First Model and Texture :: Old Bench

[mrmonkah]

Hey there,

Im pretty new to this Blender, modeling, texturing lark and so looking for valuable guidance. I have what i think looks ‘okay’ so far, but know can be improved upon.

The model is eventually going to be in a level i plan to make for the source engine, texture resolution is 1024x1024 and the poly count is near to 250 trianlges.

with normal map:

without normal map:

with normal map : close up

Diffuse and Normal maps

Not great but the lightness/darkness is about right (atleast for the intended environment) It just looks a little soft despite sharpening the crap out of the texture.

Thanks in advance,

Dan

[dgebel]

Looks pretty good overall.
There’s some “banding” at the front curve of the concrete texture, would look more naturally worn if the whole front of the curve was lightened instead of strips.
The wood seems to be oddly grained - too dark but flat, and very fine-grained, and repeating vertical stripes as well.
About the softness, I think the the texture filter value does its own adjustment when loading the texture. The corners are nicely worn though.

[mrmonkah]

Worked on it a little more,

I guess its getting there.

Dan

[traitor]

If the stone is indeed stone, then chances are you wouldnt bother cutting holes for the timber, you’d fix it directly, probably with a steel angle.

however, if the stone is in fact concrete, (which is more likely) then I think your texturing should reflect this a bit better.

[Ace_Dragon]

The wood looks like it goes through the stone, make a beveled edge around where the wood meets the stone so it looks like there’s a hole for the wood.

[Nairb]

I think it looks really good for a game model. Most defintly do not bevel the edges. it is not worth the added triangles for a bit of detail, especialy in a game engine.

[Ace_Dragon]

Wait, it’s a game model?

If that’s so then you should conserve polys, perhaps you could use a color, spec, and nor map to give the appearence of bevels.

[mrmonkah]

Yeah guys its a game model,

Im really grateful for the suggestions but im still new to this. Not sure how to better convey the sense of concrete, after all, the texture is concrete photo-source.

Thanks again guys, and hey,

I just got offered 2 interviews, one at Rockstar North and one at Free Radical. As a junior artist that is. So the more help you guys can offer to make my work better is great.

Cheers,

Dan

[POWER_3D]

Very well done… also how the others are saying to make a hole or indent for where the wood and cement meet… you could just make like a darker section in the texture of the cement to give it the appearence of shadows or something because of the indent… then you don’t have to actually model it…

Aaron

[sundialsvc4]

My thought is simply that the model, while basically well-executed, does have some improbable construction.

As others have said, that would be a difficult (and weak) concrete casting, so probably the wood pieces would not extend through.

The texture is much smoother than I imagine concrete to be, and it definitely wraps-around the narrow edges of the concrete pieces in a very un-convincing way. It looks like modeling-compound.