Characters and Progress Shots [Sketchbook]

Stefmon

Hey, I'm a 3D Character Artist but want to develop my 2d illustration skills. I'll use this topic to post any illustrations or concept sketches I do.

-------------------------
I wanted a break from my 3D projects and started her this Monday. I wanted to make a knight with a massive, gun-like lance. I tried using photos for the first time as a base for rendering and blending. When I put the face on and started modifying it, it started to remind me of smooth oil paintings and some Korean character illustrations, which is what I decided to aim for. This is my first character illustration so I'm super open to critique. 





Below are progress images. At the bottom is a reference and mood board I put together at the end to show the images I used as reference and render bases. I never used and image as is without further modifying it, and I matched the images to the line work, not the other way around. 

(Pardon the magnificent initial paper sketch)


Whoa, big jump between values and render, right? Below shows the number of groups and layers I had for rendering the armour.



The plate was the simplest. I would say that the trousers and chain-mail was hardest to get right with images because of the angle and texture.

Stefmon

The last couple of days I spent some time trying out an idea for a climbing character. It was all entirely driven by the way the straps would hold up something heavy on her back. I'm not going to finish it. It was just a study of silhouette and painting. I don't think the concept itself makes too much sense but it was fun to do.

 (sorry for all the grey space(it's all URLs))


I know the gun makes no sense (why is the scope behind the rail things???)

Stefmon

p.s. anyone know the best way to make gifs out of the images to save screen space? 

wilarts

Hey there you got some nice face rendering. About the gif part you can set it up so that it is a frame animation in photoshop and just export as a gif or you can use ScreenToGif which is a tool you need to download then just scrub through the images after hitting record. Hope it helps!

Stefmon

Thanks, I gif'd em and there's a lot less scrolling to do now. I just used https://ezgif.com/ though 
When this whole lockdown is over I need to do more observational drawing of people and studies of faces. I would like to get to end render stage without having worked on top of photos.

Stefmon

I've entered the Artstation Contest "Box of Mystery" 
I'm putting up all progress shots on my submission page but here's some of what I've been doing.
 (Artstation Contest Link) (Submission Link)

Brief: 6 characters- each with a personality - set in a fantastical of mysterious world
My take: Fantasy Baseball - Fantasy characters play baseball together

• Serious - Shogunate Batter
• Brave - Wizard Catcher (He's afraid, but he's doing it anyway)
• Joyful - Hyped Fan (Maybe a monk or something)
• Leader - Coach (really passionate, yells a lot)
• Mischievous - Pitcher (still thinking)
• Wild - Either a living baseball imp or a really beastly fielder creature..

Some Wips of Shogunate Batter below with more on the submission page.



(above supposed to be a gif. Here's link)

Stefmon

I've since finalised (though more refinement can be done) 2 characters and have 2 on the way. Breakdowns etc. available on the submission page. Check it out if you want to throw some support. 

SSquir33

Cool stuff. i like the mix of ancient with modern. some tips: 

+pay more attention to the AO between elements to help mesh it together. 

+Check your shadows & lighting are consistent across the form. The flatter the form (less contrast) the easier it is to make elements mesh together, then you can add a sexy rim light to pop the character. 

+it looks like a photobash. which is not good. try do a brushstroke treatment across the entire character to help elements 'mesh' together. you'd need to up your painting ability to do this however. it is worth the effort spent learning how to do basic digital painting.

+Watch the harmony on your colours by applying a light 'tint' of temperature shift to the whole piece to mesh together.

i would suggest finding a good tutorial on comping and rendering a 3D still. they usually break down the passes to albedo, ao , shadow passes, colour grading etc which will help tremendously in upping your skillset in photobashing 

keep it up!

Stefmon

Thanks for the advice    I'll address those points as I work in future.