Look over here 2.5 Optimized

[Flaskpost]

Doing steady progress dude! Good materials on the latest one!

[kingkostas]

the rendering stands out, really got work. These characters look good , they have this constant integrity and that makes them look finished and unified. The designs are also interesting.
Now in order to not leave with only saying the good stuff , maybe if you liked the way you worked on this, its time to test the workflow in more things. For example, what happens if you follow the same workflow for environments [you have tried it? then in more complex environments?] what happens if you use it in more complex random character designs?. Anyway what i mean is if you feel you are in the edge, go a little further to wake up the new challenges to improve more .
Keep up the great work, this rendering skills will always aid you in battle, well acquired.

[Kvetch]

Hey, nice update. The arms feel like matte plastic at the moment, but I get the impression they're supposed to be metal with more of a car paint finish? If it is supposed to be metal I think it needs more drastic value changes. Might be worth doing some quick material studies for this one.

[kevin_]

nickybeats-thanks and i will!
lakai-thans and yeah i do use free transform sometimes but i usually try and clean it up, maybe point out what part looks skewed?
biomechawolf-haha okay :b
joe777k7-thanks for the encouragement
graypersona-thans man, and ill think about because i sort of liked it :b
reptile-thanks and im actually doing more right now
veshkau-thanks, not to many people think my enviros stick out so thanks :b
flaskpost-thanks, had to bust out some quick studies before hand
kingkostas- ahh always love your support in here! and i have tried using this workflow with enviroments and the best i could do was that cave thing but the problem is i still dont have a lot of the basics that go into enviros down so they still come out weak :/ but im working on it!
kvetch-haha you got it right the first time, i was going for a matte finish look. i think metal isnt very futuristic looking so i use this matte finish look and say its some new light weight metal? :b

heres another character that i put some more detail into, still some small updates but overall done. but if you guys see anything wrong tell me!

[takashmen]

really cool designs kevin_!

but whenever I look at your characters I get the impression the head is stick to figure, that you paint it separately
maybe it's because there's no reflected light on face for eg green on the last one, it's just the impression

also like kingkostas said: step out of your comfort zone,
make the char more dynamic, try create a illustration etc.

keep pushing!

[I-Bomb]

making great progress try doing some oil paint studies sometime

[phiq]

[Ignore; posted wrong comment on wrong sb!]

[jecelin69]

these characters are looking great finished!

[GrayPersona]

that last one looks really proffesional,well done mate.

[Kvetch]

Hi mate, the characters are looking really good, the detail is crazy. Only crit is that they do still appear flat/2d. I think in future you need to make sure you establish major forms (eg arm, leg, torso) well enough before you build up detail on top, make sure the form is turning properly. Love that mechanical arm

[V3T]

Really digging your designs. Keep it up =]

[Bowandbrush]

really, really cool character designs!

[kevin_]

takashmen-glad you like the designs! and thanks for the thoughts!
udonhead-thanks and i have in the past just not recently :/ ill get back to it soon!
phiq-....
jecelin69-thanks!
graypersona-glad you think so!
kvetch-thanks for the advice!
v3t-i will!
bowandbrush-thanks!

another finished guy, this is the design i got from mike tiscarenos thumb. anyways still some small fixes to come. btw im doing so many finished guys cuz im trying to replace all the crap in my portfolio :b ill move on to other stuff after a couple more characters, sorry if you guys are getting bored of the characters -_-

[Kvetch]

Hi mate, again the finish looks great, but you've not made the forms readable, so it looks super flat. I did a really quick paintover to show you what I mean. If you think of the forms as three dimensional and light them accordingly, it'll look much more solid, even if the values are incredibly crudely blocked in and overlaid on the original drawing.
It kind of seems like you're incredibly good at rendering all the details, but they don't look as good as they should because you're skipping this crucial step.

Apologies if you're going for the flat look on purpose

[will123will]

Hey man, agree with Kvetch, think of the big forms first, great designs and rendering though haha. Also would love to see some enviro's or mech designs from you

[kevin_]

Kvetch-thanks for the paintover, really appreciate it! yeah i get what you mean with building up some stronger forms before hand and i know i missed that with this character but isnt there also the option of having the figure well lit? theres a light coming from the right but the figures also in a well lit room so the strong shadows dont show? i know it looks better the other way but i was to far into it to want to start over -_- ill probably try and fix it with the multiply layer? anyways thanks again man, helps a lot when you guys illustrate what you mean!

[lionheartGFX]

awesome character concepts as always, the costume desing is your forte lately, not to sound harsh or anything but maybe move away from them a little bit, what i mean is try to branch out there is a lot to learn and not nearly enough time to do so, i sawe some landscapes those were good tries, look for jack hamm hes a master of landscape composition and depth. neverthe less aweosme concepts ! keep it up i hope to see lots more

[Kvetch]

You can have a very soft ambient lighting condition where there are no cast shadows. There would be occlusion shadows where surfaces get close to one another, and forms would still be defined by value change over their surface. If you look at ambient occlusion/global illumination renders you'll see how this tends to look (ie nothing like this crappy demo ).

It'll be difficult to make these kind of changes with overlays without needing lots of painting, it's probably best to just bear it in mind for next time.

[Cabbage Caterpillar]

Hey Kvein, haven't visited for a while - your new work is looking wicked. These characters have the coolest outfits.

[~KJK~]

really great character designs, good sense of shapes and depth! thanks for the stop-by btw!

[kevin_]

will123will-thanks and i will try and fit more in!
lionheartgfx-thanks and no worries, the only reason im doing so many characters is because im trying to clean out all the old stuff from my portfolio :b ill move on to other stuff soon!
kvetch-thanks alot for taking the time to show me!
cabbagecaterpillar-thanks
kjk-thanks and no prob your stuff is amazing!

another character...i know i know too many characters but ill just be doing one more so dont worry :b
anyways still some small fixes coming like i did with the rest :b

[herionz]

Hey @Kevin_, thanks for stepping at my SB!

Great skill at pencil rendering mate!! They look so polished and amazingly beautiful! Same for your studies. Your character designs look damn great, only thing I can think about is telling you to not only making them look cool, with the design, but also think about function! For instance I see the last guy with a gun but I see no holster or where to stock the gun (maybe it's at his back, hidden, or somewhere at his leggings ). With the girl it's a nice touch to have the knifes stocked at her arm-guards, but while the knife looks like a throwing kunai, the tip doesn't looks effective the way you have designed to puncture if thrown, looks more to just cut sideways. Great technique at drawing, if you put some more efforts at history or reading/getting some knowledge of function and practical use inside your designs, damn, you would be outstanding.

Also somebody has pointed out earlier, but some of your renderings have flat areas due to how you have defined the light, also you might want to consider not using white backgrounds, keep the white for your figure!. Also having darker value backgrounds would improve the contrast over your renderings, but you already know that I'm guessing so, sorry for pointing this last things out.

Cheers man and keep breaking walls! Although in your case better said, keep getting stuff inside your head to produce better designs!

[Kvetch]

Looking good, there's a lot more volume in this one, love the costume design too. Only crit would be her legs look a little uncomfortable like that, I think feet only twist outwards about 30* further than the direction the knee is pointing, and about 10* inward. Her right leg looks almost 90* outwards of her knee.

edit: left/right, what's the difference...

[Reptile]

nice characters once again! but dont get too caught up in characters, do the next one and than back to practicing everything else!

[JakeB]

Looking good man, nice to see you rolling with the crits so well. That latest character definitely has a lot more form. Keep it coming, keep pushing yourself, you're stepping it up with each one atm. Nice work

[Flaskpost]

I think herionz pointed out an important thing that i wanted to emphasize. I have problems with this as well, and have recently started to work on it.
You´ve got good technical skills, especially for your age, but i feel like most of your designs are just "cool looking". I don´t get a sense of what kind of a character they are.
Like, if they were in a video game, who would they be? The latest girl for instance, you could add more asian ninja-like attire, like, more hints to what kind of universe they are from, what time period etc.
What kind of profession they have. More though behind the designs.
The guy who reminds me of joaquin phoenix for example, is he an adventurer sci-fi pilot like Han Solo, a steampunk villain or a fantasy knight, pirate?
Try to hint at what he does for a living, and in his free time.
This is something i struggle a lot with as well, so feel free to completely disregard what i say hahah

[kingkostas]

yoo mate, very nice. I already told you that these have a consistency and so they look unified and finished together even if they look flat. However as of form,in addition to the greast info the other mates shared, i also want to point out a simple thing you can use sometimes. Let the planes that recede towards the background to receive more of its color. So you could add some of this grey in these planes, and breathe more space on the character like that. Also made the planes that are closer to the viewer, a little more bright. And also sharpened some more the elements that are nearer to the viewer. This is subtle but you will have more ideas to play with
Keep up the good work

[FrogOnAZipline]

Spectacular work! The costumes are very original and detailed. I wish I had your talent at your age!

[kevin_]

herionz-thanks and as to the whacky costume design i know i threw in some random armor and clothing together that wouldnt make since to a specific time period but it was a personal design for fun...ofcourse i will do my research when i do freelance work...thanks for the advice though i actually made some of the changes!
kvetch-thanks and im not sure what leg you are talking bout now :b
reptile-thanks and will do!
jakeb-thanks and yeah all the crits are very helpful!
flaskpost-lmao jaoquin phoenix XD thanks for the advice i will make sure to watch out for that!
kingkostas-ahh i dont see them as flat, ill try and work on it though :b its like i think they look good now but in a year i will look back and see how bad it actually is :b only wish i could see what wrong now!
frogonazipline-thanks, very flattering :b

im having some personal troubles so not sure how often il be posting but ill try and be constant...heres some 30 min robo dood (came back to it and changed a lot :b)

[kaikaisushi]

daammn teach me master