Alligator Shaman

ketsi_aiita_n

Hi, I'm new here and I was wondering if I could get any critique on some work I'm doing.
In Uni, we have to make a character based on the challenge given for Dominance War IV.
Here's where I'm at so far.











I've been a bit terrified of posting it up here, but I've got five weeks until my deadline and I thought it would be best.

Thanks guys.

Emil Mujanovic

Hey, welcome to Polycount.

I fixed your image links, be sure to use

haikai

Since he's standing up as a biped, I think some adjustments to his proportions would help. Maybe thicken the legs a bit, and have him stand up more straight to give him a feeling of more intelligence instead of just a regular gator that is trying to stand up on its hind legs.

From front view, that eyes are too far apart. You can see even in your own photo reference that the eyes, and head in general, is a lot more narrow on top.

The scales and details are looking pretty good, but I think that's probably the last thing you should worry about. There are a number of cartoon alligator type characters out there that may provide some inspiration on getting stronger proportions. Alligator claws have more than 3 fingers and are somewhat webbed. Of course the number of fingers on characters is often changed for various reasons, but I mention it because he feels a bit dragon-like or some other kind of reptile.

Looks like a good start though. Good luck with the project!

Vertrucio

Even though a gator's tail is pretty thick and heavy, it would have to be much larger to counterbalance that level of forward pitch to hit stance, especially considering how thick and heavy a gator's head is to withstand all that bite force and activity.

ketsi_aiita_n

I've been sorting out the eyes.
With him, the alligator was more a starting point, but I've steadily been making him more humanoid, so I wanted the claws to be less webbed, etc.
I'm trying to get him like the concept art rather than like an alligator.

Ah, sorry about the IMGRES tags, it's how I've been posting on other forums.

ketsi_aiita_n

Just an update as to how it's going so far.
One of the lecturers told me to move the arms down from the T-pose.

@Vertrucio I'm working on making the tail thicker. It is really long, I just don't have an image with it in right now.

Vertrucio

If you're still working out the base forms, what are you doing detailing it?

A big mistake new artists make is doing detail before key problems to your entire design have been worked out. No art director in the world is really that concerned about how bumpy you can make your model, that's really just icing on the cake. The real key is to make your base model look good without detailing, to which detailing can only add to it, not cover up defects.

Not to mention the technical and efficiency side of it, if you're going to be changing the underlying geometry, you're wasting time doing details that you'll just have to redo later since the new underlying geometry in place.

ketsi_aiita_n

I think I started detailing it because I'm terrified I won't get it done in time. I've got a bunch of other modules and a dissertation to do, and I'm kind of getting scared by it.

Also, I kind of thought it was ok as it was. Obviously I was wrong, but there you go.

Lesson learned: rushing is for idiots.

Jungsik

whats that red mark on his belly supppose to be? and yea i agree with most of what people been saying, i would try to nail your proportion and form first because its what gives your character balance and 'character'

from what i see from your picture your alligator looks like hes about to tip down, hes legs are way too small to support that giant body of his, try looking at some animal anatomy to get these down right on because its more important then getting the little details on your texture. ;D

trancerobot

The biggest problem I see is that it doesn't match up with the concept. Originally you had the guy walking on his knuckles like an ape - which is cool and would have worked - but now his arms are too short and his legs are bigger so he can't do that without leaning forward some more.

I understand this crit runs counter to haikai's, but if you're press for time, you might as well stick with the concept art you've done already.