[Training] + [Dump] - Ace Post
polycounter lvl 12
Hey to all, how is everyone doing on this great day/evening/afternoon/night?
I decided to create an art dump for myself and hopefully will get me feedback on the subject matter at hand.
Now before you comment, I would like to ask one favor, to TEAR my art to pieces, yes that's right, be harsh, shout at me, pull out all of my flaws, whip me, step on me, burn ciggy buds on my chest, use a bottle t-oh, darn, I think I might have a problem.
Basically, just be critical about everything I post to see how I can improve myself, because...well, I want to bloody improve myself.
Other then das, let the show begin.
Latest work:
August/16/11 - Demo Reel:
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu1VKuakgao&feature=channel_video_title[/ame]
June/02/11 - Golem
It's a Golem, made out of clay and rock. I'm near completing it, and was wondering how it fares so far, still need to texture it, but time will come.
I decided to create an art dump for myself and hopefully will get me feedback on the subject matter at hand.
Now before you comment, I would like to ask one favor, to TEAR my art to pieces, yes that's right, be harsh, shout at me, pull out all of my flaws, whip me, step on me, burn ciggy buds on my chest, use a bottle t-oh, darn, I think I might have a problem.
Basically, just be critical about everything I post to see how I can improve myself, because...well, I want to bloody improve myself.
Other then das, let the show begin.
Latest work:
August/16/11 - Demo Reel:
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu1VKuakgao&feature=channel_video_title[/ame]June/02/11 - Golem
It's a Golem, made out of clay and rock. I'm near completing it, and was wondering how it fares so far, still need to texture it, but time will come.
Replies
I found this Golem sketch on DA
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs27/f/2008/064/8/1/Rock_Golem__Rook_Earth_Black__by_KazuKun.jpg
See how big, bulky, and defined he is? Make the rocks define the body parts instead of smooching and smoothing everything into each other. Golems are warriors, bad asses, and should look as such. Make them muscular but use large defined rocks as their muscles.
If you plan on using clay or another smooth surface material then use it in areas like his elbows, knees, ankles, neck, and other spots where you would expect a human style character to have movement. Use the rocks almost as armor on top of his clay body.
The cool thing about Golems is their is no right or wrong way to make them, just make sure they look tough and bad ass. Search google and see what you find for inspiration.
Hey Bardler,
Thanks for the feedback, I agree, I really cannot seem to figure out how to make them more rocky while keeping more of an anatomical approach of things. You got any tips for that? I'll do a few changes later on and post a comparison shot on the changes and hope to get feedback on that on a few things I could try, but other then that, no dice till now for me.
As for the design itself, you see, this is my reference sheet:
I was trying go for the more 'Guardian' like approach to a Golem after I found out that they apparently come from Jewish folklore, instead of the all out Hard-Rock (pun intended) kinda approach to them such of the DnD and Final Fantasy looks. So I wanted to try something different.
However, as you can see, my reference images for such an idea are scarce at best, the first one looks almost animal like, and almost as if it has fur, and the latter three look more like blobs of polished marbles glues together with. Any advice on those?
Cheers and ciao!
(/jk, just wanted to please you, as you somehow like that masochism :P)
i think you need a lot more cracks and such.
right now its too smooth.
push the eye holes a lot more in will probably look a lot more fearsome, as now he looks kinda blind (you know, empty blackness staring at you IS creepy
i love the mallet brush for rocky stuff, makes laying down the design pretty easy.
Thanks for the tips mate.
Trying to block down the details in that area, update:
(i am no pro either, so if i talk bullshit dont take it serious :P)
i think thats because of the long strokes, it looks kinda veiny like on a tree bark
some stuff i came across in a quick google search, maybe it helps capturing the rock feel easier:
http://stephenjameson.com/tutorials/tiling-rock-tutorial/
http://cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=4399&PHPSESSID=6sc1fvuvio1hvaidjk483l1e00
http://cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=4410&PHPSESSID=6sc1fvuvio1hvaidjk483l1e00
http://cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=4395&PHPSESSID=6sc1fvuvio1hvaidjk483l1e00
and for under the armpits:
http://cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=5575&PHPSESSID=6sc1fvuvio1hvaidjk483l1e00
(/jk)
Thanks for the feeback, I tired a few brushes and am trying to follow anatomy muscles with the rocks that you pointed. I feel it's much better, if you could point me out which variation workks for the best, please do say.
Currently, it stands like this:
Shoulders + Legs = Noisy brush which cuts as angles.
Arms and Chest = No noise, just hard cuts.
Also, that armpit joke actually is kinda useful, the hard extrusions and insets could be useful for joints.
I would appreciate if I could get ANY HARD criticism, I'm never going to get a job if people keep on canoodling me at every turn, which many of my teachers have been doing.
Anyhow, here is my demo-reel, I was given some feedback on how to improve it, but I feel like Polycount will serve me better in the long run, so yeah, mind if you guys hand in some feedback? And please, don't hold back, it will only make it worse if people aren't frank and try to be gentle with me only then for me to miss the chance at a job and end up living on the street, but here is the list of what I was told.
-Slow-Down the spins and redo proper wireframes
-Don't center my models, 3/4 at camera Golden rules
-My creature character at the end needs hands, eyes and feet, and not stumps
-Give depth to all parts of scene (mountains should be 3D, not skybox)
-Add more stuff, or break up Demo Reel into several parts/video so I don't look like a generalist
[ame]
I'm also thinking of taking it into UDK since there is only so much I can do in Max's viewport. What do you guys think? I already have all my shaders prepared in Max, but I can recreate them no problemo in UDK faster and much easier. Would it be worth it?
xXm0RpH3usXx: Haha, nice one, and yeah, I agree, once I do have time, I will continue on that level of detail for the rest of my Golem.
The scene looks alright but as you said taking it into UDK will probably be worth it
In the end it all depends on what role you're applying for, but if it's anything related to 3d-artist/environment artist/character artist you really need to get your sculpting, anatomy, sense of proportion, lighting and most of all texturing skills up to par. Compare your work to everyone elses.
I'd start slow, plan a scene, create a list of assets you need, create the assets and then put together the scene using a modular workflow. I can easily be done in 2 weeks to get a "decent" result. I would not use Zbrush as part of the workflow though, just relying on basic modeling and texturing to get the job done.
Good luck and happy job hunting!
firstly STOP PUTTING EVERYTHING ON AN F-ING TURNTABLE! i dont mean to shout but seriously it looks very very amateurish and totally fails to show off your work in a good way. everything about your demo reel says something about you as an artist and being lazy and using turntables just says to me that you'll cut corners and aren't thinking about the aesthetics of your work 100% of the time. the character monster you have has the right idea (apart from being the weakest piece in your portfolio by a country mile) more camera work like that please. and tbh why bother with a demo reel? they're long to look at and much more difficult to go back and find specific pieces in. most games portfolios just work with stills and a few nice renders (in game please!) can sell your work just as well as a video, if not better. plus you can apply *slight* tweaks to stills in photoshop to balance out colour/contrast, add vignettes etc. which is much harder to do in video.
now on to the work:
the first piece is good - i like the design and seems well executed. imo whats missing are the little pieces of life to really sell it. think little flashing lights on the antenna, rotating radar dishes, maybe some sci fi lights running up the side of the walkways or the towers etc. - i realise its a snowy scene etc. but at first i thought the whole thing was in black and white! maybe even a really faint forcefield dome over the whole thing that has some nice animated textures and particle effects going on. if you're really going for it then a little animated space ship flying out of an airlock would be pretty cool. currently their isnt much to give the piece a sense of scale apart from the terrain imo.
secondly the terrain could do with a bit of work - its basically quite bland texture wise and modelling wise and the texture looks out of scale. i realise you've taken on a huge scene here but maybe just close it in a little and focus on making a few more believeable rocks etc. and maybe a few dead/dying trees or something. maybe an iced up waterfall would be cool, something to give the environment a little more life.
to mention the camera again - the worst place imo to do the camera pan from rotating to overhead is with the model on side profile - think about doing it 3/4 view or just dont even bother tbh.
the close up rotating shot is better cos you only see part of the model at any one time so you dont get dizzy from all the spinning - i think there needs to be more detail in the model to be highlighted by the close up though - it's basically quite boxy with a texture on atm i think.
if you will insist on turntables, 1 rotation per shot is all you need - you dont want to have to pause the video to see the details. actually just dont do them. ever.
i probably wouldnt bother with the shot breakdown in the video either tbh - it should be full of your best work and wow! stuff, keep the breakdowns, wires, textures sheets etc. to still images.
the gun looks ok - you say its a speed model but dont say how long? its not a bad idea to give potential employers an idea of how fast you can work - not required though by any means. really needs texturing too - the more i learn about 3D the more i realise that texturing and lighting are so much more important than modelling.
the guy is ok - maybe a little statically posed. same things apply here to the turntables (grrr) and texturing etc. and again with the big robot thing. i like how you start with the gun, then the guy then the whole shot but he really needs a nice texture and probably a few more details. he's probably fine for what actually would make it into a game but you really need to show off in your portfolio and he's just ok atm imo.
the green guy is imo basically horrible - the textures are all over saturated and look horrible. the red and green colours clash and he's very basically modelled with very few redeeming features if you ask me. remember that you portfolio is only as strong as the weakest piece and this is your weakest by a mile. i'd recommend just focusing on environment art stuff for now - your work in that area is much better and there's a lot more jobs doing env work than characters. a lot of character artists just move over from env internally when they're required too, so much better to get your foot in the door with env work imo if you do want to do characters. you're golem model is looking better though and its good to show some characters stuff if you have it. just not this guy.
remember to start and end on your best foot too - you want to wow them with the first impression and then leave them thinking good things at the end.
lastly the golem - i like and it's heading in the right direction i think - you need to stylise it a bit more imo, and really push the proportions. try making the ends of his feet massive (like 2x) and really push up his shoulders and chest. maybe hunch him forwards too and break up the cleanness of his a bit. he's supposed to be some wizards god forsaken creation not a waiter at a magicians circle dinner party (i assume?) is he from a concept or from your own head? if concept study it closely to get all the nuiances the artist put in, if your own imagination, maybe you needed to concept him out a bit more to start with - spend some more time gathering reference etc. and sketch out a few concepts. even if you're not a great artist you'll get the juices flowing and hopefully get some more life into him.
lastly (again) all of your work is sci fi or fantasy which is cool but doesnt give your employers any idea of whether you can recreate something from a reference. who's to say if your space station is right since you just made it up! also real life things tend to have much more detail in them than made up things (unless you get really good concept art)
you've definitely got some talent but imo you just need to take some more time and care over your pieces and really think about how the viewer is going to see things. and texture things! - it really is important and a good texture can improve a piece 200%
i guess if you've just finished your studies then most of the work here was done under time constraints and as such probably needs more time to finish off - personally i would recommend making a small real world asset - just something reasonably simple - and really focus on attention to detail and getting the modelling, texturing and presentation up to a really high standard before going back and tackling your coursework - it's a big job and a good quality small piece will teach you a lot and boost your confidence to tackle the uni work.
very lastly, get your work into a game engine - its easy to do and gives you some great tools for making particles and animated materials etc. that can really give a piece life. games companies will want to see these kind of engine skills anyway and you'll need them when you get a job.
i hope that helps - keep up the good work and keep posting it up online and you'll get there.
[ame]
Aren't demo reels necessary for finding a job? Almost every place I've applied to asks for a demo reel. I do agree that they are kind of pointless and still images are much better, but for some reason companies keep asking for them...
Here's a very quick paintover regarding your golem. I went with the proportions of the first concept image you posted as that is what you seem to heavily base your version on. I think your detailing is getting better. But solve the overall proportions first before worrying about the details. If you look around the site. There are some very good tips on how to zbrush rock etc.
Hope this helps.