I hope all is well for everyone. To the matter at hand, I’m working on base game character models, male and female, and my friend that I’m working on this with and I both agree that their faces are off in some way or another, but neither of us can pinpoint what exactly is off (besides missing hair, of course.) If anyone could assist in this, he and I both would appreciate it.
In my humble opinion, here are a few things you can do to improve them:
-First and most importantly, look at some reference photos, stat! Get familiar with anatomy and facial structures. There’s a certain flow of the musculature beneath the skin. Even if you are making something that is not photorealistic or something cartoony of fantasy, there’s still some fundamentals that are present in human-like characters.
-They look really sad. Try a more neutral expression by changing the angle of the brows. Up at the outer corner of the brow.
-I’m still learning this myself, but make sure you’re up to speed on the whole topology thing.
-For the woman, her nose looks peculiar. It’s rather small. Her basic facial features needn’t be totally different from the males. Model her chin so that it doesn’t disappear into her face. Give it a proper soft point like before.
-Work on her lips and give them more shape. Also give her some soft cheekbones.
I hope this is helpful. When you get some more work done, please upload more screenshots of the front, side, and 3/4 view.
Hey Lakija, thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it.
First, a few screenshots, and then a few thoughts.
Seeing as you mentioned topology, I figured adding in some wireframe screenshots would be beneficial.
Re-reading your feedback, I forget to mess with the female’s nose and lips, apologies! I’ll work on that a bit more once I finish up this reply.
Also, disregard the ears, they’re… Well, they’re quite terrible, another thing I’ll work on a bit later on. I welcome any feedback on where I could start to fix them up, however!
Lastly, I hope I got the 3/4th view right, that’s a request I can’t say I’ve had before.
To be completely honest, I know next to nothing about topology or anatomy. Essentially, I’m creating this game and learning as I go depending on what it requires. If you have any places that you trust for learning those topics, please let me know! I’m always happy to learn new things and improve myself as best I can.
Thanks again for the feedback, and I hope your day has been a great one!
-Matthios
Your topology is ok, not that it is the right direction but it is ok for what you are trying do. Your main issue is the proportions and understand the forms. I recommend you to have ortho head views in the background and try to follow the shapes 1 - 1 .
I’ve found a few tutorials where that was what they were doing, and that’s how I came up with the new faces. I’ll definitely be doing more of it, though! I need the practice.
On a different note, I hope your day is a great one!
Lakija, here’s a redefined version of the female with your suggestions concerning the nose and lips taken into consideration. I’ve also added a new base ear, found a good tutorial that breaks down the structure of it really well, and I’m hoping to apply that to both base models sometime in the near future.
On the newest version, the mouth is a little narrow and appears puckered. Also your 3/4ths view shows that the cheek and lower jaw is also a bit narrow and lacking “volume”. proceed very carefully with adjustments because you are closer than you might think, small adjustments with proportional editing might get it, focus your attention around the mouth and lower jaw. the brow line might could use a little plumping up too, but not much! Also. for a female, the neck is VERY thick, especially in the front/back direction
Another thing that might help make it look “right” is if you tossed on some temporary eyelashes and eyebrows. faces are very bizarre to look at without those features, and it can make your perception of problems worse than they really are.
Looking better. Keep in mind, I’m coming from a 2D art background, by the way.
-The woman’s chin is rather small on the side view. Make it larger and more rounded.
-Give her nose a tilt up a bit. Define the nostrils more. Right now they are too flat.
-Her face is too low on her head. Leave the eyes at ear level. Nose can go up a bit. Give some space between her mouth and chin.
-Gently pull out the verts on her cheeks and give it a little roundedness.
-Pull her neck in at the base of the skull. You can see the shadow where her neck should be in the screen shot #6 side view.
If you have some paper and a pencil or pen handy, I say do some sketching and gesture drawing of a real person. Doesn’t have to be perfect, but it will help you.
Good work improving. Keeping pushing and you will succeed!
Hello Dave_K and Lakija, thanks for your feedback!
Due to time restraints, I’ve unfortunately had to hang up these characters and instead work with models made with the MakeHuman software. I just wanted to let you all know so that it didn’t seem like I was ignoring anyone!
When things ease up, though, I’ll come back to these characters and work on them some more, and your feedback will help immensely, as it has already. Thanks again for your time and feedback, I’ll post again once I start working on them once more!
With regards and wishing everyone the best,
-Matthios
Try a more neutral expression by changing the angle of the brows. Up at the outer corner of the brow.
