French Soldier WWI

marvinator

Hi, I would appreciate any feedback on this real time character I made. How does it look? Is it remotely approaching something usable, in like a mobile game or something?
Various angles, wireframe and texture sheet are posted at https://www.artstation.com/artwork/dO4BWe

Specs: 
High poly: 1.7 million triangles 
Low poly: 9,346 triangles 
Textures: 2k PBR SpecGloss 
Weapon: Berthier carbine, 792 triangles, 1k maps 

Workflow: 
Costume: Marvelous Designer 
High Poly sculpt: Zbrush 
Retopo: Topogun 
UV's: Wings3D and Maya 
Maps baking: Marmoset 
Texturing: Substance 
Posing: Zbrush 
Rendering: Marmoset

Alex_J

I suppose usability is a matter of what your target goal is. Wireframes and textures can help us ascertain if you are working efficiently or not.

As far as the look and style, I think you really nailed the feeling. I like that you made him very thin and the big bags under the eyes. Most the time you see video game soldiers they are highly idealized -- big and muscular. But in war you get skinny and you are constantly exhausted. You've captured this well I think.

I think I can see a few technical issues related to baking. One if the fold on the back of the shirt looks like your cage cut it off, and then the spherical indention on the front of the helmet -- well TBH i am not sure what is happening there but it seems like something got cut off in the bake.

As to your materials, putting a little more thought into the application of mud and grime might help. There will be fresh mud splatters and old stains. Old stains will vary depending on the surface they are staining, right? So a multiply layer may help achieve another layer of nuance with that, rather than a flat colored mud across the entire character. 

If this poor chap is fighting in the trenches and his uniform is pretty muddy, I might expect dust and maybe even carbon from the rifles and artillery to be embedded in all the pores and wrinkles of his face. This (picture below) may be a little extreme but notice how the crap is embedded in his forehead wrinkles and especially caked onto the facial hair. This may be a level of realism beyond the targeted aesthetic but it's something to think about.

The shading on the leg folds looks off. This is probably an issue with both baking and your topology.

Presentation -- I don't know how very-low poly models like this are typically presented, but it seems like you aren't playing to the strengths by showing very jagged fingers and sleeve cuffs right up in the camera. That is a cool pose so maybe a depth of field setting to blur both the foreground and the background would be nice. So that mainly his face is in focus.

Maybe somebody with more experience can shed some light there but it seems to me like you shouldn't show off the model closer than you would in game (unloess it just has really nice detail you feel you need to show.)

marvinator

Thanks a lot for the critique. I'll pay more attention to those points in the future.