ArenaNet Creature Art Test Critique

Matt_Hjellen

This is my WIP model for ArenaNet's creature art test.

Critiques are very welcome! I would love to get some feedback since this is my first time posting on Polycount.

Thanks!

Here is the concept that I'm working from

Steve Schulze

Another Iguana lizard eh. Looks like you're off to a pretty solid start. As with the previous guy, I'd suggest digging up some pictures of an actual iguana and seeing how best to resolve the loose, wrinkly skin, particularly around behind the neck.

Matt_Hjellen

Hi Steve, thanks for the feedback. I'm definitely using a lot of reference from various lizard species while sculpting this. 

However, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the legs. In the concept pieces it looks like they don't have as much loose skin as the rest of the body and I think the artist might have even been going for a slightly feathery look considering it has bird like claws 

Matt_Hjellen

Worked a bit more on the anatomy of the legs and i'm still trying to figure out what I should do for the wrinkles and the scaley bit under its neck. 

Alemja

I would suggest smoothing out the anatomy a bit, the muscle structure looks good however I'm not getting a sense that there is a layer of skin on top of it, which is rather unusual for a lizard.

Keep at it though! It's coming along great!

Matt_Hjellen

I'm almost completely done with the high poly sculpt now. Time for retopo and texturing! 

Matt_Hjellen

Thanks for the good advice Alemja. It definitely feels better now that he appears to have skin on his legs 

Alemja

No problem, next advice I have for you is that the scales seem overall uniform and don't blend well into different size changes.. I think also the scales on the fringes could be handed better, same goes for the face you could probably add in a few larger scales to give it more interest. These are small nit-picky details but they really help sell the believably.

Matt_Hjellen

I realize that Arenanet has already closed the intern position that I wanted to apply for but I'll continue posting my progress here on this thread until i'm finished. I've been working on the textures in substance painter and I think it's coming along nicely although I still have a ways to go (I realize the eye is still hard edged. I'll fix that in a bit).

Let me know what you think. 

Brian "Panda" Choi

Splash in subtle off-hues to add more body to the body (mostly albedo, with maybe small roughness changes), as it were.  Reds, Blues, etc.  Adds a subtle sense of noise across the body.  Big shapes and small shapes, see how it turns out.

Matt_Hjellen

Thanks @Alemja for the crit! I fixed the fringing on the edge of the back frill and I tried to fix some of the texture blending that you pointed out around the lower leg area. I also tried to add a few more defined, large scales around the face although I didn't want to go too crazy with it since I'm basing my concept off of the green basilisk lizard which has less prominent scales on the face than an iguana

Matt_Hjellen

@Brian I'll definitely experiment with that and see if I can get some cool looking results! 

Matt_Hjellen

Finally finished with my Arenanet art test. Too bad I was a little too late. I'll probably be back next time for revenge :P

these are renders from Substance Painter's Iray renderer and I'm in the process of converting my roughness map to a specular for marmoset.
I don't really know any good workflows for making specular maps other than hand painting in photoshop rn so if anyone has suggestions they would be appreciated! 

Ged

looks good in iray! why convert it? toolbag can use roughness/metalness just fine.

Matt_Hjellen

Thank Ged! I wanted to use a specular map because the original test required a 1024 diffuse, normal and specular map. I technically don't have to use those maps since I won't be submitting it but for future reference it would be useful.