My second render that I worked about 4-5 hours on. As you can probably tell this isn't good, from the odd lighting and mismatched texturing on the chest to the lack of shine on the rupees and probably a few other things I didn't notice. I uploaded this primarily to receive criticism on what I have done wrong and hopefully what I could do to improve (or at the very least to be pointed in the right direction on where to receive criticism), after all a failure is only a failure if you don't learn from it. Thanks for looking and I hope my renders from now on improve, I have a lot of studying to do.
ssmurfmier1985 TLoZ was definitely the inspiration for this piece, originally wanted the Master Sword leaning against the chest but my skills were... limited at the time haha.
I definitely learnt a lot from this piece, 'cause I think this was the first time where I attempted something greatly out of my skill level so it was rather humbling, and even more humbling coming back to it after all this time and seeing the improvements.
Your eye - inexperienced or not - is totally correct! I'd say it's mostly lackluster materials but the lighting could definitely be improved as well.
Thanks for the compliments! Really looking forward to when you start uploading your own renders and seeing you improve over time.
Hi Aaron! I wanted to take some time to highlight some of the good stuff in this render. The modeling looks great! Especially considering this is one of your very early renders, when you just started out. I love the look of your rupees, they look exactly like the ones in Zelda, my all time favourite childhood game! Also the composition is great, the eye is drawn to the right spots, where something is actually happening. Also love the sun in the background. Sure, there are some things to improve, which is mostly about textures/shading and maybe a bit of lighting (says my inexperienced eye), but that is all technical stuff you can learn in the courses. The artistic style is your own, and you have a great style and great ideas (like the one with the alleyway and the backstory loved that!). So just keep learning, the creative part you allready have, the technical stuff will follow 😊
Your gem stones look delicious, like hard candy. If you are interested, Kent Trammell's Shader Forge series has a nice video on how to make precious stones among other cool things.