Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Not a bad character you have all the process to create it correct, however could use more practise on the processes. I would suggest working on some head sculpts, a day or two per head roughly and do a few, will really hone those skills. Also relook at your marvellous process, there seems to be an issue from export to final high poly. But on the whole a good process that just needs more work.
• The artist has used a range of different software in the creation of this character and has pushed themselves to learn new techniques, such as rigging, in the production of this asset. The documentation does a great job of detailing the creation process, but I would suggest running any text through a spell checker first. Given the range of different styles of pirate clothing given in the research, the final design created seems a little simple in comparison. Some focus spent on making some more distinct characteristics in future would really help push the design further and help over coming some of the technical short comings. The initial Zbrush blocking out and clothing work in Marvelous Designer are great. The detailing of the facial features looks like it could do with some more time spent on it. Spending time gathering some good reference for general facial structure would really help. This is something that will come with practice. Spending time on going over the basic shapes and scales of features and objects would be a better way to spend production time, rather than rushing ahead with detailing.
• A nice pirate character design, you've done a good job of creating a design based off your influences. It would have been nice to see you creating your pirate moodboard first before creating the concepts, as this would have given you a more clear direction of where to go. The sculpt turned out fairly successfully, however your method of sculpting could be improved to produce neater results. I recommend in future using Zspheres to block out the whole body's anatomy and proportions first before focusing on sculpting. I'd also recommend sculpting the head in a separate subtool and merging later, to allow for more resolution in the facial features. There are some anatomical consistencies in the body - focus on working up the shoulders as they lack muscle and also study leg anatomy further. The back muscles could do with work also. Make sure you look at real human reference and not just existing 3D models. The hair could also be improved by sculpting it as separate subtools rather than trying to create locks of hair from one subtool. This creates neater sculpts as well as makes retopology easier. The face is quite successful, the main area for improvement being the eyes. The eyelids need more definition - again could be done by adding separate subtools for the sculpt. I would have liked to see more documentation on how the weapons were made. Quite nice topology on the model itself. It's good to see taking care for extra edge loops around the knees and arms. They perhaps didn't quite need to be so dense. I would also consider making sure your quads are all relatively uniform in size. This is evident on the boots, wher you have some very narrow polys and some very wide ones. Try and keep your quads square where possible. UV map is packed nicely. Texture work on the face was much improved from your first iteration - you could improve this model considerably by working a little more on the textures. While the smart materials in Substance Painter are handy as a base, they should be worked on additionally. Try and work some colour variation in also. I like the addition of the sand on the clothes, it helps sell the character. However do take care with where the sand is, as it currently feels a little aimless. Unfortunately your UE4 scene would not load. In future, follow good naming conventions for your assets in UE4. Materials should be named accordingly and textures should follow consistent naming conventions. As much as I enjoy cant_think_of_names, it's not suitable for game use! I appreciate the effort to create a diorama for your character, it is a nice addition. Perhaps for this competition I would have used that time instead to work more on your characters textures. A simple background can be quite effective for final renders! Lastly, I do wish you had written a conclusion to your documentation. I'd like to know what you think of the character and where you think you could improve.
• Its good to see you attempted the character without using a base mesh. I would use more human references to focus on getting the correct anatomy. Here is a good amount to sample from - https://sketchfab.com/tokechan/collections/human-anatomy-refs I would also recommend this book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anatomy-3D-Artists-Essential-Professionals/dp/1909414247 The hands look like they have been smoothed out too much and made the fingers very thin. Good work on the UV layout it’s looking nice and clean. It’s a good habit to keep the weapons on a separate UV sheet from your main character as these can then be swapped out in game. To improve the pose I would look into getting some expression on the face.