Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Contestant: Elsa Fox / @elsa_fox Assessor: Tristan McGuire / @Draconic_Cowboy Tier: Search For A Star Congrats on completing your project! Things that went well: ✧ Really nice high poly horns. ✧ Effective use of Substance Designer. ✧ Final renders have a good sense of mood. Things to consider next time: ✧ The body topology is quite nice, but the face isn;t up to the same standard. Make sure to reference examples of best practice for facial edgeloops. ✧ 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. ✧ For your final presentation, the thought behind the scene lighting and pose is great. Next time also include some more neutrally posed and well-lit images to show off the character fully. 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 Elsa! Great work on this character, I think Circe has a lot of personality and it’s obvious that you’ve definitely got the creative skills to be a great character artist. Keep working on your technical art areas (topology and UVs) and rendering to make your character go from great to exceptional! //Research & Development// Good research into the theme and a few assets. You could have done more into stylisation choices or rendering inspiration. //Technical Art// The retopology has good polygon density, but you have not considered specialised topology for deformation. There needs to be specific edge loops in the face, like around the eyes, mouth and nose, and other areas of deformation like the elbows, knuckles in the fingers etc. Have a look at Danny Mac 3D tutorials on how to deal with these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns5iRWRii5c Really nice work in Substance Designer with the textures! I love how the hair texture looks, it really suits the hair you’re going for. You waste a lot of space in some of your UV maps, it would have been more efficient to control texel density and ensure that the most optimal layout was being used. //Creative Art// Your sculpt matches your concept well. I think there could have been more asymmetry in the character to add some more real-ness, this is particularly obvious in the back of the dress. The thin draping cloth looks a little strange from the back. I’m not sure what is causing it to curve inwards and then outward, but it may have been a better creative decision to add more dynamic elements to the silhouette. The face is very well done, it meets that nice balance of doe-eyed and elvish which adds a lot of personality. A small tweak I’d recommend is in the lip anatomy, the bottom lip comes out just a little further than the top lip where it should be the other way around or even. In the side view, the upper eyelid should come out further than the bottom eyelid. //Documentation// Your documentation is very brief in certain areas. I would have liked to see your step-by-step process in the sculpt, retopology considerations, how you made the textures in Substance Designer, what your rendering scene setup is and what kind of issues you faced. You do not include a final polycount, material count or UV layout. I would add these to your artstation post for employers to see. //Final Presentation// Your final lighting setup could have helped your character pop even more - especially to add to the “Ethereal Grace” theme. The legs are really dark, and you can hardly see that gorgeous hair texture you’ve made! Have a look into using 3-point lighting and creating more tasteful shadows.