Horse WIP

Blujay · April 10, 2019, 7:06am

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(Original: )
This is my current WIP. I’d like to hear some feedback on what I can improve. So far, the coat texture is bothering me, it looks too plastic. I’m not very experienced with materials, so the shader is very simple right now; just a diffuse + glossy with a physically based shading fresnel node. Any suggestions on how to improve the shader would be greatly appreciated. I handpainted the texture and I plan on adding more details to make it look more realistic.
I’ll be posting updates.

The3DLioness · May 9, 2018, 7:20am

Not sure what there is to improve.
Looks perfect to me.

For realism , I suggest using a particle system and adding short fur.
The plastic - appearance could be coming from the lighting.
At the moment , the lighting is flat , and that could be affecting the materials.

TomTalented · May 9, 2018, 3:19pm

The anatomy is brilliant you’ve got an excellent model here!

To help with your material, I would increase the roughness of the glossy, because a horse isn’t smooth. I would add a subsurface, because especially in places like the ears you will get light scattering inside the skin, you don’t have to go overboard just subtle SSS helps the system interpret what it is dealing with. My last suggestion to improve this would be to add in some noise or grunge textures to make the coloration less clean and uniform. That will help make it more realistic.

I think that you’ve got a fantastic start here, that musculature is impressive and I’d love to see more angels of this model.

Blujay · May 9, 2018, 7:15pm

@The3DLioness
Thank you I agree I need to work on the lighting, it’s not my strong suit. A particle system is a good idea! I might try making a texture from a particle system so it looks more like fur.

@TomTalented
Thank you! I’ve done a lot of drawings of horses, so that probably helped the anatomy. Great suggestions for the material, I’ll be implementing them

Blujay · May 11, 2018, 4:19am

Quick update. I’ve worked on the material a bit more, tried a lot of different things, but I always go back to something simple. I tried a particle system but Blender kept freezing or crashing so I had to let that go
I rendered another angle of the model as well.

Here’s the current node setup for the coat.

Geromy · May 14, 2018, 8:37pm

Great model indeed, I like the visibility of the muscles.
I agree with the comments about the skin. I’m not very experienced but have you tried the ‘sheen’ factor of the Principled BSDF?

Blujay · May 14, 2018, 8:50pm

Thanks! I did play around with the principled BSDF node a bit, but there’s so many factors I’m unfamiliar with. I’ll give it another shot though, thanks for the suggestion.

drgci · May 15, 2018, 12:42pm

watch andrew price tutorial about principled bsdf

Blujay · May 15, 2018, 4:11pm

Thanks for the suggestion, I will watch it.

Blujay · May 17, 2018, 2:37am

I’ve been messing around with the Principled BSDF, here’s what I have so far. It looks decent on a black horse, but the reflections are barely visible on the cream-colored horse, and I’m not sure what to do to make it look like a somewhat shiny coat. I also made a fur texture in gimp, which is what I’m using for the bump map. Suggestions welcome!

Here are some closeups of the material on Suzanne (with hasty UV mapping).

Here’s the current node setup. The material for both horses is the same, except the cream colored one has a texture that I painted instead of a solid color.

The3DLioness · May 17, 2018, 5:00am

Gorgeous.

Blujay · May 17, 2018, 5:12pm

Thank you!

Blujay · May 24, 2018, 3:24am

I’m currently trying to put the horse into an environment.
I apologize for the low quality, this is a test render.
It’s far from done; here are the things I’m working on right now:
-making the fur texture less prominent
-remaking the ground
-improving the dust (not quite sure how, but I will)
I’ll probably also adjust the tail position.
The color palette and the overall look are bothering me, so I’ll play around with that some more.
Critique would be greatly appreciated.

Polygonal_Vizard · November 5, 2018, 11:25pm

This looks incredible! Two things I would change is the ground, seems a bit too flat, and the sandcloud, maybe make it a little more see-through? It’s too solid IMO.

Blujay · November 21, 2018, 9:07pm

Thanks for the feedback! I haven’t been dabbling much in Blender lately but I’ll try to incorporate your suggestions as soon as I get back at it.

mortom · November 22, 2018, 7:06pm

IMO Picture need contrast. Color of the fur is to uniform.
Thickness of one hair on the fur is to big. Apply 50% less thickness of make it more dense).

And keep going

P.S.
Sorry for my horrible English.

Leonard_Siebeneicher · November 23, 2018, 1:48pm

Horse model looks good.

Not sure about the skin/fur material. The material looks like scraped stone.

You also might need some specular tint.

Happy blending.

Dakota_Green · November 23, 2018, 2:37pm

Are you able to make the fur pattern smaller? It looks pretty good to me, just big. Love the work though! It’s cool to see the progress :3

malte · November 23, 2018, 4:52pm

Hi Blujay, I would like to discuss a project with you. How can I get in touch?

Cheers Malte

Blujay · April 10, 2019, 7:05am

Thank you to all of you for the suggestions!
I’m back to blending and have continued working on this. I’ve set the environment aside for now so I can finish working on the horse before fixing the environment.
I tried my best to incorporate the feedback but am still working on some of it. Here’s what I have so far. Suggestions are always welcome.