Hey, I think there is potential for improvement all around. Currently the character also looks a bit thrown together looking through the character design lense. Working from existing designs cuts out the character design part and allows to focus on execution of a set design. If your interested in character design and have 2d skills make explorations in 2d, or use existing assets to flesh out a design and do overpaints to refine it, with the goal to achieve a coherent base design before jumping into 3d. I think you might have to ask yourself what your ultimate goal is and then come up with achievable sub goals.
When focusing on execution of characters, there are lot of topics to cover, like anatomy, hair, clothing, props and plenty more. To increase the quality, you simply need to spend more (efficiently used) time. You can get this by deliberately choosing and/or adapting the design (simplify, no hair, limited amount of props), thus reducing the scope. You can further reduce the scope by breaking a character up into several parts/projects. Like create a blockout first, then break out props, the body, the head, whatever granularity you need to hit the set benchmark.
Speaking of benchmark, it makes sense to take an existing asset that is similar to what you want to achieve quality-wise (paragon, metahuman, mixamo character, ...). To compare to and to inspect the techniques and setup. It might also make sense to reuse materials of your reference such as shaders. I would think of it as moding a game, making a character that fits into an existing cast using the predefined specifications.
Presentation is a whole other, universal topic. Here I would also look at samples and presentations you deem successful and take notes why. This also encapsulates the topic of lighting, which can be practiced on it's own with existing sample assets.
You might get more specific feedback throughout your process when you share it in a thread on the forum.
Hey! I think working off concept art, it's important to break the design down (proportions, directions, landmarks, silhouette). If interpreted too loosely, it simply becomes something else.
With some designs just modeling and sculpting, without simulating cloth, might be better for consistency. The armor on that character would probably come out cleaner if just modeled, maybe a detail/damage pass in the end.
Personally I like to start models with a blockout and then gradually refine, that way it's automatically from large shapes (proportions, silhouette) to small shapes.
Thank you for the advice again. I think my problems are the face and likeness of a character. I'm using basemeshes and I want to be able to make the anatomy myself before I start another project. I need LOTS of practice making heads and hair
Replies
When focusing on execution of characters, there are lot of topics to cover, like anatomy, hair, clothing, props and plenty more. To increase the quality, you simply need to spend more (efficiently used) time. You can get this by deliberately choosing and/or adapting the design (simplify, no hair, limited amount of props), thus reducing the scope. You can further reduce the scope by breaking a character up into several parts/projects. Like create a blockout first, then break out props, the body, the head, whatever granularity you need to hit the set benchmark.
Speaking of benchmark, it makes sense to take an existing asset that is similar to what you want to achieve quality-wise (paragon, metahuman, mixamo character, ...). To compare to and to inspect the techniques and setup. It might also make sense to reuse materials of your reference such as shaders. I would think of it as moding a game, making a character that fits into an existing cast using the predefined specifications.
Presentation is a whole other, universal topic. Here I would also look at samples and presentations you deem successful and take notes why. This also encapsulates the topic of lighting, which can be practiced on it's own with existing sample assets.
You might get more specific feedback throughout your process when you share it in a thread on the forum.
But most importantly keep going
With some designs just modeling and sculpting, without simulating cloth, might be better for consistency. The armor on that character would probably come out cleaner if just modeled, maybe a detail/damage pass in the end.
Personally I like to start models with a blockout and then gradually refine, that way it's automatically from large shapes (proportions, silhouette) to small shapes.