3D Character presentation tips/tutorial needed
polycounter lvl 7
Hi guys!
earlier today i was looking on google for some presentation ideas to re do my characters portfolio.
i wanted to know if you guys could give me a good tutorial, or some tips on what you think makes a good character presentation.
Some advice about:
software
composition
lighting
photoshop effects for post render
etc..
or any inspiration ]image that acheive a good result
i started to use keyshot a couple of weeks ago to render my Highpoly and i really like the result that i get, also very easy to use.
for real time, Marmoset toolbag is what i use right now.
so here is a couple of exemples of awesome presentation that i found so far.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=288165
thanks!
earlier today i was looking on google for some presentation ideas to re do my characters portfolio.
i wanted to know if you guys could give me a good tutorial, or some tips on what you think makes a good character presentation.
Some advice about:
software
composition
lighting
photoshop effects for post render
etc..
or any inspiration ]image that acheive a good result
i started to use keyshot a couple of weeks ago to render my Highpoly and i really like the result that i get, also very easy to use.
for real time, Marmoset toolbag is what i use right now.
so here is a couple of exemples of awesome presentation that i found so far.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=288165
thanks!
Replies
some presentation ideas, links, tips, examples would be great.
also what i been told from the GDC professionals in general is, dont do a turntable but it seems the schools mostly want either that or a rigged character. any thoughts?
Not sure if I was successful or not.
http://seanvangorder.com/blog/?p=24
Also, the wiki has some nice tips:
http://wiki.polycount.com/Model%20Presentation
Lastly, EQ's recent character lighting tutorial is VERY solid, and helped fix my awful lighting:
http://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn/character-lighting
@turista, i am not a big fan of turntables/demoreel either but if its done well it can really is a a good way to show your work
ex:
[ame="
@JadeEyePanda thats a great presentation, love the mood and the painted background. any tought on the process of how you choose the color, pose or background shapes ?
Thanks guys!
Turista:I think I'm one of the guys you were talking about at GDC
My thing is that I just want to see flats, show me something like the examples above, then a turnaround, then construction and it should be fine. If I had to take a guess at why schools encourage you to do a video is that it falls in line with the industry claims to be a "demo reel." It's a standard that they can throw at you, for all disciplines, that incorporates all of the software they teach you and makes it a standardized goal to achieve. That doesn't mean that it's industry friendly, it's just education friendly.
Brian's work up above is on the right track there (who I also talked to at GDC :P ) - to be honest, the presentation isn't as sexy as the examples in the OP, but it's on the right track for sure.
I talked to a lot of people this year about this sort of thing and, while I may not be the best working example since I don't think my work is as polished as the given example, I have been toying with writing an article about the sort of questions I was asked and common themes/problems/issues/etc. during my 8 or so hours of folio reviewing. Technically, it's probably nothing more than artstream's links, but things like presentation were definitely common issues
i agree with you gav that for a job hunt, images are definitly the way to go!
Like I mentioned above, I find breaking shots down to a specific purpose per page is best with around 3 - 4 pages. Similar to what you will see for game art competitions:
Beauty: This is one pose of your character with all of the bells and whistles. In Marmoset this would be using post effects and mood lighting, with a simple background or pedestal. This sells your character as a complete package, mostly like the images above, which lead viewers into the more technical aspects...
Turnaround: 2 3/4 shots with no real frills. This is used to get a good look at your model without distractions and misleading information (DOF, bloom, extreme lighting, etc.)
Construction: Wireframe shots and texture flats.
Sculpt: A nice render of your high resolution model posed out. Recently, I've taken to using MR ( http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mFgxIjAx8I0/UVh_IaPJmCI/AAAAAAAAALU/yHMsfP6H0Bs/s640/3DA_spacegirl_02.jpg ) But have also used BPR renders from ZBrush that were just as good and informative.
In general for poses, my advice is to choose something that compliments the essence of your character and is easy to read. Lighting can convey mood but should also highlight your character, not distract from it. I try to keep my backgrounds pretty simple...either a skybox with a pedestal, or even just a flat background with a nice border. For example, if you made a Ninja character - having him crouched on a black background may be a bad idea since the viewer can't see the character in full - though it may be "true to the character" it defeats the purpose of being in an art portfolio and as a method to show your work.
And doing something maybe simpler, with just a bit of illustrational quality to it. Also trying to work the information into the overall graphic by tailoring it to the style and colors:
ALBUM: http://imgur.com/a/OP1fb
To be honest, I'm not sure which I prefer, and I hope to find something better. I have been wondering about using more dynamic poses, or if more relaxed poses are better. Should I be going simple with the setting, or doing it up a bit?
I have been considering taking the textual spec information and placing it into the scene itself. So for instance taking the male character above and have him in one shot holding a piece of cardboard that gives the spec information, almost like a hobo would.
Just ideas. Hoping to see more good information like Gavs.
Also, GAV, I don't agree that not hiring managers not watching videos is LAZY, I think it's smart. They only have a little bit of time for each person, and they probably have a ton of portfolios to get though. It's just not smart to take time on those who don't know how to portray information quickly.
It's unfortunate that schools insist on teaching outdated methods for the sake of it.
ysalex: I like them both, honestly. Though I feel in your illustrative one, the character loses focus..I almost wonder if you could do your beauty shot like this (though maybe zoomed in closer to see the goods) and have accessory images that are more to the point like your first example...but with a similar flavour (white BG, designery layout for information, etc.)
Another point to consider when it comes to presentation is the entire package - lots of websites are counterproductive to getting your work zapped into the viewer's eyes. I recently answered a question about that for someone else, figure it might be worth sharing here,
"get rid of the intro page, get rid of the background, get rid of the fancy headers, get rid of text that explains your work and let the pieces speak for themselves. The eyes get distracted. Anything that takes away from your core work, or takes the viewer longer to get to "the goods" should be taken away. The site itself isn't a venue to display artist ability, as odd as that may be, it should be clean and simple.
Gavin Goulden - Characters - http://www.gavimage.com
Jason Lavoie - Environments - http://jasonlavoie.net/
Paul Richards - Concepts - http://www.autodestruct.com/concept.htm
Jon Troy Nickel - Characters - http://www.hazardousarts.com/
Adam Bromell - Environments - http://adambromell.com/
"
I threw in my own site like an ass, but I figure I try to practice what I preach...all of these are pretty clean and to the point though. Not to derail, but I think presentation as a whole, not just singular images is something to consider.
as for character presentation some of the guys that I refer to are, which I think is pretty awesome are.
http://firstkeeper.deviantart.com/art/Sylvanas-Constraction-shot-01-177432112
http://www.hazardousarts.com/
http://cg-sammu.net/
http://slipgatecentral.cghub.com/
http://www.gavimage.com/
gotta love/have that rimlight!
If you want to show your work to the world, however, a turntable of a character can more fully show your character in an understandable form, especially if the mount serves as part of a mini-diorama. The casual viewer doesn't care about textures, or wireframes, or polycount - she just wants to appreciate its beauty. Feel free to use those fancy renders & particle effects, add subtle animations, and appropriate music. In the still images, pick the camera views that show off the best aspects of your character, and feel free to hide any minor flaws.
If you have the time, then there's certainly nothing preventing you from having two sites - one for showing prospective employers, and a second, fancier one for the world at large.
For both types of website, however, I would try to keep it as simple as possible. No fancy flash animations, no background music, no auto-playing videos.
Also, make sure you include your name and contact information on your images. People like Gav tend to get hundreds (if not thousands) of images, and it's in your best interest to ensure that they know right away that YOU are the author of that really cool character without having to dig through dozens of e-mails/websites.
As a final note, I think looking into techniques for traditional photography would be useful. Many of the techniques described in tutorials like http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/character-portrait-photography-tips-techniques/ are just as valid for digital images as for photographic ones.
I think thats huge point you got there! because since i started to do 3d models i always tended to do my presentations like Gav mentienned, not to much fancy stuff to distract from the actual character.
i guess at some point if you want to do something more illustrative and creativee for a presentation you dont havee thee choice to loose some focus on your character.
Like in the second presentation of YSALEX, i really love what you did with the image, the presentation really catchd my eyes when i saw it in the"what are you working on" thread. We do loose somee informations about the character so i guess that if we want to create a more artistic presentation the best thing to do is to have both a more straight forward image to see everything clearly and another one that you can go crazy and add any effect/accessories ect.. that you want to create a nice image without worrying about showing everything on the character.
here some presentations are moree on the illustrativee side.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?986701&p=986701&viewfull=1
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=347294
also thanks Gav for mentioning Vitaly Bulgarov, his work is incredible and i think that this page is a perfect example of how to present a model:
http://www.bulgarov.com/p_pilot.html
also heres 2 really good photographer portfolio that has some really good references for presentations
http://www.jillgreenberg.com/
http://www.keatleyphoto.com/
Gavin yes we did meet. and i loved your work and everything you have done so far. it was really great meeting you and sharing tattoos lol
also gaving is one of the oens who geared me in the right direction, i thank you for that Gav. so putting everything i have learned from GDC here is what i got..
and sorry for the late response but it seems everything i was going to post has been covered.
the only thing i wanted to say was what some of the professionals told me at GDC, and i quote " WE DONT CARE ABOUT TURNTABLES TO BE HONEST "
reason they gave me was they cant see everything on the model, im assumint they have no time to stop the video at a certain time and see what they wanna see, so what they told me to do is:
3 images in total
1: have a high poly 3 quarter front and 3 quarter back beauty shot of such model from zbrush or what ever program you use ( if you have a high poly )
2: 3 quarter front and 3 quarter back of the same model but game ready showing wires
3: this last one can be split into 2 images
a beauty shot of your game ready model in a pose, and on the side your UV's and normals and textures and all that good stuff.
now of course like what you guys said counts, if you have an amazing presentation regardless of how its presented it will be fine but i might go for what they asked of me.
i will be doing a turntable for my graduation this quarter tho, i like spiny things, they catch my attention
http://sketchfab.com/portfolio
http://p3d.in/
if you are 'super' into turntables don't do video, you'll never get the compression quality as good as images and scrubbing back and forth is not intuitive.
use something like this:
http://jquery.vostrel.cz/reel
On a related question, what do you guys do about aliasing? Especially dithering on your renders? Do you leave them be, or do you do something about that so that stuff like gradient for example doesn't look jaggy and 8 bit low rez?
Render at double size (or larger) and reduce for presentation - this should take care of many aliasing artifacts, turn off post filters that apply sharpening - you can do unsharpen mask in photoshop
As impressive as some of those UBER long and really filled Portfolios are, it reminds me of a walls of text.
TL : DNR
Render in whatever makes your asset look the best. IMHO realtime renderers don't hold a candle to offline ones.
I also personally hate Viewport grabs of Wireframes. Shitty Green Maya Wireframe Viewport grab is the absolute worst. Especially with that crappy gradient background and the stats up there. Just looks terrible, and screams 'Zero Effort'.
Setting up a wireframe shot with a floor, a skylight, and some borders really takes minimal amounts of effort.
Also, show your texture flats.