Sketchbook: a3D

a3D

I have decided this is not a game anymore for me.
I'll be working on my new portfolio.

This is also a chance to improve and learn as much as I can.

Critiques are welcome.

--- Currently working on ---
-Big Old Moka-
-Goals: hard surface modeling and baking into lowpoly (comfort zone) with some possible hybrid custom vertex normal integration (new for me), PBR texturing of metals entirely from pictures manipulation and aiming for maximum realism (trying a different approach).
There will be a second version made in Substance (definitely out of my comfort zone)
-Started: 11/11/2015

a3D

Hipoly 90% ready 
 

a3D

Hipoly done, lowpoly done, UVs in progress


I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. In the past I always favored relaxed UVs over straightness but since I'm going to lay modified pictures on this I assumed I want it to be straight. (or not?)
So I did a cylindrical map on most of the shapes and didn't unwrap further to not lose the straightness. 
This resulted in some visible checker distortion. I don't like that.

I guess I'll have to make a couple experiments before baking any maps to understand wether this is a problem or not.

a3D

In the end I decided to unfold my UVs instead of letting them straight where appropriate in my opinion.

Here are some baking attempts - 8 bit for now, it's for troubleshooting.
I found some problems that need to be adressed, so I'll make sure to get a clean bake asap.
Actually there are a couple parts where I'm not sure what went wrong. You never stop learning, I guess.



I'm not sure if I should actually model the screw groove. It's a lot of polygons but at the moment the silhouette is... less than satisfactory

a3D

So, I'm  bad at sculpting, but I want to improve. Here is my first attempt at sculpting a human head, and my second sculpt at all, no reference used. 

I chose not to use references this time because I wanted to check how far my understanding of the human face went before studying and doing tutorials. 

(turns out: not very far)

I was hoping to get some critique and advice mostly about the face area. That's where I'm having trouble understanding what's wrong (as opposed to major mistakes/unfinished like the ear, the skull and the forehed area, where the mistakes are most evident)

Any input would be really appreciated. Thank you in advance.