Boat - pls help

[Dargon]

Good job so far, a very stylish boat!

As for crits - I'll lay them all out, so it's going to sound harsh, all at once, but really, it looks very good, so don't take it too hard ;)

First of all, the flooring of your boat has a different, and cheaper finishing than the rest of the boat. It seems a bit out of place to have rough wood planks for a floor, but velvet cloth on the walls.

I can't say for certain, but it seems to me the UV space could be more well laid out. The sides of the boat look at less resolution than the seat, for example. It's this inequality of texture resolution that makes the lower parts stand out. My hint on this is to sharpen the detail as much as you can get away with on the blurrier bits, but at the same time, blur the sharper bits, just a bit, as to take notice away from them.

The gilding looks a bit painted. If it's supposed to be gold, which I imagine it is, then a higher amont of contrast will help you get there. Only the topmost parts of the highlight will be a yellow, the rest will sit in the range of dark browns. Much sharper highlights, as well as bits of reflected light, will help give it a more metalic look.

As I said before, it's a really good job so far, with not too much more work, you can make it a great one.

[pseudoBug]

I'm going to agree with Dargon, and also I'd have to say that the biggest problem I see with the gilding on the top of the boat is that the highlights are placed wrong. this gives it a flat look. You want the highlights to be on the higher points of the relief, whereas right now, it's shaded as if it's hanging on a wall. The sun is coming from above, not from the front of the boat.

I'd also make the planks on the deck of the boat a lot smaller.

Keep tweaking, and you'll have the boat of your dreams!

Also, the black texture gets a bit too light and contrastless near the edges. If you're trying to make it a bit worn, you still need color and contrast, you can't simply make it that much lighter. I'd give you a tip on how to make that better, but I'm not exactly sure. Someone around here must.

[Multimediaman]

Dargon has some great tips about the gold trim... but I was wanting to add some stuff to what PseudoBug had mentioned, about just lightening something up ... take note of the way things look when weathered or worn, specifically the wood and cloth...

a more convincing wood weathering would have been to have the unpainted wood showing through the black paint in the areas of most use unless you're trying to simulate highlights in the thing, but if that's the case, try to make them more resemble the surrounding environment that it's going in...

also, this looks like something that I'd make a long time ago, back before I figured out the key to painting textures ... you're doing a common mistake I used to do, the end result in which would always make me disgusted in my models...

that mistake? painting white and black on something to add highlights and lowlights, which looks like what you've done here...

highlights on fabric are quite far from white, in fact, on most fabrics, they are merely just a little lighter, but more saturated shades of the same color as the fabric... if it's a fuzzy, dark blue fabric for instance, you'll notice shades of somewhat light gray with a hint of the light color's hue in that gray for the brightest highlights, then the most saturated dark blue color would be around those highlights, and the lowlights are darker shades of the material color... with black airbrush you get a close look to that, but it's not saturated with the material color, so it still looks a bit harsh and painted that way...

hope that helps you... remember, true black and true white are your enemies

[nikudy]

Thank you guys for the tips.

Now is too late but i'll try tomorrow your suggestions.

[nikudy]

For the wood i want to achieve a gondola look.
It has strong highlights. A verry shiny paint on a rough wood(not everything like a gondola).

[Multimediaman]

well, if highlights are what you're striving for, and your engine/fps goal/effects limitations allows for it, why not use a reflection map? Reflection maps can give the look of nice specular highlights and glossiness if your game engine doesn't use specular and/or gloss levels

I don't know, just a thought... if this is a main vehicle, having highlights continually in the same spot may seem weird

but if you are forced to keep the highlights in the diffuse map, then my best suggestion would be to make the highlights have some color, say if it was outside, you'd see some subtle blue in there, and in the highest levels of reflection, you'd have yellowish orange hints, as they'd be created from the sun... but again, this is all subtle, but can make a huge difference from showing highlights to looking like faded plastic

[nikudy]

Hi !
this is what i've changed so far :

UPDATE (http://www.udy.abt.ro/boat%202.htm)


The bad thing is that i don't realy know what is the boat importance (if it is a main vehicle or something in the invironment), or his placement(a river, or in a Venetian crowded city :( ).

[Multimediaman]

very good improvements so far ... not sure what else to comment on :D

[Dargon]

You're going the right direction - fo now the most I can say is do it much more!

I did a quick paintover (exagerated in some ways) to show what we were talking about:

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/gold.jpg

I repainted the gold (not allthe gold, just the piece in the middle of the pic)with much more contrast, and very tight highlights, put a bit of colour into the highlighting of the wood, and threw in an overlay of wood over those sections, just to give it a bit more textural kinda feel.

Hope you don't mind the paintover, but sometimes that's the best way to get across a point.

[Xaint]

Nikudy, nice progress so far!

I have not much to add, now, except that I like the wood better in black, don't add as much blue to it, as Dargon did, maybe just a little or a little brown. Just avoid it to be monochromic. I said brown 'cause the gold may reflect in the black painting. Experiment wih what looks better!

Nice Paintover Dargon!

[nikudy]

Dargon:
Your paint over looks nice and sharp but i can't make such fine details like you because of the resolution of the texturemap. Indeed the shadows weren't dark enough, so i tryed to make them...

Update (http://www.udy.abt.ro/boat%203.htm)

As for the blue, i think is too much in your paintover. I aded some more .More than that would make the boat different that i had in mind.

I will tweak some more tomorrow but for now is too late , i am too tired and i have to wake up early in the morning.

[amola2k]

good job so far really
you might wanna add more detail to the texture tho
cheers

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