Male character feedback needed

simi

Hi everyone. I finally got some confidence to post my 3d artwork. I'm still pretty new to character modelling and it's about time I started participating in polycount community instead of quietly lurking around.

This is my 2nd ever character and I have mountains to climb to get to next-gen game standard, but I'm hoping you can give me some feedback on what I need to focus on and improve. Any suggestions are welcome and greatly appreciated.

I'm also writing up my university dissertation regarding some of the modelling techniques implemented whilst making this character, so I hope it's ok if I quote your feedback for areas to improve.

Finally, any tips regarding character presentation in real-time? (Is rigging essential for modellers to present their characters?)

Thanks, Simona.

BARDLER

The polygon density is really odd in your model. Your boots are as dense as your hands even though they will have far less deformation. You pants are really low poly and would benefit from some polygon density at the base to really sell the jeans bunching up. You also have 2 n-gons by the clavicles, and a random triangle above his belt that would cause some deformation problems.

I like characters that are presented on a pedestal, with a mild gradient background, and no harsh shadows like you have. I wouldn't say rigging is necessary for presenting your characters but it could help a ton. Rigging allows you to pose your characters in much more interesting poses non-destructively. Second it makes you understand how to make your character models rigger friendly which helps you fit into a pipeline better.

simi

BARDLER wrote: »

The polygon density is really odd in your model. Your boots are as dense as your hands even though they will have far less deformation. You pants are really low poly and would benefit from some polygon density at the base to really sell the jeans bunching up. You also have 2 n-gons by the clavicles, and a random triangle above his belt that would cause some deformation problems.

I like characters that are presented on a pedestal, with a mild gradient background, and no harsh shadows like you have. I wouldn't say rigging is necessary for presenting your characters but it could help a ton. Rigging allows you to pose your characters in much more interesting poses non-destructively. Second it makes you understand how to make your character models rigger friendly which helps you fit into a pipeline better.

Thanks for the feedback and tips. I will play around with the lighting and see if I can get some nicer renders, before throwing this model away. I've made a lot of newbie mistakes with the topology and having tried to rig it I definitely understood more about the importance of topology. (Shoulders are a disaster, if only you could see it

Any more feedback guys would be beyond wonderful and help me with my dissertation. Quoting polycount guys in academic writing is always wonderful

AtticusMars

Very good work for someone whos new to character modeling! Looks like you have a good feel for sculpting. Most of your issues are technical which is good because they're the easiest to fix

- Like bardler said the poly density is all over the place, he already mentioned deformation but you should also try to use geometry and put your edges in places that support the silhouette of a character, especially in ridges of folds of clothing and such. This isn't too important for this character but it will be later when you start doing characters with armor and more complex clothing.

- Looks like you're trying to maintain quad topology, this isn't really necessary. Keeping your edge loops intact around the joints makes rigging easier but otherwise there's no harm using triangles so you should be using them where you can to make the topology efficient and flow better.

- Hands anatomy could use some work

- Use a fill light to illuminate the form shadows of your model so that it's not turning black, if it looks good you can also put a rim light in there. This is the 3 point light setup, it's very good for showing the forms of a model.(having black shadows isn't necessarily bad but they're situational, usually good for adding drama to a picture)

- I do think rigging is necessary for a strong portfolio, t-poses aren't very flattering for displaying work but when you get a job you probably wont be doing much rigging so it's mainly just for show.

_ Post stuff when it's still in the work in progress stage! The earlier the better! Finished art is cool but feedback is more helpful if you're getting it while you can still make changes

in the future also I suggest posting larger images