Demo Reel-- Monster Sculpts Critique please!

#1

Hey guys, I posted my reel a few weeks ago for feedback. I manged to fix a couple of the characters so far. With these two I’ve been dragging them on for quite a while so I’m really sick of working on them and don’t want to change anything major though.

with the female I’m wondering if I should include the low poly version and pose it. The low poly version doesn’t look as good as this final sculpted version so I’m afraid it might only hurt me.

Should I include the skirt I’m not sure It’s adding much to it its a bit lame.
Should I not show the naked back version because I’m not sure about my Anatomy and I’m still learning.
Do I need a non painted version to show or less flashy rendering

with the Demon I Absolutely don’t want to work on him anymore so I’m sort of rushing it and its not turning out as I had hoped. I’m trying to just throw on some zbrush textures and materials to make it look better. Is this a bad idea?

Any general advice on what materials and textures or quick overall changes I could make. Just sort of threw on the current materials and skin color to play with it a bit.

theres obvious things wrong with the demon like the fingers but because I didn’t think it through initially on what I’m doing with this guy, how things are supposed to fit together, and the sculpt is already non symmetrical I don’t want to keep working on it.

Should I just give up on this guy or do a somewhat decent job for now just to have something on my reel for now?

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#2

Sadly i can’t answer to most of your highlighted questions, but maybe just a general thoughts will sufice ^^’.

Anyways, not sure what this is for but just as a general observation opinion.
The girl needs legs.If she doesnt have legs then she should be floating (so there needs to be ground too) at the high of where he legs should be. Think of it as a ghost head would float ~1.6 meters in the air, not 5 cm from the ground. Imho that would add abit more “realism” to the character making me believe more in her. But as of now the lack of legs and/or ground announces me that you don’t know anatomy (sorry if you know it ^^’).

The demon also has anatomical problems. the demon has those wolf(?) like legs, but it looks like it is still standing as it was a normal human. i think the weight distribution should be different. if you google worgen for example, youll see that his thights aren’t suposed to be straight vertical, but more angled.
Also the the whole torso area, hands and head relation seems off.
Don’t know which programs are you using, but i would try two routes.

  1. Making hands longer and palms bigger. Take inspiration from worgen pics. Adjust head torso if needed.
  2. make the head smaller. Try making if 0.7 of what it is now. Arms and palm may need adjustments, but torso will be okish i think.

Sorry if this is not what you were looking for and gl with your work.

#3

Thanks that’s actually great feedback. The female I will add a ground plane too you’re right, doesn’t have legs.

I might just quit this guy then for the following reasons ( since I didn’t think it through when starting)

  1. A lot of the pieces are simply dynameshd vs zremeshed so I can’t lower the detail and resize the arms for instance without getting rid of detail

  2. I really don’t think I can make the hands or neck area , or it’s “anatomy in motion” look accurate since I was just following a tutorial but making my own character from it ( my design) and I haven’t gotten to anatomy in motion. The hands are at weird angles and I can’t go to a lower sub div to fix them.

Question: Do I have to fix the feet angle , torso proportion etc? I mean since its stylized I figured “Anything goes” , but ya I guess it has to make sense to support the weight properly.
The head is supposed to Be big but perhaps it needs support then.

Damn I just checked the worgens, you’re right it doesnt make sense with the proportions! NOOOO lol

I guess I can sum up my MAIN CONCERN, which is mindset. Is it better to try to Salvage things you’re working on like this if you feel you’re not learning and just trying to make it “good enough for now” to have something to show ( in case I get a job), or would I learn more by starting over and thinking things through better this time. I have a hard time letting go! lol

Thanks.

here’s my current portfolio https://www.artstation.com/artist/roozbehiravani

#4

So I don’t want to go in and change anything else to this guy. Would rather start over. I really can’t texture paint him zbrush keeps crashing…its too high poly. But can I at least render it with cool lighting and shaders, comp it well, and have something cool to show for now, like this? Or will it just hurt my portfolio?
(lighting and comp not finalized)

#5

Good rule of thumb: if you have to ask if something is going to hurt your portfolio, chances are you just found your answer.

#6

Can’t answer the question about what would be best for you, but I find myself producing better result when i recreate the same stuff. It usually ends up faster than the time it took to build the original model, it’s usually of higher quality and less messed up. So here i would say that you probably would learn and progress more if you recreated it.
As for if it is fit into the portfolio, it depends on what else is there in the portfolio. If there is nothing, then sure add it while you make more/rework the current one, but if you already have more models at least on the level of ghost girl i would probably took the demon out.

#7

Ya you guys are right. Thanks that really reinforces what I was already feeling was the right thing.

I’m going to just put up what I have for now and work on a new model.

I think I was hoping the lighting and shaders would hide the errors or poor modeling areas which is stupid lol

I was going to go back and fix up the other models I have slightly but probably better to do them over again too.

Here’s my portfolio. https://www.artstation.com/artist/roozbehiravani

Thanks again guys.

#8

what might help with these sculpts especially organic sculpts it helps to be free with the strokes, am guessing you used zbrush or mudbox

#9

Mr BNY I’m actually done with these…I’ll probably get rid of the lizard one once I make something better though…

But could you please clarify what you mean with " free with the strokes?" You mean longer strokes, vs smaller quicker ones, making things flow into each other more?

Yes I use zbrush

#10

Yeah along thoes lines, organic things tend to flow so for your creature theres isnt alot of smaller strokes to define some of the big strokes, and also use the difrent alphas within each brush and mess around with the setting. A good one is if you have lazy mouse turned on you can decrease the value of the lazy step which will make strokes in small areas flow rather than look dotted. Not sure if this is any help but i hope it does