Japanese Geiko

[3ddesign]

Hi all.

After 20 years of doing nothing but architectural rendering, I finally decided to branch out. Here's my very first attempt at character modeling. I built her during my lunch and the rare slowdown. I know she's a little stiff and fake looking at the moment. Please comment and critique. I want to learn from all you 3D gurus out there so I can make her look the way a beautiful Kyoto Geiko should look.

One particular question: I had to render the hair using scanline and omni lights and comp in Photoshop. Rendering in Vray (mr prim) produced flat black hair with no glossiness. Does anyone know how to get the hair to render in Vray?

[MoonDoggie]

I'll be the first to comment.

For a first character this looks good.
Some comments:

- The Hair, looks too perfect, as I'm sure you're aware and looks fake, every strand is the same width and could use some refinement. I'm going to be doing hair on my old man and am still figuring out the best way to go about it, so we can learn together.
- The cloths lack some real texture, a nice bump would make all the difference.
- The face, definitely the hardest part and easiest to screw up. You have a good sense of proportion and form, but I'm losing the jawbone on the model. Women are really hard to get right, but her jawbone form doesn't appear on her. The widest part of her face should probably be the zygomatic bone of the cheeks. On your render, the widest part of the face is just below where it should be. The eyes look great.
- The neck is too narrow and lacks a bit of detail, if her shirt went down a bit more you would see the forms on the clavicles meeting the base of the trachea and the little indention found there.
- The frontal bone of the skull might be a bit more pronounced as well, it shifts directly into the temporal lobe with no delineation.

Women are so hard because their forms are so subtle and soft (thank God). So certainly don't over pronounce any of them, but hint a bit more at the skeletal structure under the skin and you'll improve.

Once again, good work and keep going, and add a bit more of a highlight on that bottom lip, make her just a bit more sultry. I'd also like to see a bit of irregularity on the painting on the face (where maybe paint is thicker more opaque and thinner more transparent.

-Colin

[rivoli]

I agree with colin on almost all the points he makes, especially about the neck and most definitely the cloths. hair looks a bit like plastic, but I'm sort of intrigued by it, as if it was underlying by contrast the realism of the face.
this being said I find it a very good piece of work.

[thablanch]

A very nice first attempt at character modeling.
I have to disagree with Colin for the neck.. brings to me the fact that she is really young.. but just a detail.

My suggestion would be to work it in different lighting situations.. As the face is <painted> white, suttle details are hard to see..

http://www.ir-ltd.net/gallery/

A light from the side instead of straight front brings life, and helps to analyse what is missing ( or what is amazing) in a model.. So in my oppinion, a different light setup could make a lot of difference in here..

[3ddesign]

Thank you for the very helpful comments. I thought I'd post the photo from which I based the model.

I really struggled with the hair. This was my first time using Max Hair and Fur and I couldn't figure out how to use some of the settings. I hope that when Collin gives his old man some hair I can snag some good tips.

I've never studied anatomy and it shows so I appreciate Collins comments about specific facial features to work on. I've found a few anatomy reference guides on the Internet but if someone has a good one they could recommend, that would be great.

I agree with thablanch about the lighting. There is actually a bit more detail, especially around the mouth, than shows with the flat light I used.

Thanks again and hope more people will comment.

[MoonDoggie]

edit: Love the photo. The clothes look great, see if you can nail them (this is the reason I wrote the script "Tweaker" posted on this forum with a video how to use it and the script is on my website). I'll solicit your help in a couple days when I try the max hair and fur system as well on my old man.

Also: check your pms

-Colin

[rivoli]

even compared to the photo, eyes and mouth are spot on. as pointed out, a different kind of lighting would help shaping little skin details and porosity a bit better. in the reference, for example, the quality of light seems to be much more interesting, varying from a hue to another from one side yo her face to the other one.