m1kclark's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Revolver]

Keeps getting better

You're right that the metal material is just ... off somehow. I can't pin down how at all, so you should try something different. Maybe a lighter gray, with similar reflectivity, and some kind of (not sure what) texture that gives the metal that "scratchy" look that you see in your silverware.

But otherwise this is a really nice image. The lighting, reflections, and maps all look pretty photo-realistic, and you've come a LONG way since the spas-12!

Dawn-Breaker responds:

Haha always good to hear from you :D, and I'm glad to see that you notice the improvements.

I agree on the material by the way.. I'm having a hard time adding that last touch to finish the whole look but I'm going to upload another one with a different metal and all.. so stay tuned!

[Special Delivery]

Three things

(1) Fantastic postwork. The feel of the image is really stylistic and unique.

(2) More polygons. The engine, the bomb, the wing, the connection, the wheels, all of it shows that the round surfaces are made of separate faces. Looks fine in the NG window, but full-view really shows the geometry.

(3) It's a shame. After you did ALL that speckling and blurring and glowing and lighting and texturing ... you forgot to anti-alias?

Xorberax responds:

Don't credit me on any of the 3D work. I took a screenshot from my favorite game, ArmA 2. I then did alot of post work on it in Photoshop and Lightroom.

And yeah, forgot to turn on AA :(

[Giant Beach Pixel Banner]

Seriously

I just kept nerd-gasming, from Falcore to Phantasm to Sloth to the Crane Kick, it just kept getting better and better the more I looked.

[Winter Pixel Poster]

Edward Scissorhands FTW

I'm still looking. I just decided that the references to Godzilla, Edward Scissorhands, and the Robocop droid ED(whatever) were worth the 10 instantly.

poxpower responds:

There's something for everyone

[mazda rx-7]

Hard work, little gain

I apologize for the negativity, but let's compare this image with one of your earlier pieces, "rose".

You put a lot of detail into the geometry of both these images. There are lots of polygons that you made sure were perfectly placed, and in both cases you did an excellent job of realistically reproducing real-life objects. However, this image has no details beyond the geometry of the main object. In "rose" there's the tiled floor and the shelves, there's a sense of perspective with a foreground, midground, and background, there's a definite space for the image, and the lighting provides an artistic focus on the hyper-red rose.

This image is noticeably lacking those details. Sure, the car's framework is great and I like the motion-blur and smoke coming from the wheels, but it sort of ends there. There really aren't any other details to speak of. This would be fine, as there is a LOT of low-detail art out there, but this image doesn't have the right feel. The lighting and the focus and the composition don't really suit each other. To clarify, I'll use examples: the infinite-space suggests the car is the only focus, but looking closely there isn't much to focus on; the image is too dark to be called "detailed" but too sharp to be called "obscure" or "mysterious"; the lack of other details suggests you want to show off your object, but the image is too small and off-center to really appreciate it.

I think what I'm trying to say is, you've got a great 3D model here, but it seems you didn't figure out what you wanted the *image* to say to us. Make it more dramatic, add a texture, or even some "Author's comments" and it will be substantially improved. I'd like to see more of this RX-7, frankly, if you decide to keep working with it.

neefu responds:

In this model, too many shortcomings.
But this is the only renderer that was with this car
Chronology rose was created later.

[Basement]

Fantastic first piece

As a first-go in 3D modelling, this is some excellent work with a lot of attention to details. I really liked, for example, that you beveled almost every object, that there's a lot of depth-of-field blur, and that all the shadows are realistically soft.

Each object is very simple, which speaks of an efficiency on your part. What I mean is, I might have added more polygons on the couch and then did a random-displacement of the vertexes, so that it seems more like a cushion and less like a plastic mold. All the textures are only one or two layers deep, which makes the paint cans look a little unrealistic, and as you said everything looks a little too clean.

I DON'T consider this negative criticism, however! Given that you only had 4 weeks, you managed to give each object about the same level of detail and quality. It looks broadly consistent, if a bit amateur. The consistency between objects, in fact, gives the render a video-game feel instead of an I'm-just-a-beginner feel. It seems to me that you maxed out your potential and delivered just as good an image as you were capable of given the time limit. And that, sir, earns you an extra point.

I hope you do more 3D in the future. And after a few more years' experience, this would be a great model to go back to and spruce up. As it stands, it is a piece for a beginner to be proud of.

SPace responds:

Thank you for the review. Thanks for the positive comments, didn't get a lot of that in my critique. I got a lot of comments on the couch needing to be more "lived in." Its funny you say that it looks video game-esque cause after awhile i thought it lookedlike something out of Max Payne. I will be continuing with 3D art, I start animation in the fall. I will certainly go back to this and clean it up at some point in the future. thanks again!

[Desert]

I can't tell...

...where the polygons end and the texture begins. It all look so complicated and seamless that I can't immediately peg this as a 3D construct. The hills and the rocky pieces are so detailed and have such depth that it is clear you worked REALLY hard either at the drawing or on objects, or both.

The trees are interesting, the upward-curving leaves and downward-curving leaves with nothing in between. Was that a vagary of the method you used, or a deliberate choice of tree type? Just as a second try, I think you should do it with the trees at 25-50% their current size to make the scene seem epically huge.

In general, this is awesome and I look forward to your future nature scenes!

[Natalie Portman]

Quite talented

The eyes and the earrings are perfect. That was a really good shot at the hair, and it only really looks weird at the hair-line itself. Her skin looks rather porcelain, but the realism in those eyes (her eyes!!) makes it seems like someone wearing too much make-up. This could, of course, be a matter only of color choice: I'm no expert. But I do like this a lot!

[AWP Gol Magnum]

Substantial improvement!

Awesome, Dawn-Breaker! It's really cool to see the progression of the last three 3D gun images in your profile. This image is high enough quality that I can't even recommend anything off the bat for your model. Now that the model is good, you can put it in backgrounds and environments (no background is why I gave 9 instead of 10), and make a real composition out of it. This is some good modeling work, and I can easily see how much your attention to detail is paying off. :-)

Dawn-Breaker responds:

As usual, thank you very much for the constructive and awesome feedback :D

I'm glad to hear that you can spot improvements into the quality of my 3D pieces, even though I'm not completley satisfied with the results and the methods I used. as it does consist out of unpractical ways at times but for a snapshot I usually let these things pass by.. I'll be trying to create some backgrounds in the future or use it as an object in a different project. :)

Alas! thanks allot for the review :)

[Like a Drug]

Efficient

It gets the point across, and makes very efficient use of limited textures and geometries. A few critiques:

The pills look decidedly un-pill-like, but you can fix that by (a) decreasing the specularity and (b) increasing the "noise" size on the pill's surface. The deviant-art logo has its own shadowing effects that don't match the lighting of the scene at all; this ruins the realism.

The wrapper is too perfect. Bend it a little, then add some noise in the silvery color texture. (My opinion is that the noise size should be big but the difference in colors should be small, but that's just my opinion.)

The image that's reflected in the wrapper and the wood is a nice touch, but it leaves the rest of the background feeling all the more empty. I think filling the space would be better, either with new objects or by zooming in a little more on the pills and wrapper.

This looks like a quick scene thrown together, but it has a lot of potential if you care to go back and improve on it. And hey, I like that you beveled everything!

Little-Bacchus responds:

Firstly big thanks for taking the time to review this image (I hate the term review for art) critique this image :) I was sort of hoping as newgrounds I'd get away with a lot more than I did lol.

The pills always bugged me but they were added at the last min, dA logo looking odd is down to it being an over inverted bump map (cringe).

The wrapper was the main part for this image for two reasons, the scratch made plastic texture as a test I could still make my own as rely too much now on stock textures now days and working in spline modelling as was something In really needed to get back to using more. The silver texture has that crosshatch pattern on it you get on pills but doesn't show up unless rendered in really high res.

Thanks for taking the time to have a good look :)