[Portfolio] – Zachary Winkler, Character Modeler

MrRagingSunshine

http://www.zachwinkler.com

Hey guys, I wanted to post my portfolio for a few reasons. Critique for the sit itself, critique for assets that I can use for future work, etc etc. Basically I want critique for everything, as I would love a job and can use all the constructive help I can get!

I appreciate any feedback you guys can give me!

Visceral

Only thing i can say is that, wow that website sure is flashy. Maybe you shuld tone it down a bit.

Also your work quality seems to be really varying in quality. Some of the sculpts looks great but the knight (something i see among the first things when i visit the site) looks really bad in comparison.
Maybe this is a result of a big time difference between some of the models while others (such as the sculpts) where created moore recently.

MrRagingSunshine

I agree, I'm currently looking into another host so I can use a different website creation system.

As for the knight and such they were created quite a bit ago, which is why the quality would be lessened. Do you think I should remove that and others that don't quite match the quality of other pieces?

MrRagingSunshine

http://zachwinkler.wordpress.com/portfolio/

Currently working on moving stuff to this site, which I think looks ten times more spiffier than ever before.

Edit: Also I'm fixing the Chameleon so it doesn't drag down my other assets with it

Twister3

MrRagingSunshine wrote: »

As for the knight and such they were created quite a bit ago, which is why the quality would be lessened. Do you think I should remove that and others that don't quite match the quality of other pieces?

Yes. Your portfolio should represent your current skill level. A good rule of thumb is looking through your artpieces and sorting them into two categories: "Hell yeah" and "not in your portfolio". If the artpieces doesn't fall doesn't fall into the "fuck yeah" category then you shouldn't use it.

MrRagingSunshine

Sounds like something I will definately keep in mind from now on.

Here's progress on fixing one of said poorer quality assets, if anyone has any crits I'd gladly take them.

scotthomer

I love him! Looks really sweet.

MrRagingSunshine

Thanks dude!


Some more progress on this guy

MrRagingSunshine

Hey guys just wanted to give an update on my dude here, at the texturing phase right now, if ya see anything off feel free to point it out

zakhar2

Some parts of the model and texture feel very empty/ rushed. Like you did an absolutely stellar job on the head, pretty good on the collar and then just gave up with the torso/ suit thing. It's important to have a good balance of detail and rest areas, which you're sorta doing, but i think you could add some more areas of interest, maybe around the extremities? Another issue is that your texture is not complementing your sculpt very well. You had all these cool details in the head which are all washed out and arent even noticeable now, which is bit of a shame. Over all this seems like it could be a really cool model but it just needs a little more work.

MrRagingSunshine

Hmm, what kinds of detail to you mean exactly? I've recently kind of broke into adding higher levels of detail to my models, and I would love any more advice you could give me, like what kind of detail you're looking for.

As for the texture, that's still a work in progress but I can definately work in what you've already mentioned as I go

MrRagingSunshine

Man, I really would like to keep regular with the updates. So in the spirit of that here's more progress.

Here's the chameleon guy, I've pretty much finished him, not so much because he's the best he can be but because I really need to create moar assets. That said I still want critiques for sure, so feel free.



Also here's a "pedastal" thing that he'll be standing on in kind of a "I just snuck out of this door" pose. Still a work in progress, so I could use some critiques on this for sure!

Rockley Bonner

did you sculpt the door in zbrush? the edges look very choppy.

MrRagingSunshine

Are you talking about like, the siloette edges? Or the weird normal map issues on the bottom piece?

Rockley Bonner

the bevels and the door and the indents.

MrRagingSunshine

Haha forgot to answer, yea I zbrushed the door. I mean I tend to trim dynamic edges and stuff on hard surface to make it look worn.

Computron

Slippy, enemy bogeys on your tail!

MrRagingSunshine

Computron wrote: »

Slippy, enemy bogeys on your tail!

Gee, Thanks Fox

So this happened


My Marmoset Free Trial ended so I have been learning a bit about mental ray these past few days. I like it, though it's quite a bit more complicated I've noticed :poly122:

I think I'm gonna wrap this up and move to some texture only low poly stuff to flush out my portfolio more. What do you guys think?

Selaznog

Hm, not a huge fan of that latest picture. All the colours sort of blend together. The scene actually pops out more than the character!

Here's what it looks like in black and white. On the left is the original, desaturated, and on the right is just a paintover I did


I abused the dodge tool, so that's why there's a lot of wierd bloom stuff. But if you make the backdrop darker and the character brighter, it will look better I think. If there's a dark part of your character, put something light behind it. If there's a bright part on your character, put something dark behind it. It will make him 'pop' more

MrRagingSunshine

I see what you're saying.

I'd like to give it a go, is there a way to just flat out make something darker or lighter when it renders?

Selaznog

Hm, not that I know of. You could just take your textures in PS and play with the levels a bit :P

MrRagingSunshine

Oh...right, yea I guess that too :P.


Better?

Selaznog

Looking better! Have you tried putting a sharpen on your textures? Maybe it's just the render quality, but it seems kinda blurry.

MrRagingSunshine

Like, sharpen the actual textures in photoshop with the sharpen filter?

Selaznog

Yeah, just over all your textures sharpen once, maybe twice just to see how it looks

Sebeuroc

Minor crit about your website presentation because it is bugging me: One of your pieces has your cursor in the middle of your bust's forehead:



Other than that nit-pick, your work is looking pretty good.

MrRagingSunshine

Wow, I dunno how I missed that, thanks for pointing it out.

Also that sharpen filter is pretty useful I'm seeing, thanks for the tip .

Portfolio is all updated now, now to think about the next project

MrRagingSunshine

Alright guys I'm back, and I'm gonna be attempting this concept by Jorge Lacera. Looks pretty awesome I think.


Here's my progress so far!