Looking For Overall Critique's On Character Artist Portfolio

ChrisSchmidtW

I have been out of school for some time, and I'm looking to find any critiques on how i can improve my portfolio to catch the eyes of companies looking for 3D character artists. Anything I can improve, anything I could add, just fresh eyes to look and the characters I have made and give me feedback would be greatly appreciated. 

Portfolio Link - https://chrisschmidt.artstation.com/

Lewis_kennedy

try modelling some more realistic characters, I'm assuming you're aiming for the games industry probably so show that you can use planes and opacity maps to model hair for characters since that's the primary way a lot of character hair is done besides stylized models, it'd be a good idea to include the texture maps and polygon count with your projects as well, you should also go back and add a subsurface map to your characters as well to give them a bit more life. also don't use pure white for a background like in your first project, stick to more neutral tones, the brightness hurts the eyes a bit on a laptop screen

ChrisSchmidtW

@Lewis_kennedy Thank you so much for the reply! I am aiming for the gaming industry yes, and I have messed with transparency maps just not on these models, but I think I could go back and work some into these too. Also including poly count and texture maps was thought of mine but I couldn't figure out a stylized way of implementing them into the character flow I was going for. I think going back and adding some subsurface maps to the skin would be a great idea! I will be doing that for sure so thank you!

Brian "Panda" Choi

1. Hard for me to see any of the artwork being in a contemporary video game.  This is mostly from quality perspective, not art direction.
2.  Crystal lady has undefined anatomy and needs more work done to at least get the medium forms detailed in the sculpt.  The concept design could also use more rework as it doesn't really have a strong silhouette or personality to it.
3. All the character sculpts read lumpy.  The robot has lumpy forms when it should feel smooth, like the head portion.  The draped ends of the wolf pelt on the second character end in lumpy forms with no definition to it.
4. Your character design skills are lacking.  I'm not finding any of the characters memorable or strong in their aesthetic assertion.
5.  you seem to have an artistic voice, so that's goood.

The next, 'easier' step to me right now is if you made  a character from an existing concept.

ChrisSchmidtW

Deleted, wrong reply

ChrisSchmidtW

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

1. Hard for me to see any of the artwork being in a contemporary video game.  This is mostly from quality perspective, not art direction.
2.  Crystal lady has undefined anatomy and needs more work done to at least get the medium forms detailed in the sculpt.  The concept design could also use more rework as it doesn't really have a strong silhouette or personality to it.
3. All the character sculpts read lumpy.  The robot has lumpy forms when it should feel smooth, like the head portion.  The draped ends of the wolf pelt on the second character end in lumpy forms with no definition to it.
4. Your character design skills are lacking.  I'm not finding any of the characters memorable or strong in their aesthetic assertion.
5.  you seem to have an artistic voice, so that's goood.

The next, 'easier' step to me right now is if you made  a character from an existing concept.

Thank you so much for the reply and honest pointers! Im always looking to improve and learn as much as I can. All of the characters were mostly from my own head, with a few references, and not taken from concept art so I agree the best course of action would be to create a character from a concept rather than my imagination. 

Making sure that my sculpts come out less lumpy and more memorable and defined is a great thing for me to work on and I think I should focus on a "flow" to the characters to make it more pleasing. 

Brian "Panda" Choi

Have you done concept art before?  If you're committed to doing your own designs still, this is probably a skill you want to work on that others have already.

ChrisSchmidtW

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

Have you done concept art before?  If you're committed to doing your own designs still, this is probably a skill you want to work on that others have already.

I have done concept art before yea, and I have the means to do so, but for some reason I'm more comfortable working from some references and my imagination. Though I know that having a physical concept down to go after and model is much better in terms of time and what I need to get done. So I think that either I'll start doing some concepts first or find some concepts I like and ask the creator if it's ok turn 3D and use their concept with obvious credit.