Hamster Warrior, seeking critique

[insollence]

Hello there everybody ! I had to design a character that was fully or partially a Hamster, had a Yo-yo and had some kind of Hairstyle but besides that I got into digital painting and value study recently and wanted to know if I'm going in the right direction, the only references I used were for the Hamster head and Pectoral muscles.

Thanks in advance !
Eugene

[Gabriel-H]

Hey buddy, you got a cool concept here hahaha! now getting to business.

1- i think you are not showing the best of your design with the yo-yo thing, try rotating a little, placing it facing straight seems a little unnatural and won't show very properly the weapon.

2- you got interesting highlights here, but you character has almost no shadows in him, i added a little more with the lasso and the gradient tool, try comparing to see what i mean.

3- here comes the nitpicky part, while its ok to invert the armor horizontally, it makes no sense that the highlights point to different directions! did you put the highlights before finishing the design?


[attachment=58533]

[insollence]

Hey ! thank you very much for the response ! I totally agree with 1 and 2, I completely forgot about cast shadows xD , good point on the yoyo, didn't think about it that way, I don't really understand the 3 part, I'm really new to rendering and lighting something and I rendered it till I felt it looked like metal, I have no idea how would the light really hit that piece of armor, do you have any suggestions ? I would love some help xD

Thank you very much

[Gabriel-H]

Hey ! thank you very much for the response ! I totally agree with 1 and 2, I completely forgot about cast shadows xD , good point on the yoyo, didn't think about it that way, I don't really understand the 3 part, I'm really new to rendering and lighting something and I rendered it till I felt it looked like metal, I have no idea how would the light really hit that piece of armor, do you have any suggestions ? I would love some help xD

Thank you very much

Yeah man, maybe its hard to grasp at first, but it will blow your mind when you get it, check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avlQJuKUA...g&index=45

now check out these yellow lines, i'm trying to find WHERE IS the lightsource that these surfaces are reflecting. On the left, its inconsistent (for instance on the right eye, there's an extra highlight, it represents a different light source, but it doesn't exist on the left eye).

Now on the picture to the right, i tried to make it seem like the light source is up on the left, notice how i copied the left eye and the round armor pieces? It's to look like they are all reflecting the same single light source.

One more thing, the position of the light source will tell where the shadow will be cast, maybe that's why you forgot (or didn't know where to place?) the cast shadows? Maybe you didn't think much about the light source?

I hope this helps buddy!




EDIT: i changed the attachment to try and make a little more clear what i meant.

[insollence]

Cool video ! I had already watched it haha, I get it now, well at least I'm more aware of the light source now, thanks a lot ! No not really xD I'm really new to light and light sources and I completely forgot to double check, it was a long night and might have not even noticed it haha, what if for example I wanted to have 2 light sources ? does it mean that I could show more detail or I can still have much detail with 1 light source ?

Thanks a lot man !

[Gabriel-H]

Cool video ! I had already watched it haha, I get it now, well at least I'm more aware of the light source now, thanks a lot ! No not really xD I'm really new to light and light sources and I completely forgot to double check, it was a long night and might have not even noticed it haha, what if for example I wanted to have 2 light sources ? does it mean that I could show more detail or I can still have much detail with 1 light source ?

Thanks a lot man !

well, it depends on where you put this second light source, in your piece you had an intense rim light, that means there's another light source behind the character, add all of that and bounce light (for instance if your character is in a white room, light will come out of the source, hit the white surface and then your character again, making him well lit) then you can have a lot of detail, yeah. Try checking out other people's painting, and see if you can tell where the light source is, i mean, that's probably what you should study.

Now if you want for instance 2 suns, 2 torches or something like that, you'll achieve something similar to the soccer match effect, where you cast shadows for each light source:

http://fifasoccerblog.com/files/2012/07/...03_WM1.jpg

That may seem like some Twilight Zone thing at first, try to wrap you head around how light and shadows work properly, stay simple if you are just starting, 1 light source and bounce light is fine.

I hope i helped you out man!