AuthorTopic: Metal Shading Practice!  (Read 6838 times)

Offline PypeBros

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Re: Metal Shading Practice!

Reply #10 on: June 17, 2016, 05:07:51 pm
The pipes from the Mario series never read to me as metal, I always saw them as plastic.
Well, they're outdoor, so likely coated and unlikely polished. More looking like a metallic school fence than to a shining steel pinball. The suggested update is gorgeous, art-wise, though.

Just one note: the pipe should actually *enter* the ground. Right now, the little shading difference at the bottom makes it look more like it has a hat-shape, or a flower-pot shape, and could be freely moved on the ground.

Offline kullenberg

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Re: Metal Shading Practice!

Reply #11 on: June 17, 2016, 09:13:08 pm


Lots of great advice in here! Thanks guys! Hopefully this one puts enough of it to use to pass as metal now.

@drain, I increased contrast and tried playing with the shapes a bit more like in your edit. Hoping my highlights make more sense now. Re: the blue, wouldn't the pipe reflect the sky color as well?

@mystery meat, those rim highlights are exactly what I was trying to capture! Thanks!

It appears as if you're mixing two value properties. The reflection to the right is too strong compared to the rest of the pipe and makes it look transparent more than anything. You'll have to bring in some blue and beige on the left side aswell if you want the reflection quality to match.
Remember that the smoother the metal is the more mirror like the reflection will be. Compare the two materials in this picture below; perhaps your pipe is somewhere in between?

Offline Pizza Tom

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Re: Metal Shading Practice!

Reply #12 on: June 19, 2016, 01:24:03 am
Thanks a bunch kullenberg, I had some issues with it but you articulated them exactly.  :'(



Tried to bring the blue/tan into the other reflections, but it definitely doesn't look right. It's probably obvious that I'm just making it up at that point.




Here I just removed the reflected colors altogether, and I think it looks the best so far, or at least less messy than the rest. Which is a bummer, I really wanted to get those reflections in, but I think that sort of complexity might be beyond a small piece like this.


Oh, and I changed the shading in both of them at the bottom to address the "hat" problem. It might still need some work though.
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Offline eishiya

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Re: Metal Shading Practice!

Reply #13 on: June 19, 2016, 06:14:02 am
I would get rid of that dark red shadow line as well, as it makes it look like the pipe/hat is hovering above the ground or is going in a little bit at the bottom. Instead of having a halo of shadow, suggest that it's in the ground by having some rougher dirt around it.

Offline PypeBros

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Re: Metal Shading Practice!

Reply #14 on: June 19, 2016, 07:49:52 am
an edit ...

Offline eishiya

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Re: Metal Shading Practice!

Reply #15 on: June 19, 2016, 02:55:19 pm
That definitely looks to me like it's sticking out of the ground rather than resting on top of it!
I'd let the brightest highlights continue down a little bit more, maybe a pixel, if not all the way to the bottom. There are only three things that would prevent those highlights from reaching the bottom:
1. The lightsource (or the light-coloured object being reflected) is small and there's no more of it to reflect. That doesn't seem to be the case here.
2. The surface there isn't vertical, it goes inward. Like on an upside down hat :] That's not the case here either.
3. Something is blocking the highlight in that spot. In this case, that could be the dirt, however it wouldn't block that much, since the light source is coming from above the dirt and the dirt is small. It would at most block a pixel of highlight on the bottom.

Offline Pizza Tom

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Re: Metal Shading Practice!

Reply #16 on: June 19, 2016, 04:58:20 pm


Whew, you guys are really pushing me on this! In a good way, of course.  :)

Adding the cracks and stuff to the tiles around the pipe made the rest feel too orderly, so I tried tilting and shoving the tiles a bit more. Let me know if it takes too much focus away!
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Offline eishiya

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Re: Metal Shading Practice!

Reply #17 on: June 20, 2016, 02:11:39 am
I didn't even notice the tilting until I read your post three times (each time I somehow kept misreading it), so I don't think it's too distracting xP
Good job with the dirt and highlights, too.