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Help me to learn better human anatomy

Hey guys, i am really really really need your advice. I am funding really lost and stuck of learning human anatomy. I am looking for advice from your guys, to give me tips, advice any kind of help, how to learn proper anatomy
and be able to sculpt in Zbrush.

Before i go any depth, i was never able to draw or paint, now i am trying to sculpt human head for example in Zbrush, and i find extremely difficult. I have no idea how the head is made, no idea of the bones or muscles.

Did you, before you started to sculpt in Zbrush, and make awesome character/creature, to be able to draw? Or you just begin in Zbrush, and your result come after hard work?

I am also want to learn anatomy and to sculpt in Zbrush at the same time, if that’s possible. Do you guys know some tutorial about this?

I come across Scott Eaton courses, i would like to ask, how are they? are they for total newbie like me?

Please any king of help i need.

I’m in the same boat as far as not really being able to draw. I can doodle enough to get me started on things but nothing spectacular by any means. I am starting to focus more on human anatomy with Zbrush sculpting as you are wanting to do. There are lots of great resources out there for learning human anatomy. I decided to go with a few apps for my iPad that help out quite a bit. If you have access to one I suggest the apps ‘Muscle System Pro III - by nova’, MARA3D and L’Ecorche Lite. They are great visual tools to help you along the way. The Nova app is a great way to actually learn the names of the different muscle groups and what not though that isn’t as important to me as long as I know that they are there. Just searching ‘human anatomy’ on Amazon.com will come up with a lot of good books if you prefer to go that route. Good luck!

Thanks dude, can i ask you, how it’s going by now from studding anatomy from that apps?
For bad luck, i don’t have Ipad for now, is there any app for PC or something?
Would like to give me a link form your anatomy study in Zbrush to see it how u are doing?

Ryan Kingsliens book “Realistic Game Characters” was very useful to me.
You should also take a look on his ZBrushWorkshops website or the Visualarium.

I think there’s no better teacher than him

Try your local art school and takeclasses on sculpting human anatomy and portrait drawing.
Then buy what ever zbrush course youlike.
If not you are going about this assbackwards.

Are you saying that to be any good with ZBrush you need to have a grounding in drawing or physically sculpting human anatomy?

Yes,

That is what I am saying.
Are there exceptions too the rule sure but in general you can tell who has a solid background in those studies.

So for all of this, i need to be born with talent? How long does takes to be good in drawing, so be able to sculpt in Zbrush?

To be honest, i don’t want to be 2D guys, i am more into 3D, sculpting creatures in Zbrush for games etc

When I started I knew zero anatomy, other than I knew I had limbs. I did like many do, and still do, and that was to try and cut corners by sculpting the whole entire body, at this point nothing looks good, ears, hands and feet are not even there, and can leave you feeling a little dissopointed in the slow progress.

I advice that you start with the human skull, work from the inside out as your need to understand the bones, and forms it makes under the skin. Look at drawings of the planes of the head, this will help you develop a simple basis for drawing and sculpting. Learn the fundimental muscles of the face, and how these contribute to expressions. The head alone is a good study, and from this alone your produce some stunning sculpts. Try not at this stage to think about detail. but more about form, dont be in a hurry to sub devide your mesh, make the best of lower levels first. When you can draw, and sculpt a skull, and head fleshed out, post your results for from constructive crit on these forums as you go.

Then after making tons of heads, move onto another body part, such as the torso, again start from inside out, rib cage, shapes forms, and then the origin and insertion of muscles, take note how they overlap, and what can be seen on the average human, take into account all levels of fat by looking at where the fat flanks are, sculpt and draw these. If you do it this way by the time you start doing whole bodys, your be producing seriouse sculpts.

Its takes time, im constantly refining, and always will be. Learn from the masters such as Zac Petroc, Ryan Kingling, Scott spencer, Scott Eaton, just to mention a few. Join 3D.SK download all types of bodys, male and female, fat and thin, get Eliot goldfinger anatomy for artist book, and most of all enjoy it, your learn faster that way.

That feeling you get when your working on somthing, when you start to see somthing looking solid at even early stages, this is what your after, you want to feel a wow! feeling, when your saying to your self “Now thats looking good”. If your feeling this often, then your progressing, and this time next year your look back on your old work and your beable to see every mistake with a smile.:smiley:

Yea, i understand that we have a skeleton and biceps, triceps:D

So when did you started to learn all of these things? And how was it from the start? interested? confused?
And how did you start to learn? DId you first draw the skeleton for example, or did you go straight for sculpting?

I am a bit confused of how to start? I want to find a way to be fun and to enjoy it. So should i go for sculpting in Zbrush or Drawing first, then sculpting?

I have some photos for reference, i have downloaded from 3Dsk, just for this. Averages people, body builders, nude, with cloth.

Oh, and i am planning to attend the 2 courses from Scott Eaton, The anatomy and the sculpting. I could take some courses from Visularium but the are too expensive for me.

I started sitting down and actualy looking at anatomy about 3 years ago, before that I was doodeling, not understanding what the forms I was copying from refference pictures. I had to start with the bones, muscles, fatty layers. I read in a book called anatomy for artist by Eliot Goldfinger about the skull, remembering the bones, and sculpting the skull. I then looked at refference pictures to see how certain major bones made the biggest land marks like the Zygomatic arch, Maxillary bone, Frontal bone, Sphenoid bone, and areas such as how the Stonocleidomastoid comes from the sternom, and calvical to the Mastoid process of the skull, behind the ear. once you get these in your mind your hint at these land marks very early on in your sculpting, it becomes second nature. Then you have the muscles, again sculpting these muscle groups in place will help you understand why there is a creases, dips, and folds. Then we have artist refference work to give us basic mesurements for the placement of the eyes, ears, nose mouth e.c.t. Scott Eatons courses look very good, im going to attend one myself, as iv much to learn to myself. I agree Visularium is way to expensive and behond the average pricing, even with the monthly payment plans. Anatomy for artist has to be fun, while educational as its not a simple quick course or two and your done. its a life time journey.

You have learned anatomy in 3 years? Well, that’s awesome.

I have that book from Eliot. I am looking at the first page, which is the skull, but to be honest, I have no idea how to start to sculpt that in 3D/

Even i have printed that page, put in front on me, and now what?

BTw? Did you know how to draw before touching drawing?

No! I havent not learnt everything in 3 years, its on going, it takes many years to master somthing. Im learning it all the time, more depth, more layers of understanding. I could go on Scott Eatons, or one of Ryan Kingling courses and come out with stacks of knowledge and improovment. Never say im there as there is always somthing to improove on. I havent posted anything here in about 2 years it seems, looking at what I did back then to what im doing now there is a huge improovment, and so there should be in two years. Its when your looking back and seeing no difference hints that yu have stoped learning.

Anatomy is just one aspect of being a artist, you got to know how to pose it, ballance it and put your own stamp on it. These are all areas I want to improove in, not just understanding the origin and insertions of muscles. There was somthing my old martial arts once said to me that I apply today when it comes to time and practice. 3 years of training every day for 1 hour, 2,3,4, or 3 yearsof training once a week for 25 min, or maybe 3 years of training once a month. Only expect to get what you put in, time is only relitive to how much of it you have used with good practice.

People use http://www.3d.sk/
The concept of how thay use http://www.3d.sk/ don’t matter what app’s used.
You can Google human antomy very help full I have a lot of .jpgs of human antomy.
I swear at one time I thought I was studing to be a Doc ,LOL.
You can Google body builders , females .ect ect.

I was drawing charactars long before mac or window’s even exsisted.
Don’t know if drawing matters or not .all i know is it’s a lot harder to model a charater.
I learned to draw buy copying batman superman wounder woman.

I learned to model charters buy copying 1998 poser 4’s characters “male” called dork & “female” called possetta.

DAZ Studio pro 4 is free for now has better male and female charaters then back in 1998 :slight_smile:
http://www.daz3d.com/products/daz-studio/daz-studio-what-is-daz-studio/

I have created a Video Study (course) that goes into depth of how the head is made. In the first Video Study of this series the cranium is broken down by the bones of which it is formed; the structures (boney landmarks) of each cranial bone are located and named. The structures of the mandible are broken down in the same format.

In the course all proper anatomical names and terms are used.

I created this Video Study as my own desire to know and understand why & where each structure of the head is located. You can learn more about the Video Study at www.genesisanatomy.com and view the demo video.

If you have any questions contact me contact@genesisanatomy.com.

Adam V

If you want to learn anatomy without learning to draw, I would suggest making your next major project a full-body anatomical model. This lets you really just focus on learning the anatomy itself, without being distracted by any artistic urges or “stylization”.

Start with the bones, use an anatomy book for reference, and sculpt them all up. Import reference images images into zbrush as needed and work hard until they all are right. From there, add your muscles one by one and learn how they connect to the bones. It should probably take you between two weeks and a month if you set aside a couple hours a day to work on it.

When you’re done, switch to the other gender, and do another one! You’ll find you can re-use a lot of your work by deforming the model, but you’ll need to re-do some things completely (especially in the hip area). This one will go way faster.

If you still want to learn more, move on to something like a bodybuilder, a child, or a horse, or something else new, and do the whole thing again.

It will be tedious, time consuming, and difficult to stick with, but this is the best way to really learn what’s going on.

For reference materials:


  • “Artistic Anatomy” by Sarah Simblet. It has great drawings and photography, and is focused on those parts of anatomy that matter for a visual artist. http://amzn.com/078948045X
  • “Anatomy for the Artist” by Paul Richer. A much more technical study of anatomy, focusing on the detailed interaction of bones and muscles. http://amzn.com/0823002977
  • For technique in Zbrush, this short video by Ryan Kingslien shows you how to quickly create muscles using CurveTubes. You can probably see how a similar technique would work well for roughing in long bones. http://www.isculptstuff.com/2012/08/anatomy-r4-sculpting-through-your-model.html
  • “Sculpting Realistic Game Characters” by Ryan Kingslien is a good one for later. It’s better if you already have the basics down, and helps you organize your knowledge and internalize it. http://amzn.com/047087256X

So yeah. That’s my advice.

Thanks man, yes to be honest with you i hate hate hate drawing, i don’t why, but id on’t see any fun or enjoyment from that, no matter what people told me that will help me a lot, i don’t want to draw. Does without drawing, i can be good enough to work in big studios like ILM or Blizzard? I have reference dl from 3D sk, and many from googling around.

Yea my plan is to start from skeleton, and go to muscles and skin.

ILM ,Blizzard and here I was worried about you not being ambitious enough :wink:

Forget about the drawing ,let it go .Just never tell anyone you can not draw or hate it.

Just get real good at what you like to do.

Hi,
Sorry to pimp out my own app, but with the expertise of Scott Eaton behind this it is a great way to learn.
thanks
MDhttp://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lecor…6024?mt=8&ls=1

How to run this on Win7?