Hey guys I am fairly new to the forum here :P I was told to come check the forum out.
I figure I will post my latest work on here. This is a grenade I did. Rendered in Marmoset. And I am really looking for some critiques on how to improve. 1024 map Rendered in Marmoset

jeremiahbigley.com

Here are some work samples from throughout the thread.

The high poly looks great. The low poly's texture seems a bit off though, I think you've gone a bit heavy on the dirt/rust and scratches, it looks too noisy. I think if you were a bit more subtle about it, it would look much nicer.

Overall great prop, the metal came out very well. I'd drop the saturation down on the greens, especially where paint's likely to rub off on the raised bits:

Hey JJ!

Your granade looks awesome dude!

Originally Posted by crazyfingers

especially where paint's likely to rub off on the raised bits:

i would think that a grenade's coating isnt all that likely to rub off, do soldiers rub their grenades for luck? I can see it getting dirty since its typically holstered in outer area of the uniform, but not worn.

but i'm just a civvy, what would i know.

Texture is looking good man.

One suggestion. You are using a 1024 map for this. Which implies that it is a first person weapon. If you are doing it for that, why not spend 2-3k tris on it to give it the silhouette those grenades actually have? Super high texture resolution with a low resolution mesh seems funky to me.

You have a lot of lighting painted in to the pin ring of the grenade too, which can be taken care of by a high spec. I have a feeling that part of the grenade would be jarring in motion, as the light would be static for it, but dynamic for the rest of the grenade.

wow... I have never received such relevant critiques on 3dtotal. >.>
You guys have really brought up some good points and I agree with everything. I really appreciate the comments. I will see what I can do to knock back some of that saturation and wear it down a bit more. I don't really have time to go back and redo the lowpoly, but chaosquak, that is definately something I will be thinking about next time around. I am still trying to learn what tri count is good for what props. I was told my limit was 500 on the grenade so does that mean I should have taken the maps down to a 512?
Anyways... thanks a bunch guys.

it does seem like a high rez texture for something that would appear very small in-game.

Really you should be aiming to match the texture to the largest you will see the object. So if the object is only ever going to occupy 128 pixels high on screen, you texture can be around this size.

If it's going to be a handheld object, animated and so on in the HUD, you'll need lots of detail (as mentioned above) - you're probably safe with the texture rez you have now. The engine should generate mipmaps from that anyway.

hey man, your grenade looks great! what you talking about mine looks better? lol. Keep up the great work! And welcome to poly count! the green!

Nice~

Texture is looking good man ......

Where is the phone? Post it!

That bake came out insane man, well done. Even the alpha plane, i didn't even notice it was until i looked at the wireframe again.

Only crit is that the trigger (or whatever) is looking too noisy right now. The rest looks just about right to my eye, but the black area needs a bit of a tone down.

You all seem to have very relevant points on the texture sizes and they will definitely be kept in mind. The project however was for a class project with limitations. Don't hold back though! I am learning! Tri limit was 500 and textures were 1024's. I had never really thought about specifically what it would be used for. lol I will keep it in mind though.

I went back and revisited the textures on the grenade and just tweaked them slightly as everyone was saying and it helped a lot.
Asteric - I took care of the black clip, I hope it looks better.
chaosquak - I toned down the painted lighting on the ring and pin as you suggested.
crazyfingers - I took down the saturation a bit but not quite as extreme as you showed. Is it looking better?
And I thank the rest of you guys coming and taking the time to post on my thread.
I didn't realize how much traffic polycount got. Crazy! After a week this was already on page 5. I will be posting here more often.
Anyways... Here is my latest and final grenade. I have to move on to other props.
Hopefully it is an improvment. I think so :P

Raul... Here is my phone :P I didn't really get to spend time on rendering it like I wanted, but that will come soon hopefully.
Let me know what you guys think Low-poly to come soon.

well DAMN! wicket sick model jeremiah.

nice model, man!

Impressive....MOST IMPRESSIVE.

Nice job on the phone man! Great reference! I never came across those... almost looks as though you took some of your own pictures? Renders look great to!

Very nice, man. Keep it up!

Sweet model dude Keep them coming

Thank you very much guys! I got the lowpoly done... Our Tricount for class was 3000, but I couldn't do it. I worked really hard to get it to 5,146 without bastardizing the highpoly too much. I tried to stay away from using too many alphas as well.

I would really love some feedback on where I am at now. This piece is for a porfolio... so it is not going to be stuck in the corner of a room as a decoration. lol So technically this thing is more like a first person prop. Let me know what you think. Textures coming soon.

never really had a chance to get to the textures on the telephone. That will come at a later time. Here is my latest prop... a Wurlitzer Bubbler Jukebox.
Let me know what you guys think. I will try and get some wires and closeups up here soon.

JJ! that is one sick jukebox! very clean! great looking renders! Hope you have enough time to do lowpoly, bakes and textures!

Here is a little update on what I have been doing ;)
Finished up the grenade by making presentation sheets for it.