to show that you know how to put together items in a game engine pipeline, and get them to run and be pretty in real time. UE4, UDK, CryEngine 3, Unity or Marmoset Toolbag are all great for this.
If you want to keep rendering in your 3D program, please light your scene correctly and turn on shadows/final gathering/AO/everything in options. I've got no clue where your light source is in these.
Read up on your lighting set ups.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Lighting is a good place to start.
Grimed up and added some spec/gloss, looks a bit better i think, opinions? , moving on to next task ;D
This also doesn't look much life your ref anymore.
Feel free to move on to a different project, but maybe try to use PBR/more modern methods for something. Get a cubemap and proper lighting in it, and thoughtfully define your materials with gloss/roughness.
Keep it up.
Renders are in max still, using daylight system, not to intense.
If they are can you show them to us?