Thanks everyone for the advice. Very helpful for me in getting a realistic perspective. A mountain load of great tips! I'll be sure to start posting updates so show what I've been up to.
You can't be a ninja and wear knight armor, shoulder pads restrict movement in the real world so I think you need to keep your expectations realistic or be prepared for unrealistic rigging...
Any before you suggest Substance Designer, I'm more talking about the physically rendered side of things, how do I make it look realistic? And make light hit it realisitcally.
Back to work and finding it hard to fit these in, struggling with getting these to look realistic, looking quite stylised atm I need to work smarter... Also video messed up on this one :poly141: #017
I forgot to mention that the art it's for an immature public. I don't pretend to do a completely realistic modeling, but i'm trying to keep some details.. Here more progress, the first plant is done!
Try to nail down the key features that make the face recognisable. Looking at charicatures is useful as even though the drawing/sculpt isn't realistic it still captures the elements that define that particular person's face.
Looks like it's a problem with max's shaders. Set it on Realistic or Consistent Colors and it displays correctly, if a bit slower. 1 bit alpha (dds) didn't help, though or I didn't do it correctly.
The details are great here but there is still something about the lighting that isn't sitting right now with. I'd spend a little more time working on the ambient occlusion to get a more realistic look and feel
PBR assets ("realistic" or "stylized") can very well be textured completely in Photoshop, without touching a single bit of Substance or Quixel. They don't have to be. But they can be. And in some cases it's faster, in others it's slower.