Hoskins Sketchbook

[hoskins78]

Thanks guys Ah yes...Decimation Master....shall give it a try.

[hoskins78]

I bought myself a nice book of ZBrush tutorials at the end of last year, and this is my take on the first featured project from there.
I've given my character a slightly different look than the tutor's example, and there's certainly a lot of room for improvement but I'm pleased with these shots and shall move onto the next chapter now.

At one point I thought he had a distinctly comical turkey faced look, but that seems to have passed.....must have been the time of year

Character modelled entirely from ZSphere base mesh.

I wondered about the merit of posting tutorial based images, but if nothing else it shows what I'm working on at present, and any feedback would be welcome as it would complement the class experience of following through the book. That's not to say I will post every step, but if I think something relevant to my thread I'll post it up in here.

[SavageBliss]

When I read you were up to 18million polys I just about died. You shouldn't need anywhere near that many. Have a look at this thread, http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthr...ht=Ghost+Bones

This guy has killer low-poly bases meshes and places high poly details with displacement and normal maps. You shouldn't have to crash out so often.

[hoskins78]

Hi SavageBliss, thanks for the feedback. Yes, the samurai figure has been put on hold for a while - he did kind of what I wanted him to do as my first sculpt, by testing the limits of my machine....and walking smack into every workflow problem I inevitably found by steering clear of HD detailing. For example, I find I can decimate the mesh to manageable sizes, but not without losing my polypaint work in the process. Not so hard to repaint him anyway, as that was his weakest feature by far, but that's why I've picked up the tutorial book now, I can take it step by step and learn to optimise what I'm doing. I can always come back to him later if other challenges haven't lured me away.
Steve

[hoskins78]

Some more head sculpting practice - once again based on a tutorial, but this guy just couldn't help developing a look of his own.
Quite pleased with the sculpting, but again my weakest area is in the texturing - worked up a nice(ish) render based skin tex set for him, only to watch it vanish as I composited my renders.
His eyes too are a bit weak......so, lot's of room for improvement, but I'm still happy with my progress - he's done

[minastris]

great sculps mate!
keep rocking 5*****
_______________________________________
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthr...018#post774018
http://minastris.cgsociety.org/gallery
Also available on freelance

[hoskins78]

Thanks Ministras - much appreciated! Love your work

[hoskins78]

More tutorial based experimentation - this guy scuplted from the same base mesh as my previous head sculpt.
Quite happy with him overall, although his eyes look off...too big I'm thinking - shall watch out for that next time! He was originally intended to be asian too.......hmmmm lol

Perhaps the biggest plus in developing him has been getting familiar with aspects other than pure sculpting, such as setting up the multi light render shown here.
As always, much room for improvement, but I feel like I'm making progress

[Phrost]

nice work man, i also bought the zbrush essentials bookazine, i recognize al these sculpts you've done from there and you've done a great job r u gonna do all these tutorials in it? if not, which other ones will u try?

[hoskins78]

Hi Phrost, and thanks! I think I'm going to follow them through in order for a while at least. There seems to be an element of repetition now as they follow from one to another, but this seems like a good thing in getting more familiar with what I'm doing and getting faster as I go, and they always seem to introduce a little something extra. It's tempting to jump straight to the full figure sculpts, but I'll bide my time for now - I'm sure it will be for the best. So....muscley dude next!

[hoskins78]

More tutorial based sculpting fun - again from the same base mesh as my last two heads.
Rendered in BPR Preview mode with fog and depth effect settings and wax render material by ralfstumpf here at ZBC.

More fun to come on this one as the tutorial goes on to create a photo based texture set. I have plenty of female reference images (...no smirking at the back please), but they look a bit weird on this fella - shall have to see what I can rustle up

[Remib]

good practicing hoskins your models have a good aspect.
I look forward to see the rest.
keep up the good work !

[hoskins78]

Thanks Remib - much appreciated!

[hoskins78]

Here's textured version. I used Spotlight to directly paste info onto the model and some polypainting to make him less feminine.

Had to use female reference pics as they're all I have - you should have seen him with big purple glossy lips and neatly trimmed eyebrows!

[hoskins78]

Continuing through my book of tutorials with a new head sculpt - guy with piercings & tattoos.
I can't begin to tell you how many times I thought I knew what I was doing during this one, only to find I didn't and had to do things over.... but I guess that's how we learn LOL
I used the same female base skin refs again for this guy, but with much better results I think, so despite the setbacks I'm once again very happy with my progress.
Any criticisms or suggestions most welcome.
Steve