Critique my model

[Delusion]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tor7TBXMMP8


This is the head to this creepy character I'm modeling. I did a really quick and dirty video capture rotating around the head so you can scrub between angles.

Basically my professor likes everything except he wants me to dent up the top of the head and make it kinda abnormal shaped. I felt like the smoothness of it fit well but maybe I'm just not seeing it right. Let me know what you think on that part and any other critiques / suggestions are welcome too.

[Toolbox]

I'm not sure about denting in an unbalanced way, but I would make it less smooth, think of adding symmetrical dips? Look towards animal skulls, perhaps extend the temple indent up higher?

[1104]

right, i think if you were to stretch a cloth over it there'd be no definition. i would experiment with further embedding the eyeballs and making them bigger, and broader, deeper temples. possibly add a brow ridge, and pull the chin back/make the jaw shorter, and pull down and out the bridge of the nose (it's as if that gunky stretchy stuff is pulled over the bridge of his nose, i think?). i'd also make the neck and shoulders skinnier and more sinewy. but your vision is different from mine and i dont know how abstracted it should be.

[teleforce]

i don't know what you're going for, but it might help to look at the human skull to see which parts you can add definition to and exaggerate. (just suggestions) you can make the cheekbones come out more, slope the forehead, define the brow line, define the nasal bone, make the jawline more angular, press in the temples, deepen the eye sockets etc. also, you might get some ideas from looking at animal skulls (e.g. gorillas (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&um=1&q=gorilla+skull&revid=1588877005&ei=KorzSuKDIo2CsgPTj9AB&sa=X&oi=revisions_inline&resnum=0&ct=broad-revision&cd=2&start=0)). there are lots of ways you can go. i know nothing about 3d modeling, but if it was my project i'd probably take creative license with the placement of the features. for example, since it's not a human skull, the eyes do not necessarily have to relate to the nose and mouth in a human-like way. (there's no nose and mouth on yours, but you know what i mean.)

yeah. cool stuff though. i like the ears.

[Delusion]

Thanks for the comments so far.

My original sketches for the head depicted a rather smooth featureless head with this big open mouth with skin webbing stretched over.

Without loading up my sketches (lazy) I would say it kind of began like the monster from pan's labyrinth on the upper part.

http://www.darkfiber.com/eyeinhand/panslabyrinth1.jpg

Every time I've messed with it though I keep adding more human like features (deepin the eye sockets, started to add the brow, more human nose bridge, etc. I feel like I'm straying from the original and drifting towards a standard human face with webbing for a mouth...which I don't want.

Just some more about this model..this is the basic model without texture or displacement maps (sort of like super detailed texture that actually changes the shape of the geometry) so some of the wrinkles, stretch bands, crevices etc will be added in later.

[OrionzRevenge]

… I feel like I'm straying from the original and drifting towards a standard human face with webbing for a mouth...which I don't want.
I think this is what your instructor was getting at. Nothing wrong with how it looks now of course, but there is nothing ‘Alien’ as per the upper half.

You might be suffering a god complex and wish to make your man in your own image. :p

Maybe your instructor is a post-TOS Star Trek fan (The land of 1001 latex forehead Prosthetics).

Anyways, what’s this critter’s natural history???
If he flies or swims maybe a skull fin is apropos.
If he is from a desert maybe horny brow plates to shade the eyes.
What dose he use the mouth webbing to feed on???
If he needs to crush bone maybe more muscles from the jaw to an elevated cheekbone.

There seems to be something anti-climatic about how the spiked vertebrae end at the base of the smooth rear of the skull.

Could this critter be a pit-viper and have IR heat sensors on his forehead broadly spaced???

Just some ideas. :) Have fun with it!

You prolly should make one version with some skull ornamentation just to placate your instructor... Never hurts being a teacher’s pet.

[Delusion]

Good point on the vertebrae. Think ill try to mess with that. I've been experimenting with the lumpiness and I think it might be looking better.

He doesn't really have a history yet as this wasn't really thought out in depth. I just needed a character to ride this spider/bike hybrid that I made.

[OrionzRevenge]

Ok, some arachnid ideas for your spider/bike dude.
http://www.eurospiders.com/spider_eyes.jpg

[Delusion]

Haha yeah well I already have the bike done and it basically IS a spider. It just has some motorcycle bits built into it.. I'll post pics later to give you a better idea.

If I were to make the rider spider-like I think it would be rather repetitive. But thanks for the cool eye pics. Creepy indeed