Need a crit on a famous face

[comic_craig]

KrakenCMT- thank you for your critiques- they have been really helpful. BTW- I dig your work. Your running greyhounds piece is amazing.

I’ve put together a few lighting setups for comparison. Please let me know what you think. If you like one, let me know by giving me the number it appears in order of the image. If you don’t like any of them, let me know which one you think shows the most promise and what I can do to make it better. Hopefully I can get the lighting on track and finish this piece soon. Thank you for all of your helpful critiques.

Craig


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[nerveink]

hi

I like your piece. theres just one thing I dont like since i first seen it in an earlier post. I dont like the clothes. it just looks to weak. I think you could make the fabric look more realistic. it just seems rushed ( the outfit shes wearing), maybe try to add more folds or try the slash 2 brush. ( it has very intersting effects) but other than that I think its pretty good model.

[Captain_Nimoy]

The last one is definately the better one. I think her skin may need to be slightly darker under this lighting, also the cloth material should appear more transparent. Carrie Fisher has large dark eyes, so you could emphasize that more and see how she looks.

overall nice job.

Ed

[kaibosh]

I like 3 and 5. They have lighting that approaches reality more. The others look a little staged.
Are you going for total photorealism or more of a cg stylized look?

Ok. Let me be harsh here. I will only be harsh because this is so good and so close to being perfect. But here are the things that stand out to me.
I’d say that she looks kind of pale. And her nose looks too big. And the skin does not look like real skin. It looks kind of CG-ish. Do you have SSS on?

Don’t get me wrong this is amazing work. I just think that if you showed this picture to a bunch of joes on the street the first thing they are going to say is, “Why is she so pale?”

After I think about it, maybe it is the render? Are you rendering with all the raytracing and GI and all the HDRI and stuff? Maybe that would bump it up to realism.

[tom-g]

really nice work. number 5 looks great - I think it’s because it makes the clothing look a little more realistic too.

[Elixir]

To me number five has the closest feel to the movie… Dramatic lighting is the key for this one imho.

Captain Nimoy makes a good point about the cloth being more transparent, especially with such strong backlighting. That would really help, and look very cool.

[comic_craig]

So- I did two new lighting setups using the rig from the 5th one. The lighting direction was changed a little to not obscure the face. I did one in red and one in blue. The red one is probably more true to the movies.... but I still like the blue one. Please let me know what you think- and what can be improved.

Thank you for your critiques- they really help:

nerveink- good point- I’ll look into maybe doing some more folds. At this point I feel the cloth isn’t strong, but it maybe time to let go of this work.

Captain Nimoy- Transpareny in the cloth seems like a good idea. It would mean a whold body model created… maybe it can be done. In the ref images I’ve seen her outfit isn’t that transparent actually, but that doesn’t mean I won’t consider it.

kaibosh- thanks for the critique. She is pale… but this new lighting setup I think less so. This has been something I’ve struggled with since the beggining- because when I look at reference images of carrie fisher- she appears very, very, very pale. If I remain true to that, it comes off wrong. I am using an SSS shader, but the backscatter effect is toned down. I fear any higher and it becomes fake looking as well. I am trying to keep my render times within reason, and a Global Illumination, Photon render, with HDRI will probably raise my render times outside my desired limit. So- I’m just using mental ray area lights and rendering with mental ray. You’ve given me some food for thought- I appreciate it.

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[piz]

Hi Craig!

Your Leila Project looks at all times more nice than the previous… I really like the light (… i agree with you about the blueish colors scheme) and the shaders…

In my opinion you may build something beyond the port… I don’t know… some pipes, panels or anything you want to give an impression of an existing environment in adjacent room. Those element can be partially visible thorugh a a little bit foggy background…

Obviously my two cents Buddy.
Ciao!

P.s.
I must improve my English… I know… :o

[comic_craig]

Here is another update. I put a little twist in the pose, adjusted lighting/materials, adjusted mist, added some translucence/transparency to the cloth, and kitbashed the BG. Please let me know what you think.

piz- I kitbashed the BG- adding more details, thanks for the suggestion

John Strieder- thanks for the encouragment


[Revanto]

I have to say that I am very impressed with this piece.

However, the cloth is a bit too translucent. I don’t remember her wearing clothes THAT sheer in the movie (But there was this one dream I had, though… ). Also, the translucency seems a bit too clear and sharp especially around the waist. The actual weave of the cloth would give a distinct blur to what is underneath the cloth. Each cloth type gives a different type and level of ‘blurring’.

But, other than that, this is a truly stylish piece of work.

Well Done.

Cheers,
Revanto

[willbrown1]

Zounds! Top Row! Best render yet!

[piz]

Fantastic work Craig!!!

About the cloth yes, a little bit more “filled” and for me is really a Top Row Work!!! You worked with a lot of devotion and passion and you deserve a great Kudos my Fried!!!

Bravissimo!

[ilusiondigital]

You are making a great piece… hope to see more updates soon

Subscribing

Cheers

[KrakenCMT]

You know, she may not be hyper-realistic, but there’s definitely a beautiful quality to the image. Very clean, and nicely lit. I think this is a great piece as it is. My vote for top row.

[3Dean]

Top Row Work!! I love it!

[markkens]

Congratulations! Well-deserved!

[comic_craig]

wow. I never thought I would get this on the top row (I’m still thinking I’m making a mistake and looking at the wrong row:) ). Here is a question- is there any way to change the first entry (I can’t find an edit button, even though there is one on later pages). I’d like the first page to have the finished image, because it takes awhile to see where this whole thing went… but maybe that is the fun of it. Thanks again for the critiques- it really helped to make this piece achieve its quality. Still more to come- I like the idea of a blurry belt line suggested by Revanto.

[Eonsuu]

<looks at the top row> Well deserved!

[Cindigirl]

Fantastic …just one question.

Are you sick of her yet? smile

[steveschultz]

Hey Craig,

Just awesome! The dedication to this project is very inspirational, but I don’t believe that’s why it deserves top row…it’s a brilliant model, texture, and render! That’s why it deserves top row! Just speaking from experience with the SSS fast skin shader, the number of attributes you have to tweak and nudge, then render, then tweak and nudge again, can be overwhelming, but it’s about the final render and you’ve proven that!

I’m curious on the render settings, sorry, I know how annoying these questions can be, but did you use any Global Illum., or Final Gather? I always have issues when it comes to this part, so I have to ask when I see someone succeed where I’ve come up short. Well, anyway, awesome work, congratulations on the top row, much deserved, and we’ll have to catch up sometime!

sTEVe