Alien Design Project (Critiques Wanted)

[system]

Hello everyone!

I’m on a new project and this one is going to be an alien design.

It’s supposed to be a rocky, shell-like, hard surface alien. I haven’t added things like alpha or fine surface detail because I really want the character to look fundamentally right before I do so.

Personal Notes
-Some of the cavity areas loo a little too soft like in by the arms.
-Fingers/hand need a lot more detail and refinement. Generally there are a lot of areas that look a little too soft.
-one major problem is that I was following along a Jessie Sandifer’s Zbrush Workshop (which is really awesome guys check it out) and now my creature looks way too much like his. I plan to put it in my portfolio so I really need to find a way to change the similar areas.

I would really appreciate any criticisms. I don’t really have anyone to help me spot errors so a second pair of eyes would really help me out!

Thank You for your time!

Attachments

[Piggy]

The anatomy is good, proportion is spot on, and the design is pretty awesome. Hard surface modeling is already pretty well define and believable as usual.

probably the only thing you need now is to do what you usually do… And Judging from your history, you have a pretty dang good idea about what to do next.

sorry it wasn’t much of a critique… I will be looking forward to see it finish

[system]

Thanks Piggy! I really appreciate you taking the time to look at my design. Thank you for the compliments. I’ll definitely post back here once I make some decent progress.

[Piotr_Slomowicz]

Looks good.The thing that I don’t like is hist chest “muscles” part. Seems a bit simple. Maybe the way it goes into the arm. Or maybe its that straight collar “bone” that could use a curve. then again it all depends on the detail that will get on top of that. Also isn’t the forearm a bit too short since you went with human proportions? It just the thing that pops in my head, I didn’t actually bother to check with actual human proportions so I could be wrong.

[system]

Thank you Piotr S***322;omowicz! yeah i agree with you on the chest, it was one of those areas that I really needed to adjust because it was too simple and a bit awkward. I added some new detail and I am really happy with the results. Overall the character might not look right because he’s missing a lot of Like fine details. I said before I am trying to get most of the major sculpting done before I start with fine details like cracks and surface alphas.

I also did major work on the face and it’s looking a bit better now! Can’t wait for to post some results!

Thank you for your time!

[system]

Progress is rather slow, but it’s progress and I’m not on a deadline since i’m unemployed lol…
Here’s an update:

Did a bit of work on the shoulders. They’re not as bland and boring. I felt Like I can get away with the shoulder pad look since it’s an armored like life-form.
Tweaked the abs a bit, messed around with the arms. The arms weren’t working with all of the smaller pieces so I adjusted it.
Head is still giving me trouble though. ill work on that tomorrow.

Let me know what you think of the changes!

[system]

started to add cracks and details. I added it all in layers so I can adjust each type individually. Ill finish up sculpting tomorrow and start adding the asses like hair, clothing and weapons.

[system]

making more slow progress. I’m kinda stuck in a rut right now. I’ve decided to challenge myself by completing this project by Sunday night (4days from now)

Here’s my game plan:

Thursday-finish sculpting accessories and weapons

Friday- retopo and reproject all objects

Saturday- UV/Texture

Sunday-Texture/render

ill post something everyday, starting tomorrow.

[system]

Well I had some goals set up, but then I got hit by the holidays. Had to see family and friends but now i’m back home. I added most of the accessory details. some items aren’t on the other side because I only need one for now, and later ill just mirror it over to the other side.

-Body could use more detail in some places.
-straps will need work but i’m actually going to work on them with spotlight when I texture them.
-weapons could use a little more detail

Now for the daunting task of retopologizing the character and assets. I tried qremesher (picture above), but it didn’t give me the exact results I wanted. It worked great but if this is going to be in my portfolio, I need it at its best. Let me know if the above topology is acceptable for something like animation in a film because I would love to be lazy and use that instead of retopologizing from scratch

[zborn]

First off, great sculpt I like the concept!
I think qremesher did a good job with the topology but qremesher always makes it look glitchy and messy with weird bumps and stuff. I’m not sure but maybe there’s an option in qremesher to make it cleaner but I would just re-topo in another program or something if you want to put it in your portfolio.

cheers!

[UnionJack]

What I learned from my studies at university, is that you need really good cape geometry flow (The area around the upper chest)… I don’t see a lot of that from the result. It’s pretty decent in terms of being able to be rendered in another application, but having a good working rig requires a lot of re-work on geometry. There are plenty of references/tutorials out there to get you started. Just pop that sucker in Topogun and give it a go. It might be tedious, but you’ll love the end product.

[Storm]

It worked great but if this is going to be in my portfolio, I need it at its best. Let me know if the above topology is acceptable for something like animation in a film because I would love to be lazy and use that instead of retopologizing from scratch

With that in mind, I’m going to be completely honest on all parts.

The topo is basically completely useless as it is right now, there is nothing in the face that would allow him to open the mouth or close the eyes, no eyelids, no jaw, the legs would be very hard to skin and deform the way they attach to the hip and just overall your topology doesn’t really support your shapes, muscles etc. at all. I would suggest you read through this: http://www.cgfeedback.com/cgfeedback/showthread.php?t=1449
Just the fact that there isn’t a clear definition of any of those plates he got all over his body, would make rigging impossible, they can’t move or slide if they cannot be skinned individually.

If it is for portfolio it wouldn’t really make sense to take the lazy way in any case would it?

Anyway, on the sculpting side it is looking good.
On the design part I think you would need to make those fingers thicker, they look like they are about to break, and the toes feel a bit neglected.
And this is just my personal opinion for a portfolio piece, but I think the design is very similar to Jesse Sandifer’s work, which is a bit of a shame, it doesn’t say that much about who you are, which properly isn’t a good thing if it is a portfolio piece, you need to stand out. By going this route you are automatically putting yourself up against Jesse, most people have properly seen his images, are they have been used for splash screen in mudbox.

So on a final note, on the sculpting side, you can definitely handle everything, it is looking very solid! you obviously know the ins and outs of zbrush which is a great selling point!
But I think you can push it further I would like to see who “Berserker44” really is And then you need to dive into the wonderful world of topology (which actually is both fun and challenging): Do you know any riggers? If you do then I would ask them on guides for what they want on the topology, maybe even give it a go a rigging it yourself, then all the mistakes in the mesh will be obvious because they will be hard to deform.

Fred

[system]

Wow thank you all for your time especially during the holidays. I agree with all of your points. I was incredibly tired when I made that post and now that I actually took a good look at the topology I can see how horrible it is. I have no idea why I said I wanted to be lazy and I really don’t want to portray myself as an lazy artist.
I actually spent a great deal of time responding to all of your post but something happened with the submission and it did not go through. so ill retry tomorrow
I just wanted to make sure that you guys know that I am taking your advices to heart and that I am incredibly grateful.

I’m a bit exhausted right now because of the holidays but I will dedicate tomorrow to towards retopology and making him look more like “my” character and not Jessie’s design.

[system]

So my project got out on the back burner but I ended up doing some major work this week. I took everyone’s advice on retopologing the character. everything is retopolgized and ready to go atm, but I’m having some issues wth the displacements. I also took Storms advice about how my model looked too similar to the tutorial I was following. I whole heartedly agree with storm, but this design flaw wasn’t intentional. I feel like I made some good changes to separate my design but still keep my tribal warrior theme. I really like the direction I’m taking this character. I’m almost done but I would still like any suggestions or critiques as I am always trying to become a better artist.

[A.Ceylan]

Really cool character!!! small_orange_diamondsmall_orange_diamond
A lot of stuff going on.

[system]

Really cool character!!! small_orange_diamondsmall_orange_diamond
A lot of stuff going on.

Wow, thank you for the compliment! Your work is astonishing!

[Jagoro]

Man, your getting better and better really fast. Love this one. GReat work. looking forward to see more. Good luck

[system]

Man, your getting better and better really fast. Love this one. GReat work. looking forward to see more. Good luck

Thanks you! The crituqes help out a lot! I’m not done with this project. I have him textured, but I’m stuck with the displacements in zbrush so I’m working on another project atm.

btw your gallery is awesome man! really good stuff