m1kclark's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Revlovers 3D Render]

Another 30 minutes work in Blender

Hi there. I'm a big Blender user, and I see some things in this image that really *need* to be addressed. Fortunately, I can give you explicit instructions on how to fix them.

First, and most important, you need to "Set Smooth" all of your objects. I can see the polygons in the barrel, the handle, and the chamber. If you are willing to learn about Edge Weight (using the "Shift-E" command), then maybe you could even try "Add Modifier" in the Mesh Tools and choose "SubSurf". I also noticed that many edges are beveled, but not all (like the hammer). You should bevel everything to give it a more realistic look; it's a lot of work, but worth the effort.

The lighting and depth of field blur are excellent, and so is the wood of the handle. You made really good use of the built-in "Wood" texture there. Also, nice choice on the image for the floor's texture.

Finally, your materials. The floor: turn down the reflectivity and up the specularity on the wood floor. It will reflect just the brightest lights in a very vague and blurry way, like a real polished wood floor. Also, in Materials on the Textures "Map To" panel, you might want to click on "Nor" to make the wood bumpy according to the image texture. If you don't like that Normal Map, then try others (I personally like the built-in Clouds texture with NoiseSize = 0.050). The gun metal: again, too reflective. Turn it down, and maybe play with the Fresnel setting; the metal isn't a pure mirror, it'll actually "gray down" the reflection (like how a red Xmas ornament reflects the room in a red hue). Also, you could add a background image (go to Shading panel, then click the World button and assign a texture like usual) that the gun metal would reflect, adding an extra bit of realism.

On the whole, this is an EXCELLENT first go, and Blender is not an easy program to master. Best of luck, and I look forward to seeing your future stuff, especially considering the high quality of your illustrated works. Cheers!

[Glowing Cube]

Lighting FTW

Holy radiosity! The shadows, the glow, the twilight back-lighting, it's all fantastic. The one and only detractor is that I can still see the polygons on the sphere. Can Octane do a NURBS sphere, or maybe a smooth subdivide?

<deleted> responds:

It can, but also -> Octane is a standalone rendering application. And as this scenes original purpose was shader testing, I didn't up the subdivisions when I made this in Max :) I would have removed such an obvious artifact if the result was predicted in some way ;) Thanks for the review!

[Roman gladius]

Way better than the axe

That lighting is fantastic. This is a real photorealistic render, with perhaps the only issue being one of placement: There's an optical illusion that the far-left sword is "melding" with the center sword, but frankly that could happen in a photo, too.

This would be a nice model to start experimenting with, actually. For example, experiment with blood splotches, or autumn leaves, or coins falling, or rain ... you see where I'm going with this? Use this really excellent render as a baseline to improve some experiments with newer modeling techniques or materials. Not that this doesn't stand alone, but as I see you expanding your scope more and more, this is a good place to try things out first.

Always a pleasure to see your stuff!

<deleted> responds:

Thanks m1kclark :) I always love reading your constructve comments. And as soon as I cannot find any more medieval weapons to model I will put them altogether in one scene; hopefully. And after that I'll start experimenting with different techniques ;) Im glad you enjoy wathcing my stuff. You should post some more 3D art yourself, too.

[Broadhead Arrows]

Heavier bump maps

The floor and arrowhead bump maps need to be deeper. Otherwise, nice!

<deleted> responds:

Yup, it's a shame Octane doesn't support displacement mapping yet :/ I'll have to model in the details on the floor myself from this point onward -> until the support is added of course :D

Thanks for taking your time to comment :)

[Play me the song of DETH!!!]

Novel 'The Gunslinger'

Strongly reminds me of Stephen King's 'The Gunslinger', first book of 'The Dark Tower' series. Then again, almost all of your images would find a place in that series somewhere.

[Castle of Flame]

Two main comments

(a) Tell Reallusion to bevel his edges.
(b) Use a higher-resolution texture for the ground. I can see your interpolation.

Otherwise, it's a very nicely composed piece of a very foreboding castle. Would we really be able to see the sunset through that door, though, since the castle walls probably go all the way around?

samulis responds:

Beveling is fun... except when working with real-time render engines. It would become quite taxing on the system.

It's more of an 'experiment shot' than anything really concerned with physical accuracy.

[FROSTY ! ! !]

Holy out-of-season, Batman!

Interesting character design. It's a little too simple to stand on its own, but it would work great as a recurring character, for example as a company mascot (think Pillsbury Dough Boy). I also like the bump-map on the letters, trying to make it look like it's made of snow. Unfortunately, the letters themselves are too well-formed and the edges too distinct to really be convincing as snow-letters.

And I don't know what the hell those crayon-looking things are. Is there any description for this? Reason? Motivation? Program used? ... Anything?

[concept art]

Scope

Great sense of size. You really convince me that that building is not just huge, but colossal and intimidating to the only character in the painting. Sorry I can't comment on technique, but the image itself is really striking and wonderfully done.

[Sword in the Stone]

Good for a game 8 years ago

I think a game of this level is an ambitious project that could really be rewarding, and you are definitely on the right track. The awesome texture on the ground is at odds with the lack of textures on the buildings or the fountain, but I think these things will improve with time. The quality of the objects and textures reminds me of Unreal Tournament 2003; nothing compared to modern gaming industry, but still hard to do as an amateur.

[Magneto's helm]

Again, excellent!

Just like the barretta, the only flaw is the depth-of-field blur. The left-center shouldn't be blurry at all, since it is approximately level with the helmet.

Otherwise, what textures! There is exactly enough noise in the bump map to suggest a real material that's malleable and shaped by hand. Your beveling is still spot-on, and even the composition (lighting, camera angle, positioning of everything) really shows off your model.

Man, if you keep producing stuff of this quality, I'll stop commenting just out of awe!

Great-Rambo responds:

Thx again for your comment. It realy help me to go on.

Your job is realy good too ^^