Any suggestions for what I can do to improve?

obscure_official

Other than more practice of course, something I am constantly doing. I am aiming to adopt a more stylized style for my characters. What I have here was an improvement to what I have made many months ago, but I still have a great feeling that they are still greatly insufficient. These characters are fully rigged game assets with roughly around 50K polygons.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Aesthetically, the words "bulbous and round" come to mind when I observe these pieces.  As if these characters are made of balloons.

Usual anatomy issues apply to the monk.  I recommennd taking figure drawing classes or some sort of equivalent.  This will be a practice that will ever end.

Material/shaders need more work.  Material separation between metallic and non metallics are obvious, but cloth doesn't read like cloth against skin, plastic, etc.  

I'd want to see how you handle more angular forms or characters.

Your character designs are not attractive to me, but concept design is relative.  I'd encourage you, overall, to choose existing concept art that is interesting and nailing their recreation in 3D.

It's good you've made progress, and you're getting full characters done.

It's hard for me to immediately find these assets in a game that is serious, but maybe in a game that is about parodying or a comedy game.

obscure_official

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

Aesthetically, the words "bulbous and round" come to mind when I observe these pieces.  As if these characters are made of balloons.

Usual anatomy issues apply to the monk.  I recommennd taking figure drawing classes or some sort of equivalent.  This will be a practice that will ever end.

Material/shaders need more work.  Material separation between metallic and non metallics are obvious, but cloth doesn't read like cloth against skin, plastic, etc.  

I'd want to see how you handle more angular forms or characters.

Your character designs are not attractive to me, but concept design is relative.  I'd encourage you, overall, to choose existing concept art that is interesting and nailing their recreation in 3D.

It's good you've made progress, and you're getting full characters done.

It's hard for me to immediately find these assets in a game that is serious, but maybe in a game that is about parodying or a comedy game.

Do you have any recommendations for characters I should practice on?

Brian "Panda" Choi

Not really, to be honest.  Artstation is a great place to source them.

I would just make sure it's a concept that forces you to get comfortable with hard surface modeling.

Something tells me, if you're like me, you're going to be forced to reexamine how you model certain styles of objects.

pixelpatron

You need to make un-original stuff. You're not there yet. You must have solid foundations in anatomy, composition, proportions, shape language and appeal before creating your own creatures/characters. How could anyone evaluate your work without knowing the target, you could say "that's just my stylistic approach" when critique seems too harsh. Grow by buckling down, find a piece of concept that inspires you and model that. looking for feedback. In doing so there will be a point of reference to critique your execution of the subject matter. Love or hate the guy, he knows what he's talking about given the success he's had. Watch this.

Todd McFarlane | No One Cares About Your Original Characters

LINK: https://youtu.be/RzHUoB4CKc0

obscure_official

pixelpatron said:

You need to make un-original stuff. You're not there yet. You must have solid foundations in anatomy, composition, proportions, shape language and appeal before creating your own creatures/characters. How could anyone evaluate your work without knowing the target, you could say "that's just my stylistic approach" when critique seems too harsh. Grow by buckling down, find a piece of concept that inspires you and model that. looking for feedback. In doing so there will be a point of reference to critique your execution of the subject matter. Love or hate the guy, he knows what he's talking about given the success he's had. Watch this.

Todd McFarlane | No One Cares About Your Original Characters

LINK: https://youtu.be/RzHUoB4CKc0

Interesting and thoughtful advice, thank you. I have been given contradictory advice from other people that instead I should maximize as much potential creative different creations. So this is interesting news to me.

Brian "Panda" Choi

I'm only professionally 6 years into this, but job hunnting again now, I get the feeling that youwill always be  forced to choose something specific and you will NOT be able to consistently be seen as someone who can do most, if not all, of the art directions.

As my mother used to say, "You only have 24 hours in a day."