New portfolio piece, looking for feedback or comments :]

artofmars

I've been a long time lurker on the site and finally set up an account to learn from all you awesome people!
Just finished a new portfolio piece based on Anna Korkman's "Chemical Squirrel" Concept http://newmilky.deviantart.com/art/chemical-squirrel-279586661
Her Blog: http://ddeadbear.blogspot.ru/
I'd really love feedback on the texturing of him but any comments are extremely welcome! Thanks in advance!

-8,754 triangles for the squirrel
-3,790 triangles for the backpack and hose
-1024 texture maps

Turn-around..
again any comments more than welcome :]
portfolio:http://www.artstation.com/artist/artofmars

ScottHoneycutt

The fur looks hard edged which makes it look more like a toy than a character. Too many darks. How much are you referencing the fur?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Red_Squirrel_-_Lazienki.JPG

tahakitan

so cute and cool. First off, eyes are to dark. The fur looks off if you look at the animal in real life but this is stylized art so I don't think it matters and it works for a stylized animal.

I do think it's a bit dark colors also. maybe a vertical gradient with the top being a bit brighter will help or just increasing the brightness a little bit on the albedo.

Or it's simple as popping up the lighting in marmoset.

great job, I love it.

BagelHero

Hey, good job completing a character! Overall, technically this is a pretty good piece, but a few things struck me when I compared it to the concept.

- The pose is super static. Almost looks like you haven't rigged the hands...

- Styles are kind of mixed up. The concept was kind of more realistic, strangely, but your materials are a mix of handpainted and not and it looks a little mixed up. The leather material definition isn't there at all (it should be more glossy), and the suit... I can't tell what it's meant to be made out of and what purpose it serves. To be fair, the concept you're working off doesn't really help there, but you could work with that. Fur could use a fuzz map, too.

- You've under-exaggerated some aspects and over-exaggerated others. For one thing, the shape of the body on yours isn't nearly as defined and "pear shaped" as in the concept. Yours is sorta rectangular and takes away from some of the visual interest. The metal has too much wear in strange places. The metal weave on the end of the tubes is simplified, and it's pretty obvious. The cheek fur is too conservative, doesn't peek out of the suit as much, so it doesn't break up the silhouette of the face as nicely.

- The face is really... simplified and kinda childish on your version. the kind of stereotypical face you'd find on a toy, but the shapes on the concept are rather more realistic.

- The eyes are wigging me out. IDK how you set them up but watch the video here: http://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn/character-setup
They need more detail, and the pupil should be an indent, and the iris could do with proper parallax. The fact there's near no reflections is also strange.

- seconding the need for brighter colors and a more interesting albedo map-- needs more natural variation in color. A subtle vertical gradient multiply would help. Lighting that's more like the original would probably be awesome, too.

- You've severely over-detailed the fur. There's no resting place for my eyes and it looks less soft as a result. It could be toned back a little.

To be honest, the piece is fine. But you need to work on your observational skills and this could still be pushed to be a lot more impressive even without re-sculpting/baking. It could go from "fine" to quite impressive very quickly with a little more work, so I'm just nitpicking.
Good luck!

artofmars

Thanks so much everyone for taking the time to write feed back! really helpful!
-Definitely agree that the fur needs to be lighter, and the eyes are too dark. I had a real rough time balancing the stylized and realistic aspects of the concept. So definitely something i'll work on.
- Spot on BagelHero, proportions are definitely off. Ive done a lot of life sculpting since I initially sculpted it and it makes me cringe a little bit haha. I figured it was important to finish the character so I powered through with texturing.
-As for the eyes I was going for more of a low poly approach as compared with marmosets tutorial. (which is a great tutorial) I also think the darkness of the eyes definitely doesnt help them.. makes them feel soulless haha..
Again, thank you guys for commenting! great feed back and I truly appreciate it :]

portfolio: http://www.artstation.com/artist/artofmars

artofmars

Also not nitpicking BagelHero, 100% constructive really helpful!

BagelHero

Hmm, if you want to keep the 'low poly' approach, get rid of the shell/have the shell conform to the sphere eye mesh (because that's what's looking a bit off). Go for fully painted-in spec for the iris instead. I personally don't feel it matches the concept so well, but it'll still look good/better that way and it'll play off some of the other choices you made. A crappy old example, but maybe you could do something like this? It's two spheres, same size, one is a reflective glossy alpha sphere and the other is just a diffuse textured sphere, pretty high roughness. Dark eyes are fine as long as you have the highlights to combat that, either in specular iris detail, hand-painted color variation or tonnes of reflections.

Glad I could help.

artofmars

Nice I'll definitely steal that for this piece :}