In need of some feedback.
polycounter lvl 10
Hello! Here's a character I've been working on for the past few days. I just finished him, did a rendering, and I'm not quite satisfied with my work, if you could give me some tips on how to improve I'd be rather grateful! http://www.polycount.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=22650&stc=1&d=1415826985
Here's the image I rendered in Keyshot and composited in Photoshop.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=22651&stc=1&d=1415826985
And the character strip. I'd really be greatful to get some feedback on this! Thanks! ^_^
Here's the image I rendered in Keyshot and composited in Photoshop.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=22651&stc=1&d=1415826985
And the character strip. I'd really be greatful to get some feedback on this! Thanks! ^_^
Replies
Proportionally, your arms need to be longer. If you notice on your own body, see how your hands come down to halfway down your thigh. To make your character feel proportionally better, it should be the same.
Your face feels wonky, but it's hard to tell how. Were you working from a concept or just plugging away it it on your own?
Your clothing folds really need reference. Sculpt the clothes as it would fall on a body in real life. What you should really focus on is where particular fold groups splay out from. Focal points as it were. If you notice, for example, a lot of pants find a fold focal point at the crotch area, and folds splay out away from the crotch area. See photos to verify this.
Also need a zoom in on the face. The pictures are low res enough that we can't analyze it properly.
I got inspired by the characters from Team Fortress 2 for this. I tried to make it my own and might have gotten a bit of an amateur look as I'm not really taking the same almost flat figures.
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Turn off polypaint, give us a screenshot of the head sculpt at a lower resolution (like we can see the faceting clearly). We can analyze and critique it better from there, and provide suggestions on where to go.
What's your pitch behind this character? Why does the character have to look the way he does?
Well, his name is Bill, he was in the army, but he was thrown out because he was a psychopath, now he lives with his mom and kills people with a shovel.
So what makes this design so much more solid than this one you've whipped up?
Well, I'm almost certain that it's in part to the Soldier having a fleshed out concept before anyone did any modelling for him, as well as having a solid art direction to follow... However, there are lots of logical progressions you could have made to make your sculpt more solid.
He's an army man, yeah? So... why does he look like an in-bred country bumpkin? He's too skinny for your general military archetype, and not all crazy people have these telltale snaggleteeth...
But as well as those seeming like out of place features, the only thing "military" about his look are his boots. Anything else seems thrown together, and I can't tell if it's a uniform or his casual look or what,
You should think out your designs before jumping into sculpting until you get better at designing on the fly. Even better, try sculpting concepts that aren't yours until you get a bit better at self-analysis-- sculpting from awesome concept just to learn how to sculpt pleasing volumes and shapes is a lot easier than trying to learn how to sculpt from your own half-baked concepts. No offense meant, of course, I just come from a similar background. I know from learning the hard way that you'll miss what makes a pleasing form in 3D if you only try to sculpt it all out from your head.
Technically, your sculpting is a little weak, too. Your exaggerated forms should be based strongly in your knowledge of real life forms. Yours are a little uncanny and uncomfortable, because it looks like you do not already have a strong foundation built for your knowledge of proportion, anatomy and physical capabilities of various materials.
Check out https://www.anatomy4sculptors.com/anatomy.php
At some point, for practice, you'll want to be sculpting an "average man" using these resources. Make sure to include all the fatty deposits and muscle and bone that effects the surface appearance of a human, and try to match your references in terms of proportion and anatomy. Studying like this is the only way you'll learn enough to try something stylized and have it turn out appealing. It's not always as fun as just noodling out what you see in your head, but it makes your art more appealing and attractive in the long run.
On a potentially accidental "Not entirely sure how to make zbrush do what I want" level, Your eyes are cockeyed and should be facing a little more towards the center, and also take this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA4QziHEk8E
Eyelids are hard to sculpt, but this might give you a better base to start off with.
Sorry about the long, harsh post, but I hope this can help point you in the right direction.
LATE EDIT: While I'm at it, awesome resource for pretty much everything: http://www.pinterest.com/characterdesigh/
From good character references, animation design sheets, anatomy and proportion cheat-sheets to how to make appealing form and volumes. Keep that in your arsenal.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback and I hope I'll be able to put it all to good use!