SUCH MANRINESS!

it's gorgeous, but it reminds me a bit of soldier.

Fair effort, but it really doesn't do it for me. This is meant to be our giddy little psychopath? Our playful firestarter? Why is he so grumpy looking?

Even though I get that the point of this model is to make a face that could fit into Pyro’s weirdly-shaped mask, which I’m sure is very limiting, the designer in me is still in a tiff about the visual similarities between this Pyro’s face and some of the other classes. TF2 makes such a point of making sure that every little detail of each character is iconic, immediately recognisable, so that even the shortest glimpse of the tiniest part of somebody is enough to identify their class. The fact that Pyro looks, like OP said, like Soldier (or maybe, if I want to split hairs, the top half of Soldier’s face pasted onto the bottom half of Medic’s face) instead of having a really distinct look kind of takes away from the authenticity of the character. I know that if Valve had designed Pyro without a mask, I would see his face and immediately think “Pyro,” instead of “Somebody forgot to feed Soldier agai—oh never mind, that’s Pyro.”
So. Maybe a new skin tone? A hairdo? Adjustments to the shape of his mouth, his nose, his chin? This might also be a good time to think about how you can address the problem mawaru pointed out, and try to work his personality into his features a bit more. I'm not saying that you have to turn him into a stereotype, but he does look a bit too sober. It's hard for me to picture that face with a big, maniacal grin.
Also, you might need a bit more work on the textures, as he looks a little lifeless. I say “might,” because they tend to look better in game than they do in viewers, so who the fuck knows yet.

Other than that it looks really great. You’ve got great attention to detail, the style is spot-on. Again like OP said, he’s nice and mansome, which is something a lot of people forget when they design TF2 characters. I congratulate you for having the courage to step away from the idealised character designs that are a habit for so many people and to instead make a scary mercenary who really does look like a scary mercenary. I also congratulate you on utilising the space inside Pyro’s mask so that the head beneath it actually looks (reasonably) proportional to the body. I was not aware that such a feat was possible.

I think this is based on the concept face.

Sure looks like it. If you wanted something closer to the concept pyro, you'd need to make the face look a little more asian.

But I really like this pyro. I just think he needs to smile.

Hunnh. I do like it a lot, even though my true-to-heart headcanon is a female pyro (but that's just me being silly). Good work, Anon.

...Though, if you want a little bit of criticism, I do think he looks a tad...unremarkable. Though, now that I think about it, if you took all of the other eight mercs and lined them up without any knowledge of their background/voice lines/weapons, I supposed they'd look pretty unremarkable too. And, of course, you had to design his face so that it would fit inside the mask, so that probably put a large limitation on what you could do with his features.

This is just my opinion, but I envision the Pyro to be a much younger human (if it is human), maybe only five or six years older than Scout, and the second youngest member of the team. (Of course, I only think this because a lot of players new to the FPS genre cling to Pyro's class because they can still use 'n00by' tactics and get kills, so it's a rather silly reason.) Maybe you could play around with the age too? That might give you more variance on the facial structure and counteract the constraints of the mask. It's just a suggestion, if you want to change the design at all. (If you were going for the concept art, disregard all of this and carry on.)

However, even with the gross block of text, I like this design a lot. I Hope to see more modelling from you.

There isn't anything about this character design that screams "Pyro" at me. Put him in another class' uniform and I'd think "oh, this is somebody's Original Character". Are you suggesting a particular nationality? Or personality? I know you have to start with a "neutral" expression when modeling, but give us some shots of him in an emotion other than "detached boredom". And give him some scars--surely a pyromaniac, especially one who sees flames as rainbows or bubbles, has burned himself by accident (or on purpose) a few times.

Needs more potato.

I can only see Pyro as human. Not potato, not sack of kittens, not alien, not robot. I'm sorry.

I think it's not the modeler's fault, it's an issue you should take up with Moby Francke, because it's his design. I kind of like it. No scars, no trauma, just a normal guy who decided to start burning things one day. And I like that.

>>13676
SMILE YOU SAY?