Arenanet Art Test Critique and Review
Hello and good morning
Today I just got word that I didn't make to cut, unfortunately I was really looking forward to all the learning opportunities but its not my time yet.
So I wanted to show you what I have done to the best of my ability and hopefully get some critiques, maybe what I did good and what I could improve maybe even suggestions as well.
I want to be more active here instead of being a shy guy so here I go.
High poly
low poly
another high poly render
wire frame
and the maps
Thank you for your time and have a nice day.
Today I just got word that I didn't make to cut, unfortunately I was really looking forward to all the learning opportunities but its not my time yet.
So I wanted to show you what I have done to the best of my ability and hopefully get some critiques, maybe what I did good and what I could improve maybe even suggestions as well.
I want to be more active here instead of being a shy guy so here I go.
High poly
low poly
another high poly render
wire frame
and the maps
Thank you for your time and have a nice day.
Replies
I'm going to break it down first as what areas need work and then go into detail exactly why these things are bad or good
-Highpoly/anatomy
-Lowpoly
-UVs
-Texture
HIGHPOLY
To start off, your highpoly armor is probably your stronger point in this test, however your lack of anatomy holds you back greatly. Armor that is modeled on top of a character lacking muscular structure or having disproportionate features will inherit the flaws of said character. My suggestion to you is not to start on the armor until the model underneath is correct.
For example, Your arms and legs are very tube-like underneath that armor. The muscle structure simply isn't there from the head all the way to the toes, I highly suggest you look at some real life reference while working. (For this Norn specifically, female weight trainers are prefect to look at not just for your arms and legs but for a majority of you anatomical needs.) Use the clay tubes brush on an intensity slightly lower than it's default and draw the muscles onto the body with your brushstrokes, it is a perfect brush for building muscle and remember to build up the structure of each muscle slowly with each stroke and don't rush, speed comes with time. This advice applies to the entirety of your highpoly's anatomy.
The folds of your cloth do not follow how cloth reacts when worn, try and find examples of types of cloth you are trying to sculpt. (For the sash, look at sashes and if you really cant find something specific, take a sheet and have either yourself or a friend try and replicate what you are going for, take a picture of that from multiple angles and move on. cloth folds into itself every fold terminates into another and how fabric is worn or what is underneath it changes the result of the folds.
It appears you put a lot of effort into the leather pieces of your armor and the fur but then it seems you neglected your horns. The helmet of a character is an important focal point in a set of armor (Along with shoulders and chest.) and should at the very least receive as much love as any other piece of your armor.
It seems your forms are looking a little lumpy, make sure to work on your forms/proportions on the lower subdivisions before going too dense. I'm aware it is tedious to work on the low, subdivide, rework, subdivide, rework etc, but it will save you a lot of headache the further you get in your sculpt if you build up as you go.
All of this being said, I do think your fur is a good example of stylized sculpted fur and you should be proud of it, often artists over detail fur and try to sculpt every hair. Along with the fur i do applaud you in not over-detailing the surface detail of the sculpt. high frequency detail does not often transfer well in game when working with lower texture resolutions and eats up production time in creating it.
LOWPOLY
Your lowpoly has a huge problem with polygon distribution in regards to deformation and silhouette. You made the horns quite dense (which will not deform) and your legs are lacking in polycount (these being one of the areas which will deform the most.) When doing topology you must think of three things, Deformation, Silhouette and Poly-limit. These things I have listed in order of importance, however they are all still incredibly important and should not be neglected. The animators and riggers need to be able to weight and move this thing. If the knee bends like a wet noodle and doesn't keep form then it doesn't matter how awesome your sculpt or texture is, it's gonna look bad.
You are lacking some important deformation loops in your legs, arms and shoulders, these are all areas that must deform properly on a character that would be moving as much as this one. There is a wealth of knowledge here on Polycount that I will link at the bottom of my reply. It can assist you with not only topology questions but many others as well.
When working with your poly limit, make sure to look at silhouette vs polygons spent. You have quite a bit of subdivision going on in the torso, horns and fingers that is simply not needed vs the silhouette/deformation they are providing you. You could cut the polygons by 50% or more in those areas and still have a similar silhouette/deformation result. On the flip side, you haven't spent enough on your armor. give the leather some thickness to it. the last thing you want is to spend a ton of time sculpting badass armor and then baking them down to a card only to find that it looks noticeably paper thin.
UVS
The UVs, while you did stack and mirror some you did not mirror others that definetly could have been mirrored. (Torso, straps,and neck armor for example.) You are breaking your UV shells into far too many islands, keep in mind every time you cut a uv into another shell you are creating a texture seam that will need to be fixed. Merge the fingers to the hand, merge the hand to the arm if there isnt armor to hide the wrist seam. The goal is to have as few unnecessary seams as possible while hiding the ones you do have with your armor or clothing or whatever. your armor is broken up so much that I am having a hard time telling what is what in the texture sheet.
Your use of UV space is indeed lacking and there are huge gaps between some pieces while others are practically touching others. try to have an even amount space between shells while not having them touching or drastically far apart. think of it as a puzzle but you control what shapes and sizes the pieces are.
The UV shell sizes you have given particular parts of the texture sheet are not ideal, Keep in mind the bigger a shell is, the more resolution you are giving it. Your hand has nearly as much resolution as the front of your torso and more resolution than your head. When doing UVs for anything, make sure you have a checker texture plugged in. Try to get the squares all relatively the same size while giving slightly more UV resolution to focal areas like the head, shoulders and torso. While giving less to areas that a not as visually important like the hands, feet and areas that are not easily seen.
TEXTURE
This area unfortunately is your weakest and will take time and lots of practice to get better at. Texturing alone is a beast of a skill and requires as much, if not more attention than the sculpt and low poly combined. However I am confident that if you work hard and you mean it, you will get better.
To start, you diffuse is far too flat. Aside from maybe the face, there are large areas that are essentially bucket filled with single colors, there is no ambient occlusion at all. Skin alone has a wide spectrum of color ranging from blues reds yellows etc. look at reference, study the color of the areas/materials you are trying to paint even if you cant eyeball the colors you need,color pick from your reference if you have to. Put in the smaller surface details you might have left out of your normal map.(Scratches, small dings, small cracks/scars, freckles.)
With characters you have the benefit of having baked normals. You can get a decent base to work with by following this tutorial taken from a post that Daphz made about a year ago.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_LV_KSogK2o/T33cPqBgizI/AAAAAAAAAV4/S4W_7xi1KPM/s1600/daphz_textur.png
And here is the link to the original thread:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97270
Your specular map shows a lack of knowledge in what spec maps do. The greyscale vaules represent how shiny/glossy something is based on a 0 to 1 (black to white) spectrum. For example, your eye should be the glossiest thing on your Norn and therefore should be completely white, however you have given a grey value to the iris and a black value to the pupil. these grey areas will shine less and the black will receive hardly any lighting. The spec map should be used to break up you materials and perhaps show lighting detail that isn't present in your diffuse or normal map. (Sweat, stains, grease, fine surface detail, scratches, the list goes on.) Metal and things that are wet will usually have higher spec values than cloth or things that are dry.
I hope all of that I have said helps you and please do not be discouraged, if you keep at it you will get better, everyone who puts in real effort gets better to some degree. My final advice to you is not to try and fix this piece. Save it as a learning example and move forward to something new. (Trust me when I say this as I have made the mistake in the past of trying to salvage old work, it just isn't worth it. Start fresh.)
I leave you with this link, read it and learn from it if you truly want to do character art as a career:
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryCharacter
Polycount.com houses an endless wealth of knowledge in the polycount wiki. Containing tutorials for most, if not all of the critique I just gave you.
Again, while there is much that needs improving, parts of your test show promise that you can/will get better. You just need to keep at it, put in the time, push through the pain and become stronger! :poly121:
I did not expect or could I have asked for a better critique, and in no way am I discouraged but feel more empowered to start my next character even though I have A LOT to focus on, learn and practice.
I have to be honest I am not quit sure about materials which is sad for me to say and I have searched everywhere for a basic understanding of how materials are made or work for characters and other 3D models. Like should I be placing different parts of the armor into different material slots like in 3ds max material editor or is it all a spec map thing?
But again idk how many times I can say this but thank you guys I will definitely keep on posting my workings on polycount now
However, you in particular have a benefit that you are working in 3ds Max because you have access to the ever popular XoliulShader 2.
here is a link to the thread containing the download link and FAQ
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88289
Other than that it looks good!
I feel though its more that I made the wrong call on most things, except for the material part that was just me being a noob.
anyways its trial and error, I learn best from my own mistakes but the big thing is I should have put it on polycount from day one asking questions and getting critiqued I think that would have been the best call.
But like I said, I learn best from my own mistakes...unfortunately.
Also Mrandk thanks again for the help I'll take a look at that shader you mentioned