Hi, I am relatively new here and I am looking to start specializing in characters for games. I would really appreciate some useful feedback on my recent work.
The costume design feels really busy to me. I'm guessing hes supposed to be a tourist but it doesn't read very well. Anatomically I think it looks pretty good. He could lose the beer gut though. It looks like hes a few months pregnant rather than slightly overweight. I would balance his entire body out, making the fat more visible all over rather than just the stomach.
Yea, honestly, outside of the gut, he looks like a rather fit guy...just doesnt jive right. i would either go back and make the rest of him overweight or remove the gut.
I definitely think the modeling and texturing is strong, but the design is a bit spread off in a couple different tangents. His general body type (sans the tumor belly) and his face is reading more like a beefy bouncer/random goon, and less like some dumbass american tourist. I think you can take him in a couple of interesting directions, especially if you add face accessories/hair. Either increase his weight across his entire body like Slosh and Cluster said, or you can pursue his goon quality and lose the belly, and maybe rough him up a bit. He could be a goon from the american south on vacation, and you could add a cowboy hat and a beard/hair, etc. Another option is to go a bit more stylized with his proportions and push the gross factor further, increasing his belly size (around his hips especially) and then thinning out his arms and legs, making them knobby. You'd have a pretty gross body type that could be visually interesting, but it'd definitely be unrealistic.
Giving constructive feedback will depend on where you want to take this guy. If people have a clearer sense of what you're trying to do, it'll be easier to direct critique.
In a nutshell, the production quality is looking good, his design just needs to be tightened further. Don't be afraid to scrap some of what you've done so far. If needed, you could always re-project textures onto the new mesh/UVs. Good luck man.
When I find myself struggling with a character, it's generally due to a lack of pre-production/design for them. You have a great start for this guy. Maybe you just need some time away to try out different characters, and then you can come back to him with a fresh perspective. That tends to work well for me. In any case, I'm looking forward to the finished product man.
Concept art is your best friend. 3D, with concept art, just becomes a matter of recreating and intepreting reference. And in my opinion, it's easier and faster to draw things for some people than to sketch in 3D. You can test things like silhouette, value schemes, etc. on paper faster than 3D in many cases.
Concept art can save you from mediocre designed 3D characters, and give you a higher likelihood of good-looking game characters.
Nice work! I agree with the feedback so far. He actually makes me think of a character you'd see in a Dead Rising game ;-)
Different facial expressions may help, his scowl seems too permanent currently. Also I think the tube socks jump out at me as lower poly than the rest of his mesh, consider adding some more edge loops there to round things out perhaps? Keep it up man!
Pretty good model. The textured version looks a bit lumpy somehow. Perhaps the render is not right. The belly is over the top, not the size just that it is uncovered. Like someone said I think only zombies would walk around like that.
Thanks for the comments guys. To be honest I didn't have a clear concept before making this. I just kind of jumped in and got my hands dirty. It took a really long time to make but I learned a lot about baking normal maps and marmoset. Next time I really commit to something I will have to do alot more work on the design and concepting phase.
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Giving constructive feedback will depend on where you want to take this guy. If people have a clearer sense of what you're trying to do, it'll be easier to direct critique.
In a nutshell, the production quality is looking good, his design just needs to be tightened further. Don't be afraid to scrap some of what you've done so far. If needed, you could always re-project textures onto the new mesh/UVs. Good luck man.
The fat is horrifying though.
Concept art can save you from mediocre designed 3D characters, and give you a higher likelihood of good-looking game characters.
Different facial expressions may help, his scowl seems too permanent currently. Also I think the tube socks jump out at me as lower poly than the rest of his mesh, consider adding some more edge loops there to round things out perhaps? Keep it up man!