Matthew Johnson Sketchbook/demo reel wip

[ioster]

Hi, mnts asked me to look at your work. I'm not sure why, but here you go: Overall I think you have a very strong foundation. You clearly have a solid grasp on the tools and are a talented and creative sculptor. I think you have room for improvement on presentation. First, I suggest keeping your images a little smaller. I'm using a monitor set at 1600x1200 pixels, and I can't see most of your images without scrolling. If you want to show a detail shot, crop it.

I'm not sure how far along you are on the squid guy. It looks good, but IMHO it looks like you have another subdivision worth of detail and refining to go. The forms are still a little lumpy, specifically in the neck, upper back, and butt. Flatten with the square alpha and a tight fall off can go a long way (which you probably already know). The dino has been taken to this level, and to my eye looks a lot closer to being ready for a roll out on ZBC. Also, I'm seeing some pretty rough stretching inside this guys mouth. You may want to consider a retopo pass.

Another thing that might help with the squid guy is adding in some irregularity on the suckers on his arms. They look very clay brushy to me. This is a great place to start, but with some additional variety in size and shape, they'll begin to feel a lot more organic.

One thing that works well with the dino that I would like to see on the demon is you used a material with some specularity. There are some great matcaps out there, and the right one can really bring out the fine detail and help the sizzle. If polypainting seems like more work that you want to deal with, do a quick pass in photoshop. No one will know or care : ) We just want to see kick a$$ work.

Let me know if you have any questions. Look forward to seeing more from you.

Isaac

[mattj324]

[font=Verdana', 'sans-serif]Isaac-[/font]

First off I want to say thank you for the critique. mnts and I are roommates and I had told him if there was a good artist that comments on his work or that had gave him a good critique then to ask that person to look at my work too. I’m currently a senior at AI- Chicago and I don’t get many critiques and when I do get critiques it usually: nice, cool, good job. I’m glad that I made that mistake and that you took the time to tell me. From now on when I post I’ll keep it at 1024, for the biggest dimensions.
-[font=Verdana', 'sans-serif] “Flatten with the square alpha and a tight fall off can go a long way (which you probably already know).[/font]

[font=Verdana', 'sans-serif]I didn’t think about putting on a square alpha on the flatten brush witha tight fall off, I’ll try that out.[/font]
[font=Verdana', 'sans-serif][/font]
[font=Verdana', 'sans-serif]I was considering calling this guy done, and not doing a re-topo pass and (being lazy) but you put me in my place and I want to meet your expectation and I’ll finish this guy.[/font]

[font=Verdana', 'sans-serif]-“Another thing that might help with the squid guy is adding in some irregularity on the suckers on his arms. They look very clay brushy to me.”[/font]
[font=Verdana', 'sans-serif][/font]
[font=Verdana', 'sans-serif]Haha this just shows how much of a rookie I am, it’s all clay/clay tubs brush. I was going more for a barnacles/ and or warts. I’ll change them up so that there different sizesand shapes.[/font]

[font=Verdana', 'sans-serif]I don’t like posting a description or a full back story to the character when I post models. I think about the backstory some times when I sculpt. But, he’s based off the dominance war V main competition I did not have time to do the competition, I still wanted to do a character based off of that, so he’s a demon god. He floats above the ground and his “tentacles” wave in a motion that mimics smoke or cloth blowing in the wind in slow motion.[/font]

[font=Verdana', 'sans-serif]-“One thing that works well with the dino that I would like to see on the demon is you used a material with some specularity. There are some great matcaps out there, and the right one can really bring out the fine detail and help the sizzle.”[/font]

[font=Verdana', 'sans-serif]I didn’t put a better matcap on this because I was going to texture him and it was the sculpt pass, but with what you said earlier about presentation I’ll put better mat caps, on whenever I show any stage I’m in.[/font]

[font=Verdana', 'sans-serif]I really appreciate the critique that you gave me I’m always trying to improve, my ego was getting bigger than I would like it to be, and you brought me down to earth. I was rounding corners, thanks I needed this.[/font]

[font=Verdana', 'sans-serif]-Matthew Johnson[/font]

[ioster]

Small world, I just started teaching a zbrush class at AI in Austin. This is nice work - If my students were this far along by their forth year I'd be very proud of them. I think you're well on your way to becoming a professional character artist. Just make sure each project you work on is better than the one before it. Also, don't be afraid to do little studies, like the hand I just posted. I actually did this to use for demonstration in class. It's not necessary to do full blown characters every time. Really well executed studies can be a nice filler for a portfolio, and also allow you to try out different subjects (ie cloth, hard surface, or hair). One more thing you might want to try with the demon guy is rebuild the spike crown in max or whatever, make sure it's nice and clean, then add some dings and scratches. You could also clean it up directly in in zbrush using the clip brushes. They are awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u10j3QdbrDY

[mattj324]

Its funny that you mention clip brush/slection tools in zbrush i just watch Eat 3D: ZBrush Hard Surface Techniques, tutorial last night. i'll keep that in mind, i'm also the president of a modleing/sculpting club at my school, i lecture about zbrush to other students because we dont have a class for zbrush. we try to do a speed sculpt every week on top of our personal, and school work. i think that i'll try doing studies in our modeling club, hands, feet, bust, etc. thanks for the advice again.

[mattj324]

wip still working on the color/diff map. 3rd time restarting the color/ poly painting. also a little dark. will fix in next post.

-4mil polys

[EricShawn]

Wow! This is great.

[mattj324]

thanks, EricShawn for the kind words

[mattj324]

okay done with the texturing. i'm open for critiques.

[mattj324]

still working on the sculpt

[hummel1dane]

This is great, beautiful textures and nice sculpts! Just started myself on the dinos, you got any tips for doing textures?

Btw I work for an indie game-company who's making a dino-shooter, if you are interested in joining just let me know(no pay). If dinos are a passion I'm sure it could be fun.

[mattj324]

speed sculpt 145 mins

[mattj324]

hummel1dane- Thanks, poly pant with layers, and use cavity masks. blend and adjust the opacity of your layers in zbrush.

[mattj324]

Did this in 60 mins now that they’re right next to each other,
I see that there are a lot of stuff wrong with it. I think i did an okay job for a speedy. Getting faster!
I don’t think i’m going to go back and fix it because, I’m trying to do at least one speed sculpt a week,
and trying to get better at the first pass of my work as well as getting faster.

[mattj324]

Taking a torso study class at Vitruvian. 8 weeks one sculpt, this is the first 3 hours(1st class) from a live model.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=228154

[mattj324]

Started this a while ago, I re-did the whole body recently. Gonna try to get this one sculpted and textured in the next few days.

WIP

updated on the torso sculpt (link below)
and on the demon, i'm not going to post the demon for a few months still working on that one.