HighPoly Monster Character looking for feedback!

Lurcisia

Hello polycount ~~ Hope you are all doing swell.

I just "finished" working on the high poly for this character and was hoping to get some critique/feedback before I head to the retopo stage.

I might generally be looking for basic shape/silhouette and anatomy feedback because it feels like there's something off about his general shape.
I didn't completely stick to the concept and took some artistic liberties. 

Concept by alswns3421 on deviantart

And here are screenshots of the high poly (ignore leg hair) 

Ashervisalis

I've got some critique. I know you said you took some artistic liberties, but I believe you should have stuck more to the concept.

- The anklets need to be wider, like in the concept, and have more of that disk shape.
- Teeth should be thicker. They look too needle-like right now.
- The hands look like they need to be extremely beefed up, like in the concept.
- Your feet don't really match the concept at all.
- The belt on the concept looks like the disks are actually a painted design, not actual disks attached. Its the same with the creature's waist fabric; you've sculpted that but it looks like it should be part of the texture.
- Your monster's skin has a stripy, muscle tissue look to it, but that's not how the concept is. I don't think you really matched the look of the concept with your skin.
- The head piece looks quite blobby, not like formed metal. I think this should have been modeled, not sculpted.
- Your finer details are all mirrored, you should probably turn off mirroring near the end.
- The arm pit of your sculpt is odd, it looks like its stretching the skin a lot.
- The calves look like they need to be beefed up a lot.
- In the concept, the creature has a massive back, but you've got a more narrow back, and the shoulders are pushed a little far back.
- The finger nails don't really look like finger nails. I think you should check out pictures of long finger nails or claws for reference.
- There's that piece that goes over the top of the head piece, and in the concept, it's leaving some open space, but you've got it flat against the head piece.

benmckinney98

This looks really cool so far, I love the details. I think that the lips might be throwing off the face a little it looks almost if he is smiling a bit more than the reference (Artistic liberty?). You could drop the lower lip down to look more like a crescent moon shape. Also the cheek bones seem a bit too pronounced and the eyes could be a little larger along with some more definition on the outside shaping of the eyebrow muscles, it looks a bit too flat in that area.

Lurcisia

Ashervisalis said:

I've got some critique. I know you said you took some artistic liberties, but I believe you should have stuck more to the concept.

- The anklets need to be wider, like in the concept, and have more of that disk shape.
- Teeth should be thicker. They look too needle-like right now.
- The hands look like they need to be extremely beefed up, like in the concept.
- Your feet don't really match the concept at all.
- The belt on the concept looks like the disks are actually a painted design, not actual disks attached. Its the same with the creature's waist fabric; you've sculpted that but it looks like it should be part of the texture.
- Your monster's skin has a stripy, muscle tissue look to it, but that's not how the concept is. I don't think you really matched the look of the concept with your skin.
- The head piece looks quite blobby, not like formed metal. I think this should have been modeled, not sculpted.
- Your finer details are all mirrored, you should probably turn off mirroring near the end.
- The arm pit of your sculpt is odd, it looks like its stretching the skin a lot.
- The calves look like they need to be beefed up a lot.
- In the concept, the creature has a massive back, but you've got a more narrow back, and the shoulders are pushed a little far back.
- The finger nails don't really look like finger nails. I think you should check out pictures of long finger nails or claws for reference.
- There's that piece that goes over the top of the head piece, and in the concept, it's leaving some open space, but you've got it flat against the head piece.

Thank you for the feedback.
Things ill retouch: anklets, teeth, fine details, arm pit, calves, back.

Notes:
- When it comes to the feet, the ones in the concept felt too duck like, they kinda gave a flipper look and I preferred a more defined human foot.This is strictly preference.
- The things I sculpted that seem like they should be done texture wise: some of them will just be baked, others were done intentionally to add some intricacy to the sculpt. 
- I deterred from the concept skin wise because that's how I visualized it. It was more interesting to me.
- When it comes to the finger nails I was struggling to make them looks realistic. I'll look up some references and see what I can do about that.
- And finally, the part that seems like its hovering in the headpiece, was done intentionally. The big hole was distracting from the face in the sculpt.

Lurcisia

benmckinney98 said:

This looks really cool so far, I love the details. I think that the lips might be throwing off the face a little it looks almost if he is smiling a bit more than the reference (Artistic liberty?). You could drop the lower lip down to look more like a crescent moon shape. Also the cheek bones seem a bit too pronounced and the eyes could be a little larger along with some more definition on the outside shaping of the eyebrow muscles, it looks a bit too flat in that area.

Thank you, much appreciated! 
I actually didn't notice the smile, thank you for pointing that out. In the concept he looks like he's giving off more of a snarky smile and that gives him a bit more character. Ill try and experiment to achieve a similar feel.

I actually considered giving him bigger eyes but was worried that would take away from his menacing look and make him seem more friendly. I'll see what I can do for that!

Lurcisia

still looking for some feedback!

NinjaSocks

Hey looks like you really been trying hard with this project I'm not an expert but I've been trying to improve on anatomy and I think my comment for this would be to use it as an opportunity to figure out better ways of sculpting better anatomy. I think its looking weird because of some proportion issues sure.. but mostly it's the way you sculpted the muscles that puts me off. A good place to start would be to find a good anatomy model online which you can pick apart and figure where and how muscles should attach themselves. I even kept the reference model in the viewport next to my model and used it as a donor for parts. It was a very good learning exercise and I feel like it yielded good results. I could let you know where I got the reference model later if you're interested cos I'm not at my pc and totally forgot the name.. Hope to see more of this, keep It up  

dGreenberg

Hey @Lurcisia, I'm really feeling that concept! I'm just reiterating some of the other suggestions, but I think it'd be good to start at a lower subdiv before you jump into the tertiary details and wrinkles. It's a lot easier to get the silhouette and the primary shapes to work when you don't have as many polygons to move around.

With this kind of character you'll really want to nailing down his anatomy and musculature. Right now the pecs / abs, shoulders, arms, and hands could all use a little more attention. The character has some stylized muscle forms, but they all need to connect and overlap / plug into the right places to make things feel right.

The spacing on his face feels a little off to me, but if you post some shots without his headdress on, it might be easier to nail down the reason behind it. It kinda looks like his eyes are either too high up or his mouth is too low. Keep up the awesome work, and good luck moving forward with the dude!

Lurcisia

NinjaSocks said:

Hey looks like you really been trying hard with this project I'm not an expert but I've been trying to improve on anatomy and I think my comment for this would be to use it as an opportunity to figure out better ways of sculpting better anatomy. I think its looking weird because of some proportion issues sure.. but mostly it's the way you sculpted the muscles that puts me off. A good place to start would be to find a good anatomy model online which you can pick apart and figure where and how muscles should attach themselves. I even kept the reference model in the viewport next to my model and used it as a donor for parts. It was a very good learning exercise and I feel like it yielded good results. I could let you know where I got the reference model later if you're interested cos I'm not at my pc and totally forgot the name.. Hope to see more of this, keep It up  

Yes I can definitely feel like something is off and was hoping someone could point out the mistakes.
I did in fact do what you suggested, and pulled up multiple images of muscles and anatomy to use as references, however I don't have immense experience in that degree. It seems like one of my biggest weaknesses right now is proportion.
Id love to see the ref model youre talking about!
Anyway thank you for the kind words

Lurcisia

dGreenberg said:

Hey @Lurcisia, I'm really feeling that concept! I'm just reiterating some of the other suggestions, but I think it'd be good to start at a lower subdiv before you jump into the tertiary details and wrinkles. It's a lot easier to get the silhouette and the primary shapes to work when you don't have as many polygons to move around.

With this kind of character you'll really want to nailing down his anatomy and musculature. Right now the pecs / abs, shoulders, arms, and hands could all use a little more attention. The character has some stylized muscle forms, but they all need to connect and overlap / plug into the right places to make things feel right.

The spacing on his face feels a little off to me, but if you post some shots without his headdress on, it might be easier to nail down the reason behind it. It kinda looks like his eyes are either too high up or his mouth is too low. Keep up the awesome work, and good luck moving forward with the dude!

Thank you a bunch for the reply and critique!

I did ask for feedback when I was still in the blocking in phase, however no one really pointed out any anatomy issues. It's possible that I messed up when I started to texture up the skin / tried making it look more interesting. 
As I mentioned above, I did have many references to work from anatomy wise, but I might have just gotten lost and it just needs more work. Ideally I'd love if someone could point out or do a draw over showing where I messed up, especially the upper body. 
Also~
Here's a shot without the headdress 

Hopefully you can help pinpoint where the issue lies!

dGreenberg

I'm not great at creating on-point anatomy without a ton of trouble, but the first step would just be breaking things down and studying all the areas and the muscle insertion points. Could you share some of your anatomy reference? You want to make sure you're working off of real photographs or realistic images when doing this. All the interesting details should wait until after you feel confident enough about the main forms and how they all work together. 

Just doing a quick and dirty liquify of the face, I think the biggest issue was the eye size and placement, but the ears could also be a little more exaggerated and pointy in my opinion. 



I just noticed in the concept it looks like he only has 4 fingers and 4 toes instead of 5. It's no big deal if you'd rather add another digit for your version, but maybe you could see if it makes him look more "bestial" with less fingers and toes?