m1kclark's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Beer]

SOLID.
(a) I see you're re-focusing on realistic glass. I didn't think it needed improving, but you got better with it anyway!
(b) The crinkled paper is a nice touch. Probably the first time I can see the polygons in a 3D model and I don't have to cringe.
(c) Hey, I recognize that background!
(d) "Love, your dead wife" !?!? Dude, that's grim!

<deleted> responds:

Lol yea. That is pretty grim :p Regardless, I appreciate the review and I'm glad you liked it :) Yes, I thought the paper required some polygons in order to look more crinkled :)

[Xenomorph dick]

A dick-shaped xenomorph is ... redundant!
Well done anyhow.

Rennis5 responds:

just like the colonial marines game!
lol, thank you anyhow.

[Assault mech]

I'm a big Blender fan, and I've got general comments on all three of your "mech" models.

The design is nice, with proper attention to detail on the geometries. Kudos on beveling your edges, but everything is too low-poly. I can see those polygons in the feet, in the gun ... actually just about everywhere. You would be well-served to increase the detail of your mesh. I realize that this is not a simple fix, and that you'll have to go back and re-do most of it, but that's one of the biggest weaknesses.

Your lighting and materials aren't realistic. You should add more lights that are much dimmer (brightness 0.100-0.400), that don't cast shadows, and that don't cause specular reflections (there's a "No Specular" button if you select the lamp and then go to Shading [F5]). Place them so the back of the mech is better-lit. Regarding materials, you made a good call wanting to add some noise in your textures, but don't use the built-in texture "Noise". Use "Clouds" instead; it'll give you a softer noise that you can control better. And make the two colors more similar (like 0.500,0.500,0.500 for the main color and 0.400,0.400,0.400 for the cloud-texture color). This would make a big improvement in all your models. And is there some kind of blue light coming from the left? All the blue on the back wall and on the mech's front looks out of place.

Finally, you made a mistake with the reflections. The back wall and left wall have "Ray Mirror" turned on, but they aren't reflecting the mech. I have no idea why that is, but look for a setting like "Only reflect objects in the same layer" or try putting all the objects in one layer. And the reflective "head" in the center of the mech looks strange: you should play with the various mirror settings as well as specularity (color, brightness, softness) and transparency. I don't know if you were going for a mirror-effect, a glossy-effect, or a glass effect, but it doesn't really look like any of those.

Coldworks responds:

Thank you very much for your insightful comments.
Truth be told, these models are actually intended to eventually render some 100*100 pixels with, but I'll definitely keep your comments in mind when I move up to making some cutscenes (totally a plan of mine at some point)

[Ancient Artifacts]

Okay, excellent start, but the deliver needs some real polish. Here are the problems I noticed right away.
(1) You can see the polygons near the edge of the face, particularly near the ear and chin. Try to sculpt to a higher level of detail in there: zoom in, decrease the size of the tool, and chip away at it until it looks very smooth.
(2) Though I applaud your use of a texture, you need to make the texture's image a higher resolution. I can see the pixels from your image.
(3) Your render is not anti-aliased and looks pixelated.

But here's what's GOOD about it:
(A) The level of detail is exactly right. You added enough ornamentation on the vases (those knot-structures) to be decorative, but not so much that it's distracting or unrealistic.
(B) The contours of the vase, like how it undulates in the middle, looks very realistic for real pottery.
(C) The positioning and composition really shows off your work, and the background is chosen so that it isn't jarring (like pure white or pure black) but it also doesn't detract from the main objects.

Keep at it. I look forward to your future work!

Silvertwilight responds:

Thank you so much!! That's what I need!!

[Street Scene]

It looks pretty good from here, but if you want a real critique with helpful comments, you should post images at a higher resolution, for example 1200x900. Good luck in the class.

Silvertwilight responds:

I'm sorry for replying so late.
I lost the original max file, but I found another bigger picture left before. Thank you very much.

[Pokeballs in the Woods]

That's a really well-done immersion of your models into the scene. At first glance and even at second glance it looks real. I admit that I had to stare for a long time, looking explicitly for flaws, before I found any, which says something.

The greatest strength of the model is also its only weakness: the lighting. The softness and color are perfect and the shadows cast by the pokeballs are wonderfully matched with the shadows of the tree on the ground. It's the direction that's a problem. All the other shadows are going from the bottom-left corner to the top-right corner, while the pokeball shadows are going straight left-to-right. But seriously, that's the only flaw I could find after staring at the thing for 10 minutes. So I'll go ahead and give 5 stars, because nobody likes a nay-sayer.

BlazingEclipse responds:

Lol wow, I don't think I would have picked up on that. Good eye.

[Mr. J]

Feels like an exact amalgam of Jack Nicholson's Joker and Heath Ledger's Joker.

HanserAnimations responds:

:) thanks!

[Kervamps Zbrush Sculpt]

As a quick job, it's excellent. If you wanted quick tips to improve, then try adding more details in the texture at the back of the head and on the clothes. There's so much detail around the eyes that it feels like other parts of the image are empty. Otherwise, it's a good extrapolation of the reference into the 3rd dimension.

crashadams responds:

I didn't expect anyone but Jouste and the other game artists in my sketch group to see it...was more focusing on form for this practice session but I'll put more time into different areas next time.

I do agree about the clothes, should have extruded them a bit thinner on the collar there too.

I like the renders in your gallery, you use Maya? Max? Blender? I use Maya for base mesh before moving to zbrush normally, this time I went dynamesh all the way.

Thanks for the critique! *Jouste style virtual high five*

[I want to forget]

I think that stand-alone it's a good piece of art, but reading the title makes it more powerful. I didn't listen to the song, but I interpreted this as a suicide attempt. Drowning oneself evokes sorrow, her face clearly shows her desperation, and her nudity suggests just how vulnerable she is now. I took off a star for technical flaws (mentioned) below, but the idea and overall delivery are top-notch.

Rhunyc responds:

Thank you, I appreciate the review. :) Interesting to see it as a suicide attempt, I hadn't thought of that to be honest. :O

[Q'rotes]

Nice ambiance, and excellent character design! You took a creepy cockroach and humanized it. Your geometries are nice, though the feet seem just a bit low-poly and video game-like. (Not sure if that was the intent.) There are some weird shadows on the roach's arms, and you can argue that the environment (walls, etc.) needs more light. On the other hand, the murky and dark environment goes really well with the diffuse light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel effect in the center-background.

Regarding character model, it looks just a bit like a video game because of textures and lighting. These two things are the hardest to get right, though, and even though I can *see* when lighting isn't realistic, I can't reproduce realistic lighting myself. Best of luck, and good work.

Kacassero responds:

Hey thanks for the detailed review. Will keeps those points in mind on the follow-up art for this project.