#NMM gold sword help

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

stone iris
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I've been playing around with this sword for a while now and am ready for some suggestions and feedback on how to go further.

The first two photos are where I'm currently at. The last one is my edit of what I think I need to achieve.

The recipe I'm using here is obviously a very yellow, warm gold as I thought the yellow would contrast the blue armor nicely.

So, questions.
Am I doing ok in terms of values?
Are my reflection placements alright?
What parts of my technique to I need to work on?
Is my plan on the right path? I'm aiming for brighter highlights to increase the contrast further.

sword-thumb.png sword.png sword02.png
patent rivet
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Your values look good and the color selection is right for gold, but the contrast and placement of highlights doesn't really sell this as metalic. That said, the shape is going to be quite hard to render, as it's fairly complex.

Personally, I'd try sketching a couple different approaches in Photoshop first, to settle on something believable. Just 3 colors, dark brown, mid, near white. If it doesn't work from a distance, move on and try a different approach.

What might work could be going really bright with one side of the flat blade, dark with the other. And try the engraving opposite. But you'll have to experiment

stone iris
# patent rivet Your values look good and the color selection is right for gold, but the contras...

Thanks a lot for the feedback. 🙂

I think one of the issues is, I've gone blind to this shape by now. Maybe I need to step completely away for it for a while and pick it back up later.

And yeah, I'm struggling with the complexity and the fact that the blade has a curve, but the raised pattern is completely flat, so it should reflect differently, but there's so little surface to work on.

Working from what you said, what do you think about this edit? Basically brightening the left side of the blade itself a bit and bringing that center shadow area of the pattern out to the left, but sticking with the edge highlight that's already in place.

sword03.png
patent rivet
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Better on the blade itself. On the ornament, try and play with the edge highlight, some parts could be quite dark

stone iris
patent rivet
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I'll give it a spin in Photoshop when I get home. Tried on my phone, but it's just not possible at that detail without a stylus

stone iris
ocean narwhal
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They all look good to me when I zoom in on the image

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but looking at the thumbnail-size, I can only parse the pattern on this last image - with purposefully placed shadows on the bottom/left side of the pattern and brights on the top/right side of it, and then the blade dark on the right and bright on the left

Your other option IMO is a variation of what you've got - where you keep the whole blade dark just with a single gradient on the pointy top and a very slim edge highlight around, and then you focus the NMM effect on just the pattern, and just punch the values up

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If you try to account for realism, you're going to get a result that doesnt read well, because embossed/engraved gold under real world light looks like a garbledy mess with all the reflections going every which way

stone iris
# ocean narwhal but looking at the thumbnail-size, I can only parse the pattern on this last ima...

Thanks Scotty, good input.

Your photos are actually kinda the look I was going for hence the more random reflections in my original post. But as Gwinn pointed out, the effect doesn't sell as metallic, probably due to the pattern being the dominant part opposed to a secondary element on a larger whole. The gaps in the pattern are just large enough that I can darkline them with my 0 brush, so no way am I adding legible shading in there.

ocean narwhal
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mhm - honestly I think its a bit of the ol' "things on small scale minis have to be hyper-real to look real" problem.

Because if you perfectly replicated that bottom image on a miniature in pristine crisp incredibly executed NMM using a brush with 1 single hair over 10,000 hours, my brain would look at it and just instantly say

"yellow."

stone iris
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Yeah, Nan told me at some point that I have to "divorce reality and miniature painting" or something to that effect and that's definitely a line that's still a bit blurry for me. When to strive for realism and when to go more stylized.

stone iris
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@warm forge Using my free pass to tag you on this sword I'm struggling with. 😊

Here's the current iteration, that I made after your stream yesterday.

Bonus question: how should I handle the reverse side, that's in shadow?

The size and the intricacy is a horrible combination.

IMG_4394.jpg
warm forge