How would you make a minimalistic pile of gold?

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1

Hello,
I have a big problem that I will be facing tomorrow in the game dev studio I work for. I have painted a 2D background which kinda represents a slightly lit dungeon with a staircase, and you can find a pile of gold at the bottom. At first I painted the gold in a simplistic manner, I grouped the values and shapes, and here and there I panted a single coins. But when my supervisors looked at it, they kinda liked it, but in 4k it definitely lacked detail, and looked kinda sloppy. So I recreated this scene in Blender (in a very simplistic way), modeled a coin, duplicated it like 10k times, and dropped them all on the scene. Then I took care about the light and color in the Photoshop. It kinda worked, but this time it looks too crispy, a bit pasted. It doesn’t match the overall style. So how do it do it properly? Is there any way I can make a pile of gold (consisted of tons of golden coins) in Blender so it looks a bit cartoonish, but it still reads as gold? Please, help, painting every single coin terrifies me.

Cheers.

2

Hey,

I am not a game dev but are you looking to have this as an asset with all the data (mesh,quads,UV,texture) or is it a baked asset?

Either way I would suggest using a particle system with a good interrogator (accuracy) and use the molecular add-on as it can help with particles interacting with each other and then baking or saving the mesh at whatever frames seem to match the mood.

Last as for the look of the asset I would try to render it in some sort of lossless format or in a way that allows for good HDR.

3

Try freestyle and/or a cartoon shader like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpWI2rU8iF0
You can try “posterize” it in the compositor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH3Fi7FIaDI

4

Thank you guys for the answers, especially to @rigoletto. After all I went with the 2D approach, after about 10h of painting I got it done. But I’ll try to use the toon shader at home to check its possibilities, it looks awesome on the surface. Cheers.