Journey to a Character Artist (Daily Update)
polycounter lvl 5
Hi guys, my name's Annabelle and I am currently working every day on my portfolio to eventually become a character artist.
In this thread I will share my work from every day, kind of as is I was in production in a game company and had to show my daily progress.
I welcome anyone to critic my work, after all my goal is to become better!!
You can check my artstation for artwork I have already finished: https://www.artstation.com/annaberu_chan
I have three open projects:
- Michael Scott from the Office Likeness study
- Winter Survivor Real Time
- Third project is nothing specific, I will just post some sculpts I do on the side for practice! Little Sculpts
My main project is the winter survivor I intend to make in real time. Here is his looks until now:
Here is Michael's progress, hope you can help me with making him look more accurate!
Thanks in advance for the critics!!
In this thread I will share my work from every day, kind of as is I was in production in a game company and had to show my daily progress.
I welcome anyone to critic my work, after all my goal is to become better!!
You can check my artstation for artwork I have already finished: https://www.artstation.com/annaberu_chan
I have three open projects:
- Michael Scott from the Office Likeness study
- Winter Survivor Real Time
- Third project is nothing specific, I will just post some sculpts I do on the side for practice! Little Sculpts
My main project is the winter survivor I intend to make in real time. Here is his looks until now:
Here is Michael's progress, hope you can help me with making him look more accurate!
Thanks in advance for the critics!!
Replies
Soooo Today I made the skin details for Michael Scott.
I think I still have to work on the likeness a little bit, but it is always satisfactory to see the skin come to life.
I just noticed the ears dont have any.. oops
Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/annaberu_chan
Website: https://annabellesemaan.wixsite.com/portfolio/blank-page
Your soldier sculpt looks really nice so far. Will be fun to follow the progress! I think that the Michael Scott sculpt is neat too, but I would personally say you've started on tertiary details way too fast. It doesn't feel like the sculpt is even past primaries, as I can see a lot of things I'd personally continue working on, on a lower subdivision level.
I think I'd work more on defining certain areas of the face such as the cheeks, mouth area, forehead and jaw.
An advice for doing sculpts of faces in general, but mostly likeness, is to break down the face into various different parts, such as lips, chin, nose, eyes, etc. Then try to bring them together by thinking mouth area, eye area, t-zone area, etc. And then moving on to tie things together with lower area, middle area and upper area of the face.
I'm not sure if that's how you work, try putting your main reference picture in the ZBrush spotlight and just display it on top of your sculpt with a low opacity, just to see how close you are when it comes to the positioning of the different parts of the face.
Try then to look at other images of the subject, from different angles, and see if it still works.
Steve Carell has quite a straight nose, for example, and this is hard to interpret from a front-facing image of course.
I would also advice you to take a look at FACS, Facial Acting Coding System, just to understand various muscles of the face better to understand where to give definition and where not to. Of course, also look a lot at the anatomy of the face. If I'm going to work on a face sculpt, I always have a face ecorché and anatomy photos of the face, on the side since it just helps me remember bone structures, fatty pad locations, muscles, etc.
Hope all of this is to any help, and let me know if you'd like any more feedback or tips. I'll be following this thread too!
Yes I figured something was wrong with the face, but I just could not tell which part it was :,)
I would love to have more feedback from you on that matter, maybe I can post a shot with more views of the face?
Usually, when I work on likeness I export a screenshot in photoshop to see the differences because I have a hard time seeing them with the spotlight (Placing the picture correctly on the sculpt).
I did look at pictures of skull and muscles, but I guess I did not fully grasp the look of it.
Thanks again
Welp today I searched for more picture references and wow I did not imagine having so many flaws on my sculpt
I worked on the primary shapes like suggested. and I already see a big improvement!!
Still have to work on the likeness, but I'm getting there
Note to myself: Go on Getty images for better picture references!!
So I forgot to take shots of my progress on baking and retopology for my survivor.. But I did start a new face from a Dyamesh.
It is still very much a sketch, but I thought it would be fun to look back at it later on.
This will definitely come handy! I will follow those instructions and try to make basic heads to train recognizing the shapes that makes the head.
Here is the progress I made on baking and retopology of the meshes.
I think the bullet jacket may need some more work, as the edges are black. The pouches turned out good to me though
Today, aside from baking and topology, I have worked on my previous sculpt following @carvuliero 's instruction... maaaaan
it really helped. So I definitetly was jumping too quickly to high definition dynamesh. This time I took my time and it showed!
I'm excited to go higher in subdivision to refine the details!!
Went a little higher in the subdivisions, I think it already looks really realistic! Maybe I'm wrong cause I'm looking at it too much, but I do think its still a big improvement! Hope it's clear I'm making a woman now xD
Baked more asset, and tried to fix Michael's face! I'm still trying to figure out how to make his cheeks, as he is smiling just a little bit.
Little horse study. still have to fix the legs, but I think it's off to a good start.
I think I'll try to make it for my survivor
Little update again on the female head!
OOOOUUUF almost done with the low resolution, gosh its taking forever to complete :,)
February 12 2020
Reworked on Michael's face shape again. The nose is not right. When Steve Carell smiles it's an akward one, kind of hard to reproduce, but I am doing my best.
This is the progress from the past few days (13 to 15)
Finally am doing textures YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSS
The whole model is 59K ( I know it's missing one hand and the foot's normal is fliped).
Also big thanks @Ausonian !! I will for sure continue to update.
Texture progress, a long way to go, but it's fun
And thanks @akiratang
Started a new project, first try at a stylised character (Disney style).
Update on textures, so far so good! I hate that after texturing 2 to 3 assets I get tired of texturing and want to do something else :')
Well, if I keep up with 3 assets a day, I might finish next week? Lets cross fingers!
I am glad I added fur to the wrist , I find it adds just so much more to the character. Until now, I'm doing a quick pass for every asset and in the end I'll come back through everything to refine and make them more believable. I am also not sure about the color of the shorts, so I might change it.
Yet another texture update for today
I re-worked on the bullet proof jacket as well as the coat. Just missing a few assets, which will be completed during the weekend!
Also big tahnks @pixelbloat and @Tamuna for your support!!! ;D
Never thought of adding a hat! I will see if it fits once I am done with the hair
@Tamuna I would love to see your thread if you start one, I am pretty new to forums in general so Im not sure how it would work to follow your thread, let me know anyways if you start one!
Don't be shy to give feedback for anything!
BONUS
I had the time to work on the female head today, so here it is. I think I am close to finishing it
OOOOPs forgot to update yall
So worked on a bunch of things these past few days.. First updated my survivor's head sculpt, since I now better understand the nose's shape
Worked on my other faces as well and have textures my survivor, phewwww thats a lot, but still very proud of the progress
Like I'm not sure I like the blue coat, or if the problem is the bullet vest, anyways I'm gonna have to test this out
I learmed so much of face anatomy through this project its crazy! BIG BIG BIG thanks to @carvuliero for always giving feedback, maybe there are still things to fix that I cannot see yet, we'll just have to see :P
Made this speed sculpt (Around 3 hours) based on the Beast
So I did not work at all yesterday, but today I worked on the lighting and a little bit on the shader just to have a better idea on what I should be working on. I feel like the clothing is too clean and also falls flat, will probably have to play with the roughness...
Re worked on the horse, I think the shapes are much more accurate, still have to work on the legs, but I am getting there
Update once again on Micheal Scott
Thanks @oreoorbitz for the feedback on Michael!
WOWOWOW THANK YOU @DavidCruz @carvulieroand @pixelbloat SO MUCH FOR THE Feedback!
@DavidCruz : I'll make sure to post more views next time! I did not before because nothing important texture wise was really accomplished in the back..
@carvuliero : Always a pleasure to have your visual feedback! Helps a lot!
@pixelbloat : Yes I have tried different color schemes, especially for the coat, which is now black and not blue. But I guess I should try again, I need to fight the lazyness haha
I have been so distracted the past few days I forgot to check the thread :.)
Anyways, I'll work on the texture again soon , I wanted to take a little break first to come back with a clear mind!
During that little break, I did start the hair! My inspo is at the end
Essentially, the rest of the head is going to have hair texture to simulate as if it was shaved!
Okay it's been a few days, I am finally satisfied with how the fabric looks on the vest. So one thing done on the list yaaay!
Now it's time to work on the coat, and afterwards the belt, etc..
Sorry for the lack of update, but since I was only working on the vest, I thought it would not be intersting to post.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/RY11bX