Best Of

Fabi_G said:

Looking good

I think with the final asset, some of the forms of the sculpt got lost, in particular with the head. This probably in part due to the different lighting/ reflections between the matcap highpoly render and final render. It's up to you (or how you intend to render) to what extend you paint highlights into the textures or use a roughness and specular map, perhaps a combination. With the latter, the lighting situation is important to allow the maps to work.

Then you could also add some color zones to the face and add in some color variation in general.

Perhaps decrease brightness of eyes in a gradient going away from pupils, so the eyes appear less flat. Similar teeth when overly flashing.

Here is a rough overpaint, overlayed matcap for specularity/highlights, painted in reds on nose and ears, darkened eyes and teeth some, some slight blue on the lower face:



Keep it up!

Hello Fabi_G! I see what you mean, I 100% agree! I feel it got very flat after rendering it, and I miss the details from the sculpt. I will look at my light setup and materials, seems like the textures overall roughness is very high which probably makes the model read flat and normal gets no chance to pop. And I assume it doesn't help that I'm using a large rect light to light my model either, so I will take a look at a different lighting setup.

I love the overpaint! I will follow your advice and add some color zones in the face and add gradient to the eyes so its not too bright and flat.

Thank you so much for giving such detailed feedback, it helps a lot!

I just sculpt and texture this one (base from sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/fancy-picture-frame-b54984abe2394345a81621719bf8bf1a#download)

Muzzoid said:

Your character is solid!

when you say it isn't working, It might be helpful for you to put it into words what isn't feeling right.

I would honestly say though, try and wrap up this character and do another. This sort of thing you just need to do a lot of, and you will naturally improve.

Like if you were to say aim to do the next character in half the time, but maintain the quality, it would be a solid goal for you!

Hello, Muzzoid! You're right, I should have explained better what I feel like is not working. After reading the character guide Zetheros sent me above, I think that my biggest issues with it is the color palette, values, and the materials that feels off to me.

I think your advice is on point, sometimes you just need to say you're done and on to the next project. Take note on what didn't work and how I plan to conquer it this time around. Definetly feel I spent way too much time on this, so I will take a look at my approach and finish the project quicker! Thank you for feedback and advice!

Hey man, you are putting in the hard yards, you ARE putting in the effort and time, and for the most part you are doing well. You are RIGHT on the cusp of leveling up, it's just going to take stepping back and considering the process a bit. I also apologize if I've been a little blunt here.


The mechanism which our perception gets better is a ratchet. You make a perception, you then check that perception and prove that it was wrong. Every time this happens, your perception improves. The point of external feedback is not to give you theory, (you can get theory from any ol book or video), you are renting our perceptions in order to drive your attention to the areas you didn't know needed attention, which drives this loop.

That's all a bit abstract. So let me put this in practical terms. The pattern I always see with students, is I give a paint-over, pointing out something. Then most of the time they do an iteration, but it's applying the concept in a limited way.
What you want to do instead, is instead take the advice and apply it as strongly as you can. How can you capitalize on an external perception as much as possible.

My advice of varying the edges of the form, you just applied it to the one point of the form. What if you instead went to every single form, and added crazy variation of edge hardness. TRY and take it too far. Really get under the skin of what the commenter was trying to get at.

You are fine! You didn't lash out, you just stated how something made you feel which is actually good! You've taken every bit of feedback well.

This thing is a long game, anyone who has been doing this for longer than a decade knows that preserving your mental health is the number one priority here. Art can be a really rough journey emotionally, I've worked with friends who broke down in tears because they though they couldn't create any more, and they lost sight of the reason why we are doing any of this.
Also I can expand on any of these ideas at all if you want to know. I've been slowly working on writing a book based on the meta game of art, so it's something I'm deeply passionate about.

Looking good

I think with the final asset, some of the forms of the sculpt got lost, in particular with the head. This probably in part due to the different lighting/ reflections between the matcap highpoly render and final render. It's up to you (or how you intend to render) to what extend you paint highlights into the textures or use a roughness and specular map, perhaps a combination. With the latter, the lighting situation is important to allow the maps to work.

Then you could also add some color zones to the face and add in some color variation in general.

Perhaps decrease brightness of eyes in a gradient going away from pupils, so the eyes appear less flat. Similar teeth when overly flashing.

Here is a rough overpaint, overlayed matcap for specularity/highlights, painted in reds on nose and ears, darkened eyes and teeth some, some slight blue on the lower face:



Keep it up!

Your character is solid!

when you say it isn't working, It might be helpful for you to put it into words what isn't feeling right.

I would honestly say though, try and wrap up this character and do another. This sort of thing you just need to do a lot of, and you will naturally improve.

Like if you were to say aim to do the next character in half the time, but maintain the quality, it would be a solid goal for you!

clean work, this might help you imo https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/0688-7692-4D5A-1935