Hey,
I just finished my second normal mapped character and appreciate all harsh criticism, I definetly need to redo her hair but am wondering how else to improve her look. All textures are 1024X1024 and the lowpoly is a little over 6000 polys.

quicktime video

http://www.mpm7.com/girl.html

model looks good, is the animation keyframed or mocap?

The model itself looks very good but there is something with the texture of the face that strikes me as odd.. err cartoonish kinda. Else its a very nicely done model.

i love it right up to the moment the diffuse map appears... what avalean said about cartoonish is right, but imho it's the "wrong" sort of cartoonish - I can't really explain myself other than I don't think this style suits the model. Something just doesn't fit with it - I thought she was gonna be textured all realistic-style and look really gritty, imho that would fit better.
Also i think the texture brings out the odd shape of the eyes and mouth - they're not very anatomically correct, yet they're not so far from it to be cartoony/anime proportions, which is why i think they're sitting in an odd middle ground which should be taken to one extreme or the other...
Great mesh though, looks really well built. And the normal map seems to be doing a very good job. Just the texture I don't like really (and the facial proportions)

MoP

I like it, but I noticed on the animation,
that the chain hanging from her hip doesn't
move at all. Kinda looks wierd when it
goes into her leg while she is moving. If
thats frame by frame you have got to be crazy
thats gotta be mocap. Good Job.

I think her skin is too orange and too much red on her face, also its too spotty (looks like cellulite or however you call ass fat in english :P )
Model looks nice maybe arms are little too small tho.

her face texture sucks. improve that. and her neck looks too long or too narrow. I believe her sternocleidomastoides should be less defined, unless there under so much stress holding up those unreasonably massive funbags.

In agreement with everyone else so far, the normal mapping, and low poly model are good...but the diffuse/specular map detracts from it. Its something I've been seeing with a lot of current normal mapped work, that the textures end up looking more like plastic than skin. Try not to have the normal mapping and specular do all the lighting, shading, and coloring for you if all you are using is a normal, specular, and diffuse map. Try to find a happy median between how'd you'd paint the diffuse map for a low polygon model, and how you'd paint the diffuse map for a highpoly model.

As for the animation...I noticed one thing, you modelled the cross around her neck on the low poly, but didn't animate it, it just looks kinda weird that it just sits there even though she's jumping around. And the chain on her belt doesn't animate either, and clips her leg when she's prepping to do the roundhouse kick.

Other than that...really liked the animation, and how you ended it with her kicking the camera [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

nice modeling! i do agree with the comments on the texture tho.

BTW you could try and set the self illumination for the diffuse to around 10-20% and look how the flesh parts look then.

thanks for the feedback
yah thats just mocap at the end, my animating skills are as bad as my texturing.
I am going to rework her textures and try and fix the face and hair.I'll also animate the chain which I skinned but left alone for whatever reason.