3d Viking Character critique

Squiggle

Hi all,
I was wondering if i could get a bit of feedback on my latest 3d character. I'm really struggling with him, i'm not happy with how he's turning out. I can tell none of the materials look how they are suppose to, look plasticity and too shiny without proper definition.

He's still a long way of being finished, I need to work more on the hair and weapons especially texture and placement wise, but I'm not sure what specifically to change, a bit of not knowing what I don't know, but I knowing I don't know stuff.

On top of that the hair looks too blocky, not sure if its because i haven't set up the maps correctly, or the way I have placed them/density.

When sculpting the skin i did a lot of skin details, but now in the texturing and presentation stage, I feel the subsurface scattering has just made them all disappear, is that normal or am I doing something wrong?

Any feedback on anything I have posted would be greatly appreciated, I really appreciate your time reading through my post
Hope everyone's having a lovely summer,
Tanith

HarlequinWerewolf

I can see how much work you're putting in to this and he's looking good! But your render is definitely letting you down. I am in the same boat and have been spending some more time trying to work on better renders for presentation. I know how it feels seeing it looking good in Substance but not in Marmo

First thing I would say is that your lacking some roughness variations in the clothing and accessories and especially around the face. I usually do a lot of back and forth between Painter and Marmoset to tweak roughness values until I can see the changes. I think you also need to pay attention to roughness values in the face, especially around the dirt and blood. 

SSS will definitely blur out a lot of small details so sometimes it's better to really push these details in ZBrush or Mudbox or whatever you're using and then you can always tone them down later. It's easier to subtract than add at this point. 

For your hair, you need to set up your material in Marmo properly. I followed Hazel Brown's setup and got some nice results: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/A9XP8y Also switch on GI in the render settings and if you want more depth switch on AO as well. 

I would also recommend Magdalena Dadela for skin painting. This talk is short and sweet and goes over all of the basics you need to render out some nice looking skin! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ywhVkZBtq8 

I think this character will come out great and he just needs some polishing and a good render setup to look stellar! Keep posting updates 

kanga

The hair looks like its emitting light. The tat on his face looks like it has mechanical wear, that wouldn't happen with a tat. The cloth and straps look like they are floating. Maybe a bit of marvelous designer would help out. The character seems to lack weight atm. Keep going!

Squiggle

Thank you so much to both of you for this feedback! Its very helpful!!