Textured in Quixel Mixer. Rendered in UE5. I’m looking for some feedback and things to improve on.
I think I over did the damage to the pillar for what a normal map can represent.
The objects don’t look like they’re of the same style or something… I’m not sure how to describe that. Part of it is, the barrel is more noisy than the others.
Any suggestions are welcome!
I personally like the barrel most, it has a nice amount of detail and the textures look the right scale.
The crate is too indented in my opinion and needs a better wood texture, something like on the barrel for example…
Also, I would expect some nails/bolts on it and maybe some painted-on text or images like “fragile”, “this way up” or “Open Here”.
The pillar looks nice but when you have big chunks of damage like that it’s best to approximate that in actual geometry, unless you expect it to only be seen from far away.
I also find that the edges on it are too sharp, you could rectify that by adding a bevel.
You can do that by either actually adding the bevel through geometry (even one segment would be fine), or you can bake the bevel into a normal map. Blender has a handy Bevel node that will let you do that.
Personally, I think using both is the best but depending on your use case you can get away with just one.
It’s really down to how you’re gonna use the model.
I cont want to sound too harsh, sorry for that - I generally think you did good job and the effort was well worth it, as these objects could work very well for many nice scenes and games. But as you asked for feedback, here are some suggestions:
The problem I see here is that the damage is not 100% consistent with the object.
Lets take the pillar: it looks kinda like limestone, but in no circumstance I can imagine limestone to get damage like that. Well, I do - if it was treated with acid 
Check out something like “ancient ruins” or “roman ruins” on Pinterest to see how stone looks after 2000 years and try to apply it to your pillar (its not easy). And normal maps - yes, probably a little too much, especially on the corners - edge nearly always shows the truth (TLDR: damage here is too soft, too liquidy so to say )
With the barrel - it is dirty as hell, corroded and splattered with oil all over the place, but the wood beneath it is pristine. You’d probably want to apply some wear to the edges, like they will get brighter and usually there is no corrosion on the edge itself. You have the most rust build up at the edges of metal rims - that’s not correct. There is also a little issue with how the planks are running up. (But I like this one to be fair, I feel it got the most love among other objects and it shows.)
The same goes for the crate, although I can see some wear on top of it on the edge, but I dont think its consistent along entire object. Also to be fair, that wood pattern is very strange The frame looks as if it was cut from one monoblock of wood, but it should be made out of planks, right?
You generally need to think how the damage and corrosion was applied. Maybe you can also think about dust? How it settles on objects and what it causes. Giving all 3 different objects touch of the same dust (for example desert dust - its very characteristic strong, light color dust) might cause them to be more consistent between them.
What is probably a little strange, but I think good place to see how to damage objects is to lookup how modellers paint miniatures On youtube there are hundreads of tutorials on “miniature painting weathering”, that might give nice insight. But well, this is a little far from 3D, so you might not be interested in that.
Problem with realistic assets is, that the closest you get to the realism, the more precise you need to be in details to keep the object believable. You also have to keep one level of precision along entire object, as for example if you have great looking rust on your barrel, anything a little less perfect will immediately pop out.
Can’t add much to what has been said.
But the barrel, would not work with two hoops like that. Needs a top and bottom one, and the hoops on it are way too wide. Once you start to do realistic looks, as much time is probably needed on research as modeling.
This is a gold mine, thank you!
Lot of good points about the crate. Especially the create next to the barrel, they belong in two different scenes as they stand.
The pillar got a bevel mod (perhaps not enough), and the bigger damage moved onto the geometry. I did a few other touch ups after looking at some references.
No offence taken Medial. Thanks for the input, you’re awesome!
I got some references for the pillar so it’s not looking like acid was pored on it anymore, lol. It still needs a little work on the shape of the larger damage ( I posted an updated pic)
I agree with all your points about the barrel. It’s so obvious once you point it out. And I’ve been trying dust build up, but I need to play around with it more and figure it out.
The shape of the crate is strange, it’s like it has 6x6 post as a frame, lol. I followed along with the Grant in the design of it. He has a consistent low poly style across all the objects. I wanted to follow along closely with him in the design within blender, then deviate with the texturing. Like what you’re saying about the realism, I need to find where I’m going to be on that spectrum.
I was in the army with a few guys who painted WarH40K pieces. That’s good outside the box thinking, I may hit them up.
The pillar is so much better! Awesome work with this texture!
Yeah, realistic texturing on stylised models might not work You see this with pillar - when you need to add geometry to fit the texture damage. So in fact that crate, which is the most simplified object among all 3 of them, might need some more “refactoring”.
Anyway, great job and Im quite sure youre on the right track to create really awesome assets.
I think this is accomplished, and very good. The objects do match, well done dude! xxx
