i was bored so i decided to create something
i created a sword and then i made an alter-ish object and the scene grew from there. now i'm not sure what to do next :headbang:. any ides would be appreciated.
heres what i have so far. also how would i go about adding some dust specs to my light ray?

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the glow on the blade implies it's a powerful/enchanted sword of some sort.
so i think you should do something a little more creative with the alter. play with the shape and materials, make it look like it's been abandoned for 1000s of years and it's eroded a bit (looks like it should be if you're going to use a dusty light), or make it look clean and well looked after because it's a dangerous weapon that no one should touch (yeah, ok, it's all cliche ideas, but i'm being used for problem solving atm)

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thanks for the ideas, the alter has no texture atm so i will do that but i might go ahead and zbrush it to make it look abandoned. also will particles work best for the dust specks?

heres some of the zbrush work on the alter. i was playing around and it ended up looking melted so i put a gold color on it and it looks ok. the gold shader needs some work what do you think of the alter though? my thoughts on the meltedness are that the blade though dormant has over time melted the golden alter. i could have a solid alter underneath the gold so it looks like its gold layered instead of solid gold. oh the possibilities of digital art work.

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To be honest, it looks a bit like cheese at the moment
but still a lot better than I'd be able to do. I'd suggest if you want a melted look to vary the meltiness with distance from the sword, if that makes any sense. The lower sides should be pretty much unaffected, whereas the top and corners should be droopier. Keep up the good work!

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-stwert

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yeah, i though of that after i had sculpted the alter. i have a very cool alter sculpt that looks like rocks atm but cant figure out how to get zmapper to like my mesh. and without zmapper working, it would be like a million polys
still more work to do.

Maybe go with stone and grunge ?

If you're going to age and bang up the altar the floor and columns have to match that level of decay or it'll look weird. So here comes my long winded list of observations <3

The sword is glowing but isn't affecting the environment, a weak, warm point light with falloff would help I think.

Maybe try a different shape on the spotlight, like the light is coming from a crack in the ceiling or something, anything but the default circular shape, it makes it look like its part of a tourist trap.

The shadowing on the altar is very hard, try increasing the light angle for softer shadows, and you may have to increase the light rays to get rid of the grain. Also the shadows are pitch black, a couple of little weak area lights with fall off to create bounce light would help.

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- Genny
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Thank you GecT for the list of improvements for me to make. I have already done the light on the sword. and am trying to find a good shape for my spot light. as to the area lights, i'll see what i can do.