My Character Reel

jonnydjango

Hello Guys,
I was reading the posts here for about 2 years, but never showed anything...
now it´s time for critics

I plan to work as a freelancer and this is the reel, i want to use for it:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-6SXMjZAMo"]https://youtu.be/m-6SXMjZAMo[/ame]

Feedback and critics are welcome!

Have a nice day!
Helmut

jonnydjango

No Critics? Any suggestions what i can do better? This was my fist attempt to do a character reel. It would be great to hear from other artists, what i can do better...

independ-hans

I like your Characters.
I would change the lighting, it does produced uneven shading on the wireframe Models.
The Text is hard to read sometimes if the wooden Base is bright because of the reflection.

I would want know what Character is modeled in Blender or and Modo.

bkost

Great renders/characters...

I would make it shorter though, I was getting annoyed at how slow paced it took to get to the next character. Make the turntable rotate once to show off the model, then I would have still pictures to show the wireframes

And I would either fix your anatomy character or take him out fully. The proportions are somewhat off and the clipping on the bent leg is a big turn off.

Cheers!

TKG

looks cool dude the samurai wolf looks really good as well as the scifi soldier. the anatomy sculpt needs work the pose it is in doesn't give it justice the deform is too broken. the scifi worker is good however you need to fix the skin texture. is one of your textures just solely for the skin? because you need to play round with the subsurface scattering and fix the roughness and metal map settings he looks like he just got out the shower he is so shiny. overall a good model though. finally as previously stated the rotations are too long. but overall was cool.

jonnydjango

That gives me a good point to work further.
@TKG: The Idea of the skin roughness of the Sci-Fi Worker was that he is sweating a lot... maybe i don´t get the feeling right.
@bkost: You´re right... i tried to go as low poly as possible (and don´t loose to much detail) and then the model causes problems by defomation. Maybe i put it out.
To show only pics of the wireframes is ok in your opinion?
@independent-hans: The characters are completely modeled in ZBrush. I used Modo for the Retopo of the anatomy model and i used both, blender and modo to rig them.

Thank you guys. Got to rework the reel now

TKG

hey for the skin roughness try applying a mask in there so that you can break up the flat surface shine and through two different roughness maps you could even use an overall tiled sweat mask that will give the look of pours in the skin as well. As for the wire frames i think there great for showing your characters forms and the process in which you work so personally i would keep them in

xChris

Hey!

Good stuff, don't be afraid to go higher poly for your characters, the limits you set yourself look good for a mobile game. I think average tri count for a next gen character is about 20-35k.

Also, I would work on your anatomy model's silhouette some more. It looks like you get some hard straight curves around the hips and knees, it doesn't look natural.

jonnydjango

@TKG: I used a roughness map... maybe i got to find a better scaling. I try to improve that!

@xChris: My last projects were mobile games Thank you for the Tricount suggestion. I´ll keep this in mind for my next portfolio pieces!
I´ll take a look at the unnatural parts of the anatomy model!

DillonBarba

this is all really good stuff, but i feel like the silhouettes of these characters are bland and they sort of blend together, maybe mix up the poses a little more or move and scale some things around to make a more interesting outline.

jonnydjango

I´m not really shure if i understand, what you are saying... Maybe you can explain it a little more?

skodone

youre poses and characte's silhouettes do not vary that much... i think that what hes trying to say

the samurai is your strongest character since its silhouette and pose are strong and the concept is unique
the worker has a somewhat closed pose not so easy to read... the anatomy guys pose looks stiff and a bit off balance, i also think that you can take him out... it would be maybe even better to put in the high polys of the anatomy and show off skills in muscle scultping and understanding of anatomy...the low poly anatomy does not seem to serve this purpose...

the scifi soldier again stands in a very closed not expressing pose and has a weak silhouette, try to get more open with the poses... a very good thing to check out is warner bros or disneys movies on poses, theyre masters at super strong silhouettes...

also the thing with the masks and roughness of the skin seems like a nice touch

also i think that your characters are very nice, the well done base and setting to each character give the feel
that you really complete your stuff, there isnt much to critic, modelling and textures are nice! all in all looks promising

TomGT

Since others have posted about your characters, I'll comment on the demoreel presentation.

I reckon you can pace the video faster to just under 2 minutes. There are a lot of seconds that could've been cut out to make the turntable faster. Other than making things generally quicker, consider showing the wireframes about 3/4s of the character's rotation so that you don't repeat the same angles.

Hope this helps!

happybell

I like your Samurai Wolf the most. The lighting is overly harsh and it's hard to read your fine detail or even material, which is a real pity. Have some closeup turnarounds that fade in/out of your main turnaround so I can see how well you made these models! Mostly likely you need to bump up your ambient light and add a secondary/rim. (not familiar with marmo, just a rough lighting guide)

It feels excessively long and I was figeting towards the end. Try to cut down on the time for each turnaround. Hope this helps!

jonnydjango

Ok... thanks for the detailed feedback. I really appreciate this!
-The Reel got to be at a faster pace.
That is not a problem. To be honest... i thought also that is pretty slow. But i thought it should be this way
-Fading in and out for closeups are not possible, cause i use Marmoset toolbag and it don´t support animations. But i want to stay with marmoset, cause of the UE4 Shader and the possibility to present the models in realtime.
-Change the Poses. More dynamic, more feeling.
I´ll work on that. This is absolutely right. The sci-fi soldier looks powerful, and he should act powerful.
-Stay away from to low poly.
I´ll try that. This gives me more artistic freedom.

I think this are some really, really good advices. I think about to not only rework the reel, maybe i should do another, better one.

Is this reel still ok, to apply for some modelling jobs? What do you think?

BradMyers82

Honestly bud, I wouldn't use a reel at all. First thing I thought of when I saw it was I remember seeing stuff like this 10 years ago. I'm not trying to knock your work by saying that, but I think you would be better off just making a standard portfolio site with hi res images. Most people don't want to waste time looking at a video anyway, images are way faster. If you go the image route, you could also tighten up your presentation a lot. I'd look at other people portfolios and try to get to that level. Be honest with yourself and push your work and I'm sure it will get there. Good luck man!