I’m planning on making my first fully animated film in near future. It will be a psychological drama/adventure. I’m struggling with the art style I should choose, these are my current base meshes for male and female characters. But I’ve been looking at these for so long that I can’t tell anymore if they are in some uncanny valley between stylized and realistic design (the hair problem I can see even myself 
). All feedback is welcome, but especially I would like to hear your opinion, should I continue working on this game-cut-scene-type design, or should I go into a more stylized direction (something like Final Fantasy 8 cutscenes maybe??) 
Honestly, I don’t think I can make them much more realistic at this point, and I’m only doing this as a hobby (among other projects like TERMINARIUM) so I won’t be able to spend much time for this, but it also feels sad to abandon characters I’ve been creating for such a long time…
I have a similar delemar myself. I’m working on a short film which is a combination of live action and rendered locations with the characters from Human Generator. I’d like some styalization, but I can’t go too crazy (also, I dont even know how I’d do it), otherwise the characters will look out of place. So, I’v settled on the characters being as realistic as Human Generator makes them, without trying to make them too much more or less realistic. But, to create the right mood for the film, I’m looking at “everything else”.
The overall composition will be high constrast black and white (with some spot colour for some lighting). Maybe that will wash out the faces to be more cartoon like without using Toon shaders.
Then I’ll have to be very carrful HOW I animate the characters. Not too stilted, but not too cartoonish. I think using Mo cap might increase the uncanny valley effect. At this stage I’m thinking “hand” animated with slightly exagerated, or maybe even understated motion.
I wont spam this thread with pictures, but see my other posts for an idea of what I mean or checkout out my YouTube.
I also think that it will depend on what everything else in the scene looks like, they need to fit in with the rest of the scene so seeing the characters on their own is out of context and there is no real answer.
I’m about to post my own sculpt/model for feedback and it looks buying like the, I think they are realistic and inspiring for me. I’m like I want to make models that good for my projects
I think you are much more on the realistic side, but there are some issues that prevent reaching full realism.
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The shading seems off. The SSS seems to show only as a narrow red rim around each facial feature. It would be a bit broader and softer looking.
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The perfect symmetry (both in the modeling and texture) prevents complete realism and might be a cause of uncanny valley.
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The borders of the eyelids seem strangely grayish and matte. I would expect a glossy pink.
Thanks everyone! 
@DNorman True. 
This is my first project to be published that will also have plants, trees and nature, which can be quite a challenge in itself, and ofc all of it also needs to be coherent with the human characters and else. I decided to start with the character design first, because they will be the main focus of viewers. So if I can’t get them quite right, nothing else is gonna matter much anyway. That’s why I’ll first test what level of human characters and animations I’m at this point cut out to make, then build the rest of the film around that.
@etn249 Good points. Especially the subsurface scattering is a thing that I definitely need more practice at. The eyelids are actually totally left without any correct texture I think it was because I used vertex colors to mix texture maps and since these are the base characters for the rest of the virtual cast, I didn’t want to add too much topology around eyes at this point. But now that I think of it, I could have just used a simple texture map for mixing in the textures for the inner eyelids instead of vertex colors, or actually paint them straight into the face texture. The main reason for keeping them fully symmetrical is (besides me being lazy 
) that these are my base meshes or base characters, so I wanted to keep them easy to modify. Maybe I will fix the unnatural symmetry when the characters are fully ready.
Here’s what might help the “analysis paralysis.” Start by constructing scenes. As crude(!) as they might now be. Start rendering things (with Workbench, to scale), which will put you on your way forward. An actor or actress is just “a head shot” until they arrive on set. At that time, it will become clearer what is deserving of your careful attention, and what isn’t.
True. I’ll start working on that!