Old Wrench

Inspiration

The other day, when I was browsing ArtStation, I found an antique wrench piece from Matthew Wilshaw. Its unique material and texture attracted me, and I wanted to refer to his work and make a wrench to practice.

The wrench has two different materials: wood and metal. It is more suitable for practice, and I think it will allow me to learn a lot.

Software

• Maya
• ZBrush
• RizomUV
• Substance Painter
• Marmoset Toolbag 5

References

Before I start, I will look for a lot of references. I mainly look for them on ArtStation, where there are many works of excellent artists, and I will also look for reference materials on some second-hand websites.

The items there have rich stories, which can help me better make and show the details of the work

Modelling

The model is not complicated. I use Maya to make the model. The important thing is to pay attention to the proportion between the models.

Of course, you can also choose your favorite modeling software to make it.

HighPoly

In order to achieve better details, I sculpt details in ZBrush, such as edge damage of wood and metal, and mainly make details that affect the changes in the outer contour in ZBrush.

I didn’t sculpt too many details; I hope to express them with textures, so as to exercise and improve my ability and skills in making textures.

Low-Poly

As a work, I used ZBrush to reduce the surface, which was very convenient.

UV & Baking

For the work, I used ZBrush to reduce the surface, which was very convenient.

I used RizomUV to cut UV. For this work, I only used one UV set, and the texture baking was done in Marmoset Toolbag.

Texturing

I painted the textures in Substance 3D Painter.

Base Layer

For the base layer, I will use a wooden texture material ball as the base.

Then, on this basis, we try to enrich the color changes of the object itself as much as possible, such as the color changes where wood and metal come into contact, and make the peeling and changes of the nails driven in.

Paint

The same principle applies to blue paint, which changes color.

For example, the bottom of the blue paint will be darker than the top. Due to long-term use, the edges of the paint will also show signs of peeling.

Sticker Layer

Then I made a vintage sticker on the wooden handle of the wrench to make it more interesting.

I found an image of a sticker on the website and dragged it into Photoshop so that I could map it in Substance Painter.

Due to long-term use, the stickers will be worn out and some information will be written on them. Here I wrote 3 letters and red lines.

Because fingers often touch it, it can cause yellow and black color changes and edge warping.

These three layers include changes in the words, fingerprints, and paint. If the sticker is touched by hands for a long time, the ink on the original words will spread outward and leave fingerprints, and blue paint may also splash on it.

The bottom layer of the metal part uses a metal material ball and creates the basic texture and changes of the metal.

Create a new oxide layer to make the metal oxide part, and use the rust material ball, add a brush, and paint the entire metal part.

Add rich color variations to the rust on the oxidized base layer, such as red and orange, and use the brush to make light and heavy adjustments.

Then add a fill layer to the mask of the oxidation layer, select the basic rust anchor point, add a brush, select the channel subtract, and use some peeling material to process the rust edge.

Then make some scratches to enrich the object.

Also add a brush and then select the channel to subtract, use the scratch material map.

Next, make the dirty layer. Because the gaps between the wrenches will not be touched, some dirt and grime will accumulate over time.

Make the words on the wrench. Add a brush and write the numbers and letters, then add a distortion filter to mimic the feel of the reference.

Pay attention to the height change of the words.

Finally, add a contrast filter to enhance color changes and roughness to enhance the visual effect.

Lighting & Rendering

I used Marmoset for the final rendering and added a floor at the bottom of the object to show the light and shadow.

I chose a suitable material and pasted it on the bottom floor, and then added 2 cardboards to simulate a more realistic small scene.

Set the picture parameters and adjust the values to make the objects clearer.

Taking some close-up shots can help highlight the texture details. You can turn on the FOCUS option of the camera and set a suitable value to blur the surrounding of the picture.

Use the middle mouse button to determine the focus of the picture to focus and show the effect.

Thank you for reading. I still have more areas to improve. I hope you can find some useful information from this article.

Also, thank you, GamesArtist, for allowing me to write this article. Special thanks to Liujingyu and Huang Yulong for their patience in guiding me. They are two amazing artists!

This is a special experience for me, and I will continue to work hard to create better works.