Damn that's serious improvement ! Especially on the eyes, incredible how more expressive it is now !
You're doing some sick work ! (And I'm always a bit late to mention it , it's crazy how time flies by)
What's sure about you is that you clearly understood how to learn, well at least a learning way that works incredibly well for you. I'm stunned by how quick and how well you improve. I definitely need to stop spreading my self-teaching all over the place to have some similar results I guess .
So you got trapped into WoW and yet managed to keep learning, that's some achievement
The mine cart is also very impressive, you have improved your style, and you don't seem to want to stop improving ^^. At least it brings good jealousy from my side, it's truly inspiring to improve myself.
You did mention something that resonated with me though. "Anxiety control", and I couldn't help myself but automatically read "artistic anxiety control", like it's really a thing happening to me right now where I had to figure a lot of things in my life and lost a lot of time not doing 3D. And now I'm scared to even start doing something in 3D, everything seems so hard to do ! So I guess we all fall into that pit once in a while, but considering you can control your anxiety by sculpting a human skull while I do by modeling a mug ... I suppose I fell into a pit a little bit deeper than yours 😁.
Anyway, it's always cool to see you post here
Thank you for the compliments! Means a lot.
I do question my progress and results quite often, what you mentioned, about being scared of starting a new project after a long hiatus is very real to me, that almost made gave up actually, but with small steps I managed to get over and go through it, so please please do not give up, it doesn't matter it its a mug or kratos itself, what really matters is the action you took of persisting through this fear, maybe what can help also is to follow a course of someone or a topic that you like, that helped me a lot to get the basics again.
I stopped posting here again, i actually went almost 2 months without creating nothing, Im not sure if it's because of the change on my goals, which are to go more throught the character/creature art field.
But here I am again, I want to share with guys some work.
This head I did after doing the face features, I wonder if you guys can say who I used as reference.
After this I start a whole body study, it was REALLY hard, the blocking stage was a nightmare, I can't stress enough how frustrating it was, but after the blocking it went smoother, I want to get back to this guy and actually finish him whole, but this is what I get so far:
Everything i blocked out I just hid because they're pretty much blobs.
Anyways, that's where stopped for a while doing anything, and to get back to it I decided to give a break on lessons and studies and actually create something using a concept, so I chose a concept from the amazing artist Yu Nguyen on artstation and started working, I gotta say I'm having a lot o fun creating this guy.
It's still in the blockout stage and I have some concerns on how I will solve some problems like getting him into a pose and deal with the clothes and its folds, have no idea how I will actually do that actually, because sculpting the folds in a A pose doesnt make much sense, those folds should change when the character sits on the frog saddle for example, so I would love some tips on how to approach that.
That's it for now, I will keep you guys updated on this character in the future, stay safe out there whoever is reading this.
Hey, thanks for the kind words ! I'm (kind of) "back on track", even though I always manage to make the most boring project that the world has ever seen
By the way, how can you question your progression when it's THAT easy to see ? I mean, I can't seem to find where I made progress, but in your case it's so out there that I can't understand how you can not see it ^^.
Can't recognize the guy you took for reference, he seems familiar, but it's often the details that makes it easy for the eye. At least my brain definitely works better with particular details of a person's face rather than a general shape (to recognize someone I mean).
I think the blocking phase is what reveals the mastery in every piece. When you're really good at something, the blocking is merely a formality, but when you're learning, it's the worst part. Creating details is the easiest part for everyone, that's why the beginner often goes to detail way too fast (which is nearly always my problem ).
The anatomy seems pretty fine to me (this guy has a damn wide torso), only the point of view that is a bit disturbing as he seems to have a very arched back and his oblique makes it look like he has a big belly from behind, but I think it's just because of where the camera is.
Can't help you with the clothes, I have to figure it out yet myself.
But at least I think like you, of course you have to pose the model before applying any fold as it's supposed to react to the pose of the character. Using a bit of simulation to have the main folds might be of help though, and then do the final touch in sculpt. There's really nothing there that you can't achieve quite easily with you skillset
Turns out it was time to give up.. I feel like that was a way too big of a project to come back to stylized char/creature creation, so I'm going to put that on pause for a bit and get to study with small projects, for example now I'm doing a female bust sculpt to practice stylized anatomy/appealing, I might advance this one to retopo to practice texturing, not sure yet tho.
"Time to give up" ... I'm never able to tell, I'm always spending too much time trying to finish a project, I don't have the ability to give up ... Yet I feel like that's what's keeping me so far behind the likes of you (people who progress fast). Over estimation of the skills we have at a given time is the number one enemy for progression (or so it seems in my recent observations retrospectively).
The hard part is it's not pure technical skill that is at fault here, but mostly the brain capacity to know where to go / what to do next during a "big" project, it's a skill in itself but I don't really know how to develop this one ... If you ever find the answer to this, please tell me ^^.
So back to a bit of anatomy, even though a stylized one. At least it looks good already.
Not sure about the eyelids, lower ones especially. The front upper part of the ears seem a bit thin too, but I might be wrong, I need to practice anatomy myself.
Those are really good points of feedback Dabou, now that you mentioned the ears look way too thin indeed, thanks!
I did another stylized head study:
And about the giving up part, I believe there are pros and cons, one thing that I can tell you is that it's been a while since I last updated my portfolio and my computer is filled with eternal WIPs, so sometimes sticking to a project might not be the worst outcome (especially if it's one where you can practice a whole pipeline)..
Talking about whole pipeline, I decided to start another character yet again, and this time I really want to move on from the high poly and study the whole pipeline, creating the clothes were really frustrating and again I almost gave up, but I'm trying to go with a mindset that it doesn't matter if it will look good in the end, what matter for this project is reaching the end.
Here's the progress so far, most of it is still in the blocking stage.
I can understand the despair of seeing a lot of "unfinished" (is it even possible to finish something ?) work and thinking it's not something you can show on your portfolio. But it's an extreme, on the other side you can spend your whole life on a project that never ends (and you still have nothing to show in the end ^^). So yeah a good balance is needed, and so hard to find ... A whole pipeline as you say, takes generally a lot of time, even when you master everything, 3D takes time.
About your work now, the face is looking good ! I like the "strong" proportions and the eyes here feel way more natural (even for a stylized version). But now that I asked myself the question if you don't put the eyebrows a bit too high (for the two heads you've made, not the last character), I can't answer, something just "feels odd". Maybe it's just me, at least it looks fine on the bearded one.
For your struggles with clothes, maybe you try too hard too early ? Starting with the simplest form (from little project to little project, or study to study) and eventually add up on it (for a bigger project) would have been less discouraging ? It definitely doesn't look bad, but it's more about "what's the use of such clothes ?". I mean everything is fine for a medieval/fantasy kind of world but the kind of half-jacket is a bit strange. Maybe it's a totally common piece of cloth (I really have no idea) but it looks like a light armor and I don't understand its purpose. It's for the cold (looks like a modern jacket for that) ? It's for protection (won't protect much though) ? It seems a bit anachronistic, but maybe I'm wrong.
Last thing, the shoes (and so the feet) seem too little for a strong looking man like him. I mean he needs bigger feet to transfer the strength from the ground to the upper body, doesn't he ? Even for balance, with such a big chest, something feels wrong with the size of his feet.
First of, thank you Dabou for the words and the feedback on the shoes, I tried following what you said and it is indeed feeling better. Sorry for taking too long to reply, I went on a vacation trip for a week.
The work on the dwarf continues, actually the highpoly is on a stage that I call pretty much done, I don't wanna dive into too much detailing on the sculpt, I want to achieve that on the texturing phase.
Hey again! I'm excited to share with you guys the result of the dwarf character I was making, I'm glad I finally finished a character with the whole pipeline for games.
And no worry Dabou, I should've shown in the previous comments what concept I was following so no confusions would happen.
I slowed down in the end of the year but got back into studying and practicing earlier this yes.
I remade yet again my skull study and went a bit further by texturing in painter to also practice this skill.
I compared it to my other finished study I posted here a while ago:
I've also made some anatomy minor studies such as face features etc, and I just finished an orc that I planned to do as an sketch but got carried away and finished a sculpt + rendered him in marmoset:
That's about it, I plan to get a more serious when it comes to my studies and be more consistent, for my next steps I'm wondering if I should stick with small studies like these ones or try and make a new character project, like that dwarf, nothing too complex but something to practice the whole pipeline.
Hopefully I'll get an answer to that and you guys will just see what I make next, thank you for taking the time see my stuff, stay safe!
Your former skull looked great, the new one looks even better somehow. Probably better point of view from the camera (and greater focal length maybe ?), it's also beautifully lit in my opinion.
Good looking orc too (though I just think the skin texture is a bit oversaturated on some places but I fear it's because of subsurface scattering since you've rendered it on Toolbag ? (which one 3 - 4 - 5 ? Out of curiosity).
I think the best is to be able to maintain a consistent progression, so when not feeling great, staying on little studies, and when feeling like it, going for the bigger project (let's say "medium" project ^^). The best advice I've heard about it is to never go above 10% of unknown technique. (For instance, let's say you make that orc head as your medium project, the 10% bonus would be make better jewelry as those ones are pretty bland for not being the focus of your study. Not a really good analogy but I'm struggling with my english ^^, hope you understand what I meant).
Why am I saying that ? Because depending on your skills and techniques, it's really difficult to give you any advice about that. If you really lack a lot of knowledge about a lot of things in the process of creating a character from start to finish, you probably shouldn't aim for the finish line (yet).
Therefore, you should practice little projects that focus on things you're not used to (unwrapping, retopology, whatever is the thing that's difficult for you) and then try to apply them to a bigger project (so a full character for you). Rinse and repeat I guess, until you get a full fledged character. Or go for the finish line right away, it just depends on how confident you feel about it.
In my experience (of my insufferable amount of life mistakes), the key is to never stay away from one of the steps of creation for too long. Hence you should, at least for a while, stay with medium projects that you can finish quickly enough so that you will have to exploit all of your skills and not just part of it (it erodes pretty quickly) and remembering to add that 10% difficulty on top of it to sharpen them a bit.
Hope that wasn't too unclear (I tend to be incomprehensible), and that's not stupid, as I don't have any legitimacy to give such advice, as a failed artist.
I'm not even able to apply this to myself when I should, I always go for the 50% difficulty at least, so I suck at everything big time ... *sigh*
@Dabou Master Hey man come on, don't call yourself a failed artist! You need to know that you inspired and guided me a lot on my path so far with your advice and words, and I love to know that to this day you still check this thread, tbh you're the person I expect the most to comment what you think of what I'm doing because you've been coming here for a while, we don't talk much but when we do it's always a good thing, so yes your advice is as valid as any other artists.
But I know your feeling, I think almost everyone (at least the ones that wants to take this seriously) have that dreadful feeling of being a failure, heck I had that feeling a couple hours ago thinking that maybe this is not what I'm supposed to do and I will not get any better.
It's so so hard and complex to create amazing characters, environments.. anything! Specially when we constantly compare ourselves with another artists on Instagram for example. I see so many amazing things there that I'm just gonna say it, it actually makes me sad more than inspired knowing how far behind I am from them.
But even with that constant feeling, we do keep grinding, because we know deep down that we want to achieve that level one day as well.. And I believe we will, it may take longer, but we can get there just like they did.
That orc was rendered in toolbag 5, and I chose a concept that's not that more complex from what I already did, so I think it gets closer to the 10%, when I have something more solid I will post here.
You too stay strong on your path, and remember, you're not alone with those feelings. See you next time!
Hey guys, I want to share with you the personal project I'm currently working on.
My idea for this project is to create a stylized game ready character, kinda similar to the dwarf I did previously, but this time I want to expand in the complexity of the character, but not only that I plan on creating a small action scene with this guy.
I chose a concept by Zong Dexian, Soldier:
I really liked pretty much everything about this concept, the style, proportions etc. So I decided to give it a go, starting from scratch, I also wanted to practice a bit of some stylized anatomy before, to make is easier when blocking the armor/clothes but also to train it a bit.
I tried starting with ZSpheres, but Idk why I can't get that right, ended up giving and restarted the blocking by doing it the good old way, using primitives in zbrush, I reached this stage:
After getting the main shape done I dived into sculpting anatomy, nothing too complex, just to the point I would feel like it was a good study overall:
While reaching the end of the anatomy stage I was dreading what was after, blocking and creating all the clothes for him, my experience with the dwarf and some other projects was that this part is always so bad. But, surprisingly, It wasn't at all that bad this time, I even enjoyed trying to problem solve some of the parts, also It was fun integrating a poly modeling software(Maya in this case) and zbrush at the same time, using GN import/export, instead of bashing my head trying to create everything zbrush.
Anyways, this is the final blocking with all his acessories/cloth pieces:
The highpoly stage is pretty much the same as everything I've created using zbrush so far in this thread, nothing too mind-blowing and different from the dwarf for example, and it's the stage I'm at:
I'm almost finishing him, next I will start creating a secondary creature that I will need for my scene I said I was planning on creating with this guy. I believe this is my most ambitious project yet, but nothing too complex to avoid frustration and spending way too much time.
I'm taking my time with him, and I'm enjoying it, accepting the fact that it's not as astonishing as what we can see on the front page over here, or artstation, or a lot of places, and that's ok, it will take time to get there.
That's it, I will post him again when hes finished or at least close to it, thank you so much if you've read until this part, stay safe on motivated on your journey!
if i can say, well done, otherwise if you wanted to push things a little more i always liked the more exaggerated look and such that play on more depth and sharpness to say the clothing wrinkles. otherwise this is getting there for me, yes about front page stuff, some of us do not get extra help and only have ourselves to go on so i get you 100% there.
Anatomy is good looking, I know the anatomy is highly stylized but some parts feel a bit too dissociated from the rest of the body (trapeze, triceps tendon on the elbow, brachioradialis + extensor carpi radialis longus), like it's soooo sharp ^^ (even though I get that was the effect you were going for). Also, a fun thing I've seen, you actually "misinterpreted" the upper trapeze part, you made so big and high that it replaces the form of the kind of cape/scarf he has on his neck ^^ (well it ended pretty well with clothes so I could be totally wrong but still it was a funny explanation for the MASSIVE trapeze ^^). I know it was just a quick study (which is a good idea in my opinion by the way), but if it can help for your future works
I think you do very good blocking, I wish I was that good (sometimes I do an ok job but most of the time I'm scared as hell as to where to begin ^^).
The model looks really good, though it might be not the best choice to animate a character with this type of clothes (not too close to the body) if you're not used to it. Well I hope you wont burry yourself in frustration with that ^^.
Two questions (purely out of curiosity) :
1/ From the rear view there's some kind of glitchy mess on the bottom part of the clothes, I guess it's just not finished ? Shadows are weird there.
2/ Why did you put this guy on a pedestal if you want to animate it later ?
Thank you @iam717on your feedback on the folds/wrinkles, I see what you're saying and I will try to fix it!
@Dabou Master yeah looking at it now the traps looks pretty funny lmao. About the glitchy part, it's a mesh I made to serve as the inside of the coat, something more flat like, just so it doesnt look like a plane with the details of the outside, it's fixed now that the HP is indeed finished.
About the pedestal, I always find it easier to do the blocking and sculpting of boots and feet with something simulating a floor, just so I don't get lost with the volumes and keep the mesh straight with the floor.
Also I said that I will do an action scene with him but that will be static, no animation at all, only thinking about that gives me shivers lol, I know nothing about animation and I have a feeling that starting with this guy would be a bad bad idea.
My idea is to create some sort of combat scene that involves another character/creature (much less complex than him) that I'm doing right now, and I will pose them using zbrush probably to avoid having to deal with rigging as well. I'm excited to share more about it as soon as I have something more solid to show.
Thanks for the clarification on the pedestal part. To each their own I guess, if it helps you building your models. I tend to do that also but I don't embarrass myself with a pedestal, just a plane ^^. I guess I'm lazier than you
So you won't do animated characters, just an animation of static situation right ? Yeah seems a way better plan considering the complexity of your model with no knowledge about animation ^^. Good good good, just checking you're not putting yourself into too much frustrating work
Good luck on your work !
PS. I had to wait for the end of the april fool joke of polycount as it was really uncomfortable to answer or even read ^^.
Replies
I do question my progress and results quite often, what you mentioned, about being scared of starting a new project after a long hiatus is very real to me, that almost made gave up actually, but with small steps I managed to get over and go through it, so please please do not give up, it doesn't matter it its a mug or kratos itself, what really matters is the action you took of persisting through this fear, maybe what can help also is to follow a course of someone or a topic that you like, that helped me a lot to get the basics again.
But here I am again, I want to share with guys some work.
This head I did after doing the face features, I wonder if you guys can say who I used as reference.
After this I start a whole body study, it was REALLY hard, the blocking stage was a nightmare, I can't stress enough how frustrating it was, but after the blocking it went smoother, I want to get back to this guy and actually finish him whole, but this is what I get so far:
Everything i blocked out I just hid because they're pretty much blobs.
Anyways, that's where stopped for a while doing anything, and to get back to it I decided to give a break on lessons and studies and actually create something using a concept, so I chose a concept from the amazing artist Yu Nguyen on artstation and started working, I gotta say I'm having a lot o fun creating this guy.
It's still in the blockout stage and I have some concerns on how I will solve some problems like getting him into a pose and deal with the clothes and its folds, have no idea how I will actually do that actually, because sculpting the folds in a A pose doesnt make much sense, those folds should change when the character sits on the frog saddle for example, so I would love some tips on how to approach that.
That's it for now, I will keep you guys updated on this character in the future, stay safe out there whoever is reading this.
I did another stylized head study:
And about the giving up part, I believe there are pros and cons, one thing that I can tell you is that it's been a while since I last updated my portfolio and my computer is filled with eternal WIPs, so sometimes sticking to a project might not be the worst outcome (especially if it's one where you can practice a whole pipeline)..
Talking about whole pipeline, I decided to start another character yet again, and this time I really want to move on from the high poly and study the whole pipeline, creating the clothes were really frustrating and again I almost gave up, but I'm trying to go with a mindset that it doesn't matter if it will look good in the end, what matter for this project is reaching the end.
Here's the progress so far, most of it is still in the blocking stage.
The work on the dwarf continues, actually the highpoly is on a stage that I call pretty much done, I don't wanna dive into too much detailing on the sculpt, I want to achieve that on the texturing phase.
I posted more images in artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1NLJro
Now the plan is to do a course to practice even more and learn new things, I want to create a character that needs the use of hair cards next.
And no worry Dabou, I should've shown in the previous comments what concept I was following so no confusions would happen.
I slowed down in the end of the year but got back into studying and practicing earlier this yes.
I remade yet again my skull study and went a bit further by texturing in painter to also practice this skill.
I compared it to my other finished study I posted here a while ago:
I've also made some anatomy minor studies such as face features etc, and I just finished an orc that I planned to do as an sketch but got carried away and finished a sculpt + rendered him in marmoset:
That's about it, I plan to get a more serious when it comes to my studies and be more consistent, for my next steps I'm wondering if I should stick with small studies like these ones or try and make a new character project, like that dwarf, nothing too complex but something to practice the whole pipeline.
Hopefully I'll get an answer to that and you guys will just see what I make next, thank you for taking the time see my stuff, stay safe!
But I know your feeling, I think almost everyone (at least the ones that wants to take this seriously) have that dreadful feeling of being a failure, heck I had that feeling a couple hours ago thinking that maybe this is not what I'm supposed to do and I will not get any better.
It's so so hard and complex to create amazing characters, environments.. anything! Specially when we constantly compare ourselves with another artists on Instagram for example. I see so many amazing things there that I'm just gonna say it, it actually makes me sad more than inspired knowing how far behind I am from them.
But even with that constant feeling, we do keep grinding, because we know deep down that we want to achieve that level one day as well.. And I believe we will, it may take longer, but we can get there just like they did.
That orc was rendered in toolbag 5, and I chose a concept that's not that more complex from what I already did, so I think it gets closer to the 10%, when I have something more solid I will post here.
You too stay strong on your path, and remember, you're not alone with those feelings. See you next time!
My idea for this project is to create a stylized game ready character, kinda similar to the dwarf I did previously, but this time I want to expand in the complexity of the character, but not only that I plan on creating a small action scene with this guy.
I chose a concept by Zong Dexian, Soldier:
I really liked pretty much everything about this concept, the style, proportions etc. So I decided to give it a go, starting from scratch, I also wanted to practice a bit of some stylized anatomy before, to make is easier when blocking the armor/clothes but also to train it a bit.
I tried starting with ZSpheres, but Idk why I can't get that right, ended up giving and restarted the blocking by doing it the good old way, using primitives in zbrush, I reached this stage:
After getting the main shape done I dived into sculpting anatomy, nothing too complex, just to the point I would feel like it was a good study overall:
While reaching the end of the anatomy stage I was dreading what was after, blocking and creating all the clothes for him, my experience with the dwarf and some other projects was that this part is always so bad. But, surprisingly, It wasn't at all that bad this time, I even enjoyed trying to problem solve some of the parts, also It was fun integrating a poly modeling software(Maya in this case) and zbrush at the same time, using GN import/export, instead of bashing my head trying to create everything zbrush.
Anyways, this is the final blocking with all his acessories/cloth pieces:
The highpoly stage is pretty much the same as everything I've created using zbrush so far in this thread, nothing too mind-blowing and different from the dwarf for example, and it's the stage I'm at:
I'm almost finishing him, next I will start creating a secondary creature that I will need for my scene I said I was planning on creating with this guy. I believe this is my most ambitious project yet, but nothing too complex to avoid frustration and spending way too much time.
I'm taking my time with him, and I'm enjoying it, accepting the fact that it's not as astonishing as what we can see on the front page over here, or artstation, or a lot of places, and that's ok, it will take time to get there.
That's it, I will post him again when hes finished or at least close to it, thank you so much if you've read until this part, stay safe on motivated on your journey!
@Dabou Master yeah looking at it now the traps looks pretty funny lmao. About the glitchy part, it's a mesh I made to serve as the inside of the coat, something more flat like, just so it doesnt look like a plane with the details of the outside, it's fixed now that the HP is indeed finished.
About the pedestal, I always find it easier to do the blocking and sculpting of boots and feet with something simulating a floor, just so I don't get lost with the volumes and keep the mesh straight with the floor.
Also I said that I will do an action scene with him but that will be static, no animation at all, only thinking about that gives me shivers lol, I know nothing about animation and I have a feeling that starting with this guy would be a bad bad idea.
My idea is to create some sort of combat scene that involves another character/creature (much less complex than him) that I'm doing right now, and I will pose them using zbrush probably to avoid having to deal with rigging as well. I'm excited to share more about it as soon as I have something more solid to show.