Sketchbook: Taralqua

taralqua

Um, so I just joined ...today. Part of my new years' resolution was to work really effing hard on getting my portfolio as awesome as it can be. I'm mostly a 2D artist in my free time but I'm going through and teaching myself 3dsmax and zbrush as best I can. I already know maya but I've been told it's not industry standard.

Here's stuff from a few days ago, two character concepts for a game project some friends are doing.






I welcome critique because my friends are awful at saying anything other that "looks good" and I can see that there are a lot of really skilled people here that I can learn from

Joseph Silverman

Welcome! These are a nice start to a sketchbook. Moody and pretty well presented. Certainly effective as concepts, good at conveying personality.

I'm not a fan at all of the overuse of textured brushes. Everything looks very muddy and textural, and there's a serious lack of form or edge control. If i were you i would knocck out 95% of that surface detail with some harder brushes and then subtly lay it back in where it serves more actual utility.

Check out the image in post 2. And read This.

MadnessImport

Love em! First one makes me think of carmen sandiego

& Who ever told you Maya isn't industry standard probably doesn't know the industry's standards

Alismuffin

Those are cool, but I agree with Suprore about the textured brush overuse. They definitely show personality and the 2nd one is really effective in how the background baklances out the picture making it easy to look at, yet still having it's focal point in the right place (the face)
Keep it up!

Oranghe

there is little to no difference in terms of how your work will turn out on Max or Maya it's whatever your more comfortable with so no maya is not worse! i use both.

Thanks for the kind comments on my SB! i like the instant moody feel here, i'm a big fan of atmosphere so to see it in characters is great but i agree about the texturing, or to many different kinds of brushes right now. You could also push lighting more that will give allot more life to everything.

Post some 3D and i'm sure everyone will do their best to help

taralqua

Usually I'm told the opposite, to avoid hard lines and comic book outlining so I was trying something weird and new with these. I would agree that they're too overly textured brushy as opposed to being a happy medium though. Also, thanks for the links, I feel like I fall short with lighting when not working with traditional media in studio so this should be helpful

I've talked to several folks about the maya/max thing. I don't really know what to think about it, but my intro class was in maya and in the spring my intermediate class will be in max. I suppose I will learn the pros and cons firsthand!

I'm installing my student copy of max now and watching some tutorials so I can see how the interface differs, hopefully I can post some things soonish.

Thanks for the much needed critique on my 2D stuff! I hope to model one or both characters in zbrush, and do some thumbs/finals for the other characters in the set soon.

Oranghe

don't have to outline or treat the strokes like lineart but soft brushes make it hard to define shapes and lighting. Experimenting is always great though and you should try everything out yourself first hand.

With maya and max it's just up to your experience and what your comfortable with i know some great artists that use maya and max and it doesn't really effect much both do the same job, http://slipgatecentral.deviantart.com/ slipgatecentral is a great artist and he uses maya as his main program if he's not up to industry standards i don't know who is
It has no real baring on your skills as an artist just how quick and how much understanding you have of the program.

So i would just focus on your own workflow and what is best for you and not worry about that

taralqua

Here's a speed drawing from uhhh sometime last term. More indicative of my usual style when doing concepts. The character pictured is an unseelie, and should have more clothes on but alas, they were torn off by my need for scantily clad men.

Regarding Max/maya: It's a requirement that I learn both programs, due to the instructors switching between intro and intermediate classes, I really have no choice in that. I'm not going to let myself be pressured into using a program that I detest though, unless I am being -paid- to do so. Haha

I've got some time booked with a model during term too now (yay!), so I intend to do some lighting studies in the near future.

altasa

very cool sketches

taralqua

I'm still learning 3ds, but here's a low poly car based on Nemo's Automobile with a 70's twist.

I'm working on an environment and character model over the next three or four weeks in class so I will post that when I finish. I am finding myself a lot more comfortable in 3ds than maya, though I still like maya for certain things which I probably just haven't learned how to do properly yet in max.

I'll be -attempting- rigging/skinning of the character model to use in a game project, I expect horrifying results but I'll be sure to put funny music on in the background of any videos so it's at least an entertaining train wreck.