Constructional Criticism

Ok ladies, i have a some coursework to be completed and handed in on Thursday next week and i could do with some constructive criticism about my preliminary concept art.

I need to know what would look better or how i can improve on what i' ve already done...

It would certainly be appreciated!















Thanks guys!

Great work,but i dont know about art,but Christian lorenz who done art to titanic/matrix/fifth elemnt/day after tomorrow and even Final Fantasy 9 and doing the art to Lost odyssey now...well i got his homepage,look at his work and learn >_<


http://www.christianlorenzscheurer.com/htmlpages/htmlmenue/paintings_menue.aspx
he is freaking amazing.

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

Everything looks professional but it' s hard to tell if it' s good or bad since I don' t know the purpose of the pictures or if you are limited to a theme of some sort. If you' re only supposed to do some cool pictures in whatever way you wish, then it looks great.

Same problem that Ginjirou pointed out - but if it' s some kind of concept art for developers to base their characters on then :

- it' s too stylish and doesn' t say much about the characters - it' s more like showing off artistic skills.

-Those characters are a bit boring/typical - there' s nothing outstanding about them - the design itself is just lacking.Still that could be on purpose - I don' t know.

Having that said I wouldn' t be able to do anything as good even if I had 10 years for it :)


Quez - that link is fuckin awesome

I have to do 1 preliminary concept for characters based on 10 different themes. 3 are done and i' m happy with them, so i only posted these.

One these are done and dusted, we' ll have to produce a series of works for each character going into tons of detail and putting them into an environment. After that we' re supposed to do 3D models of them but don' t have to (i think i' ll be skipping that since 3D Studio Max isn' t my friend at all!). Then we have to produce 1 ' final' work in full colour.

The reason (i guess) that they are so plain is that they' re not based on much, just a bunch of different and vague themes. Once i put some time into them they should (hopefully) convey much more.

Gangsta' s post is definately the kind i' m looking for, i need to know what would make them look cooler i guess. What you would change, or have done instead. I don' t actually have enough time to completely re-do them but i can make alterations.

I also have a piece of music to do (we haven' t started that yet though), which i' m not looking forward to.

Anyway, thanks guys!

I don' t know if you' re allowed to but some kind of background related to the characters would give them more depth without having to change the actuall design of each character. But maybe that' s the next step in your project...
I' d personally like to see some more detail on each character. Not facial expressions and such but I' d like some accessories on their clothes or something like that. They are simply to plain as they are right now as there is nothing that shows some kind of " history" or whatever you might call it. The clothes for example look " perfect" which is some what boring. I like the fact that you have put some kind if text on one of the characters' shirts. That makes him more interesting and makes you want to know more about it. That is the key to making good characters: you have to create an interest for the character, something that makes you want to know more.
The stances look like super model poses. It' s nice but if they are supposed to be characters in a game or similar then they should get more spectacular poses that fits the different situations you might find them in. This is the thing I think you should work the most with as it looks right now.
Is the first image a self portrait?

LOL ;P

I actually wated to steer clear of typical game characters and instead was leaning towards mopre of a graphic novel approach.

On or two of the characters are supposed to be bland, but i think they all need work. They' re passable for initial concepts but the more i get done initially the less i' ll have to do later.

EDIT:- images added..









On another note, one of our lectures next week is doubling as a debate about the next-gen and where it' s going. I' m likely to rattle on about N5 and the multi-media capabilities of PS3 and 360. But where do you guys thing it' s heading? Do any of you actually think Nintendo would be bold enough to do VR (if not this gen then next)?

What if one of your teachers is also reading these forums and he thinks you' re cheating by asking us these questions. I mean, you are supposed to tell your view right? Just a little word of caution.

Ha, nah!

I' d just scowl at him and he' d leave me to it!

But surely you form an opinion on a subject by researching it; asking other peoples' opinions is just a way of finding out what opinions there are to have, before making up your own mind.

And your drawings Majikdra6on - umm, you haven' t seen Constantine anytime recently have you? (Film or graphic novel.) As archetypes they' re a bit over-familiar, but that' s not a bad place to start from.

Was the graphic novel actually called Constantine? I thought it was called something else.

You' re spot on though. There are several graphic novel series' where i found inspiration, ...including Spawn.

Constantine... wasn' t that Hellblazer?

THAT' S it!!!!!!

Man, i like you more and more every post!

Well after reading what you said I can tell you that those characters have nothing about them - no personalities - it could be any guy from the street.

Think what made the best characters in games unique and cool and you' ll get the idea of what you need - SNAKE, MITSURUGI (and other from SC - it' s a good game for research on that) , IVY , Sephiriot , Lan DI ,Lara Croft , Link and all the rest (there are so many and all so different).

I' m trying to avoid typical gaming characters though. Luckily it' s a module that doesn' t specifically centre around ' games character developent' and just ' character development' .

I did add a couple more on the previous page.

The thing about geme characters is that lots of them are rip-offs from fims. Lara for example was based on Indiana Jones and Indiana Jones was based on another film character.

I' m not a huge fan of over the top comics. I much prefer gritty, down to earth noir stylized graphic novels.

the thing with lara is - everyone knows who her daddy was (indy) but they made her so cool that it' s justified.

There are no original characters - everything can be found somewhere else (with some exceptions), but I gave you examples of how good characters look and what they are.

Yo have realistic characters here that' s for sure - but what' s really cool is to make unrealistic characters realistic enough to make the game or movie experience feel real.

I see your point!

;P

The pleasure is mine :)