Ok, this is going to sound extremely weird and vague as i try to explain what i am talking about lol… so bare with me.
You know the movie “The Incredibles” ?
Well notice how all the models have a very unique style to them? Its got, well a lack of details for one, and to me… their skin just for some reason makes me think of pottery.
But are there any tutorials / advice to how to model something that looks like they have in those movies?
Honestly i’d be happy to model a stupid box. Its the combination of lighting / material / texturing that i just cannot understand how they do it…
Zeusbwr, all I can recommend is look at Disc 2 of the Incredibles>Index> More making of the Incredibles. There you will see how and why they made them the way they did.
There they talk about sub surface scattering on the skin which is something that you were referring to. And they also explain why the design of the main characters is almost a caricature of real humans as opposed to making them look 100%.
Another interesting thing is how all the background characters, due to time and money constraints, were made out of “Universal man”, basically a generic model where different parts of this generic model, like noses and chins, were pulled and pushed to make the unique background characters. And they also discuss all the fustrations that came along with trying to make so many unique background characters from a single generic man.
As far as tutorials for semi realistic characters, that I don’t know, try www.3dtotal.com. See under Freestuff>tutorials. There you will find many tuts for Maya, 3dMax, etc, pick one and adapt it for your blender purposes.