Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Contestant: Karl Collins-Marsh / @Karlcollinsmarsh Assessor: Tristan McGuire / @draconic_cowboy Tier: RS Congrats on completing your project! Things that went well: ✧ cool to see some primary research. ✧ Character fits the theme. ✧ Nice to see use of a rig. This skill goes beyond the skills needed for most character art jobs, but is a useful skill to have. Things to consider next time: ✧ There are multiple blank pages in the document, so I’m unable to fully understand all of the work that was done. So I’m unable to give ratings that fully reflect the work done. For example, you don’t say whether or not you made the car yourself, and didn’t show the final concept art. ✧ Characters need to be positioned with the world origin in between the feet. I can see from your retopology Maya screenshots that you have the origin at the shoulders, then in the rigging ones, she is forward of the origin. ✧ The topology for the clothing could have been more optimised. ✧ When doing UVs, you need to make sure to use all of the UV space, rather than having the islands small and spaced out. I’m also really not sure what is going on with the trouser UVs? If you’re gonna straighten the edges like that, you need to select the ones along the straight edge and do “unfold U” or “unfold V”, so that they are distributed correctly along the edge. Then select all the boundary UVs, pin them and then relax the inner part with the optimise tool. ✧ For future documentation, make sure to use much larger, clearer images. As you are in the Rising Star tier, I hope this feedback can be used to inform how you approach future university projects and I would love to see you take part in the competition again next year! You can find me on the social medias in the link below. Feel free to reach out in the future. All the best! https://draconic-cowboy.carrd.co/ - Tristan, Deputy Senior Character Artist at Airship Interactive.
• This artwork presents a character with a strong emotional expression. The use of color and composition draws attention to the character's features effectively. A focus on refining the character's environment interaction and further detailing the background could provide a more immersive context for the charater. However, I'd suggest a stronger focus on material work, rigging, weight painting and lighting as you move forward. Specific hints on improving your topology are not possible as no files or documentation were provided.
• First of all, I want to thank you for the work you've done; you've done well with the task. I found it very interesting to evaluate your character. Thank you for your effort and diligence. I want to wish you good luck in the challenge and creative success! Denis Beletskii. 3D Concept Character Artist. Wargaming. Also, I would like to add some useful materials on working with characters and more. I hope they will be helpful to you when working on new excellent characters. Good breakdowns in my opinion: • Sin Nombre—Valerious by Kristina Perinska https://www.artstation.com/artwork/YBQrOX • Frostpunk Explorer: Character Design for Cinematics by Claudiu Tanasie https://80.lv/articles/001agt-frostpunk-explorer-character-design-for-cinematics/ • Game Res character by William Paré-Jobin https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oAonE4 • Yokai Breakdown by Anastasia Fomina https://www.artstation.com/artwork/OGOn06 • Creating a Strong Male Character by Annina Weber https://80.lv/articles/creating-a-strong-male-character-in-maya-zbrush-substance/ • Marilyn Monroe by Alexander Lyan https://gamesartist.co.uk/marilyn-monroe/ Useful literature: • Excellent anatomy books for sculptors. https://anatomy4sculptors.com/ • A book explaining the use of lighting for artists. https://www.laurenceking.com/products/light-for-visual-artists-second-edition • Anatomy for 3D artists. https://www.brownsbfs.co.uk/Product/Legaspi-Chris/Anatomy-for-3D-artists---the-essential-guide-for-CG-professionals/9781909414242 • Character design. https://store.3dtotal.com/products/fundamentals-of-character-design • Another book on lighting, but this time for portraits. https://www.ammonitepress.com/mastering-lighting-flash-photography/