Well, I think the distinction worth making here, is not to dismiss learning *techniques* from those that know, but I agree with MoP that blindly copying someone else's interpretation ( and let's face it, that's what it is ) of anatomy is not worth as much to you as studying anatomy in itself.
Anyhoo, tough crowd in here Jelmer I think what you have is pretty decent, but a bit quirky in places. That line below the 2nd row of abs that goes all the way around the body looks a bit strange. The whole thing feels a bit feminine, with the pulling in of that line around the waist like that. There is definitely something strange about the overall posture of the model, and the relationship between ab layout and bellybutton. I also really don't like that default pose and find it to be a bit awkward. You'd have to put the bones through several rotations just to get to a 'rest' pose which Im not a big fan of personally.
It highlights a lot of the chest anatomy problems on JBoskma's model so far... ie. definition of the ribcage, placement of abs and bellybutton, definition of the shoulders etc.
Ah great comments everybody. That's the stuff I was needing. First thing, the comments about: Looking at your own torso and feel around, don't work for me sadly. I have a very active metabolism, and I'm very skinny, and not too tall as well. It's almost more the bones giving shape to my posture instead of the muscles, so that's a no.
The reason I'm looking at the Gnomon dvd is because the artist who did the session has studied a lot of anatomy and really seemed to know his stuff. Him turning around his Zbrush model gives me the possibility to actually follow a muscle, and look at where it goes, how it looks. Something that I find very annoying with some of the Anatomy drawings in my books.
Mop: I am using 3D.SK photos as well, since they are all in the school library. Thanks btw for your crits, I find them very useful.
Daz: Thanks for replying. It's for me basicly the first time I eally put a lot of effort in studying anatomy and trying to build something that looks convincing. The dvd is by far not the only reference I'm using, but as I've stated earlier in this post, it's very helpfull for anatomy noobs like myself to have a model which somebody is rotating around. I agree with the comment about the pose. I went a little of the 90 degree key there. I will model it back the right way.
Stringer: Thanks for your efforts and for sharing your model
Thanks again everybody, again a bunch of very usefull comments have been given. I will remodel the abs / stomach are. Put the arms in a more natural position and get rid of the ribcage line. Daz / Mop's references seem perfect images to show the way my stomach area should look.
All in all this is giving me a better understanding of the human form. Spending hours of looking at pictures, trying to model, remodeling it, posting, getting crits, looking again, remodeling it, seems to be a good way to get a better feel for things. It's hard for me though to spend more time on it, though I wish I would. I have a lot of other classes at school, including 2d and 3d animation and texturing. All are very time consuming as well. It seems that the biggest part of my class seems to have gotten away with a very simple torso model. No muscle definition or whatsoever. That's the way I could have done it I guess, but I really bind high value to these boards, probably more then any other forum or reference database. I know that understanding the human form is very important and that there are quite a lot of people, posting in this thread, that really know their anatomy a lot better then me at the moment.
It's remembrance day today and that probably means it's another night of lonelyness in the pc lab at school hehe. It works a lot better though, having the whole classroom for yourself =] I promise an update soon, of the 'new' torso and a base of the head if possible. The head is due Thursday the 17th, so I have to move on as well. Thanks again for all your good replies, and I hope that besides me other people are starting to find this thread somewhat useful too. Peace out
That's already looking a lot better. Really shaping up well. I think if you give it a few more passes to try to make things less geometric you will have it. Check where your forarm and bicep meet- there are a lot of overlapping muscle groups in there that make the general shape a good bit more complex then most people think.
Bonus points on the nips there. Slim Goodbody, professional glass-cutter.
Thanks Zergxes. I'm working on the head now, which is due thursday. After the head hands legs and feet we have a week to tweak things, I'll apply some variation to the body in that pass I think.
Nice I'm really liking the detail around the mouth, looks very natural.
I reckon some attention needs to be spent in the brow and eye area but I guess its still wip.
(edit) looking at it again I think the mouth may not be wide enough, the corners should line up with the middle of each eye....minor niggle but it gives him a strange expression.
Looking pretty nice Jelmer. Some stuff that sticks out to me as being a bit off:
eyeshape: generally the eye is at its tallest vertically further in toward the nose, whereas yours is at its tallest vertically toward the outer eye corners, almost making the eyeshape the wrong way around. It's subtle stuff were talking about here.
the infraorbital brow: you have it, but it flows into the middle of the nose whereas really it should flow higher up, into the corner of the eye.
Nostrils/nosetip look pretty strange.
Quick paint:
Daz raised all the pointers I was gonna make. It was mainly the nose that was bugging me, it's not looking very natural in shape (too blocky and formless), but he's raised a good point with the eye shape too, and the wrinkles on the side being too pronounced, I think.
The face is really hard to do. Everyone can give you advice on what looks off, but in the end, you really ought to just spend some time figuring out the structure of the skull and how the facial muscles form on top to create a face. At that point you'll pick up little tricks to help you capture a fairly accurate recreation of a human face.
I can tell that you can see what's going on when you look at a face... but aren't really sure of why it looks the way it does.
Like in the front view, you're trying to create that crease the cheeks make when they come towards the center of the face and down towards the corners of the mouth. But the structure falls apart when you go into the side view.
*shrug*
It's probably easier if you look at an older person's features, then soften them to recreate a youthful appearance.
http://www.youthfullook.com/photos/ZFatT2.jpg
That's actually a good shot of the infraorbital brow that DaZ mentioned. Look at the sides of the nose ... there's a fatty chunk of flesh that runs down towards the side of the jaw.
Also... bellow the lips... there are 2 fatty pockets on the lower corners of the lips. They bulge out to create an upside down "U" shape below the center-lower lip. Subtle, but it's there.
The chin could be less bulbous and more wedge like.
Sure you can argue the image I posted is of some 50 year old with tons of money to spend... but the general idea we're trying to get across is there.
Thanks again guys, much appreciated. (Soul / Daz, thx) I decided to remodel the neck and shoulder area into a 45 degree angle though. I'm spending more time on the arms, but I'm having quite some problems understanding what the hell is going on there. I worked on the face a lot and reconnected some loops there too. I didn't had time to get a good render for you guys, but I'll post somewhat more decent stuff tommorow or thursday (with arms / hands)
Lookin good, I have a few crits though. The main thing that bugs me is the arms, they seem really scrawny compaired the torso. The hand size looks good, but I think you should beef him up as it goes up to his forearm and then his biceps. The flow looks really smooth all around, but I agree with earthquake, the face does seem to have lost its unique character.
[p.s. sucks what happened over at esf, ohwell, atleast you can post here bitch free]
Earthquake: I sorta agree with you dude, I have no idea. I tried to fix up the face a bit today. I think it's looking better then the version I posted yesterday. Sorry for that hehe. Applied the changes godzero suggested and tweaked him for a bit. Next: Legs and Feet, have to be done within a week heh.
Enix: I noticed that myself too. I tried buffing up the tricep and lower arm muscles. I don't want him to have that bulky feeling though. Thanks for your reply.
Jelmer, I dunno what's going on but I think your earlier stuff was looking better! Perhaps you should ignore all our comments ;-)
It's actually not bad at all, but it could be an awful lot better. I still think the most crucial thing that's weird is his overall posture is really unnatural. The spine is bending the opposite way to a relaxed spine. I hope you dont mind, but I just dumped a quick playblast of the demon I was working on and the state it was in the last time I looked at it. Look at the relaxed posture and now see how your guy is sort of sticking his upper body out? I think as long as the posture is going to feel uncomfortable then the model is going to look awkward.
Other stuff:
Do you really want that much relax in the hand pose?
Somehow the torso feels elongated I don't know.
I know you dont want him to be bulky, but even for a slim guy, that distance there across inside elbow joint is way too thin from this angle.
Adams apple too wide?
Bone structure at sides of head feels odd?
Soften the line of the shoulder muscle as it flows into the bicep. It feels too abrupt.
Theres something dodgy perhaps about where the ribcage meets the armpit/pec area?
Keep at it mate, you know it'll be worth it in the end. You'll never need to model a hi-poly nekked man ever again! And neither will you need to
I agree with what Daz said, especially abou the torso being too long, let my try to explain.
The distance from crotch to navel is equal to the distance from the navel to nipples on your model while it should be much shorter, also the hands seem to be the right lenght but look how they almost end near hips while they should end mid-thigh (it might be visual illusion tho as your last pics are perspective and the arms are sorta bent).
Now about the head, it is too egg shaped and remember usually cheekbones are the widest thing on head, they end just before the ears. Behind the ears the head gets much narrower (under/slightly behind the ear is the bone mass to which neck muscles attach, it is a very good reference point to properly attach the head to the neck). The forehead is very off imho, because he is male it should be rather rough and flat and it goes too high on your model (the highest point of a skull is in its middle-back part and not front).
Tracing back few post you have posted a back shot and the head/neck area is very unnatural, the transition should be rather smooth as the muscles overlap the skull for a while (i think you should know that mucles are pretty much bands that can dramatically compress so usually they are pulled over the bones like rubber bands, think about it while modeling, it helps to spot anatomical errors).
In short you should find some skull references because if you do the skull wrong you cant make the head look natural.
And as always be your own anatomy model, sometimes the shapes are hard to understand visually but when you touch them you can get a better idea. Also even if you think that your body is not even close to ideal it still works pretty much the same and you have the same muscles and the same bones and proportions are pretty much the same.
But overall the model is rather good and i dont see why you shouldnt be able to make it great.
Good luck!
The earlier version of the head was definately much better, i think what you have here is a case of overworking it too much and going in the wrong direction. This is something you may not be able to see while you're working on. I've done this with faces on numerous occasions and can only really notice after starting another model.
Actually the biggest problem I currently see is the front hip area (everything below the bellybutton), which is too long and the crotch-area is a bit strangely connected.
For something you didn't want to be stylised, there's a whooole lot of stylisation going on there... every shape seems exaggerated.
All the points Daz and Toomas raised are very valid and should be attended to.
Thanks for the video, Daz!
Thanks for the helpful replies people! Today I had a lot of animation work on my scedule, but I found a few hours to tweak the head and body. I like the head much better right now, but I'd like to hear if you guys agree or not. Godzero, thanks for your paint over. Allthough I didn't take your facial paintover as extreme, I did used yours as pointers, where I should adjust the shape and width of my face. Sorry for the crappy renders again, had to catch my last bus. Better stuff tommorow hopefully.
Peace out
Much much improved man! Always helps to throw some rough ears in place. The head looks deceptively narrow from front without them. Perhaps his little finger is a tad too little in comparison to the others?
Yeah, that's looking a lot better. Daz is right though, his little finger is looking tiny to me... also I think the "pinching" around the waist is too exaggerated, it doesn't look natrual.
Thanks for the kind words! I'm feeling that I'm really getting a better/good feeling this crazy thing called the human form. Remodeling and studying is just the way to learn these things quick. I fine tuned the torso I think. (/hail lattice). You guys are right about the hand, I haven't gave that a second pass of looking and tweaking yet. Just slammed the geometry down for sake of the deadline.
Working on the legs right now, got everything pretty much there to just over the knee, which will ofcourse need tweaking, but I should be able to give you guys an update tommorow (friday). Thanks again EQ, Mop, Daz, JKM for keeping checking my crap here =] Appreciated, peace out.
The hips are bugging me, i think the torso is too narrow and he is almost she in the waist to hip ratio. The so-called "pinching" makes it even worse.
But then again it might be just me so check it against reference to make sure.
And perhaps if i were you and all i would remodel the whole head from scratch and use photo refs and stuff...
what's the point of modeling the fingers in that bent state? seems like the hard way to model, uv, rig and skin them. nice way to get ultra-lowpoly stuff to deform just right, though.
in your screenshots, fingertips seem rather flat and the thumb looks strange. also, the shape of the palm is weird. best thing for these kind of studies is to have a digital camera nearby - pose yourself or someone else, make a photo and compare. quite an eye-opener sometimes.
Toomas:
The hips are 'totaly' different in the next version I'll be posting. The pinches are smoothed out way more, which gives a really nice more real and subtle feel to it all.
Thomasp:
The reason of the finger pose is that this model is not for any other purpose then me, studying the human anatomy. I think it adds just a little more life to an otherwise really static posed character. This is also the reason for the slight bend in the arm. If I'd have to weight or texture this fellow, I would deffinatly model the hands with less bending in the fingers.
And again, I quote from my post above: ''You guys are right about the hand, I haven't gave that a second pass of looking and tweaking yet. Just slammed the geometry down for sake of the deadline.''
Thanks for the comments though guys, keep checking
thanks for the kind words and helpful crits per. My armpit and arm areas have deffinatly improved after applying your comments. I've had a chance tweaking some stuff, but didn't get a chance to make screen captures. I promise you guys an update this weekend, or maybe even earlier. In mean while, you can check out the other crap I've been working on, this week: http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=87423&an=0&page=0#87423 Take care!
His head looks massive. Well made, just scaled too large.
I might be just used to seeing heroic proportions though...
Thats the only thing that sticks out to me. Far better than anything I could do, and huge improvements since the start of this thread. Was cool to watch.
On the last image you posted, its a straight line down from the hip to mid-thigh (on the facing-away-from-the-camera figure) now i THINK that you should actually see some ass from that angle and it is not flat like that.
And the knees still look weird to me.
Thanks guys. Almost there. Wednesday night is deadline night. Finished almost all my other projects for this term, so I can do the final tweaks and toes for my model tommorow. Update tommorow =]
Sectaurs: You were right about the size of the head, I brought it down a bit.
Toomas: Tried to pull the bum out more and rounding off the leg. It didn't look too good. I might give it another shot though.
JK: Worked on the legs, hopefully you like them better.
Other things I've worked on: Added the seratus anterior (the muscles that lay on top of the ribcage under the pecs). Worked on the overal feel of the torso, redid the lower arm / bicep connection area. Enjoy.
Good progress man. Looks good overall. I'd still uncurl that pinky, and make it bigger, I think the hands are in an awkward rest pose. Something about them feels odd. Particularly If you look at the distance of the gap between end of thumb, and forefinger fingertip. Somehow the torso still feels slightly elongated too.
Thanks again guys, I've tried what I could but I'm realising I'm not yet the artist I'd like to be at this moment. Motivated enough to grow a lot quick though. I've handed him in today, and was happy with the result. Overall, I've learned a lot while working on this model, and my appreciation for this community has grown too. I'd really like to thank everybody that posted their helpful crits. I'm sure my next model will be better and done faster, but I hope you like the result of this one too, allthough it isn't as perfect as I'd wanted it to be oh well, thanks again and enjoy!
the final result looks great,
it really does look like a male model,
and have many male "ingredients" which show your appreciation for subtle detail
the thing is, it's not really a human model, its a fake representation.
i think your approach was too pretencious in your attempt to put in all the (muscle) detail without actually studying how they work, and studying all the skeletal structure underlying the muscles which was never really there from the first place. you know that's true, why didn't you do it? why fake it? you lie to noone but yourself.
i believe i recognize your approach because i'm just as pretencious
you must remember it is Your responsibility to become the artist you say you want to be,
your teachers are *most likely not going to make you one.
but what kind of artist do you actually want to be? with what skillset?
that's the question you should answer..
this will get you an A, probably, but that's just because all the others suck, and probably fake it just as well, only less good. *probably*.. i'm just talking from my own experience, of course.
if your teacher will just crit something as stupid as your meshflow and perhaps some of the really obvious anatomy issues, than you'll see i'm right.
try asking for the hardest crit he can give u, get it after class 1on1, and post here.
i'm interested to know.
Replies
Anyhoo, tough crowd in here Jelmer
Try here:
http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/abs.html
http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/muscular.html
http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/torso.html
http://www.fotosearch.com/bigcomps/phd/PHD262/SS20070.jpg
It highlights a lot of the chest anatomy problems on JBoskma's model so far... ie. definition of the ribcage, placement of abs and bellybutton, definition of the shoulders etc.
The reason I'm looking at the Gnomon dvd is because the artist who did the session has studied a lot of anatomy and really seemed to know his stuff. Him turning around his Zbrush model gives me the possibility to actually follow a muscle, and look at where it goes, how it looks. Something that I find very annoying with some of the Anatomy drawings in my books.
Mop: I am using 3D.SK photos as well, since they are all in the school library. Thanks btw for your crits, I find them very useful.
Daz: Thanks for replying. It's for me basicly the first time I eally put a lot of effort in studying anatomy and trying to build something that looks convincing. The dvd is by far not the only reference I'm using, but as I've stated earlier in this post, it's very helpfull for anatomy noobs like myself to have a model which somebody is rotating around. I agree with the comment about the pose. I went a little of the 90 degree key there. I will model it back the right way.
Stringer: Thanks for your efforts and for sharing your model
Thanks again everybody, again a bunch of very usefull comments have been given. I will remodel the abs / stomach are. Put the arms in a more natural position and get rid of the ribcage line. Daz / Mop's references seem perfect images to show the way my stomach area should look.
All in all this is giving me a better understanding of the human form. Spending hours of looking at pictures, trying to model, remodeling it, posting, getting crits, looking again, remodeling it, seems to be a good way to get a better feel for things. It's hard for me though to spend more time on it, though I wish I would. I have a lot of other classes at school, including 2d and 3d animation and texturing. All are very time consuming as well. It seems that the biggest part of my class seems to have gotten away with a very simple torso model. No muscle definition or whatsoever. That's the way I could have done it I guess, but I really bind high value to these boards, probably more then any other forum or reference database. I know that understanding the human form is very important and that there are quite a lot of people, posting in this thread, that really know their anatomy a lot better then me at the moment.
It's remembrance day today and that probably means it's another night of lonelyness in the pc lab at school hehe. It works a lot better though, having the whole classroom for yourself =] I promise an update soon, of the 'new' torso and a base of the head if possible. The head is due Thursday the 17th, so I have to move on as well. Thanks again for all your good replies, and I hope that besides me other people are starting to find this thread somewhat useful too. Peace out
Redid the stomach /abs area and worked on the arms pose. I like him a lot better now btw.
Bonus points on the nips there. Slim Goodbody, professional glass-cutter.
Looking foward to seeing the head.
I reckon some attention needs to be spent in the brow and eye area but I guess its still wip.
(edit) looking at it again I think the mouth may not be wide enough, the corners should line up with the middle of each eye....minor niggle but it gives him a strange expression.
eyeshape: generally the eye is at its tallest vertically further in toward the nose, whereas yours is at its tallest vertically toward the outer eye corners, almost making the eyeshape the wrong way around. It's subtle stuff were talking about here.
the infraorbital brow: you have it, but it flows into the middle of the nose whereas really it should flow higher up, into the corner of the eye.
Nostrils/nosetip look pretty strange.
Quick paint:
I can tell that you can see what's going on when you look at a face... but aren't really sure of why it looks the way it does.
Like in the front view, you're trying to create that crease the cheeks make when they come towards the center of the face and down towards the corners of the mouth. But the structure falls apart when you go into the side view.
*shrug*
It's probably easier if you look at an older person's features, then soften them to recreate a youthful appearance.
http://www.youthfullook.com/photos/ZFatT2.jpg
That's actually a good shot of the infraorbital brow that DaZ mentioned. Look at the sides of the nose ... there's a fatty chunk of flesh that runs down towards the side of the jaw.
Also... bellow the lips... there are 2 fatty pockets on the lower corners of the lips. They bulge out to create an upside down "U" shape below the center-lower lip. Subtle, but it's there.
The chin could be less bulbous and more wedge like.
Sure you can argue the image I posted is of some 50 year old with tons of money to spend... but the general idea we're trying to get across is there.
[p.s. sucks what happened over at esf, ohwell, atleast you can post here bitch free]
Enix: I noticed that myself too. I tried buffing up the tricep and lower arm muscles. I don't want him to have that bulky feeling though. Thanks for your reply.
It's actually not bad at all, but it could be an awful lot better. I still think the most crucial thing that's weird is his overall posture is really unnatural. The spine is bending the opposite way to a relaxed spine. I hope you dont mind, but I just dumped a quick playblast of the demon I was working on and the state it was in the last time I looked at it. Look at the relaxed posture and now see how your guy is sort of sticking his upper body out? I think as long as the posture is going to feel uncomfortable then the model is going to look awkward.
Other stuff:
Do you really want that much relax in the hand pose?
Somehow the torso feels elongated I don't know.
I know you dont want him to be bulky, but even for a slim guy, that distance there across inside elbow joint is way too thin from this angle.
Adams apple too wide?
Bone structure at sides of head feels odd?
Soften the line of the shoulder muscle as it flows into the bicep. It feels too abrupt.
Theres something dodgy perhaps about where the ribcage meets the armpit/pec area?
Keep at it mate, you know it'll be worth it in the end. You'll never need to model a hi-poly nekked man ever again! And neither will you need to
The distance from crotch to navel is equal to the distance from the navel to nipples on your model while it should be much shorter, also the hands seem to be the right lenght but look how they almost end near hips while they should end mid-thigh (it might be visual illusion tho as your last pics are perspective and the arms are sorta bent).
Now about the head, it is too egg shaped and remember usually cheekbones are the widest thing on head, they end just before the ears. Behind the ears the head gets much narrower (under/slightly behind the ear is the bone mass to which neck muscles attach, it is a very good reference point to properly attach the head to the neck). The forehead is very off imho, because he is male it should be rather rough and flat and it goes too high on your model (the highest point of a skull is in its middle-back part and not front).
Tracing back few post you have posted a back shot and the head/neck area is very unnatural, the transition should be rather smooth as the muscles overlap the skull for a while (i think you should know that mucles are pretty much bands that can dramatically compress so usually they are pulled over the bones like rubber bands, think about it while modeling, it helps to spot anatomical errors).
In short you should find some skull references because if you do the skull wrong you cant make the head look natural.
And as always be your own anatomy model, sometimes the shapes are hard to understand visually but when you touch them you can get a better idea. Also even if you think that your body is not even close to ideal it still works pretty much the same and you have the same muscles and the same bones and proportions are pretty much the same.
But overall the model is rather good and i dont see why you shouldnt be able to make it great.
Good luck!
Actually the biggest problem I currently see is the front hip area (everything below the bellybutton), which is too long and the crotch-area is a bit strangely connected.
Move the entire hip up, and fix the connection.
All the points Daz and Toomas raised are very valid and should be attended to.
Thanks for the video, Daz!
Peace out
also I think the "pinching" around the waist is too exaggerated, it doesn't look natrual.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes it does! Don't you see that he is wareing a tight string-tanga
Working on the legs right now, got everything pretty much there to just over the knee, which will ofcourse need tweaking, but I should be able to give you guys an update tommorow (friday). Thanks again EQ, Mop, Daz, JKM for keeping checking my crap here =] Appreciated, peace out.
But then again it might be just me so check it against reference to make sure.
And perhaps if i were you and all i would remodel the whole head from scratch and use photo refs and stuff...
Overall its gone much better!
in your screenshots, fingertips seem rather flat and the thumb looks strange. also, the shape of the palm is weird. best thing for these kind of studies is to have a digital camera nearby - pose yourself or someone else, make a photo and compare. quite an eye-opener sometimes.
The hips are 'totaly' different in the next version I'll be posting. The pinches are smoothed out way more, which gives a really nice more real and subtle feel to it all.
Thomasp:
The reason of the finger pose is that this model is not for any other purpose then me, studying the human anatomy. I think it adds just a little more life to an otherwise really static posed character. This is also the reason for the slight bend in the arm. If I'd have to weight or texture this fellow, I would deffinatly model the hands with less bending in the fingers.
And again, I quote from my post above: ''You guys are right about the hand, I haven't gave that a second pass of looking and tweaking yet. Just slammed the geometry down for sake of the deadline.''
Thanks for the comments though guys, keep checking
But i have my doubts about the knees, looks like they have been bent way too much.
I might be just used to seeing heroic proportions though...
Thats the only thing that sticks out to me. Far better than anything I could do, and huge improvements since the start of this thread. Was cool to watch.
And the knees still look weird to me.
Oh and the bellybutton looks kind of 'tacked on'.
Sectaurs: You were right about the size of the head, I brought it down a bit.
Toomas: Tried to pull the bum out more and rounding off the leg. It didn't look too good. I might give it another shot though.
JK: Worked on the legs, hopefully you like them better.
Other things I've worked on: Added the seratus anterior (the muscles that lay on top of the ribcage under the pecs). Worked on the overal feel of the torso, redid the lower arm / bicep connection area. Enjoy.
He needs a groin-organ. Everything else is anatomically correct, why not that? Is it verboten for school projects to have wangitude?
Looks great. I'd be interested in seeing the wires as well.
He needs a groin-organ. Everything else is anatomically correct, why not that? Is it verboten for school projects to have wangitude?
[/ QUOTE ]
Unless if he is a eunuch :P
it really does look like a male model,
and have many male "ingredients" which show your appreciation for subtle detail
the thing is, it's not really a human model, its a fake representation.
i think your approach was too pretencious in your attempt to put in all the (muscle) detail without actually studying how they work, and studying all the skeletal structure underlying the muscles which was never really there from the first place. you know that's true, why didn't you do it? why fake it? you lie to noone but yourself.
i believe i recognize your approach because i'm just as pretencious
you must remember it is Your responsibility to become the artist you say you want to be,
your teachers are *most likely not going to make you one.
but what kind of artist do you actually want to be? with what skillset?
that's the question you should answer..
this will get you an A, probably, but that's just because all the others suck, and probably fake it just as well, only less good. *probably*.. i'm just talking from my own experience, of course.
if your teacher will just crit something as stupid as your meshflow and perhaps some of the really obvious anatomy issues, than you'll see i'm right.
try asking for the hardest crit he can give u, get it after class 1on1, and post here.
i'm interested to know.