I’m taking a deep dive into my first realistic portrait project. I am basing on some sculpting workshops form Artheroes and of course the awesome ‘Human’ course by Kent Tremmel (cannot be overhyped - deserves all the praise and more)
I am trying to give it my own spin and build a character with some backstory (so I decided to go with my teen love for the Seattle 90’s music scene and make him kinda a young lumber jack playing in a punk band) I’m slowly coming to some results but now the real fun is tweaking these small details so any constructive feedback is welcome (just be kind and helpful- it’s my first time though I have some serious experience in other areas of CG)
In terms of feedback, I have a few things I can point out.
The skin looks a little plasticy at the moment. I think tweaking the SSS might help you there. Also roughness maps.
In terms of the sculpt in general, I think it’s pretty good, but a few things stand out to me. Firstly, I think his brows could be a little more defined. Currently they’re pretty flat. Usually men will have much more prominent brow bones, so worth considering.
I also think perhaps the cheek bones are a little too gaunt and high. Generally cheek bones will ease around the corners of the eyes, though yours extend above, more towards the brows. I also think the ears could do with a little more depth.
Finally, I think the brow hairs could use a little work.
thanks!
That’s some great feedback - really appreciated.
I guess I jumped into some deep waters not having a specific reference but rather combining multiple refs into a non-existing guy that makes the choices a bit fluid and hard.
I am struggling with those brows indeed
I have some critiques, but for a first attempt at a character from scratch it’s pretty phenomenal.
You did a really good job with your pore-level sculpting, and the eyelid area is well done, but your brow bone looks a little high. Texturing is pretty solid, although the lips might be a tad too dark. Also, I know particles are hard so I hate to say anything but the eyebrows could us a little more tweaking: they’re filled pretty unevenly and have a couple bald spots.
Also for the fold at the corner of the nose where the mouth and cheek meet up, it’s a little too horizontal. While it shouldn’t go right to the mouth corner, it should angle down a bit more (see the black line in the image above).
While I find your character concept intriguing, he doesn’t look like a young man. He looks closer to being in his forties or fifties than twenties or even thirties. This is a pretty common problem that happens when artists put so much effort into ensuring all their forms are super defined for the sake of realism they go a little too far and accidentally age their characters a decade or two. The neck area and shirt look good though.
Younger faces should still have some definition if you don’t want them to look like cartoon/anime faces of course, but are still generally smoother and less defined. I’m not talking about the pore-level detail, the pores and probably even the fine wrinkles look correct. The gauntness of the cheeks aren’t the only issue that are aging him, and the cheek area has a few problems, but it’s probably one of the areas I would prioritize fixing if I were you.
Even when using parts of multiple references to compose a character (which is definitely the harder approach!), try not to think of the individual parts of the face as individual parts, but pay attention to how they fit into the proportions and flow of the face they did belong to and try to adapt that for the face you are creating. I realize that’s easier to say than do, of course, but your character sculpting is off to a great start.
Thanks for the great and detailed feedback.
I wasn’t able to implement all of it yet, but definitely will soon.
Here are some updated renders (I worked on the skin and brows a bit and started to finish the shirt (not done yet)
No one’s first attempt at a realistic human character looks good, and yours is probably better than most I’ve seen, even if it looks like Magnavis changed a lot. (It’s a good edit though - Magnavis knows what they’re doing). If you look closely though you’ll notice there’s also a lot that didn’t get changed, and that the texturing/detail sculpt is pretty solid, as are the shaders.
Good work, that already makes a big difference. The brow bone is at a much more natural place and shape now, and the mouth changes are pretty subtle but still noticeably improved.
here goes another WIP render
I’m now working on adding moustache and peach fuzz hair (the start is nice but I already see some small tweaks are needed)
A few more steps (the shirt deifnitely needs some love and I wanna play with the lighting a bit) and I’ll call it done. That is already bin an intensive project as for the first time. I need to close it and move on to next ones. (The appetite just grows :))
Ok. I call it done. Now I’ll just make some renders and perhaps other shots to present the model. I know it could be still improved but I feel it’s time to move on…
This was a nice journey and I learned a lot. Super gratefull for your helpful feedback guys - It’s priceless - thank you!
Happy how it turned out in the end.
I’ll post final renders in another thread in finished project section.
though I have some serious experience in other areas of CG)
