Character Art Progress Report and Creativity vs. Commercial Appeal

Hawkes

Glad to have finally joined Polycount. I’m a Character Artist located in Austin, TX. I’m looking for constructive criticism on my Character Art Reel. I would like to know where I stand as far as my Reel now and where I should go from here. This is the link to my Reel: . I have also posted pictures in this post to give better detail. Other pictures can be viewed at hawkes.cghub.com.

Is there any glaring weaknesses to my pieces? What can I do to improve my chances of landing an entry level position as a Character Artist?

As I move forward I want to make more creative characters. I also don’t want to ruin my chances of landing a job by making a piece that doesn’t fit into a studios pipeline. The decision normally comes down to either making another space marine to add to the pile, or making something unique. Will “Big Studio A” reject my portfolio if the pieces are good, but not something seen in most mainstream games?

I appreciate anyone taking the time to read this thread.

Hawkes

Additional Images

StevenZer

Great Work! and you should try uploading these pictures on http://imgur.com/
Then post the links. This will give a better view.

Hawkes

@StevenZer, Thanks for the tip!

luck6

I like the modeling and its good to show of all the maps and wireframe. But i miss alittle more detail in the textures. They look pretty clean. So I would improve more on the textures by putting more wear and tear on it or you could drop all the textures and make nice clayrenders. That way you will bring the best out of the models. Now the textures are distracting the nice modeling work you did.

Lucas Weij

StevenZer

You should try different styles like steam punk and medieval styled characters, Make them look different and cool! try adding more accessories and more color. Check out this demo reel. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_G-9pCYmqE"]Bret McNee - Student Character Modeling Reel - 2011 - YouTube[/ame]

Wendy de Boer

I think the modeling is pretty good and so are your diffuse textures. Right now though, your characters look like they only have diffuse textures. I would really focus on material definition.

If you're not doing this already, you should put them in a game engine (such as UDK). That way, you'll be able to see much better how the materials actually behave inside a game context. This allows you to really experiment with your gloss and specular textures to see how to achieve different effects.

StevenZer

I agree with DemonPrincess. You should also try out Marmoset Toolbag Its a great tool if you want to see how your characters will look in game.

Hawkes

Thanks everybody for the advice so far. @DemonPrincess, I'll definitely take your advice to heart on my recent project. I'm looking to dive head first into Unity for rendering. If anyone knows of a better game engine for a MAC user let me know. @StevenZer, I'm currently working on Victorian era character so it is good to know I'm heading in the right direction. I appreciate the posting of the demo reel. I see quite a few things I can incorporate into an updated portfolio.

DEDE_pig

Hi Hawkes !

Nice work there.

But there another thing I would like to add on is the material definition.
Different material should be able to identify from far even without the aid of spec and gloss map. Your models are lacking in this.

One example is from art of Luke Starkie