Making an artist model - Anya

[Sequoia]

I am an oil painter and I've given myself the task of building a family of my own artist models from scratch. Zbrush was a natural choice, it is the closest 3d software to true sculpting that I've found.

The first model I'm beginning with is a 6 foot tall athletic build female named "Anya". I've only had Zbrush for a month so I am very much in the learning stage of using it. I wanted to keep track of my progress so I thought I would post a thread here. I'll add up-dates to it as I get the opportunity.

The biggest challenge so far - fingers! I spent 2 hours just cleaning up the strange mess I made of her hands with incorrect zsphere placement.

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[nerdyneo]

wow !! great models,

i am crap at human modeling, and i have had zbrush for a while longer than you !!

well done !!

oh, and finger modeling is a nightmare !!! but you've done a good job at it !!

keep it up !!


>joe

[Sequoia]

Hey there Joe, thank you for the encouraging words! Sorry to reply to you so late, I only post when demands of work and off-line activities aren't dogging my heels. As for crappy modeling - practice will get you there, guaranteed :tu: I've been drawing and painting the human form for about a decade and a half so I'm definately tapping this knowledge while working in 3D though the translation between formats is a bit tricky. I keep finding myself wanting to CTRL + Z while painting on a real canvas and reaching for my big pink eraser while working in Zbrush :lol:

P.S. After perusing your zbrush gallery, I'd say you have great promise, I haven't even grappled with texture and uv mapping yet *cringing*. Keep up the good work.

[Sequoia]

April 8, 2005

So I am progressing with this program. I have to admit to being too impatient to read the Practical Manual when I first started. After getting my jollies kicking around in Zbrush until I hit the barren desert called "Cluelessness" I finally opened it up and followed some of the tutorials. The Character modeling tutorial and Warrior tutorial have been invaluable to me.

In working on the head the big issue I ran into was working within the limitations of my machine (1gig of ram, single 450 processor) while also achieving the detail I require. Eyes, ears and lips needed more vertices so I masked those areas, reversed mask and dropped down to the lowest division and subdivided again. The whole model is currently just under 280000 polygons and I was able to achieve a good amount of detail with selective subdivision before I go into projection master. With that said, two problems remain: The ears are still jagged and with selective subdividing, even though you mask the area you want to protect, it is effected by the addition of extra vertices. Example, I had subdivided the ear area 2 more times but I had to undo this as I noticed a crease developing in the cheek even though that area was masked. Oh well, I'll figure it out.

So next challenge: Ears, and Projection Master.

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