3D Character artist at Project Icarus Thread

Hello everyone ,

I'm, Francois ( Frank ) , the 3D character Artist at Project Icarus of Lethal Lens Productions and I just want to show you some of my work as well as from the current project i'm working on : Project Icarus.

Image Order -
1-2 , Personal Sculpts
3-4 - Project Icarus - The Hossun

All the works are still a work in progress.

Comments are greatly appreciated

Thank you for reading.

-F

You can find us under

Indiedb.com
Moddb.com
Twitter.com
Facebook.com

The models are great but I think you could do better job displaying them. Colors are dirty and material specular settings make it look plasticy and cheap. For tips on appearance maybe you could do the traditional renders with polygon lines visible and with "white clay" material?

About the last screenshot, you've probably followed an idea about some kind of organic armor but I just generally want the armor to look sharp and sort of machine made instead of round and bumpy. That why I don't like it although I reckon your skill having made it.

In fact I'm not seeing a single sharp corner anywhere and perhaps that is what is making me feel sick when looking at the art. All I can think of is bad smoothing groups although I know that's not probably the issue.

Edited by: shadowflar3

Hi shadowflar3,

I do agree with you on the wireframe , but showing a wireframe on a high-poly is pretty much a no-go.

I'm sorry that you don't like the work and feel sick by it, which I did for Project Icarus. I based it upon a concept given to me and did my own interpretation of it . I have only been running with Zbrush for about 3-4 months now.

I'm all for constructive criticism n all, but did you have to insult the guy? I mean, if its making you sick, maybe you shouldn't look at 3D models anymore.

Look, I didn't mean to insult, I did say they models were great. But there's something there that makes me feel uncomfortable with them. I just listed the few things I feel could be improved on in my opinion.

I'm not an expert on sculpting so I'll just leave you with my thoughts.

No harm done.

If you were critiquing my personal work that would've been fine , but I didn't make any of these models for you personally. If you want the armor to look hard edged and really hard surfaced , talk to my project leader , not to me.

And maybe think before you write. I'm sure you didn't 'mean to insult' , but you did. Calling someone else' work 'repulsive ( in the way you stated 'i feel sick' ) is offending. I understand what you implied , but work on that vocabulary. 'Bad' is very bad vocabulary when talking about someone else work in general

I'm just showing off some of the work I've done , that is all.

I'm sure you can understand my position.

There's something odd about the proportions but i cant put my fingers on what it is. Not sure but might be the head vs arm ratio.

If you intend to use that in your portfolio :Be really careful with the second screenshot, if you want to pose your character make sure it deforms correctly. In this case the shoulder doesn't bend like they should/ would normally.
Doing such mistake could do more harm than anything else if you intend to use that in your portfolio.

Overall i think that the muscle could be more sharply sculpted and the muscle anatomy in the shoulder looks weak ( in terms of muscular capability)

P.s. don't worry about about shadow critics... just look at his signature he's definitely smarter than us...Seriously I've seen lots a people like him in the industry and they always ended the same way( I'll let you guess how it ended ).

Edited by: casf01

There is some valid critique there. The phrasing might be... newer to some, but there's perhaps a point behind it. Similar to how blue lighting in a game can be used to psychologically make people feel uneasy and even sick, not because they hate the color and think its disgusting, but because it is something appears unnatural and throws them off. In this case I'd place my bets on it being the perspective (or lack thereof). These screenshots have it turned off, which is extremely unnatural to see (and as a result our eyes see it as an optical illusion that causes reverse foreshortening; the limbs in the back appear to be far larger than the ones in the front). Illusions like that can definitely throw off eyes that look at them for too long.

The words were poorly chosen though, left to stew rather than to edit an explanation.

Also, even if you are not able to change something when the leads are adamant about their own views and designs, it can still be your job as an artist to relay the information forward if they're not actively monitoring feedback

Edited by: Cryrid

Shadow is more experienced , uh huh. And the "phrasing" is new to me. Right.

Wow.

Experience was never mentioned, but since it is brought up, know that it is entirely irrelevant to critique. A person only needs working eyes to be able to comment on your work.

Edited by: Cryrid

shadowflar3 wrote: The models are great but I think you could do better job displaying them. Colors are dirty and material specular settings make it look plasticy and cheap. For tips on appearance maybe you could do the traditional renders with polygon lines visible and with "white clay" material?

About the last screenshot, you've probably followed an idea about some kind of organic armor but I just generally want the armor to look sharp and sort of machine made instead of round and bumpy. That why I don't like it although I reckon your skill having made it.

In fact I'm not seeing a single sharp corner anywhere and perhaps that is what is making me feel sick when looking at the art. All I can think of is bad smoothing groups although I know that's not probably the issue.

I think all his work is fine you shouldnt be disgusted by his work its great modeling

Ok what are you guys talking about? I didn't say disgusted. Stop the nonsense.

There's not a single sharp edge in the model and that makes me feel uncomfortable with it, it is a matter of visual aesthetics which matter a great deal to me because of my profession.

If you can't handle such wording then don't post your stuff on the internet, and do not ask for "comments" if all you want is empty praise.

Its not about what you said but how you said it....

Edited by: casf01

Well boohoo. The guy asked for comments and he responded to what I said in an adult way. Who invited all of you to come and be offended for someone else when he himself says "no harm done"?

responding to someone in an "adult way" doesn't mean you can insult him or his work. Cryrid wrote something really interesting about the emotional involment with personal art.

f_klose wrote:
No harm done.
...
And maybe think before you write. I'm sure you didn't 'mean to insult' , but you did. Calling someone else' work 'repulsive ( in the way you stated 'i feel sick' ) is offending.

and seriously it's not like it's your first time insulting other ppl work on moddb.

I'm sure you're a great guy, simply be careful and please don't ruin this forum or newlearner, there's no need to insult their work

Edited by: casf01

I literally can not believe you are attacking me on such vague basis. Not being polite _enough_? Now you are also stalking me and tracking my other posts and want to argue about it here?

I try to drive my points as politely as possible. But if something is bad or needs to be fixed it needs to be said without entirely clouding the critique in empty flattery and decorative jargon. I'm just going to say it. Otherwise there is no point in posting, no point in commenting, and no point in sharing anything on indieDB.

Since it's your purpose to just go on personal vendetta against me I suggest you take it to PM. I don't think the author is flattered about you filling this thread with your grudge against another member of IndieDB.

Edited by: shadowflar3

wow easy there, i'm not stalking you or doing a perosnnal vendetta against you and if you feel like it's the case well then i'm trully trully sorry about it as it was not my purpose and I regret it went that far. It's just that I remember seeing one of your comment that really shocked me that felt to ME like a random attack to someone else project in another post that you obviously didn't like ( I simply remembered your name)... That's all...

Now I don't want to discuss this matter neither here or in private. I don't think there's a need for it we simply totally disagree on how we should post critics. Again, I'm trully sorry if you left like I was attacking you, I might have pushed it a little too far

I won't add anything or say anything more about this subject, let's move on and get back to f_klose main subject.

Have a good day

I should make a small apology as it is becoming clear lately (elsewhere, as pointed out) that shadow is only interested in or capable of arguments. It would seem the issue is not that his words were poorly chosen, its that they went poorly adjusted in light of this revelation.

Edited by: Cryrid