m1kclark's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[The NES Pad]

Not as good as your usual

The model of the controller itself is good, and I liked the original NES too. Nostalgia aside, though, the picture has oddities. The perspective is too strong, like a fish-eye lens; there's a reflection on the red buttons, but nowhere else, which could be fixed merely by changing the lighting; the background is very boring, especially compared to the detail level of your other work; and the cord looks silly suspended like that.
I wouldn't be so harsh, except that your other work is so exceptional. Compared to that, this is pretty blah.

[Glowing Chess]

=-D

I looks nearly photographic!

[Silently waiting..]

Perfect feel

The picture feels perfect. The color scheme makes it cold; the detail on the characters and the blurriness of the background make you focus on them and their relationship; and the lack of any faces make the characters detached and their humanity becomes unimportant. Only a touch of red on the helmet indicates any emotion: bloodlust. In short, this is great.

Rhunyc responds:

Hey man, I appreciate that. Thanks a bunch for the nice words. :)

Great interpretation, by the way, quite interesting what some people see in my art. :)

[Sunshine]

0_0

From the thumbnail, I thought this was 3D art. Then, when I saw the whole thing, I thought it was a photo. Finally, I saw the descriptor "Illustration" ... (!)

That said, the signs that this is illustrated are sparse and subtle, and don't at all detract from the picture. The facial details are priceless, and the chosen colors provide fantastic contrast. I won't say it's perfect, because nothing is, but the quality of this work is 10 times better than the average submission here on NG.

[Cars Drivin]

Oddly realistic

The cars are nothing but boxes, extremely un-car looking, and the buildings have no textures or anything. Somehow, though, this geometrically minimalist approach looks *realistic* with the lighting and camera angle that you used. It is a compelling argument for approaching visuals with different rules in mind than the typical. I am really fascinated by this work, despite the low-poly detail.

[Shiny Axe]

Love your work

Fantastic.
There's only one issue I can see: parts of it look hand-drawn, like animation, particularly the blade. There's something un-real-looking about it. It is really the only flaw in an otherwise excellent model. Suggestions:
(a) Play with background/foreground lighting. Try adding a really bright backlight that gives highlights just to some edges, but doesn't actually brighten anything.
(b) Textures: add a slight color texture to make the handle look like polished wood instead of an ideal brown object. Also, I find making a normal-map with lines is good for metal, as it gives it a "scraped" look.
(c) Bevel the edges on the blade that aren't the sharpened edge.

These are just suggestions: they may not even solve the issue I'm talking about, but maye they're worth your time to try? It's still 9/10 as is! Great stuff!

[Recharging the Droid]

This kind of nude

is actually the best, because it doesn't much matter whether it is female or male in context. If it were a girl with breasts, I'm guessing that it would look no sexier to men or less sexy to girls. The nudity isn't erotic: it's natural ... which is weird, since it's a driod!

[Extract]

Second interpretation

I like it, morbidly. Others have criticized the style (and I don't know enough to comment), but the technique I think is worth applauding.

I did not identify the skin part as a penis at first. I actually saw the painting in reverse: some malformed, skin-covered thing was being extracted from the skull, and the pincers were there to help get it OUT. Other things to support this interpretation: the penis looks double-ended, the semen is unrealistically solid and thick, and the free end of the organic thing could be the head of something snaking through the steel structure. If you like the dual-direction interpretation, you could try to emphasize it or make the motion more ambiguous.

[Venom 2]

Good

Generally, very good, me likey. But, there are some inconsistencies in the levels of detail. The muscles are smooth, but the teeth and eyes are rough. There's a vein in the left should (awesome) but similar details could easily go on the face or the abs. Fantastic project, and I only comment because it's just two steps away from pro-quality!

Chaserthewolf responds:

Good eye man. I noticed that as well before I submitted this. Plus the lines vary as well. His body has a smooth/light appearance while his face is kinda dark. I still like this piece though.

[untitled 21]

Experienced at Blender

The tool you're looking for is "SubSurf". In the most recent version of Blender, you click on the object that is the character's face, and in the Mesh Editing panel (F9), look at "Modifiers". Click "Add Modifier" and choose "Subsurf". That will smooth your polygons for you by dividing each face into 4 (or 9 or 16) sub-faces that are designed to smooth the surface.

Also, she needs a low-power light under her, about where the camera is.