A Beginner's Model: Critique Wanted [WIP]

Recursive Sweatpants

Hello! I'm fairly new to modeling, and not even close to good at it compared to most of the stuff here--I'm afraid that what I have so far will is too primitive to even be considered a work in progress based on the friggen amazing WIPs I've seen--but I'd like to improve to the point that I can at least make decent placeholder models for a video game, at least.

Over the summer, I want to try to create a game-ready model from scratch. I don't know if this is a reasonable time frame to do something like that, but that's one of the reasons I'm here.

Below is the mesh I've slowly been working on over the past couple of months. I took a class on modeling a while before this, but I didn't learn very much other than the basics of Maya and good topology. I've learned a lot more since then by working on this, and I'd appreciate it if I could get feedback on the proportions, topology, etc.

[SKETCHFAB]9dbbe909276c4d0ea8824c558f474eda[/SKETCHFAB]

Aside from keeping everything quads and making sure the edgeflow is good, are there any tips a sorta-beginner modeler should know? Anything I should improve on this model before adding hands and feet?

Sean VanGorder

Hey man, always great to see beginners having the courage to show their work. I'm not a character artist, so I'll leave specific critique up to those who know what they're talking about, but I can predict that they will mention the importance of anatomy. Even for monsters and creatures you'll need a solid understanding of real world anatomy in order to make them believable. For instance, the facial structure on your model isn't very convincing. Try studying the anatomy of a similar real world creature and mimic the underlying bone structure.

Keep it up though and continue to post your progress. Its encouraging to see a beginner who isn't just jumping into Zbrush and subdividing a thousand times right off the bat.

Recursive Sweatpants

Thank you! Yeah, I'm still trying to wrap my head around how to do anatomy in 3D--I've drawn this guy a lot and doing it in 2D is hard as it is. This site has been a great reference so far, though; the shoulders were nonexistent before I found the body topology page, for instance.

What do you find wrong with the face, though? What is unconvincing about it?

Boonta

Hey a few things:

id focus on your anatomical forms and proportions. the shapes and masses you have in here are very flat and basic. Put some antatomy knowledge into the forms you are sculpting. he also has a slight diagonal forward lean to him in side profile. check out a human or animal from the side view. a default pose isn't usually that slanted. (unless its blowing a gail outside and they are walking into the wind..)

you also have a varying degree of detail throughout. You have no fingers but a pretty detailed face compared to everything else. try and work in passes keeping the same level of detail throughout the model at all times .. . ie. working big to small. form and proportions first... fine smaller details last.

keep it up! it takes a lot of practice!

tristanCarter

So Sean mentioned what everyone else will mention, in that anatomy will be your mistress. Study it, study it more, and then study it even further.

Now, in regards to what you've got, and with you box modeling this, I'd recommend you start with less edge loops until you've really nailed the founding forms. In addition, split off the different sections and work on those individually before you tie them into the rest. Doing this will allow you to really focus on the overall shape first, and then you can go into more complex edge flow etc. For arms and legs, I like to get my forms in with 8 sided cylinders with not too many edge loops going down the length. I typically build the torso from a simple box and extrude and add edge loops as needed while I develop the overall form and shape.

The head, hands, and feet follow similar methods of starting with a simple cube and extruding/dividing as needed while the shape and form is developed. Keep it simple as long as possible.

Going forward, I'd recommend you find some examples of human anatomy, and then find examples of the anatomy other artists have created of multi-armed creatures. Use the human anatomy as a base, since this character is a humanoid, then develop the fictional anatomy accordingly. Keep up the work, and keep being eager to learn.

carlobarley

hi recursive sweatpants!
Like you I was a student and beginner before, my suggestion would be before jumping into creating creatures, demons, animals, and multi-appendaged people. Jump straight into studies.

This was how I was taught and the advice I got from people who work in the game industry. Forget about technology for a bit and focus on the aesthetic part of the human figure first. Try to get the proportions of a realistic figure first before aiming to stylize. Foundations are very very very very important.

[IMG][/img]

This is my first model, and following the advice of people that told me to study human figure first and focus on aesthetics and then technology later, great improvement will occur! so keep pushing and rocking! This is quite good for a first model so congrats

Some great sites for human figure study:
https://www.anatomy4sculptors.com/
http://www.pinterest.com/characterdesigh/

Some paid sites i think very worth it versus going to a traditional art school if you can self motivate:
http://www.newmastersacademy.org/home/
https://www.3dmotive.com/

happy huntin

Recursive Sweatpants

Wow, thanks for all your feedback! I guess there's no getting around it; both in drawing and in modeling, anatomy is key. The big thing I'm worried about, though, is the topology. It took me forever to fix the upper arms after hacking my edgeflows around the shoulders, though that was just because of poor planning on my part. I'm worried that when I try to add the correct musculature, I won't know how the topology should flow around it all, and that I'll spend similarly long trying to fix it after the fact.

As for the varying detail, I started with just the head, not sure if I'd be able to do the body or not. In the class I took, we actually started with modeling a hand, then a head, and then the body; I'm guessing that it was more for the purposes of learning the basics, rather than a good order to do a model in. I'm slowly working on a hand, though it seems that I like redirecting topology and working with what's already there more than creating from scratch.

Boonta, the reason I had him leaning forward is because I figured his tail would move his center of gravity backwards, though I might be overestimating how much it'd affect his balance.

Carlobarley, thanks for those links! I'm not really aiming to get a job in modeling--I'm doing this more as a hobby, as well as a secondary skill to game programming--so I don't think I'll use the paid links just yet, but the free ones will be a great reference.

Thanks again! I'll post again when I have a significant update.

tristanCarter

To add to Dustin's suggestion, Stephen Peck's Atlas of Human Anatomy for Artists is also a fantastic resource. If you start going into creatures and other things, another great book is An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Anatomy-Artist-Stephen-Rogers/dp/0195030958/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402691884&sr=1-2&keywords=atlas+of+anatomy+for+artists"]Stephen Peck's Book.[/ame]

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Animal-Anatomy-Artists-Dover/dp/0486200825/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402691884&sr=1-3&keywords=atlas+of+anatomy+for+artists"]Animal Anatomy.[/ame]

wayniac

Along with all the great suggestions that have been previously stated I would highly recommend using some sort of sculpt program like Zbrush. It's definitely one of the "technology" hurdles but, imho, is well worth the time invested in learning it. You'll be able to knock out SO many more studies sculpting than you will by hand modeling everything. You can literally bang out something like what you have thus far in minutes rather than months using zbrush/mudbox/3dcoat or free ware like sculptris/blender. Retopologize over the top afterwards.

Just don't give up man. Things that will help you power up are studying anatomy, proportions, silhouette and other stuff like rhythm and gesture.

Recursive Sweatpants

Alright, I've given him an upper pair of hands, following the edgeflow tutorial in this video. I'll make a new set of hands for his lower arms, both for practice (making just this hand took friggen forever because I screwed up the topology at first) and because they'll have six fingers instead of four. I know I have a lot of adjustments to do to make the wrist look right and everything, but now that I've figured out that uploading a .obj file will show quads instead of converting everything to triangles, is there anything off about the topology that I should correct?

(Also, when I post updates, should I just update the file on sketchfab which'll show in the original post, or create a new one and put it in the update post? I don't know much about the courtesy and etiquette here.)

.nL

I'd recommend you post images, primarily. Update the Sketchfab with each major iteration.

Recursive Sweatpants

Big update! I added all four hands and his feet now, and I've been working a lot on the body anatomy. Sketchfab doesn't seem to update the preview thumbnail on embedded viewers when I update the model, which is annoying, but if you load the model it should show the latest version.

EDIT: Okay I just now learned how to update the preview thumbnail.

How does it look? Is there anything that could use some work, or any topology I should redirect?