Talvin's Sword and Board

[Talvin]

My first 3d meshes and first skins/art/texture

I am not that very pleased with it. Partly because the look I wanted on the sword does not really fit in with Torchlight's style.

Would love some feedback on what could be improved. I think I might need a lot more work on shadows... but I have a hard time figuring out where I could have added it on these simple meshes.

Spoiler: show

[DarkTails]

Maybe simplify the "crack" textures by running them through a filter? They look a little too detailed/realistic.

[Arkham]

The shield could use some more contrasting detail. Right now the "color value" (where the colors range on black-to-white, light-to-dark) is very similar across the whole shield. E.g. the gray on the edge of the shield is only faintly lighter than the predominant dark gray in the center of the shield, and the detail in the center is even more similar in value to the surrounding dark gray. That's the first thing that I noticed.
Making some of the lighter areas on the shield even lighter will help a lot to make the different areas on the shield pop out better and be more distinct from each other, and will make it easier to appreciate from farther away (which is where you're usually going to be seeing it from).

The sword is better, although I agree with DT's crit re: the detailing -- it does seem a little too "realistic" for Torchlight.
I don't know if running it through a filter will work; TL's distinctive look is accomplished with handpainted detail, and it would be hard to mimic that look well using PS filters. I guess you could try anyway and see what you can get, though, but if you can paint detail into the blade, that would be a better approach.
(EDIT: Looking over the sword again, I also notice that it seems just a tad small, compared to both the size of the Destroyer and the size of his shield. Scaling it up just a little -- or better yet specifically scaling the blade portion up, since the size of the hilt looks just right -- might be a good idea. Not much, just a little.)
The jewel on the hilt seems a bit dim (again, seems like a value problem). Trying to make it look luminescent, like it has some kind of moderate internal glow, would really add some interest to the sword.

Do you have a Wacom tablet or a similar device? If you do, there are some painting tutorials around here that I can dig up and link to, that will give you some insight into how the TL painting style is done.

[Talvin]

First off, thanks both of you for the feedback. I do appreciate it.

When I started making these I wanted a specific shape of the sword. I have always liked straight and simple swords that are not over sized (but I do agree that maybe increase the blade a little, in my first version of the sword it was a lot thinner even and when it showed up in the game it looked okish when zoomed in but like a toothpick when zoomed out ). Already when I started I wanted the blades "inner part" to be like onyx. I might have gone a little overboard there. I will see if I can somehow make it more artsy.

I will agree with the color differences of the shield and will try to improve on that, I have also gotten some criticism over that the "blades" on the shield should have a few dents.

About the tablet/wacoom, I do not have anything like that ... just me good old mouse. This is the first time I actually try to paint/do artsy stuff and all I can draw with pen and paper is stick figures and even they look wrong. So I am a complete noob and a tablet would at the moment be an to expensive thing to buy just for something I have had an interest in for a few days. I understand some parts of it, I think, we will see if I can manage to improve. If I continue doing this I might buy a bamboo or similar... from what I have understood the pen pressure could be a useful thing

The texture for the sword:

Spoiler: show

I think I did ok on the hilt and the gem do have a little glow ranging from the center of the back. Not so visible from the screenshots I posted earlyer.
I will try to improve on the "onyx" part though. Even if I do not have a clue how to do it so far

P.S Is it ok to keep posting in this topic with new end-results?

P.S2 Thanks again for the feedback

P.S3 I hate "seams" and I hate marking them out. Probably because I do not fully understand them. They were easy on the shield. But god the uv-mapping was hard on the sword

[Talvin]

A little update after another 10 hours of practicing.

This goes really slow. I decided to change a little and created a spike on the shield and removed the black and replaced it with blue. Felt like it was easier to work with. I tried to make a little bit more detail on the shield, increased the length of the sword and my biggest gripe at the moment is how to add more detail and make it look a little bit more like torchlight style.

Spoiler: show

[Phanjam]

Talvin, the re-work is definitely more "visually interesting" with the better contrast in light/dark areas I like it a lot!

If you ask me, I would...
- make the contrast between areas even more pronounced (seams will help, unfortunately )
- if you're having a hard time with the size of the sword texture, you can increase the resolution temporarily just to work on it, then revert when you're done
- definitely like you said for the shield, put in a little more detail (to increase visual interest)

But overall it's looking great. And yes, go ahead and keep posting your re-works if you'd like the community to help with our opinions

[Talvin]

Thanks Phanjam.

I am very fond of large shields with a spear, and possibility to switch over to a short sword. Now I noticed that no matter how I increased the size of the sword it felt out of place. So I deleted the sword and made a one-handed mace instead. Compared to making the sword this felt like rocket science but I learned a lot, esp about seams. I have not had very much time lately so the mace textures are still in the early stages.. but this is how it looks in game and in my opinion it fits a little better then the sword.

Spoiler: show

And a saved image from Blender

[Phanjam]

Looks like unique items set ("Talvin's Terror"?) is off to a great start!

This is great looking too! Again for greater contrast/interest what I might suggest is to increase the width of the indentations at the ends of the weapon, enough to get a different texture in there (just an idea)