First Post - a little help please?

Manic

Hey, i'm a long time lurker, first time i've shown anything.




about 3300 polys, 2 maps

can you guys give me some idea's on how to improve this please? as you can see, the texture isn't finished yet. I've seen so much amazing work on here, i'd like to get up to standard!

any hints/tips/advice/abuse welcome.

cheers

Manic

KDR_11k

First thing I'd recommend is using more refs. The anatomy seems off.
Second thing is lay off the dodge and burn.
Third would be not to let polygon edges define material edges, often you should paint a transition onto the texture (best example is the hairline).

Slum

You seem to have the basics down, which is good.

Really, I think you need to study color theory and anatomy. Look around at different resources, games, portfolios and just get an idea of how somebody does something, try to replicate it in a sense. Not saying rip anybody off, just try to figure out why someone did something the way they did it.

practice practice. Keep us updated as you progress.

aesir

Its better than the first model I showed on here, but basically, yea, listen to what slum and KDR have said. The facial structure is a bit funky. Your skin tones are kinda muddy. Your textures need stronger shadows/highlihgts and in the correct locations. And lastly, as KDR said, you need to blend between things like the hair and the skin.

Manic

cheers guys, i was thinking that i should redo the hairline, it does look pretty lame. I did use ref for the anatomy, but i have a bad habit of changing the geometry afterwards to suit what i think will look better!

I think part of the problem for my skin tone was that i didn't start with a deep enough colour, and then found that it was difficult to get much variation.

Slum:I've looked at tuts, pimps, portfolio's guides intil my eyes bleed! you're right, but i've just got to the point where i don't think i can improve without someone giving me direction, hence me joining and posting here. I'm a member of two programming forums, where if i'd posted this, all i'd have got was a string of "great work!" replys... which arn't too helpful.

Thanks again everyone, back to the drawing board i guess!

thnom

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..have a bad habit of changing the geometry afterwards to suit what i think will look better!

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If you're going to do that, go full pelt with it, make it a stylised model! I for one love stylised