Speed's Sketchbook

[Speed87]

I have decided to make a sketchbook after realizing that I post a new model almost everyday, whether good or bad(fyi:mostly bad). Hopefully people will see my work grow over time. I am begining my book with anatomy study. My first work is the upper male body excluding hands and a head. I will focus on those next. This took overall 4.5 hrs. I used zspheres. All comments welcome. Thanks.

[goast666]

Not horrible, but there are quite a few problems with your anatomy on this piece.

If you're not looking at reference, then start. If you are looking at reference, look at it more often. If what you're making doesn't look like what you're looking at, then keep doing it until it does.

The pecs are too low and don't flow correctly. The ribs aren't long enough on the body. Be back has extra muscles in it. The triceps are connecting in the wrong place. The bicep is also connecting in the wrong location.

I recommend finding the "boney" land marks on the body first. The collar bone, the wrist, the elbow, the ribs, the shoulders, and the hip, after you have established those, all the other muscles flow from or connect to those bones.

Hope this helps

[adio38]

I agree with goast, if you are not looking at reference then start. I bought two anatomy books just for help on one character. I do not know how many times I went over one spot tell I finally got to look at all close to right. One thing I did do that helped a lot was find some full body anatomy pictures, the ones I used I got right off this site. I did a Xplane in zbrush, and I lined them so they go even. I did it for both front and back. I then positioned my character like the pictures and I started sculpting with the picture behind my model. I also had the same referance on my othe rmonitor just so I could zoom in and out and see details. References were stressed to me by one of my best friends, and now I get to stress it on others lol. I am not expert by any means, I am still learning, but this is what I learned, and I hope it works for you. Here are some links that I looked at for some reference.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/sho...d.php?t=061704
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/sho...9&page=1&pp=15

[dustinbrown]

If I were you I wouldn't worry about speed sculpting just yet. Do some long anatomy studies. Take your time on them to really soak it in. Knock some of those out that look nice then try speed sculpting for fun.

[P4TRICK]

I think that looks really awesome, you will be a great Artist

[slocik]

p4tric now that what i call optimism ;D
anyway speed try reproducking the zack petroc works ;f

[Speed87]

Ty everyone for the reply! Means a lot Goast and the others. I was 100 percent using reference for this. By no means was it a speed sculpt. My username is Speed, not that these are speed sculpts. Thing is I have been minimizing and opening google back and forth for this. So some of it is getting lost. I don't have any other programs like photoshop to set up a montage and have it and zbrush open at the same time. I will try to correct what I can. I would like to complete a set of each body part and then repeat. Thanks again.

[Speed87]

Been busy lately but here are some things I have sculpted. The bust is of Abraham Lincoln. Used Many references. I did not go above 700k on him. These are straight screen captures. And I am aware the hands and feet are slightly wide. I will get better over time.

[adio38]

Practice Practice Practice, that is what I was told my my zbrush instructor. More you practice the better you will get. One suggestion, if your trying to do feet, or hands, or anatomy of any kind or a bust. Pick one part, a hand for example, and make a base mesh for it, and keep using that same base mesh, but do a different sculpt on it, eventually you get to the point were you have done it so many times it gets like 2nd nature. Keep it up though.

[Speed87]

Thx. I will use that advice.

[Train22]

You should always start sculpting at the lowest subD-level. Don't create a new level before you haven't tried to get most of the details out of your current subD-level.
Especially beginner of ZBrush often create right at the beginning 4-5 or more subdivision levels to have a smooth mesh and then they start sculpting at the highest one. It's of course not tottaly wrong, but i makes things harder at the end, to get a good and clean model and details.
"Before you run you must learn to walk"
You don't need Photoshop for creating reference-images, there are a lot of freeware tools out there like "GIMP". You also can find some tutorials here on ZbrushCentral for using image planes in Zbrush. Search for it, it will help you a lot to create some nice models with some good image planes.
Keep going

[Speed87]

Train thx for the reply. From about 2 weeks back I have picked up the idea of really pushing and pulling at sub div 2-4. I am currently working on The flash on sub div 2 right now just moving things into place. I have that concept firmly down whether it shows or not. Hopefully my next piece will better show this. I will post WIP instead of just the finished product. Here it is at sub div 2. I have more to do on this level.

[adio38]

Base mesh is coming along. You have the right idea by working on sub 1-2 that is the easiest way to move stuff around and get the right look. Just a few things with your anatomy, if this is how its suppose to be then im sorry. But the shoulders are to big, they stick out to far. Going from the neck down to the shoulders its like a gradual dip, you really do not see a straight 90 degree bend there. Also from the looks of it your pecks are to low, they should be brought up a little, and that would make your waist look a little longer, rather then crunched. Your forearms are a little big at the top, they should be more straight and line more up with the top of the hand and wrist. Thats all I see for now. Keep it going.

[Speed87]

Thx a lot for that response adio. I am going for a certain design with very broad shoulders with exaggerations around the upper back sloping down. This is an update I did last night. Here is the zsphere rig and update of mesh.

[Speed87]

Update of the Flash. Still finding and correcting areas.