Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Hi Dylan, You have done well developing a concept into a very unique and interesting final design One suggestion I would have is to try and keep the geometrical style consistent, as the head looks smooth compared to the blockiness of the rest. Additionally, if you wanted to go with more of a low-poly style character, you can use less polygons to describe the form. Alternatively, you could smooth the model and use some of Mayas sculpting tools to add some details into the mesh. If you wanted to keep more in line with a game art worflow, it's a better idea to model in a neutral pose and adjust the model into your desired pose after. Also, you can look into optimising the topology to lower the polycount make it work with animation. Have a look at this website for some more info: https://topologyguides.com/ For most characters, it's best to learn ZBrush or a similar software, as this will make it much easier to get smooth, organic shapes. The most common workflow is to model first the high poly in ZBrush, then create the low poly version in Maya, then move to baking/textures. Good job on the submission and I hope this feedback is helpful! :)
• As the character is untextured, not posed in engine and there is no engine scene available as per the brief I will judge this as an unfinished entry. - You went through the correct steps of developing your concept, although I recommend doing some drawing studies beforehand of characters in the style you want to depict. Moreover, having a fundamental understanding of anatomy and how cloth works in 2D will help you greatly when making your 3D model. For anatomy, one book I highly recommend is Anatomy for Sculptors (https://anatomy4sculptors.com/understanding-the-human-figure/). Also, don’t forget to practise anatomy through drawing since a lot of the observations you make in 2D can easily be transferred to 3D. For this I highly recommend drawing quick poses (1-2 min) which force you to find the main lines of action and learn how dynamic the human body is. - As far as 3D pipeline goes, your process is a bit unusual since you mostly used Maya. This is how characters used to be made a while back so it’s not entirely wrong. Although, learning to use ZBrush is an essential skill for any character artist since it allows you much greater expressivity when depicting organic forms. As a good baseline of how characters for games are made, I recommend the following two free courses: Character Production by Daniel Rodrigues - https://www.artstation.com/learning/courses/xvl/research-and-blockout/chapters/GMDe/introduction Character Art Test by Jared Chavez - https://www.artstation.com/learning/courses/g38/references-and-advice/chapters/Q5Xo/introduction *The first course is recommended for beginners while the second is at a more intermediate level. I recommend you try the first one, then have a go at a personal project based on that and only then watch the second one for more in depth knowledge. - The UV’s are visibly deformed which will affect the way textures are projected onto your model. There is a specific view in the Maya UV editor that shows the compression/strtetching of your UV shells. Use that while cutting up and laying out your mesh to determine where the seams should be put. The above courses are a good starting point to understand the character art pipeline. Outside of that, it is important to practise drawing and sculpting for fun. Not every piece you make has to be final, but they still help you progress. Feel free to reach me at: verisof08 on Discord or via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mihaiandrusandu/