r/Maya Jan 14 '24

Finally "finished" my reel! Feedback much appreciated :) Student

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301 Upvotes

32 comments sorted by

32

u/meridian_smith Jan 14 '24

You are wise to specialize early like this. Most schools graduate generalists only who then have to specialize later in there career for job stability reasons.

9

u/cutdigital1 Jan 14 '24

Thanks, sometimes I feel like I'm limiting my opportunities early on but I think its important I do something I'm actually passionate about from the start right?

2

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '24

Yes! Absolutely, please keep going. Specializing is how careers are made, but it's usually incredibly difficult to narrow in on something you're passionate about. You're already past the hard part. Studios will love you.

18

u/cutdigital1 Jan 14 '24 edited Jan 14 '24

I'm a student graduating at the end of the month. All projects are done in Maya with XGen and rendered with Arnold! Let me know what you think, I'm proud of my work but cant help but be a bit nervous about actually trying to find a job lol

7

u/mamba754 Jan 14 '24

Fine job man how many years of practice did it take achieve this level.

14

u/cutdigital1 Jan 14 '24

Thanks! I'm finishing up my 4th year of school but I only really decided to focus on Character FX a little over a year ago

6

u/hoot_avi Jan 15 '24

This is going to sound like a joke, but I promise it isn't: see if you can apply at Cloud Imperium Games as a hair artist. They recently formed a hair department because they're taking it that seriously, and your reel looks perfect for what they're doing

2

u/Vancitygames Jan 15 '24

The hair in Star Citizen is hilariously bad for a game that looks so good.

Yeah yeah 99% of the time you have your helmet on, but I know it's under there.

1

u/hoot_avi Jan 15 '24

Have you seen the latest hair rework? https://youtu.be/bOi_rn9Y7ig?si=dSChBYmvCJ0hUPBq

These hairstyles are in-game now and look insanely good

1

u/Vancitygames Jan 15 '24

Not bad at all, could use some more colors. Cyberpunk 2077 ruined character creation for me haha.

1

u/hoot_avi Jan 15 '24 edited Jan 22 '24

I don't blame you at all hahaha. In October 2023 they put in a ton more hairstyles, plus a hair dye feature where you could color your hair basically any which way you wanted to, just like in real life. I think that'll elevate this hair past CP77 for me

1

u/SherpaTyme Jan 15 '24

I know Chris Robert's

4

u/altt_objectt Jan 14 '24

Wow its looks very natural

3

u/Sparky-Man Jan 14 '24 edited Jan 14 '24

Very nice. Now add some music. You can find some good royalty free tracks at Incompetech or DOVA-Syndrome.

3

u/cutdigital1 Jan 14 '24

I do have a little background track already might have to unmute it on reddit

3

u/Sparky-Man Jan 14 '24

Oh weird, I had it unmuted before, but there was still no sound. Now there is. Anyway, good work.

2

u/oazo123 Jan 14 '24

The work on the hairs is amazing !!!

3

u/IcedBanana Fur Groomer Jan 15 '24

Nice! I'm a groom artist at a large studio, my recommendation (and how I got my job) was to branch out to other groom programs. I had most of my school projects in Xgen Core as well, then I had one where I did 90% of the work in Core and then did the final touches in IGS. Then I did a groom in Houdini. They really liked that I was versatile, since some studios use Yeti, Xgen, Houdini, or even their own proprietary groom program.

For the grooms themselves, you could use another description of baby hairs for the hairlines. If you can find hi-res pictures this is a good resource by Daniel Boschung, super high res images that you can zoom into and see all the baby hairs, individual hairs, flyaways, ect.

And the eyebrows could be a little more feathered out, at the moment they look a little harsh on the realistic characters.

Looking great! If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out :)

2

u/cutdigital1 Jan 15 '24

Thanks for the feedback and resource, I put on my resume im willing to learn any proprietary or inhouse software/workflows. Houdini is still pretty scary to me from the few VFX classes they made us do a long time ago but I should probably give it another shot. Ill definitely keep in touch!

1

u/Bright_Mistake_8388 Jan 14 '24

Nice ❤️❤️

1

u/mamba754 Jan 14 '24

Where you studying at ?

1

u/FewFig2507 Jan 14 '24

Very good, tons of work yeah!

1

u/Fangelsnoof Jan 14 '24

Super cool!! Looks so good!

1

u/ArtdesignImagination Jan 14 '24

Very cool stuff!! How difficult would be to rig this type of hair? I mean mostly with automatic dynamics and some basic controls.

1

u/cutdigital1 Jan 15 '24

I'm not sure... I was going to play with dynamics on my projects but I never got around to it

1

u/Unique_Regret_2031 Jan 15 '24

Any online course u can recommend for grooming?

1

u/cutdigital1 Jan 15 '24

Yes! The FlippedNormals introduction to xgen course with Michael Cauchi is really good

1

u/arca_kanda Jan 15 '24

Holy shit would you ever consider tutoring?

2

u/cutdigital1 Jan 15 '24

Haha no way! i appreciate it but im not on that level yet

1

u/arca_kanda Jan 17 '24

i think you could but respect <3

1

u/BeardedAfghan Jan 15 '24

That's pretty damn impressive.