Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Hi Steffen, nice work on the character. I have some feedback to bring it to the next level. - Anatomy - More time could have been spent pushing the face further. The ear in particular needs work, it's too flush to the face, and the lobe melts into the face. Her expression is also a bit wide eyed, like she's surprised. - Materials - More time could have been spent defining the materials to match them some real world reference. The leather looks plasticy, same with the mask, it feels like it's made of plastic, but maybe it should be pushed to metal. - Texturing - The face should be split off into its own texture map, that way you can easily assign a subsurface shader to it. The eye should also be split into its own texture sheet, same with the hair cards. The face mask could be split off into its own texture sheet as well. The individual props, the katana and gun should be put into their own sheets. - Hair - I recommend looking up Adam Scutts tutorial on creating hair, and Emmanuel Lecouturier's tutorial as well. The hair needs work to bring it up to current gen standards.
• Outstanding level of documentation and research - zero complaints here. I must say that you did significantly go over your estimated time, however you hopefully new have a better idea of how long these things take. You have a studio level of workflow and it's clear you know what you're doing in this sense which is great to see. The details in your sculpt are excellent. However I think overall proportions feel a bit off - it would have been nice to see a specific body-type you were referencing. The head is a bit narrow also at the top. However the modelling of the clothes and accessories is up to an excellent standard. I think for the hair it would have been good to have more variation in the hair cards. You always need some wispy variants to add 'fly-aways'. Not having these leaves the hair looking chunky. The shape of the hair is nice though. The texture-work is nice. Some parts are a bit noisy, such as the grain on the skirt, but overall it's very effective. I would have liked to see more tonal variation in the face. The model itself is also well optimised. The polycount seems reasonable. The textures are possibly a bit high resolution and could potentially be knocked down, however for a portfolio piece this is fine. Presentation wise I really like this project. It's nice to see you've added a small diorama but it's not taken up too much of your time and also doesn't detract from the character. This makes for an excellent portfolio piece. Having the cloth simulation is also a really nice touch.
• The good: Solid understanding of the process, technical know-how. Attention to production (even if you ended up mis-scoping the project against your scheduled plan, at least there was a plan to begin with 😃 ) and preliminary work. Areas of focus: - Artistic fundamentals. A good feel for shapes, gesture, proportions is crucial in a character art career and can pretty much only be achieved by sinking more hours into the craft via drawing, sculpting, doing studies, etc. The base skill is there, but the mastery of it will require a bit more leveling still. - Level of polish. While a lot of this can be attributed to the fact that it’s not much time for a project like this, there are some shortcuts that were made in the modeling and texturing process which could fly on a rushed project but could get you in trouble in a higher production values/quality environment. Speaking of areas like the blade of the sword or the hardware of the flag, torn cloth alphas, ears, normal map gradients, the overall level of polish in texturing. Good job and good luck! Thanks, Pavel artstation.com/sobakuchiuchiu
• A well developed character, with only a few issues looking at the final presentations and wireframes, most noticeable is some bad topology around hands, and some possible texture issues. Just keep practising and you will continually improve. I felt the textures could have used more ao, and slight contrasts. But on the whole a very lovely and well-developed piece, where you know generally where your faults are and where to improve. Keep it up and you shouldn’t have much trouble breaking in to the industry.