The Bi-Monthly CHARACTER ART Challenge | February - March

Alemja

Welcome to the Bi-Monthly Character Art Challenge!

New concepts will be chosen at the start of April
Previous Challenge Thread

How it works

• Every new challenge, 3 Character Concepts will be provided
  
• Pick one concept to work on for the duration of the challenge and post your progress here!
  
• Complete a 3D game res model of your chosen concept
  

Guidelines

• Help other artists grow! When you post an update, also leave a critique for someone else. Share knowledge you have learned
  
• There are no software restrictions; you're welcome to use as little, or as many different software packages as you like.
• There are no polygon or texture restrictions, it can be a 3,000 triangle hand painted model or a 100,000 triangle current gen model. Just make sure the final result is a game model, not a sculpt!
  
• You are welcome to cross post on different sites (Artstation, Facebook, Discord etc.) for additional feedback
  
• Before starting your character, break down the concept and plan your work accordingly. Being able to effectively estimate how long it will take to complete a project is an important skill, especially for freelance artists.
• Your final presentation should be posed and rendered in any real time engine. (Marmoset, UE4, Unity, etc.)
• Don't be afraid to ask questions, but don't hesitate to find the answer on your own - chances are, the answer to your problem has already been answered within these forums
• If you feel anything should be modified or added to these guidelines, please let me know!
  

Resources

• Polycount Character Wiki 
• Polycount Tutorial List
• Polycount Character Art Challenge Facebook Group

Concepts

Please credit and link to the artists when posting on other sites!

CDChallenge: Insect Warrior by Michelle Tolo

Lady Moth by Marine Coiffard

Moon Moth Warrior by B. Mezzanotte - Lorkhan

How concepts are chosen:

• Trying to keep it consistently one male character, one female and one other non-human (robot, creature, humanoid, etc)
• Trying to keep the 3 concepts look like they are part of a theme or could fit in similar universe.
  
• Concepts must be full body and clearly drawn. There shouldn't be a lot of guesswork on what the details or proportions are. Turnarounds are a good thing to have, but not required
• Concepts shouldn't be too complex or too simple to allow people to get them done in the time-frame while also finding something interesting and giving a challenge.
• Must be able to link back to the original source artist to they can be properly credited, places like Pinterest can lead to link rot. If I cannot find the source or original artist, the art will not be used
• If you are a concept artist and want your concept removed or want to create a concept for a future challenge please feel free to contact me.
  
• If you have any suggestions of themes you would like to see in the future, send me a message!
  

Tinchods93

Hello! My name is Martin, i'm new in the communty and a beginner in the 3D world, but want to participate in this challenge.
I'll choose the first character: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/zb/7lbowt24h4gk.jpg

Tinchods93

Blocking the anatomy:

apollo580

Tinchods93 said:

Blocking the anatomy:

Good start!

I think his wrist is a little thin from these pictures, and same with the foot.

Cliffman

Hey there folks! I've never done any challenges before, and I've started to forget what little zBrush I knew so I figured I should give it a go. Here's my first progress shot on the Lady Moth concept. Any and all feedback is warmly welcome.  

Cliffman

Tinchods93 said:

Blocking the anatomy:

I think I'd try and focus on the more visible parts of the character. The muscle definition on the back is going to be completely hidden by the wings, while his feet will be more visible, so maybe trying to identify which areas will be visible and blocking those out first would boost you forward faster to the next phase. I personally find it hard to read proportions of a model in comparison to a concept if I don't block out all the volumes at once, so I would block out the wings, the leg protection thingies and the moth fluff around the shoulders really quick and dirty in order to see how far off the concept silhouette I am before starting to define smaller level details like muscle definition, face and fingers. 

Cliffman

Put in an hour or two more today. Tried widening her wings/cape a bit more, blockd out her hip/wing/skirt things, though I still don't think they're completely right. I think next pass I'll work a bit more on her torso  and its transition to her hips. I'll probably add the fluff on her elbows then too.

KBear

hello! I also have never done a bi-monthly character challenge, so this is my first time doing so!

i chose the moth lady concept, and have a rough block out for all of the major shapes. I feel like I still need to make her wings larger, and im having some difficulty getting the waist right. ive yet to block out the antennae and secondary wings on her hips.  any critique is greatly appreciated!

KBear

Tinchods93 said:

Blocking the anatomy:

I agree with apollo580; i feel like both the hands and feet feel a little flat right now, and would definitely give them some more volume. i also feel like his profile is reading a little flat right now, and would maybe pull his brows and the bridge of his nose outwards

its a good block in for the base, tho!

robzxy94

Tinchods93 said:

Blocking the anatomy:

You should check out some scans . even if the proportions are stylized the anatomy is the same . For example that's not how the butt works . Good luck ! 

KBear

quick update on the lady moth model. currently thinking about how im gonna tackle detailing all of her hair

critique appreciated!

Fabi_G

Hey @KBear , looks good so far! Here are some points, I think you could improve on:

• Shapes more dynamic, less straight - maybe exaggerate some (red). Right now it looks a bit stiff/robotic to me.
• The upper arms look very thin right now. 
• From my view, the hands in the concept are more claw-like and quite large. You could consider a more relaxed pose - I find it easier to match the concept that way.

• I would evaluate the concept in an image editor to figure out the possible volumes of the hair/fur (blue).

• Don't forget the hair/fur on her arms (cyan) - I think it makes the arms look more dynamic/curvy and possibly ties the materials more together.

Edit:
Started to translate the insect warrior concept a few weeks back and hope to finish it soon.
Looks like it's not possible to embed sketchfab viewer but here is a link: https://skfb.ly/6HWvz



And screenshots: 
Latest step was baking /testing some normal maps from highpoly/bevel shader.
I will need to fix some things, if I want to achieve better normal maps.
Then I will start texturing. 

KBear

thank you @Fabi_G for your feedback! it was super helpful and identified a lot of her problem areas. im still in the process of implementing the fixes, but heres an update on my model

i think her face is currently kind of 'lost' in her hair, so i think i need to tone down the detail in said hair. 

Fabi_G

Cool, keep it up!  
I'm currently texturing the model. Here is a screenshot of the WIP on sketchfab.

Alemja

@Fabi_G are you going the hand-painted diffuse only route or do you plan on doing PBR? Just curious so I can give you better direction on material definition

Fabi_G

Hi @Alemja, I want to employ PBR materials to get some interaction with light.
Right now my approach is to create the albedo map first and then pull/modify/paint roughness map and specular level from that.
Then I am also adding a metalness map, SSS/Translucency mask, emmissive map and transparency mask.
Oh, I also baked some normals from my highpoly meshes.

Edit: I would appreciate some direction. I have trouble to make the materials look good with different lighting conditions. I have Toolbag scene set up to quickly preview the model with different hdris. Will look at some stylized models/texures on sketchfab to gain some knowledge.

Fabi_G

Posed the Insect Warrior and went over the textures a few times. I see lot's of issues still and some area are a bit rushed, but I have to end this project for now and do other things but will clean up some things when I can look at this again.

Latest iteration sketchfab:  

Edit: Fixed some textures

Hugo_ca

Hi everyone.

I started this challenge a couple of weeks ago. I fin the "Lady Moth" character by Marine Coiffard, very interesting so I decided to sculpt it on Zbrush. This is going to be my third sculpt since I'm new at the software so I'll do my best to finish it corectly.

I started to blockin out the character and makeing some proportions. I know, it kindda look weird at the moment but with time (hopefully) will improve... specially the "alienish" face.

Fabi_G

hi @Hugo_ca!

I think you can improve the posture of your blockout. Try to assume where is the body weight is put and balance the posture from there (maybe think of it like modeling an actual clay figure - it shouldn't fall over!). I think it's vital to get this step right, bc it's visible at a glance. Consulting anatomy/posture references during this stage will help you too.



I think it's beneficial to break such a character into subtasks so you don't lose your way. A first task could be body blockout & posture for example. Then you could break the character up into its relevant parts and work on those from blockout to finished sculpt. 

Keep it up

Hugo_ca

Thank you very much for the feedback @Fabi_G

I'll try to improve the posture as you said and study a little bit of anatomy.

I hope I can make those improvements on my next post.

Alemja

Hey Everyone! I will have a new challenge up later today, sorry for the delay! As always you can keep working on this one and are encouraged to do so

Blendermonkey

What happened to the April challenge? 

Alemja

@Blendermonkey Just put it up, sorry for the delay! https://polycount.com/discussion/210402/the-bi-monthly-character-art-challenge-april-may/p1?new=1

As always people are always welcome to continue to work on their pieces and are encouraged to do so. You can either continue in this thread or start your own, this thread will no longer be sticked.