Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Contestant: Hannah Galea / @HannahGalea Assessor: Tristan McGuire / @Draconic_Cowboy Tier: Search For A Star Congrats on creating something for the competition! It is clear that this entry is unfinished, so feedback can only be quite limited. But I am so glad to see you did submit an entry. Things that went well: ✧ Creative idea with a well thought out backstory. ✧ Nice use of a range of hues in the skin tone. ✧ Amusing facial expression. Things to consider next time: ✧ Would have been good to see some further justification of your idea and showing some different iterations before reaching the final outcome. ✧ When UV unwrapping, try to make the islands as straight and aligned to the grid as possible, as this allows you to pack them into the square more efficiently. Even an organic form can be cut in such a way that many of the parts can be straightened. ✧ Allow yourself enough time to complete manual retopology of the character to get it down to a game res tri count and incorporate animation-ready edgeloops. I hope this feedback proves useful and will help you with future projects and building your portfolio. 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, Character Artist at Airship Interactive.
• Hi Hannah! What a weird yet memorable submission, I love the background you gave behind the character - it adds depth and personality and I can see the decisions behind your design. I love the expression on the face and the wrinkles are done very well to sell the look! The baby's anatomy is overall very well done, though I do think that the legs are too straight and should be slightly more bent, making the feet in line with the shoulders. I like how unsettling the large stomach is on this character, but I think you could have shifted it down to the belly to make it more believable. At the moment, the main swelling is in the abdomen and it sinks when going into the diaper, anatomically I would have expected this to be more around the waist with the tube entering at the belly button. From the back view, I think the elbows could use a bit of definition to show that there’s a joint at the centre. It may have been fitting to add a couple of back rolls too, or some wrinkles for more interest on the back of the model. On the back of the model, I like the design of the spinal cord being mechanic and ingrained into the baby. I think you could have added a couple of stretching or swelling marks in the skin where these weld together, there’s an image on your reference board that shows this well. Your UV maps should have been combined into one map to be the most efficient. They also look like they are done in ZBrush, although isn’t bad for a quick unwrap, you’re better off using another 3D package (Maya, Blender, 3DSMax) to ensure that your UVs are industry standard. For example, the head should never be cut at the centre - this is your main focal point and you want to ensure that this has the most texel density. It is rare to see a character that is only one UV island. In other 3D packages, you’d be able to visualise the texture stretching this is causing in your smaller areas (fingers, feet, ears etc.). Although there are cases where the ZBrush unwrap could come in handy, I would not recommend it for unwrapping your final model.