So, I'll probably be applying your guys advice to my portfolio the week after christmas, as I'll have some time off, My boyfriend will be out of town, and I shouldn't have any other real distractions.
till then secret santas
CoJoeTheLawyer already figured me out, so I'll post these over here. They are super heros based on his daughters (who are twins)
I think that those two are going in the right direction, but their shape design could be improved quite a bit. The rendering is cleaner in most areas, but the composition and silhouette still seem kinda lacking.
They both seem like their entire bodies are more-or-less on the same plane, depth-wise. Like they've been pressed in a book. The cape on the 2nd one starts to show some depth, but the flat rendering on the top kinda prevents the illusion from being very successful. The hair seems very conservative, in very close-knit clumps, and I think that can be made more dynamic in both pieces. Same with the poses (mainly the legs). The legs and ankles look very stiff, and they're being viewed from almost the same angles.
The shape-language in the 2nd one is also a little confusing in the ends of the cape, and on the inside of the palm on her left hand (on our right).
Also-also, push your hues a bit more between shadows/midtones/highlights! The shadows seem either very same-hued, or black...and the highlights sometimes seem gray or desaturated/white.
Thanks for the crits ND. These guys are for secret santa over in G&T, So I had to get them to a relatively finished state faster than maybe I would have liked. I appreciate the crits, I'm not sure all of them could be applied in retrospect to these two, but I will try to do some adjustments when I can get back to them.
Just wanted to update my thread a bit, hopefully art camp will give me some things to throw in here, but I will refrain from cross posting to much. Here are some pokemon, and other doodles from the beginning of the year.
I've admittedly slowed down in pace, lately. We were transitioning (Moving, getting stable again money wise, things like that) everything's not perfect, but I should be able to sit down and draw more, which will also mean sharing more things.
He is the best of the bunch for sure. I was a little more reserved in my color picking. I am trying to find a happy medium between "Do a painting pretty quickly in a day" and "get good shapes and form". Pokemon have pretty strong designs, especially in the 151.
I like the painting of the crate as well! If its not going to get any normal mapping the only thing I would change is to exaggerate the shadows around the inside square so it looks like it has more relief to it.
I want to give you some awesome feedback like you always do for me, but damnit those look really good and I wouldn't change a thing. Also, these are so perfect for mobile/casual game companies, great idea!
Gonna chime in with praise for the money tear sheet as well. The coins are dope as eff. The minerals are super clean, is that a wolf face hidden in the reflection/refraction of the diamond? I really like how all of the minerals have sort of inherent "realness" too them, as if you thought out how they had formed and how they might have been collected.
Dig the box as well! It looks like there is a, I don't know what to call it so I am gonna call it "ghosting?" effect on the sides with crossbeams? Like maybe one was overlayed the opposite direction and then had the opacity dropped down to like 5%. What program are you building those in? I know you can do it in After Effects but have never tried.
Really cool to see these again. Textures/materials are kinda my jam, so I'm going to throw a lot of wordage at you...:P it might be a little nitpicky and personal preference-y, but I feel like my overall points are valid. I really like your style...I like how you've rendered things like the refracted light in the blue crystal with chunky forms, rather than smooth. I kinda feel like your material definition may need a little refinement though - you've got down that these things are all shiny, but you can really push a few things here and there that would really help sell the fact that your metal is different than your crystal. I remember that when you were doing those "material balls", I had a similar critique.
Always have reference while you're doing these. There are subtle differences between similar materials that you likely won't catch unless you're actively checking references.
There were times when I had to create textures for things like:
packed white clay
drawn-in red clay
red clay rocks
packed grey dirt wall
rocky dirt ground
dirt ground
sandy ground
etc. etc. etc.
...and they all had to look distinctly different! And there was a lot that I learned from grabbing reference and seeing, aside from color, exactly how each of those things differed visually. Rock and stone was similar - we had like 30+ different types of rock and stone that all had specific purposes...and they were all formed differently, so they all had to be painted differently. While in many cases they were very similar, their shapes would differ, their reflective properties would differ, their hues and amount of hue variation would differ, etc.
I'm not suggesting you do like..."30 different crystal types", but I think if you at least grab some real reference for each of these shiny things and compare them, and really try to figure out how they're different (in shapes, refraction, reflection, hue, hue variation, durability, specific types of wear) it would help you immensely.
Check out some crystal stuff (just google "crystal clusters"...I found a lot of good material there). The blue crystal has a slight amount of refraction going on inside of it, but the pink/purple cluster looks pretty opaque. That might've been intentional, but I'm not sure. For the cluster, the gradient-shading on crystal planes doesn't fall off that quickly - often each plane is mostly a solid color...because it's perfectly flat! You definitely see some gradients like that, but I think in the cluster you have, there's not much "solid" color to denote planes. There's a lot of fall-off, which may be breaking the illusion.
Reference would also help you put the proper kind of "wear" into each material. Scratches and "cuts" are a nice go-to method for making things looks distressed...but consider what kind of material each of these things is. Your blue crystal has what looks like a large crack in it, but that should probably look a little more like a chip (the things you have in the front). Don't try to make up the planes - reference images to see where the crystal planes tend to form, and how these things actually distress. For the coins, if you have a scratch that falls off the edge, continue the highlighted-edge onto the circumference a little bit. Carrying scratches/cracks that are on edges over to the bordering plane is a great trick that almost always helps "sell" the crack or scratch. And it makes sense too if you think about it - the scratch would end up breaking through the other plane. There are a handful of tiny little divots that look a bit out of place...partially in their treatment (and they're all the same size), and partially because they seem to cluster in spots, and then the remainder of the coin is mostly pristine. Seeing as how these are coins, super tiny distressed marks like those divots may feel a little too tiny.
Lastly, when adding wear-and-tear, try to avoid one large "spot", or a cluster of "busyness" unless it's intentional (i.e. if the bill was ripped almost entirely in half, that would be a pretty obviously intentional thing). Try adding just a few smaller tears (or fraying) around the other edges of the bill, so you don't have that single large tear drawing your eye all the time.
I'm really glad you're doing this, and I'd like help you as much as possible! I hope you can find some of this stuff useful.
Thanks for the crits, ND! I'll try and work at the things that will just require small modification, and leave the larger points to the next round of painting. Those are for sure useful tips that I will keep in mind. I want to do some simple environment textures as I get more into 3D, and so I will try to be more attentive and differentiate my materials.
Broke, that weird ghosting is actually leftover from a normal map I was playing with. I cant get Zbrush to not lock up on me when I import the box, so it was a frustrating endeavor, I'll venture to clean that up before it goes on the website.
Great stuff, all around! Those little items have a lot of personality, too!
I know readability is the priority when those designs are small, so I'd recommend making the coin scratches more obvious. Hope this is just me, but the small, clean marks leave me to assume the coins are incredibly huge.
If you make that your avatar I'm going to involuntarily have one of those empathy shutters every time you post.
You know, like in movies where they show a closeup of someone getting injected by a giant fucking needle, and the entire audience kinda winces and inhales through their teeth?
Like that.
Take care of your eyeballs.
Or if you're making this avatar because of horrific real life events, take care of your remaining eyeball.
@angel_of_bacon its already on facebook, luckily, I dont post much on facebook. Its funny, because no one seems to react that way when I draw bleeding, drooling snarling dogs, but you draw a droopy eye on a person and everyone's like "are you okay??"
@lyrium Yeah, its going to be mostly monochromatic, in the hopes that I will not put color all over the damn place and really focus on whats more important in comic making, value and composition. I also tend to noodle around with color way too long, and so Im hoping keeping it blue will push things to go a little faster.
Yeah 'ruka, every frame has a ton of character to it. Also really dig the monochromatic blue (green? god I hope that's blue) look. Would absolutely love to see more.
Oh my god iruka. That is great. The limited pallet and angular characters are amazing. Sometimes the text gets a bit close to the bubble edge, but I can't wait to see more.
Little touches like the reverse "EAT IN" sign make this delicious to look at. DELICIOUS I SAY!
Posts
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?261761-RJbonner-2d-3d-Artist
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=78501
3DS: 0447-9966-6178
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?261761-RJbonner-2d-3d-Artist
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That was the joke
till then secret santas
CoJoeTheLawyer already figured me out, so I'll post these over here. They are super heros based on his daughters (who are twins)
They both seem like their entire bodies are more-or-less on the same plane, depth-wise. Like they've been pressed in a book. The cape on the 2nd one starts to show some depth, but the flat rendering on the top kinda prevents the illusion from being very successful. The hair seems very conservative, in very close-knit clumps, and I think that can be made more dynamic in both pieces. Same with the poses (mainly the legs). The legs and ankles look very stiff, and they're being viewed from almost the same angles.
The shape-language in the 2nd one is also a little confusing in the ends of the cape, and on the inside of the palm on her left hand (on our right).
Also-also, push your hues a bit more between shadows/midtones/highlights!
INSTAGRAM
I've admittedly slowed down in pace, lately. We were transitioning (Moving, getting stable again money wise, things like that) everything's not perfect, but I should be able to sit down and draw more, which will also mean sharing more things.
The Scoundrel & The Bastard
My Comics Thread
I still need to ad wear and tear to the coins, but I like this page:
Going to do some low poly modeling as well.
I really like those coins.
I like the painting of the crate as well! If its not going to get any normal mapping the only thing I would change is to exaggerate the shadows around the inside square so it looks like it has more relief to it.
Thanks wasser! I'll probably get back into that box soon. I think I may model the coins as well.
I want to give you some awesome feedback like you always do for me, but damnit those look really good and I wouldn't change a thing. Also, these are so perfect for mobile/casual game companies, great idea!
Dig the box as well! It looks like there is a, I don't know what to call it so I am gonna call it "ghosting?" effect on the sides with crossbeams? Like maybe one was overlayed the opposite direction and then had the opacity dropped down to like 5%. What program are you building those in? I know you can do it in After Effects but have never tried.
Really cool to see these again. Textures/materials are kinda my jam, so I'm going to throw a lot of wordage at you...:P it might be a little nitpicky and personal preference-y, but I feel like my overall points are valid. I really like your style...I like how you've rendered things like the refracted light in the blue crystal with chunky forms, rather than smooth. I kinda feel like your material definition may need a little refinement though - you've got down that these things are all shiny, but you can really push a few things here and there that would really help sell the fact that your metal is different than your crystal. I remember that when you were doing those "material balls", I had a similar critique.
Always have reference while you're doing these. There are subtle differences between similar materials that you likely won't catch unless you're actively checking references.
There were times when I had to create textures for things like:
packed white clay
drawn-in red clay
red clay rocks
packed grey dirt wall
rocky dirt ground
dirt ground
sandy ground
etc. etc. etc.
...and they all had to look distinctly different! And there was a lot that I learned from grabbing reference and seeing, aside from color, exactly how each of those things differed visually. Rock and stone was similar - we had like 30+ different types of rock and stone that all had specific purposes...and they were all formed differently, so they all had to be painted differently. While in many cases they were very similar, their shapes would differ, their reflective properties would differ, their hues and amount of hue variation would differ, etc.
I'm not suggesting you do like..."30 different crystal types", but I think if you at least grab some real reference for each of these shiny things and compare them, and really try to figure out how they're different (in shapes, refraction, reflection, hue, hue variation, durability, specific types of wear) it would help you immensely.
Check out some crystal stuff (just google "crystal clusters"...I found a lot of good material there). The blue crystal has a slight amount of refraction going on inside of it, but the pink/purple cluster looks pretty opaque. That might've been intentional, but I'm not sure. For the cluster, the gradient-shading on crystal planes doesn't fall off that quickly - often each plane is mostly a solid color...because it's perfectly flat! You definitely see some gradients like that, but I think in the cluster you have, there's not much "solid" color to denote planes. There's a lot of fall-off, which may be breaking the illusion.
Reference would also help you put the proper kind of "wear" into each material. Scratches and "cuts" are a nice go-to method for making things looks distressed...but consider what kind of material each of these things is. Your blue crystal has what looks like a large crack in it, but that should probably look a little more like a chip (the things you have in the front). Don't try to make up the planes - reference images to see where the crystal planes tend to form, and how these things actually distress. For the coins, if you have a scratch that falls off the edge, continue the highlighted-edge onto the circumference a little bit. Carrying scratches/cracks that are on edges over to the bordering plane is a great trick that almost always helps "sell" the crack or scratch. And it makes sense too if you think about it - the scratch would end up breaking through the other plane. There are a handful of tiny little divots that look a bit out of place...partially in their treatment (and they're all the same size), and partially because they seem to cluster in spots, and then the remainder of the coin is mostly pristine. Seeing as how these are coins, super tiny distressed marks like those divots may feel a little too tiny.
Lastly, when adding wear-and-tear, try to avoid one large "spot", or a cluster of "busyness" unless it's intentional (i.e. if the bill was ripped almost entirely in half, that would be a pretty obviously intentional thing). Try adding just a few smaller tears (or fraying) around the other edges of the bill, so you don't have that single large tear drawing your eye all the time.
I'm really glad you're doing this, and I'd like help you as much as possible!
Broke, that weird ghosting is actually leftover from a normal map I was playing with. I cant get Zbrush to not lock up on me when I import the box, so it was a frustrating endeavor, I'll venture to clean that up before it goes on the website.
I know readability is the priority when those designs are small, so I'd recommend making the coin scratches more obvious. Hope this is just me, but the small, clean marks leave me to assume the coins are incredibly huge.
My Artist Corner Thread • Everywhere I Post
Still working on this: Its all smushy around the edges but its coming along I think.
I was making a new avatar but if I just wait two months the snow will be appropriate again...
If you make that your avatar I'm going to involuntarily have one of those empathy shutters every time you post.
You know, like in movies where they show a closeup of someone getting injected by a giant fucking needle, and the entire audience kinda winces and inhales through their teeth?
Like that.
Take care of your eyeballs.
Or if you're making this avatar because of horrific real life events, take care of your remaining eyeball.
Twitter
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
@lyrium Yeah, its going to be mostly monochromatic, in the hopes that I will not put color all over the damn place and really focus on whats more important in comic making, value and composition. I also tend to noodle around with color way too long, and so Im hoping keeping it blue will push things to go a little faster.
My Portfolio Site
Little touches like the reverse "EAT IN" sign make this delicious to look at. DELICIOUS I SAY!
You should do a mini-comic with him plz
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt