Self-taught myself for a year in 3D modeling, looking for feedbacks on my works!

Nurul_Nadthira

Hey guys, it's an honor to be with you fellow artists!
I would really like feedback on my portfolio: https://nads_art.artstation.com/. I kinda cramped up this whole year learning everything to make a full AAA character and I'm wondering if my portfolio can get me a mentor or a job? Maybe as a junior artist but I don't put too much expectation, I still need to learn more.
Thank you in advance!

Alex_J

All the 3d characters are pretty good.

Main weakness that jumps out to me is material definition and I guess what you might call "secondary forms."

Materials all feel like plastic across most of the characters. I'd aim for a stronger distinction between cloth, skin, metal, leathers, etc. A good piece of advice I once read here is that you should be able to imagine what a material feels like in your fingers when viewing it on the screen.

By secondary forms what I mean is some of the fabrics feel like they are missing a lot of folds that they ought to have. I don't see marvelous designer listed in the credits - if you pursue characters like this it may be wortwhile to work with MD for your next project. It will make it much easier to complex, realistic clothing in less time compared to sculpt in zbrush.

Even though it's not technically game art, I think Arishok is the highest quality looking 3d piece. I am assuming you are interested in game characters since that is what the concepts comes from.

Great work so far, I'm sure if you get some more feedback from some of the pros here and put it into action you'll have some AAA characters in no time.

Nurul_Nadthira

Alex_J said:

 A good piece of advice I once read here is that you should be able to imagine what a material feels like in your fingers when viewing it on the screen.

I love this advice so much, keeping this in mind every time I sculpt. 

I admit I have a lot of difficulties with fabric and materials, it's pretty hard to make them look believable. I'm thinking to learn MD sooner or later to apply to my work.

The funny thing is Arishok was one of my earliest sculpt, I think I'm digressing haha. I love sculpting, but when it comes to retopology and UV mapping, it kinda puts the mood off. 

Thanks so much for your reply! I was hoping for more pros to give me feedback here but it's just wishful thinking I guess.

Rima

How much time were you able to spend that you could reach that level in only a year?

That's depressing...

Nurul_Nadthira

RimaModela said:

That's depressing...

I have a part-time job at a restaurant and spent 3 - 5 hours every day doing 3d. If I don't work, then the whole day was used to do my projects.. It's pretty depressing, I kinda ditched my time with family and friends. But I guess it's worth it to achieve my goal :')

sacboi

Based on what you've got so far, can't hurt to have a punt attaining on the job experience so yeah go for it and see what comes up?!

OT:

Drawing hands and feet are the most challenging parts of anatomy to get right which you'd already demonstrated via your folio so if you're also 2D self-taught as well, over the same period of time, then that would be really REALLY depressing.

(too clarify precisely what I mean, is as @RimaModela commented below)

Rima

Nurul_Nadthira said:

RimaModela said:

That's depressing...

I have a part-time job at a restaurant and spent 3 - 5 hours every day doing 3d. If I don't work, then the whole day was used to do my projects.. It's pretty depressing, I kinda ditched my time with family and friends. But I guess it's worth it to achieve my goal :')

No, that's not what I mean. You should be proud of yourself. I'm saying, it's depressing because I've spent years trying to become skilled and got nowhere, and you've got a ridiculous level of skill in one year. It seems you have what they call "talent".

Krom

RimaModela said:

No, that's not what I mean. You should be proud of yourself. I'm saying, it's depressing because I've spent years trying to become skilled and got nowhere, and you've got a ridiculous level of skill in one year. It seems you have what they call "talent".

It looks that OP discovered an optimal workflow for themselves. Tutorials and programs are getting crazy powerful every year.
You can take a good body base mesh, cover it with complete texture sets and marvelous designer cloth. Paint it in SP using the best material sets, and your model will be even better. If you add a professional concept art at the start, it will be a top notch work. You can get it in several weeks. Don't be discouraged and don't quit. Make it.

Nurul_Nadthira

RimaModela said:

That's depressing...

I have a part-time job at a restaurant and spent 3 - 5 hours every day doing 3d. If I don't work, then the whole day was used to do my projects.. It's pretty depressing, I kinda ditched my time with family and friends. But I guess it's worth it to achieve my goal :')

Nurul_Nadthira

RimaModela said:

No, that's not what I mean. You should be proud of yourself. I'm saying, it's depressing because I've spent years trying to become skilled and got nowhere, and you've got a ridiculous level of skill in one year. It seems you have what they call "talent".

Haha oh my god, my mind was too scrambled I misunderstood. Thank you, well I guess drawing/sketching (and not sleeping) helps me a lot with sculpting. Don't be depressed, I'm sure you will get to your desired level soon

Nurul_Nadthira

ivilai said:

You can take a good body base mesh, cover it with complete texture sets and marvelous designer cloth. 

I rarely use ready-made body base mesh, it felt like cheating. But I guess I'll use them regularly to speed up my workflow from now on. I'll never quit, this thing is a total serotonin for me haha

rexo12

Alex_J said:

Materials all feel like plastic across most of the characters. I'd aim for a stronger distinction between cloth, skin, metal, leathers, etc. A good piece of advice I once read here is that you should be able to imagine what a material feels like in your fingers when viewing it on the screen.

This is quite a good point. In particular I think your metals don't read very well, they seem to sap light from the scene when they should be contributing most of the highlights. This might have something to do with the lack of a wider lighting/environmental context. I really like this post for its metal material definition, so worth looking at. In terms of gold maybe look here too, just for its much softer tones across the surface.

Also tone down the post processing, particularly the DoF & Chromatic aberration, it's contributing to a sort of fogginess in many of your screenshots that makes them hard to look at.

Great progress for a year of work, keep it up.

Nurul_Nadthira

rexo12 said:

This is quite a good point. In particular I think your metals don't read very well, they seem to sap light from the scene when they should be contributing most of the highlights. This might have something to do with the lack of a wider lighting/environmental context. I really like this post for its metal material definition, so worth looking at. In terms of gold maybe look here too, just for its much softer tones across the surface.

Also tone down the post processing, particularly the DoF & Chromatic aberration, it's contributing to a sort of fogginess in many of your screenshots that makes them hard to look at.

Great progress for a year of work, keep it up.

Those links are a really good reference, thank you for sharing. I will try to improve my texturing, currently, I find it hard to compare with the real texture and get the material to look just like I wanted.
Noted on the post-processing, I get too excited during rendering and just clicked them without realizing the consequence haha.