My first sculpt attempt... please criticize ;)

[Robb Ryniak]

I know a guy who was overweight during his teens, so his chest grew larger than the usual, and now that he has lost weight he has a massive ribcage.

Me too! Just par for the course I guess...

It looks good as long as you tone up the rest of your body.

Exactly!

I started bodybuilding about 4 months ago and I'm gaining pretty rapidly. Have to stop for a month though due to a kink in my neck.

Ooohhh newbie gains - they're the best Sorry you got sidelined, but it will come back fast when you start training again. It's far better to heal from an injury than to push yourself and risk making it worse imo. I had a shoulder issue, and thought it was all better, and reinjured it (not even during training), so you can't be too careful. Best of luck!!

So yeah your sculpt looks good, but I think the main thing is the chest and the underarm bicep/pec spot.
Tthe hands and feet look really good btw.

Thanks.. the hands were fun.

[u3190]

Just found a great site that contains the good free images from 3d.sk
This photo here is a good one for studying the underarm/bicep spot.
http://fineart.sk/photo-references/m...nding-poses/08

[Robb Ryniak]

Justin - thanks for the great site link! That site is awesome.

I found a couple other images there that give some hints as to how to approach that region:

http://www.human-anatomy-for-artist..../show/id/73545
http://www.human-anatomy-for-artist..../show/id/72288
http://www.human-anatomy-for-artist..../show/id/46488

It seems based on those photos (and the one you posted) that my connection point is actually good but that the bicep tapers too quickly under the shoulder, and that it would work better filled it a bit farther down... so not moving the attachment point of the bicep but just filling it in, like so:



What do you think... an appropriate fix?

[u3190]

yes thats exactly what I was trying to get across. It was hard to explain.

[Robb Ryniak]

So, I hope this fixed the bicep taper issue - and in doing so the arms do look a little bigger, hopefully enough to look "real"...



...I'm getting anxious to try the retopo process... first time for that too. Starting to wonder if putting on fine details isn't better done AFTER retopo from a workflow efficiency perspective... rather than projecting them onto the retopo'd mesh.

[SeanJM]

So, I hope this fixed the bicep taper issue - and in doing so the arms do look a little bigger, hopefully enough to look "real"...



...I'm getting anxious to try the retopo process... first time for that too. Starting to wonder if putting on fine details isn't better done AFTER retopo from a workflow efficiency perspective... rather than projecting them onto the retopo'd mesh.

What application do you plan on using? I have a brief tutorial on the retopo process using blender here: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthr...Sketches/page2

[Robb Ryniak]

What application do you plan on using? I have a brief tutorial on the retopo process using blender here: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthr...Sketches/page2

Sean, I was planning on retopo'ing right here in ZBrush by first making a topology plan with polypaint then using the traditional zbrush method using a zsphere and edit topology... if I found it too difficult or awkward I was considering 3D Coat as the alternative, as I understand it's got really phenominal retopo tools - just want to avoid spending much more money on this I know Blender is open source/freeware, but I'm not sure it's retopo tools are any better than ZBrush's - I haven't heard either way on the issue honestly, only that Blender has a bit of a learning curve in general, and since I already own Lightwave 3D which IMO has a great renderer, I just never figured I'd ever need Blender for anything. In any case, I figure I won't have any issues with retopologizing in ZBrush, the tuts on it seem simple enough.

[VictorCS]

I would suggest useing the retopology tools inside ZBrush, they are not bad at all when you get used to them. And it's not that slow, ofcourse a more complicated model requires more time. I'm not sure how other retopology tools work tho, but the way it's done in Blender is the way you'll do it in ZBrush. Atleast you know how to navigate in ZBrush, with blender you'll have to sit down and spends some time figuring it out if you havent used it before.

[u3190]

3D Coat makes any other retopology tools look like $*&%
It has voxels, texture painting, retopology, UV Mapping and Rendering. Best of all, it has amazing hard surface features. I would highly recommend it.
I usually sculpt the basic form in 3D Coat with voxels, Retopologize it, UV Map it, then sculpt in zbrush and polypaint it.
Its extremely cheap for what it offers too. $99 for the educational version, $349 for the full complete licenced version. Thats way cheaper than ZBrush and it can do a whole lot more. Very easy to learn too. Anyway I'm going on a rant so basically it is worth the money.

[Robb Ryniak]

I would suggest useing the retopology tools inside ZBrush, they are not bad at all when you get used to them. And it's not that slow, ofcourse a more complicated model requires more time. I'm not sure how other retopology tools work tho, but the way it's done in Blender is the way you'll do it in ZBrush. Atleast you know how to navigate in ZBrush, with blender you'll have to sit down and spends some time figuring it out if you havent used it before.

That's pretty much what I was figuring.

[Robb Ryniak]

3D Coat makes any other retopology tools look like $*&%

That's what I'd heard about it... well, not the "$*&%" but lol

It has voxels, texture painting, retopology, UV Mapping and Rendering. Best of all, it has amazing hard surface features. I would highly recommend it.
I usually sculpt the basic form in 3D Coat with voxels, Retopologize it, UV Map it, then sculpt in zbrush and polypaint it.
Its extremely cheap for what it offers too. $99 for the educational version, $349 for the full complete licenced version. Thats way cheaper than ZBrush and it can do a whole lot more. Very easy to learn too. Anyway I'm going on a rant so basically it is worth the money.

I'm sure it's worth every penny (as is ZBrush imho) and I was very, VERY impressed with their video demos and gallery. I chose ZBrush over 3D Coat as an initial sculpting tool primarily because of it's user base, in spite of the fact that it was a couple hundred less. It was kind of a one shot deal, as my budget is kinda limited just now. (I'm not a student, so I can't get the educational pricing.) At 350, I think I'm going to wait (I *might* be able to squeeze a purchase out of my finances, but it would make for a very difficult winter, financially) - in any case, it *is* on my list of stuff to get, including the upgrade to Lightwave 11.0 which has some really interesting new features, and the Maxwell plugin for Lightwave, which from what I've seen one of my best friends do with it, takes rendering to a whole new level... oh and MARI seems to take polypainting to a whole new level too - I'm interested but I need to see what I can do with polypaint first before I even think about saving up for that. (Hopefully ZBrush will do all I need it to so I can save some money there.)

I also want to upgrade to the latest version of Reason, but that's gonna have to wait, as that's almost strictly "hobby" stuff. (Crazy fun program though if you're into music.)

Suffice it to say - I'd better start selling some models (or get a side gig modelling), or I won't be able to afford any of these, lol. It's funny, I started writing software as a hobby when I was 8 years old... it became my profession for years (and I'm pretty #$% good at it imo) but it's been starting to get to the point where I'm no longer in love with that particular creative process. When something I love becomes more about politics, time management and perfoming "the job" according to a standard that isn't really the best way to do it; rather than about being creative and doing something I love doing really really well, then I think it's time to let it go. It seems like the entire software industry has become about just "making something work by XYZ date, regardless if it's the best way or not" than about "creating something great and doing it really well". It's like my engineer half and my artistic half are being forced to go to war, and imo it's unnecessary. So, I think I'm ready to start a new adventure that utilizes all of my skills and abilities (including software under the right circumstances)... it's one of the reasons I took up ZBrush - to see if I had the potential to be successful in this arena on a professional level.

I guess you guys didn't need to know all that, lol, but it felt good to say it regardless.

[SeanJM]

Try retopo in as many tools as possible and when you find the one you love, stick to it.

[Robb Ryniak]

So, I took some time off to do some painting and just get refreshed - and started back working on my guy. It's retopology time. I got the head done (well, planned/drawn out), and I gotta say, planning topology isn't NEARLY as fun as sculpting. Oh well, gotta get it done one way or another... maybe because it's my first time or whatever, but somehow I'm finding it kind of mentally exhausting drawing lines that all must flow and make sense for animation and make almost only quads with little to no triangles and zero >4 sided polys. (sigh) Wish me luck!!

[hitesh]

So, I took some time off to do some painting and just get refreshed - and started back working on my guy. It's retopology time. I got the head done (well, planned/drawn out), and I gotta say, planning topology isn't NEARLY as fun as sculpting. Oh well, gotta get it done one way or another... maybe because it's my first time or whatever, but somehow I'm finding it kind of mentally exhausting drawing lines that all must flow and make sense for animation and make almost only quads with little to no triangles and zero >4 sided polys. (sigh) Wish me luck!!

It doesnt have to be quads.. SOme places triangles are okey

[Robb Ryniak]

Well, I finished retopologizing and polypainting. Both were more time consuming than I anticipated, though being my first time at each, I was figuring out some things as I went along. One important lesson for polypainting was that lighting makes a HUGE difference in how things appear. I was getting really "bland" looking results using the default lighting, and could never get the dynamic range of the skin right until I realized that little bit - my reference photos had higher dynamic range due to the lighting. Anyhow, here's the latest, c&c welcome as always.