aurick

Many thanks to Paul for his hard work writing this tutorial! --aurick


The Cartoon Female by Paul Hitchenson (A.K.A hitch2 )
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_u...31169776iqb.jpg

This is a beginners run through on how I created my cartoon females.

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_u...32059127bls.jpg

There is not much in the way of technical ‘Rocket Science’ in these works, but there are a few guidelines which have been passed on to me over time that I try to stick to.

I do preliminary sketches for all of my works, mostly because I like drawing, but also because, while I am drawing I can assess what exactly needs to be done when making the cg version.

These are Illustrations, not an animation so the modeling does not have to be absolutely perfect in all 360 degrees. What is not going to be seen anyway, doesn't need fine details.

These are comic book characters. The body proportions are grossly exaggerated. I try to disregard what I know is right for a human being and try to stick with what is right for the image.

If you are going for a sexy look you really have to follow the ‘less is more’ rule. Lots of time spent modelling details in the anatomy can look lumpy and ugly, so try to keep it smooth and simple.

I started off these work by going for a hunt on the Internet for various angles of the characters, mainly for the face. The main angles I need are a profile, front on and a ¾ view usually helps.

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_u...31169982vmy.jpg

The Skull - When I finally got into ZBrush I started off with a large 2000 x 2000 canvas and I imported the three different view points of the face as textures, which I then applied to different planes and sat them flat against the background (flat shaded material for this). I do this because you can model the head by following the outlines of the pictures. Providing you have dots turned on in the prefs.)

• I start of with a sphere like most other zbrushers, and I use a 128 by 128 H&V division count.
  
• I use the Y-gravity and XYZ-size deformations to make the basic form of the head.
  
• The basic features (eye sockets, nose and lips) are pulled out with the edit tools. I have the x symmetry in the modifiers, symmetry menu, turned on.
  
• The rest of the process is done by pulling and pushing the sphere to refine it into a head.[/list]For Lips, I use Upham's method which is explained in detail at zbrush.cjb.net. The basic steps involve:
  
  • Make a hole with the edit tool, (Hold down alt to do this) (No.2of above pic)
    
  • Holding the control key, paint a mask around the mouth
    
  • In the selection pallet press inverse
    
  • In the Deformation menu press the divide button
    
  • Clear the mask and model lip details with edit tools
    
  • It can be a pain to get the lips close together, to make it easier mask one of the lips and move the other towards it.[/list]That’s it for the skull. I save that as a z tool and make a new document in the size I want to ‘publish’ it at. I then make a new layer and place the skull in position.
    
    • The eyelids are spheres. I use the flatten deformer to turn them into hemispheres. These are placed on the same layer as the skull.
      
    • Using the glow brush, (only z add turned on) I then fuse the eyelids to the skull
      
    • The ears are separate spheres that That have been flattened on the z plane and manipulated with the edit tools. That’s it for modeling the head.[/list]
      http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_u...31170248fwv.jpg
      
      The Body - I get asked about tips for the body a fair bit, and the main tip I can give is experiment. This is an outline of how I go about it.
      
      • I Make a Sphere. I make the sphere a biscuit shape by use the z size deformer.
        
      • The Y gravity deformer is used to make an upside down triangle shape
        
      • I with z add on I make a lump for the neck and two lumps for the breasts
        
      • With x symmetry on I pull out two hips and a crouch. [/list]This creates the basic body shape. There is a lot of refining involved which I won’t go into detail with. Its really about experimenting till you get the desired shape. If you want cleavage you can create it by masking the breasts, inverting the selection, and applying inflate. This is easier than trying to pull the two together manually, but it does distort the rest of the breasts so you have to fix that up.
        
        http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_u...31170370tfx.jpg
        
        Limbs - The limbs I create are little more than spheres, deformed into cigar shapes. Subtle muscles are added and all the limbs are fused together with the glow brush. Fingers are the same deal, and hands are rounded rectangular prisms.
        
        http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_u...31170428upm.jpg
        
        Hair - This method was developed by EZ.
        
        • Select sphere tool
          
        • In Selection menu - Mask all
          
        • Selection menu, Sel -1 or -2
          
        • Press col
          
        • Deformation inflate -10[/list]You then mould the sphere around the head. The more you play with this the better because it develops lots of waves in the hair.
          
          http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_u...31170541twr.jpg
          
          Clothing
          Jessica - The dress was made with deformed planes ( Southerns method, see above ). To make wrinkles I used the edit tool to make lumps in the plane and then the used the move tool to squish the lumps together.
          
          http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_u...31170621bpz.jpg
          
          Abbey - Abbey's clothes are mostly painted onto the body, the ring tool was used to create seams and cuffs and the smudge tool made wrinkles.
          
          http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_u...31170674zco.jpg
          
          Natalia - The bikini was made with deformed planes and the fur coat was made with cylinders, using the method I described with Jessica’s dress. The Fur trimmings were made with cylinders. I then used the simple brush with z add off, and painted different alphas with different shades of grey to paint blotches on the trimmings. I then went over the trimmings with the fibre brush in ‘back colour’ mode. To finish off the fur I did some post smudging work.
          
          Painting and MaterialsThese Illustrations are mostly flat colour. Before I put any colour on, I position all of the pieces of the composition. The skin is a flat colour with some highlighter brush added, and a basic material with specular levels turned down.
          
          http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_u...31170776cmf.jpg
          
          Lips are the same material, but with the specular level at a high value (Adman's wet lips technique, see above pic).
          
          Clothing - Jessica’s dress was a basic metal material with the diffuse levels raised and some noise added. Abbey and Natalia’s clothes were material 42 in the material pack, with the s1 intensity turned right down.
          
          Last but not least, lighting. I usually model the lighting to bring out the eyes as much as possible.
          
          Modeling summary:
          
          http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_u...31170903cat.jpg
          http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_u...31170936dul.jpg
          http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_u...31170971zgn.jpg
          
          * Please note that all of these images were created using version 1.23b, before the introduction of the ZSpheres and other tools available in version 1.51. The tutorial reflects this fact. Please feel free to use this tutorial as a guideline for experimenting with your own techniques in version 1.51!

Gerlon

Wow...

Mr Z

OMG, sooo beautiful Matthew!

Are any of those girls available for a date?

Truly inspiring work!

- Shane

Stonecutter

The best step-by-step I've ever seen posted here...Thanks for all the time you generously put into this, the great information, and the wonderful illustrations!

looks good aurick and it looks like you did your home work

robotalk

Wonderful stuff !!!

[ Vincent ]

Oh my God!!!
When I will make a work like this???
Very very beautiful!

Thanks for the best step-by-step.

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[ Vincent ]´z

rhom

Pretty incredible!

DLee

Thank you, Thank you. This is super info. Going to print out AND bookmark ~G~

Did I say thanks?

Thanks.

JimMcKnew

Definitely printout material. oh, my poor ink cartridge budget this month. Jim

aurick

Don't thank me! I just put it into HTML on ZBC for you. Paul was the one who wrote this tutorial and created all the fine illustrations. He deserves all the credit!

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MrBraun

Tnx for sharing!!! Good work Aurick for the HTML and Paul for the tutorial!!!

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Italian Zbrusher

tishinina

This is great! (my figures are nothing like them Hmmm...) This is very helpful! Thank you. Maybe I can make my cartoon characters look as good as that. lol! Great job Paul!!! And aurick

wenna

thanks Paul and aurick!! definitely one for the quick links..