Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Student: Leigh Moore Challenge Tier: Search For A Star Assessor: Jessie Chan Hi Leigh! I really enjoyed reading through your documentation and understanding your inspirations behind this character. Your pre-production process is thorough, well-written and pulls from various references, I liked how the document is styled to suit the character as well - it’s obvious that you loved this project! I’m a personal fan of Alberto Mielgo’s work too so it was nice to see some of his work as your main reference. I think it would have been beneficial to also reference existing 3D characters in your mood boards as well - this would have set a benchmark for style and quality and given you an idea of approaching a 3D anime character (which is not easy!). Here are some great examples: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ybagP8 https://www.artstation.com/artwork/R3kDDe https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lDQDOV In these examples, you can see how they’ve approached the flatness in the face. There is still underlying anatomy to inform the plane changes in the character and that plays to classic anime faces - the cheekbones, the sharp chin and the nose that comes to a point. Unfortunately, in your character, some of these elements are lost which is leading to that lifeless/uncanniness. Even if a character doesn’t plan to have a facial rig, you will need to set up the face topology to allow for proper deformation. This rule applies to any area of the character that will deform, e.g. the hands, elbows, legs, armpits, knees etc. It also means that when you subdivide the model it retains important landmarks with supporting edge loops. This process is called “Retopology” and it’s usually done after making a high poly version of the character. You can find a lot of tutorials on the process on YouTube - I like Danny Mac 3D’s tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqfeGbC3hW8 For projects moving forward, I would recommend focusing on improving your PBR texturing workflow (including using baking) and having a better understanding of the whole 3D pipeline so you can prepare for the next stage. This video covers it very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eswIx8MI3k4 Best of luck for the future Leigh, you have tons of creativity and passion for your work and I look forward to what you create next! Please reach out if you have any questions :)
• This is a really fun project! The development of ideas and documentation of your project was fun to read. Well done completing this project, especially as you have only made a couple of 3d characters in the past. Some feedback: ∘ It would be good to see some references of 3D characters created with a similar art style to use as a quality bar ∘ a wider range of silhouettes for body shapes could be beneficial in the research and development stage, as well as final composition ideas ∘ To meet an industry standard workflow you'll want to use ZBrush for the high poly model, and then bake the details down for the low poly ∘ Make sure to use substance painter for texturing, it will be necessary to learn a PBR texturing workflow - this is why your materials don't translate well into ue5 ∘ a few UVs aren't unwrapped properly, the meshes should be perfectly flat. It looks like some seams haven't been cut, this will make textures repeat in areas you don't want it to Rigging can be tricky, so well done for finding a solution that works! Adding that background really brought the piece together, and the end result looks great! Feel free to reach out with any questions ~ Sasha Gallie, Character Artist at Double Eleven https://www.artstation.com/sashagallie