ZBrushCentral

Female Modeling Challenge

I’m All busy with modeling orcs, muscular male and stuff. But nothing comes into my imagination when I’m going to start of a block of clay for female mesh.
Anyone can provide a template block? a ztl maybe?:smiley:

You could probably do like I did once and turn the super average man into a female. Of course I added 2 edge loops in the appropriate places. and I rescaled the hands and feet just a bit. If you use the smooth brush on the arms and legs they’ll come down a bit in thickness too. unless you want a body builder woman. lol. I’m certainly no expert, but with a little time I definitely know it can be done. The muscle groups are pretty much the same, just moved and scaled around a bit in places. Humanoid is humanoid.

I’ve also done this with my own models and done the opposite. female to male. After about 5 or 6 tries at it, I think I finally made myself a decent base model that can do just that with, as well as make orcs and other humanoid creatures with. Instead of having to rebuild from scratch every time. Hope this at least helps get your creative juices flowing, 'cause as I’ve said I’m no expert modeler.

Chad

Lumin8 is exactly right. You need a couple of good base models from which to work, but given how similar most of the topology is, it’s easy enough to turn a male into a female or vice versa. I made a female mesh, saved it, made a male mesh from it, and that saves a ton of modeling time (though I still build from scratch for unusual anatomy and just to keep my straight modeling skills sharp).

Even so, it’s a huge time saver to be able to kit bash the bits you need out of a more generalized Morgue file where you store all of your various bits. As long as the topology is the same, it’s a really simple matter to make an infinite variety of characters from a set of cobbled together parts.

Zspheres :idea:

Hahaha, DeusEx! You summed it up in just one word. :wink:

I also agree with you, IronWhim. Although I already have a good base model, I’m constantly building new ones just to stay sharp. Plus you make a new discovery now and again doing that.

and one very valueable thing I learned form Zack’s dvd’s is not to worry to much about the topology of your base mesh. Make sure there really aren’t all sort’s of edge loops in there already.

Take a head… I now always start with a simple sphere. Zack mentions somewhere he always feels like he’s fighting the topology this way…

Just start of with a very rough model, sculpt and worry about the topology later.
I usually retopo the head when I have the basic shape ready… and maybe retopo again if I really have to in the end.

there a number of basemeshes flying around … but it’s useally faster to create your own. It always takes me more time modifying somebody elses bease mesh than create my own.

a good very rough basemesh can also be found as a free download at gnomonology.com this is basicly the same mesh as zach starts with.

Or use zspheres… it’s very fast and fun to block out something with it…

Peter

Well said, Peter. Zack IS the man. I’ve been doing that with heads as well lately. With ZB3, you can do that very easily. As with Z2, you really couldn’t… unless you retopologized it in another app.

As far as using other people’s meshes, yeah I agree. I played with them for nearly a year before deciding it just wasn’t gratifying enough for me. You get more of a sense of accomplishment when you create your own meshes from scratch. Ten other people who use Vicky exclusively might disagree, but hey… to each their own. I did learn alot about modeling simply by taking them apart, looking at the insides, materials, edgeflows, etc,.

I’m almost certain that Alfredo is familiar with zsphere’s… but if you’ll notice he hasn’t replied back to the thread. :smiley:

I like ZSpheres, but still have to learn the retopologizing feature better. Can you symmetry to ensure your mesh is as symmetrical as you would like it to be? If you can, that’s a HUGE plus.

I mostly use Maya for my base meshes. As I’m trying to get a gig in a place that may not use ZBrush, I find it valuable to keep my normal 3D modeling skills sharp as well, though modeling in ZBrush is certainly much more fun. I also tend to UV in Maya as well. I’ve done some with the AUV and GUV tiles, and while they have advantages, it’s MUCH harder to take a texture into Photoshop and modify it.

So I like to keep both skillsets as honed as possible, since you never know who will be calling. :smiley:

yes, sure you can use symmetry with the topo tool.

For example if I retopo a head I have X symmetry on so I only have to retopo half of the head, and have a perfectly symmetrical head.

peter
www.corvidae.net

Zspheres are faster than building the base in maya.
You can always take your lic of ZB with you to any post house/ digital fx studio and by now I would think most companies want a modeler with ZB skills.
I would suggest as a modeling pipeline, knocking out a 10-20min zsphere base mesh, then go straight to blocking out the form which could take up to any where between 1-3hrs then retypo the mesh, which goes to maya for UVs and rigging while the finer details and texture are done in ZB (photoshop).
Here are a few images to illustrate the process.

Note: the final image has subtools which I will retypo over to produce a complete mesh

Attachments

stage_01_zsphere.jpg

stage_02_basemesh.jpg

stage_03_blocking01.jpg

stage_04_blocking02.jpg

Wow. Thanks, DeusEx. I see where you’re going with that, and the ability to retypologize makes up for the otherwise odd topology that is sometimes generated. The other reason I still work heavily in Maya is because I like to UV by hand so I can stress areas (faces and the like) while leaving others (bottoms of feet, etc) relatively light, so I can put the most detail where I want it. Of course, as soon as ZBrush lets me set up UVs in a manner that I find pleasing, I’ll be fully down. Until then, I’m gonna learn more about ZTools and retopo and just do the UVing in Maya.

Yet again, ZBrush continues to change my art. I love this tool.

I agree with the UVing in maya, would be so sweet if whilst retypo’ing in ZB the mesh UVs were created to match the polys.
“the ability to retypologize makes up for the otherwise odd topology that is sometimes generated.”
Yeah…true. It takes a bit of practice to keep good typology throughout the design sculpt stage, but as you say the ability to retypologize makes up for it.

Indeed it does. I don’t truly mind the ZBrush UVing, as long as that’s the only place I’ll be working on the texture. But for editing in Photoshop or something, AUV and GUV are a nightmare (though a very space efficient one)

I would also suggest unfold 3d. Yau can get everything unfolded in about 10-30 min and still adjust your uvs in maya if you want.

http://www.polygonal-design.fr/e_unfold/index.php

inkhed