Again thank you so much for your help, I've been getting a lot of negative feedback because of the sexual content but everyone is always so much nicer and supportive here.
people are pretty supportive when someone is actually doing something, but then again we can completely destroy when people are pretending to do something but are really just talking crap wasting our time. you showed something you actually did yourself which already puts you ahead of so many people.
if you wanna become a modeler you will 100% have to get at least okay at character modeling. like yeah, if you don't already have strong enough character drawing or IRL scupting background, that skill can't just magically appear while 3d modeling and your models will never look hyperrealistic. but 99% of character modeling is outside hyperrealism, so it's not that important.
there's a lot of unique issues in character modeling that you won't learn anywhere else, so to get a handle on those things there's no other way than going through it. your every model will improve so make a lot of them. like there's a set of well-known topological patterns in characters that are simply the best way to do it, and you'll be repeating those same ideas on every character you make regardless if it's a hyperrealistic hot girl or a cartoonish alien dog. you can't be a decent modeler and not have some mileage on characters.
but otoh it's just one small area of modeling and all other areas have their own typical solutions as well so you can't just stop at character modeling. even if you one day specialize on some small area it's just being professional to have some idea about other stuff as well. like there are no professional artists who can't draw hands. it might not be their specialty, but a certain level of craftmanship is expected.
and for what it's worth, the daz models and metahumans are far from being great. their niche is to be generic, an okay base for people who aren't decent artists. 'good enough', not great.
but if you want to get to the level where you CAN tell difference between generic and great portrait, you must practice drawing until you can hack it on paper before you can do it in 3d. which is another separate thing that will take commitment, sacrifice and 5-10 years to get there. it's something you can't achieve just playing around.
tips for the current model? look up some construction method like the Loomis one, drill it until you undertand all the human body proportions in relation to its parts. the idea is not using the exact loomis proportions for the rest of your life, but you need to build a very accurate working understanding of the body proportions or everything will always look wrong. no amount of details or fancy maps can fix that.
also when you learn proper construction it'll inform your decisions of which shapes you should model the body out of, and in what kind of angle they're in related to each other. it'll be hugely beneficial to both your character modeling and your portrait drawing, and if you never learn SOME construction method even decades of practice won't stop your characters looking like beginner characters. there's a reason it's one of the fundamentals.
it's a lot, but it's also not something anybody learns or even understands at once. you draw/model thousands of characters and you learn something from every single one. it doesn't matter if you don't understand some part of it now, your goal is to understand like 10%, then next model the next 10% and so on. missing 90% every time is fine, you just keep making new things and learn that next 10%.
it's also not a question of talent but pure repetition. practice it like you'd practice violin to become professional, it's no different and the commitment and hours required are no different. you challenge yourself with things you can't do and train every day. anybody can achieve hyperrealism, it's technique not artistic expression. the expression is what comes on top of that and makes it art.
