VictorCS's SketchBook

[VictorCS]

oofnish: I've been lazy about using reference images for faces and else,and yes, i should start using references alot more.



Sculpting them out of a polysphere, did the main shape, then a fast retopo to get a more workable mesh. I've done three hand positions, each from scratch, because then I had to sculpt the whole hand 3 times, more practice. I was justed conserned with getting the shapes right than adding too much detail. Will do the rest of anatomy studying this way, when i've done all thinkable parts i'll do a batch with details in mind.

Hands. I'm least satisfied with the outcome of the open hand:

[VictorCS]

I've finally started to work with reference images, whatever I do I try to have a reference image up. Inbetween bodypart sculpting and drawing, I managed to do this little bust ( another bust, again :/ ), reference images was of John Hannah ( Batiatus from Spartacus ), doesnt look much like him tho ^_^



Zbrush:


Mental Ray, Normalmap + Displacement:

[VictorCS]

Just a little practice and testing out a stone wall tutorial yesterday ( just had to after seeing all that beautiful scenery in TR: Underworld ). A brick has 6 different sides, and all can be flipped vertically or horizontally. One brick, alot of variations.

[jawa64]

if did not know that there where only six possible sides on that brick corner i would not have noticed, Great job.

[VictorCS]

if did not know that there where only six possible sides on that brick corner i would not have noticed, Great job.

I just noticed my texture seems a bit similare, probably because I had one single I dragged from the middle and out on all sides.



I started watching Stargate back when it aired 98-97, but I lost track after the first season. Anyway, I've been watching all seasons "non stop" now, and I'm atm enjoying Stargate: Universe. With all the alien creatures sculpted here, by great artists, and getting inspiration from the new aliens in SGU, I decided to do a little head this week, from a sphere, here it is, his name is Iam:

[Speed87]

That guy looks like Freeza from Dragon Ball Z.

[VictorCS]

That guy looks like Freeza from Dragon Ball Z.

I see some similarities in Freeza, but he never was in my head when doing "Iam" ^_^

Been trying to complete my "Experimental Lab" project I started last year, adding some objects to make the scene a bit more complex. I decided I wanted a tank in the end of the room with a speciment. So I sketched this one up pretty fast earlier today, added som color, and put him behing glass that i'm still tweaking:



IMO, I think I'll take him to the next level one day, because I like the consept.



In tank:

[VictorCS]

I started this "project" back in Mars 2010, I actually named the bluegreen guy Mars2010, I like to name stuff year and date when I dont have a name. Anyway, finally found some time to finish it, and learned how to unwrap uvs with 3D max while creating boxes. A tad inspired by Dharma Initiative's "old" movies and cloneing facilities seen in different movies.

All creatures in the scene are sculpted and textured in ZBrush, the hard surfaces was done in 3DMax. Final adjustments in Photoshop.



The Experimental Lab:
...Is a clone/research lab, where the purpose is to create functional creatures. If funtional they're brought to earth to do whatever ability they can do. Run by humans, employed with Qua'Ton's. The lab is located in another solar system, home of the Qua'Ton. In this particularly moment a Qua'Ton is chasing a running experiment:

[fatimah]

Wow nice job over all. I just would like to highlight that the hair you did for John is just awesome. What software did you use? What is the rendering and the lighting settings of scenes?

[VictorCS]

I used hair&fur, so nothing fancy. I played around with frizz and kink parameters to make it look rough. There are some problems with his "sideburns" tho. At first I wasnt convinsed by hair&fur, but I played more and more with it, and it's pretty good when you first get the hang of it.

The lighting on all my busts are usually 3 lights, omni lights, one strong and one weaker infront of the bust, then a filler in the back. And then 2-3 white bounch planes as one can see in Iam's eyes.

Within the experimental lab I had a bunch, 8 in the roof, one infront the creatures to make em a bit brighter, a blue from the end of one side of the room, and a orange on another side, 4 blue lights under the cabinets and one white from the "monitor". 13-14 hours to render at 3840x2400.



Random stuff, L.A Noire inspired stuff and some sketches.

[VictorCS]

Would be nice if someone could point out what I need to work on to make it look more like her, Marisol Nichols, because i'm blind atm. Sculpted her twice aswell, because ZBrush decided to corrupt 4-5 saves with hours of work ^_^






Here's something I sketched up, atleast I have this idea down on "paper" so i can start on it someday I have time ^_^

[oofnish]

You have a reference, but you don't seem to be using it. This girl looks a lot more like the guy in your earlier facial animation test thing than Marisol. I'm having trouble spotting features that look close... Mouth, eyes, nose, eyebrows, head shape, are all very different than what I see in those photos.

For the eyebrows. thicker, darker, less curvature, flip them around (they're heavier toward the middle, whereas your model has them thinner toward the middle)

Eyes. I think you understate the lower eyelid volume too much. Check out the right reference image -- those circles under her eyes aren't optional. (The obvious creases might be, since she's smiling in that pic) Also the upper lid... there should be a more noticeable crease, particularly near the outer corner of the eye. The shape is off too, Mari's eyes are more round on top, while the shape of the bottom lid shouldn't curve as much. Note that the edge of the bottom lid is almost a straight line from the inner corner to about 1/3 the way across the eye in both references. Also, hack in some eyelashes and eye makeup, it might help you get a better visual comparison between your model and your reference.

Mouth. Upper lip looks too thick, and the shape of the philtrum looks too broad. The lower lip's curve is too sharp, it might help to imagine it more as a straight line most of the width of her nose. Hard to say more since you've twisted it into a shape no where close to either reference image for the expression.

Nose. the size might be about right, but you've not tried to really distinguish it from a generic nose. The right reference shows some subtle shadows on the nose tip that give away the shape of that area -- it isn't a smooth globe. Also, the nostrils don't simply terminate at the face, the shape makes almost a complete circuit, the left image shows this pretty clearly. Finally, the nose bridge might be too pinched.

Head shape. Face is too long, cheekbones are too huge, jaw is too thin and retracted. Ears might be too far back. Your model is symmetrical, but that's okay for now.

Also, get the likeness close before putting in an expression, especially since you don't have a reference for the expression (that you posted anyway).

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and keep working at it!

[VictorCS]

If you just knew how much I used the reference that consisted of great hires images. What I tell my hand to draw is not what it draws.

For some reason I keep drawing that face with same features, and need to get out of that cycle. Posting resculpted head tomorrow, today actually, it's almost 4AM. Gonna go over the nose then. It seems unwilling to be sculpted correctly. Adjusted as much as I was able to, but there's still not much likeness, but it's atleast further away from my generic face, that's a start ^_^

[oofnish]

I know how that goes. You may have trained your eye to see your 'generic' face as correct, and everything else as not. So, you end up avoiding correct detail because it looks wrong. Another thing that I've had a problem with is feature 'difficulty'. If a feature takes more than a very few steps to create correctly, its easy to give up and do something simpler rather than keep working through the stage where it looks like nothing more than a mess.

One way I've helped to break my habits was to force myself to do what I thought was wrong. The long face thing, for instance, is something I still struggle with. To help correct, I overcompensate, pushing the length of the face just past past the point where it feels too small. Then I go work on some other area or do something else entirely and come back when my eyes have lost their familiarity. A lot of the time, what I originally thought was wrong looks better than the original when looked at with fresh eyes. ZBrush's layers are great for this, not only can you quickly compare to what you had before, but you can adjust the layer strength and find a sweet spot in the middle.

Also for me, gazing at other sculpts I admire helps for basic proportions. Its like the coffee beans in yankee candle -- it seems to clean my visual palette so I can more easily spot the problems. Note, looking at photos and references doesn't help with this for me -- photos are always done with unknown focal lengths, wacky lighting, slightly off-center head poses, etc. So many people post great work in zbrush t-poses, that by looking at their work (not as a reference, but more as inspiration), you eliminate all those variables and can directly contemplate proportions. Quite a few times I stared at a sculpt for a while, and when I flipped back to zbrush, I immediately noticed something subtle wrong that was easily fixed. Never underestimate the power of the mind to shortcut processing... and you'll never even realize you're doing it.

[VictorCS]

To take my mind of likeness, I first went googling, looking for clues to how to achieve likeness. <- that sentence didnt sound great. I didnt find too much, because I went doing other stuff, like playing the violin which is easy. Then I went back into ZBrush, for some reason I started doing a hollow mask type of thing. What if I pretended I had a wall, and pushed into it creating a face with shadows. I'm sure other people have experimented with it. Kinda cool effect. As I already had a picture of Marisol open, I used it as reference.





Here is the latest try on the marisol bust, but for some reason she looks more like Haskell in the mouth area, badguy from CSI. I'm kinda where I just wanna scrap this one, and start fresh.



Then I did this skull, had to do some anatomy studying aswell. Sculpting from sphere has its limits tho, next time I'll break it up into parts.