Portfolio/Sketchbook advice (stylized Character Art)

stray

Hello there! First of all, I'm sorry if it's wrong to post here.

I've been into 3D for a few years now (a bit more than 4?) as a self-learning artist. As much as one can call themselves "self-learning" when they have internet access

Right now things are not going too well and I feel very lost. I don't think I can advance much further without help. Everything just looks... flat, weak... unfinished?

I would greatly appreciate if someone would look over my stuff and point me... well, anywhere, really ^^' This is rather vague, sorry, but I'm really stuck.

The main focus is "stylized game-character art", weapon of choice - Blender, although now I'm looking into alternatives for texture painting.

"Portfolio": https://b_stray.artstation.com/

Sketchfab... real-time art sketchbook, I guess? https://sketchfab.com/billiestray If anything it shows that "inconsistency" is my middle name =D

On another note this is the "current" state of sculpting ability (quick sketches) - somehow always feel a little more "alive" than any conscious attempt at a finished game-ready model (imho):

Heads:



Thank you for your time.

Alex_J

Concering the sculpts shown here the only word I would used is unfinished. The finished stuff in your portfolio looks cool to me. I woudlnt say flat or weak. I'd say stylish, bold, smooth. Good taste.  

I dont understand where you are seeing inconsistency either. In four years you have an ass ton of characters and most of them look solid to me. Seems like above average progress to me and above average productivity.

whats the problem with the portfolio? trouble finding work? if that is the issue I wouldn't necessarily blame the portfolio. you could do some search about current job market in games and you'll read plenty about how things are in a slump. 

stray

Hey, @Alex_J , thank you for replying.

Guess, I just don't know how to put this into words.

I haven't been improving for a long while now. Not really. I'm inconsistent in a sense that the quality goes up and down in any or all aspects: sculpting, retopo, texturing. I don't feel particularly bad about rigging yet, because I'm relatively new to it and worst of the problems can be traced back to the first two things anyway.

The latest "finished" model (Nite) felt like it was all about aggressively moving goalposts around until it looked okay.

At this point, I know something about making a character, but not enough to point out what (and how) needs improving. Usually end up thinking "oh no, this whole thing must be broken and there's no fixing it". I'm still finishing the model somehow, but screaming internally. Especially when seeing someone else's models - I see that they are great, yet don't understand how to get there. It's even worse than being a complete noob!

Maybe it's just a perception problem. Still stuck though :')
I realize, this all must sound silly (and  whiny... "Misery" is my other middle name... it's a character flaw), but on the other hand, if I knew what my problem was I wouldn't be here

Alex_J

ah I see.

First, I think your art stands on it's own merit just fine.

But if you are not happy with it, but can't determine why, only thing to do I think would be start making comparisons.

Do you have some comparisons of what you think is better character art? Some studio or artist artwork you strive towards? If you can put yours against that, then somebody might be able to point out some differences. I'm not super great at that type of thing but can make some attempts.

Lastly, I think your feelings about your art are probably very normal, but made worse by the fact that you are working alone (I presume.) It is easy to catastrophize without peer perspective.

stray

Hmm, I suppose I'll need to spend a bit of time and gather and organize some examples, as I can't point at any single style.
It kind of ranges from "Warcraft" to "Prince of Persia 2008" to "Dishonored" to "Devil May Cry 5". I just like various styles and feel strongly about them at any given time. Actually working in those styles might be a different thing though. Need to think about it...

Alex_J said:

Lastly, I think your feelings about your art are probably very normal, but made worse by the fact that you are working alone (I presume.) It is easy to catastrophize without peer perspective.

That is true X_X

stray

Here's what I came up with regarding my understanding of "good character models".

Some of it can be explained away by the fact that animation makes a character as well, but the model needs to be able to support that animation in the first place, so...

Doom 2016: has life and power It's not just about the ability to tear one's limbs away - it's about looking the part even when standing idle.

Darksiders, Borderlands, Devil May Cry 4: shapes, clean details, motion range, outfits sit well on characters.

Overwatch & Team Fortress 2: same as above, but with wider face expression range (!).
These traits are what I'm most interested in: making a character that can be posed without (too many) restrictions and potentially animated. Not just stand there, being ever so slightly shifted from A-pose. I want action.

The one I discovered recently and adore, Julianna from Deathloop: clean, lovely (to my taste) balance of high/low frequencies of details. Love the hair.

As a sidenote, on "realistic" end of stylization spectrum, I find Devil May Cry 5 and Jedi: Fallen Order styles very appealing.

Always interested in making good soft-looking hair - no luck so far though.

So, yeah, I aim at something like this... I think.

Alex_J

to be honest if i look at your models and these, i am not seeing a big difference in quality. 
i see difference in style. 
some of those examples have more details put into the models, but they go a little more towards realism. some of them have more contrast in the lighting. some of them have a little higher production value in that they are accompanied by background and VFX.
I really don't think they are in a separate league than you. 

if you set out to remake the yellow background woman i'm sure you can match her. 

not sure if you made all of your models from an existing concept or not, but probably all of these examples are first iterated on quite a bit as a concept. So comparing your design to them wouldn't be a fair comparison. If you are following a concept then the measure of how good your 3d model is would be how well you transfer the concept to 3d. 

if you are designing your concepts yourself and then making them 3d, and you want feedback specifically on the designs I'm not sure what to tell you. There might be some changes I'd make but design is pretty subjective. Personally I like your characters style more than some of these examples you've shown. But its just my opinion. I don't like these modern character designs where they are overloaded with nonsensical details.
Probably anybody that first saw minecraft would have said it looks terrible but people love it for its look as much as its gameplay. So i think the only measure of good design is if it finds it's audience or not.

if you are trying for a job at some studio, you have to show that you can match their quality and it probably helps to show that you understand their design. in that case, making your own characters wouldnt be the best thing to do.

If you want to rig and pose your characters and make facial expressions, it is some things to learn but its not that difficult. You can learn it as readily as you learned the basics of character art. 

one other note about soft looking hair - i'd compare that promo image to what you see in game. probably not quite the same. I'm guessing that if it is a promo image it probably has some manual post process touch ups done in photoshop. 

Ruz

I think the main thing I noticed was there are lots of parallel lines ie the folds, the hair, alll flowing in the same direction

some of the shapes are quite nice, but maybe need pushing a bit more in terms of topology, style

the first one is the best one I am thinking, maybe thats one you did more recently.

the facial anatomy of no 3 needs more work, but overall, just needs a bit more polish

the hair on no 2 is quite good

jStins

I agree your work is appealing, so don't get too down on yourself. I suggest picking a single game and trying to match that style and quality as closely as you can. You might not like everything about that game's style, but you'd gain a lot from focusing on one target in terms of texture painting, material definition and achieving a 'finished' level of quality. 

stray

Thank you for your responses! Can't say that things become much clearer, which is to be expected given the vague nature of request, but I really appreciate the effort.
Once I get over current decision paralysis, I'll start planning out new character(s)... probably make it a style study, like @jStins suggests.

...Sometimes I wish I picked an easier interest, but it's not exactly a choice ='D Can't imagine not doing this.