Hi Andrew! I've been watching your posts for a while and you have some pretty awesome work. I've got two things I'd like you to consider for the future.
1. Your work is really good but your renders are kinda poo. If you're trying to show off the sculpt, then a simple MatCap will do just fine (with BPR settings enabled if you like). Personally, I like the MatCapPearl_cavity the best. I think the darksiders stuff uses the MatCap_skin_04. If you'd like to get fancier then you could use an AO and depth map for the renders too. Anything more than that and you risk loosing information in the still shot. The above image is a kickass sculpt but the MatCap you're using to show it off doesn't capture all the hard work you're putting in. I would bet if you looked at the histogram in photoshop of this image, it would look like a 'U' shape of some kind (basically two spikes: one in the top 50% and one in the lower 50%). What we're looking for in the histogram is a bell curve. This tells us that the image has information across the entire spectrum. If it helps, I can throw a demo together that demonstrates this principle.
2. I'd LOVE to see you take one of these all the way to a final in-game render that shows off wire frame, texture maps, and poly-count. It would be a great portfolio piece and a good way to show that you can take something kickass and make it work in a game engine which is the technical part of a game-artist's job.
Hope this helps and keep up the awesome work. If you need help with any of this, don"t hesitate to ask for help. I'll do what i can when I'm not at work to help out with tutorials and demos, but I'm sure there are plenty of people here that would help out too. I cant wait to see what you post in the future. :D
Thank you William, i would love some demos and i really appreciate your help i will for sure start finishing my work im just still learning zbrush and still trying to get the feel for it, if there is anything else you think that might need more improvement do not hesitate to tell me, and if you could for future models, could you critique them, i post my stuff on this blog for people to tell me whats wrong with my stuff so i can fix it but seems like no one is ever on haha but thanks again i really appreciate it
Sounds great Andrew. I'm not really up on my anatomy but i can point to what looks funny (the better renders would help with being able to see the smaller details) but from what I've seen, you've got a really solid grasp on characters already. lol if you do any environment stuffs i can sure pitch in there. :)
yea I see your stuff go by all the time. I wish i could post some of the stuff I've been working on at BioWare but alas, it'll have to wait till the environments goes public. I've gotten to play in ZBrush alot since I've came back at BioWare last February. Even hosted a workshop/demo for the other env artists here. I'm trying to get some more tutorials together on the side but we've been so busy at work that I'm having trouble finding the time and energy. lol
Yea, ZBrush is a great tool. I have to admit thought that one of my favorite parts of this art stuff is the process of getting that sculpt out of ZBrush and into the game engine. xNormal is a beast.
You dont have to finish everything you start. That's the beauty of being an artist. Make something that you enjoy working on. If it starts to become work (it'll feel like a chore at this point), then you should stop what you're working on and move on to something else. I've probably got 5-10 times the amount of work I show in my portfolio stashed away on my hard drive at home where no one can see it. I consider it my 3d sketch book.
I check in here from time to time, but with nothing to post, its easy to forget to check on a regular basis. (i'll try to get better at that. lol)
Have you looked in to the Dynamesh tool in ZBrush? If you havent, it'll blow your socks off. It completely changed my work flow and made thing like 10 times easier for me. pretty mush dont have to worry about making a base mesh anymore (unless I'm building some modular stuff that has to be on grid). :)
i have some environment stuff but there garbage lol and i know about dynamesh i love it and do you have any characters you've done recently or in the past William ??
Hi Andrew! I've been watching your posts for a while and you have some pretty awesome work. I've got two things I'd like you to consider for the future.
ReplyDelete1. Your work is really good but your renders are kinda poo. If you're trying to show off the sculpt, then a simple MatCap will do just fine (with BPR settings enabled if you like). Personally, I like the MatCapPearl_cavity the best. I think the darksiders stuff uses the MatCap_skin_04. If you'd like to get fancier then you could use an AO and depth map for the renders too. Anything more than that and you risk loosing information in the still shot. The above image is a kickass sculpt but the MatCap you're using to show it off doesn't capture all the hard work you're putting in. I would bet if you looked at the histogram in photoshop of this image, it would look like a 'U' shape of some kind (basically two spikes: one in the top 50% and one in the lower 50%). What we're looking for in the histogram is a bell curve. This tells us that the image has information across the entire spectrum. If it helps, I can throw a demo together that demonstrates this principle.
2. I'd LOVE to see you take one of these all the way to a final in-game render that shows off wire frame, texture maps, and poly-count. It would be a great portfolio piece and a good way to show that you can take something kickass and make it work in a game engine which is the technical part of a game-artist's job.
Hope this helps and keep up the awesome work. If you need help with any of this, don"t hesitate to ask for help. I'll do what i can when I'm not at work to help out with tutorials and demos, but I'm sure there are plenty of people here that would help out too. I cant wait to see what you post in the future. :D
-William
Thank you William, i would love some demos and i really appreciate your help i will for sure start finishing my work im just still learning zbrush and still trying to get the feel for it, if there is anything else you think that might need more improvement do not hesitate to tell me, and if you could for future models, could you critique them, i post my stuff on this blog for people to tell me whats wrong with my stuff so i can fix it but seems like no one is ever on haha but thanks again i really appreciate it
ReplyDeleteSounds great Andrew. I'm not really up on my anatomy but i can point to what looks funny (the better renders would help with being able to see the smaller details) but from what I've seen, you've got a really solid grasp on characters already. lol if you do any environment stuffs i can sure pitch in there. :)
ReplyDeleteyea I see your stuff go by all the time. I wish i could post some of the stuff I've been working on at BioWare but alas, it'll have to wait till the environments goes public. I've gotten to play in ZBrush alot since I've came back at BioWare last February. Even hosted a workshop/demo for the other env artists here. I'm trying to get some more tutorials together on the side but we've been so busy at work that I'm having trouble finding the time and energy. lol
Yea, ZBrush is a great tool. I have to admit thought that one of my favorite parts of this art stuff is the process of getting that sculpt out of ZBrush and into the game engine. xNormal is a beast.
You dont have to finish everything you start. That's the beauty of being an artist. Make something that you enjoy working on. If it starts to become work (it'll feel like a chore at this point), then you should stop what you're working on and move on to something else. I've probably got 5-10 times the amount of work I show in my portfolio stashed away on my hard drive at home where no one can see it. I consider it my 3d sketch book.
I check in here from time to time, but with nothing to post, its easy to forget to check on a regular basis. (i'll try to get better at that. lol)
Have you looked in to the Dynamesh tool in ZBrush? If you havent, it'll blow your socks off. It completely changed my work flow and made thing like 10 times easier for me. pretty mush dont have to worry about making a base mesh anymore (unless I'm building some modular stuff that has to be on grid). :)
i have some environment stuff but there garbage lol and i know about dynamesh i love it and do you have any characters you've done recently or in the past William ??
ReplyDelete