Digital Noob Seeking Feedback!

[Westfic]

Hey guys!
I've lurked around ZBC for years, and always though "gosh I wish" when looking at all the amazing sculpts and renders on this site. Yesterday I decided to dip my toes into Sculptris, did one cruddy little toon squid in about ten minutes and though "huh. Maybe I can!" So...I took the plunge and threw my money at Pixelogic today, and I've cranked out what I hope is a decent starting piece.
Please keep in mind that other than the little squiddy I did yesterday, I have never modeled or sculpted anything anything in my life! So...I know my anatomy isn't totally accurate, but am I on the right path for a noob with this head I worked up today?

Modeled from a polysphere with a little help from YouTube!



Here's the start of a little sharkish alien critter thing--I was playing with Zspheres. They're fun!

[FrederikP]

Hi,
looking good for a first try! Just keep at it, it will get easier every time you try.
Regarding your sculpts: The face already shows a nice structure. Usually in the beginning things turn out very blobby and undefined but you managed to pay good attention to the bone structure underneath. Try to look at real faces for reference whenever you work to see how the features blend together! I feel like some areas are over pronounced, like the cheek bones. Reality is a lot more subtle.
A few simple corrections: The top of the head seems a bit short, The ridge of the nose is very narros, the cheeks are very skinny and the jaw could be a little wider. of course this all dependes on the reference you used!
Another tip, dont try to work in wrinkles and pores and that stuff right away, focus on the big volumes first, the shapes, the proportions. Once all that is done and the sculpt looks believable, then its time to add high frequency detail. Also, the skin detail you put in seems very uniform, try to study your own face (if you have one, otherwise borrow a friend's) to see what skin detail lies where. Things to look out for are generally: wrinkles around the eyes, around the mouth and on the forehead, basically wherever skin moves around a lot. Spots and little bumps on the forehead and nose. Also, skin pores are different sizes depending on the areas. usually on the tip of your nose and next to the ridge of the nose the skin is a little rougher and less clean (for people who dring a lot of alcohol this is even more the case)
When you block in hair, try to also hint at the general flow. Even if it is just a few strokes this already communicates that its supposed to be hair. The Damian Standard Brush is great for that!

Regarding the alien critter: Since it is so low-poly its hard to give certain advice because the model could still change in any direction. Since you wrote its supposed to be sharkish, maybe try to add more shark like features? Like Gils, and a more pronounced fin? ALso if its supposed to be a water creature, you could hint at features that allow him to be more aggile under water. right now it seems like he would be more comfortable on land. When coming up with a creature design its always great to look at examples from nature. Every animal has its specialities which developed over millions of years, specializing in certain tasks. For example fish are usually very streamlined, to swim faster. Birds have extremly strong chest musculature to give them enough strength to move their wings for flight and so on.If you want to make a shark creature, try to look at sharks and see what is most unique about them and bring this into your design!


I hope this helps a little to get you going?

[Westfic]

Thanks for the info, Frederik!

Yeah, when I opened up ZBrush for the first time I plopped a sphere on the canvas and just stared at it for about an hour with no thought of what I should try to begin with. XD So, when I started blocking out a head, I didn't grab any references--I was just trying to learn the tools, to be honest, I didn't really think my little zpoop would turn out okay. XD

I will definitely use refs in the future to get the structure of the face down--though it seems I am going to sculpt in the same style I paint and draw in, with slightly cartoonish features. For me, that's not a bad thing, since I'm never going to be making anything that has to look hyper real for games or movies or such. I'm just doing this as a hobby.

For the sharky--I'm going to give him a tail, and I want to do webbing between his fingers and toes (I need to sub up to get the fin in because I was stupid and didn't outline it with Zspheres) but I don't really know how to do that. ...What's the best way to get nice thin and pliable webbing between his digits?

[FrederikP]

Hi,
since you say you enjoy working in cartooyn features, you could go more into this direction by really distorting the proportions and play with interesting shapes. I would usually always recommend starting with naturalistic models because if you now how to create that kinda stuff its relativly easy to distort things to get a cartoony feel. However, if you say you do it as a hobby you might just wanna explore what you like best.
If you dont know the website I highly recommend checking out: http://creaturebox.com/ they do amazing cartoon designs!Always an inspiration to me.

Regarding the question about adding tissues inbetween the fingers.
I usually use Autodesk Maya to add aditional meshes to my models. I just export the sculpt at a low enough subdivision so maya can handle it in the viewport and add very basic low poly meshes for what I want to create. In your case a simple cube with a few subdivision placed inbetween the fingers can be sufficient. I then import the new basemesh into zbrush using the import function (its important to first select a different tool than your character, otherwise it gets replaced). Once its imported you can switch back to your main tool (the model you are workign on) and append the newly imported mesh as a subtool in the subtool pallet.
If you dont want to use a different 3d app (blender for example is free and can also do the same thing) you could also just take any of the zbrush primitives, turn them into an editable poly mesh and append them as a subtool.
I definatly prefere the switch to maya because I am more comfortable with it and it feel like I have more control over where vertices go.

Good luck!

[Westfic]

Thanks again! --I dropped the cash for ZBrush, and since I'm really just doing this to have fun and supplement my 2D art, I'm not gonna pay for another modeling program (at least, not at this point). XD

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out!

[Westfic]

Alright, so I started up this guy today and I have a couple questions:

First--should I always be sculpting in non-perspective mode? Or is this only really important if I plan on exporting the model elsewhere to render?

Secondly--As you can see, this guy will have some hard surfaces on his face. I got them as flat as I could at this lower res stage-for an organic model like this, what brushes are best suited to making those planes nice and flat in higher subD's without paring them down so far they run into the fleshy parts of the face?

Thirdly--I am using several different references for this guy, but I don't very often create non-human characters that don't already exist. I'm just not sure what to do with the side of his head to make it more interesting and break up the big, smooth forms there!

And lastly, I want to turn this into a bust, not just a head--what's the best way of doing this? --this guy is modeled on a single polysphere (with 2 more for eyes, of course).

Thanks, if anyone actually sees this!

[Westfic]

New sketch. First time attempting polypainting.

[polaroid29]

Alright, so I started up this guy today and I have a couple questions:

First--should I always be sculpting in non-perspective mode? Or is this only really important if I plan on exporting the model elsewhere to render?

Secondly--As you can see, this guy will have some hard surfaces on his face. I got them as flat as I could at this lower res stage-for an organic model like this, what brushes are best suited to making those planes nice and flat in higher subD's without paring them down so far they run into the fleshy parts of the face?

Thirdly--I am using several different references for this guy, but I don't very often create non-human characters that don't already exist. I'm just not sure what to do with the side of his head to make it more interesting and break up the big, smooth forms there!

And lastly, I want to turn this into a bust, not just a head--what's the best way of doing this? --this guy is modeled on a single polysphere (with 2 more for eyes, of course).

Thanks, if anyone actually sees this!

1.) There is no "always" or "never" answer to stuff like this. it's usually always going to be a mix of the two. For me personally, I usually do a lot of the work with perspective off, but will always check back with it on from time to time to make sure things look right the way they would normally be viewed. Things like the feet, etc.

2.) I don't think you should be hard surfacing this guy just yet because the forms just aren't there, in my opinion. He looks a little blobby, as if you jumped subd levels too fast. Once you feel you are comfortable with the underlying forms, trip dynamic is going to be your best friend. It's not extremely destructive and flattens things out really nicely. You can also go into add mode with it and still flatten things out, but positively instead of negatively. Use your dam standard for edges if you need to, and very delicate use of pinch if deemed necessary.

3.) draw a lot

4.) Dynamesh! glorious, glorious dynamesh. Turn Dynamesh on for the head, then use move and/or snakehook to pull out a neck and torso, then just ctrl+drag click to remesh the geo automatically. It's a godsend, really.

Sorry for the long response! Hope this helps. The colors on this new creature are looking pretty cool.

[RazielBlair]

We are pretty much in the same situation but looks like you are a bit(quite) further than me.
I also looked here and one day i decided to try - I always wanted to, but I am really no good have to say that yours look very good - especially the polypaint - I just cant get the colors right.

[Dragon]

Looks like some good polypainting to me-

[Westfic]

Hi guys--thanks for the replies on my previous posts, I really appreciate them.

I still haven't quite got the hang of dynamesh, but I've taken a little bit of a step back and decided I'd better practice some anatomy before I start to tackle larger projects.

Here's a torso I worked up with a 3 hour time limit on myself (not enough time, for me, to finish the back). I know the anatomy is not perfect, but I think it looks okay. I'd appreciate if anyone could point out where I might improve.

Thanks guys!

[ketseas3]

Try this:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1070160...53294832392818

The Plykleitos' Doryphoros torso is the all time classic.

[Westfic]

Try this:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1070160...53294832392818

The Plykleitos' Doryphoros torso is the all time classic.

Thanks--I have scads of references, not quite the feedback I was looking for. XD Eying refs and comparing your own forms can only take you so far, after all, when you're starting off.

[Westfic]

First attempt at a full body. I have no idea what I'm doing. XD Not really sure how best to go about doing the plates on his shoulders and over his traps...I started the ones on the shoulders by just extracting/duplicating and layering them to try that out...not sure if I like it...


Based, with permission, on http://mysticaldonkey1.deviantart.co...omize%3A1&qo=1 because I needed something to look at and I thought he was cute. XD

[Westfic]

A frog I sculpted to add in with the bog imp.