Official OT-Creativity Thread 2

[Malor]

Goodness! Some really fantastic stuff in this thread since the last time I checked! I guess I should post some of my stuff soon....

[ndchristie]

indigo - go to some skinning boards, especially reskinning boards, and you might be surprised to learn how many people need such "overkill" .

[Indigo]

update:

[surt]

may I suggest though that you're keeping it a little bit too direct right now, even for a cave-creature?  As in, texturing purely texture rather than emphasizing light and shade?  in the same way that statues seen from a distance need to be over-carved to show form, so too do you need to emphasize this for your creatures to stand out at all against the dungeon floors and shadows (i can see how blending in a little might be good for this guy, but it will become a readability issue at the dungeon keeper scale).

Thanks for the crits. It's meant to be black in colour so I didn't want to make it too light and so I had tried the fake specular in an attempt to reveal the forms. Tried upping the lighting a bit as suggested.

src

[Lackey]

So I think what you're doing here is a very airbrushy kind of skinning.  It reminds me most of that whole Unreal / Daikatana era of 3d art...which was not on the whole a very good era.  It's because you're shading all the way to black all over, it ends up looking very awkward.  I think you can still have your speculars, just have them in addition to whatever the local value on that part of the body is.

It's meant to be black in colour so I didn't want to make it too light and so I had tried the fake specular in an attempt to reveal the forms.

I would say that my problem is that your shading looks like it's ONLY speculars right now.



Personally though I find even this exaggerated.  I think with lowpoly models its best to have small concentrations of detail, but to mostly not overwork the texture.  If you do you end up with awkwardly bendy and stretchy bits all over and it just doesn't play to the requirements of the art.

Also: I love your avatar, and I loved your old one too.

[ndchristie]

lackey gets what i meant

your first shot works if he is made of the cosmos - spots of light in a universally dark field
your second shot works if he is made of obsidian - gradations of bright and muted spots with some planar development, but on the whole made of far-apart specs.

lackey's, however, works if he is made out of skin, which, even covered in slime and sweat, is fairly matte, with at most some chosen speculars to accent the already present forms.

this bit by Arne tries to be a little more than it is, but it's still a great reference for light and materials :  http://itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm#light_stuff

[Helm]

1 hour speed-drawing here too.

[Opacus]

That Helm, is awesome.

[Helm]

Thanks. I am displeased with the background though, I might have another go at it later.

[ptoing]

5 to go