I am going to marry lightcaps and bare its children!
Tor again, looking sooo much closer to the “real” thing.
“Time for to go to bed!” ~ Tor Johnson
A few more tweaks to the face and added a simple curved plane to serve as the shoulders. Next, I need to figure out how to wrap the chains around his neck and shoulders.
I’m really enjoying this one.
One question for my loyal followers:rolleyes:. When I use lightcaps, my material seems to pick up a distinct “shininess” that I don’t want. In this case it’s Matcap White Cavity. I’ve fiddled with every setting I can think of, but just can’t seem to flatten it out. I would really appreciate some tips here.
You could change the matcap’s texture map. A darker part in the upper middle.
Working on something for my oldest son. He loves Frazetta as much as I do and this is loosely based on Frazetta’s Kane series. And I’ve been wanting to do something with fairly intricate detail since Coridium’s excellent metal jewelry detailing tutorial.
C&C is always welcome.
Hi… VoodooDad.
Hey,…Great start on the Frazetta piece for your son…
…Really looking forward to seeing the progress on it…small_orange_diamond:)
Glenn
Spiritdreamer; thanks once again for your comments. They really mean a lot to me.
To the community in general, I’ll apologize right now for making frequent posts with what, to some, seem to be minor updates. But please understand that I was out of the art world since I graduated high school (30+ years now) and what seems minor to the true pros here are (to me at least) huge steps.
I had a horrible week where I didn’t feel like I was making any progress on any of my projects. Things didn’t come out like I wanted them to, meshes would inexplicably self destruct… on and on…
To make a long story short, (far too late, I know) I finally feel like I’ve been able to shift out of second gear and I’m racing down the Zbrush hiway again.
Whew, I’m long-winded sometimes!
Anyway… now on to the update! Detailing tips for the newly added wings would be very appreciated.
Between Christmas and playing The Old Republic I haven’t had much time for sculpting, but I feel I’ve made a little progress. Tell me what you think.
Trying something different here. I’m currently roughing out a sketch based on the movie version of Tolkien’s balrog. My biggest problems when working on things like this are in getting the details to look right. Specifically around eyes and the teeth/gums areas. I think on this one I’m getting the eyelids pretty well blocked in, but the outlining around the gums and teeth just doesn’t look like I want it too. I need tips on what brushes to use and at least some vague directions on how to use them.
Please leave comments.
Hey man looks great!
One thing I would suggest would be to do stuff like the eyes and teeth and even the gums as separate subtools. it really helps a lot with mesh density and flow etc.
Its a good rule to follow that if it’s a separate object make it a different subtool. You could put all the teeth on the same subtool but it’s really good to have them as actual teeth rather than coming out of your model
lets zbrush work to the best of it’s extent.
Thanks so much for the tips Crevasse! I will definitely give that a go. I do have a further question about creating a separate subtool from an existing mesh now that you’ve brought it up. It seems like 90% of the time when I mask something and then go on to make a subtool, 4r2 will crash on me. I quickly learned to save my work often because of that, in fact. But I’m wondering if there’s not an easier way to do it. Something that I’ve missed in the thousands of tutorials I’ve been through and the books I’ve read to tatters.
Anyway, I’ve jumped past myself (as I usually do) and started experimenting with different matcaps and brushes and such, just to see what kind of wow-factor I might be able to achieve when I finish the base, and I came up with something that I think looks pretty damned cool. Let me know what you think!
Nice progress. Looks like you have learned alot since you first post. Just a couple general notes after looking over your work:
- Your pore detail is pretty uniform. I would try and vary the scale and smoothness more. Pores are much larger in some areas like below the eye vs the forehead.
- Really think about which objects should be separate subtools. In your tiger head a few post back I think it would have benifited from making the fangs separate subtools. This allows you to have more detail in them and enables more editing flexibility.
- I think your lips probably need the most work out of your facial features. There is generally a sharpness to the shape of the upper and lower lip. Most of your lips are blobby and vague. Maybe try a few studies of just those to nail the shape of the upper and lower lip?
Nyx; Thanks for your tips. Greatly appreciated. I seem to be intimidated by the mouth/lip area somehow. I have a fear of pulling them out too much and ending up with a character that looks like a gorilla or something. But I am working on it.
Hi VoodooDad
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&p=burne+hogarth+books+drawing+dynamic+heads
Above is a link to some really good books that will help take the guesswork out of your studies as you go along with them…They are all great books…I have all of them that he did…He was a great teacher…I had the good fortune of being able to take his classes on figure drawing many years ago…I still refer to his books whenever I am in dought about a figure that i’m working on…The answer to any problem I run across can always be found in one of his books…never has failed me yet…
Anyway, I just thought that his books might be really useful to you as I read that you were having trouble doing lips and the mouth area in some of your pieces…
Great job on that sword rendering posted above by the way.…How’s it going on that Frazetta study…That was one of my favorite pieces and paintings of his, and I was excited to see you trying your hand at doing a study of it…small_orange_diamond:)
Looking forward to seeing the progress you achieve in here…and get those books if and when you are able to…You won’t regret it…
Take Care
Glenn
Glenn, thanks for your words of encouragement. Within five minutes of reading your post I had pdf’s of Mr. Hogarth’s books on my Nook. Now I can easily read from them as I Zbrush!
As for the Frazetta piece, I’m taking it slow, very slow. I don’t want to rush that one. It hasn’t progressed much since the last character sheet I uploaded. I find I like to impulsively jump to other projects, learn a few new things and then go back and figure out how to apply them to Kane. I like the way his beard and mouth area are blocked out, kind of matching Frazetta’s more impressionistic views than going with really detailed hair. I’ve got an idea about how to add a little detail to the wings and I’ll be posting some progress on that soon.
Again, thanks to everyone for helping me here. I take all c&c to heart, and it really helps to upload wips here to gain an objective view of my work.
I’ve been watching a ton of martial arts movies this week and came up with this. The Green Destiny Sword from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Still need to add the hilt/pommel to the crosspiece and add details to the blade and scabbard.
Interesting stuff! How long have you been using Zbrush? Do you have background experience of any other 3D design programs? And how many hours a week would you say you have been devoting to practicing? Sorry for all the questions, I’m new to Zbrush and have been putting in about 3 hours a week for 2 months and am no where near this evolved.
=)
Pnogu, firstly welcome to the forums! I enjoy reading the opinions of people new to Zbrushing.
I’ve been using Zbrush for about three months now and I usually try to sculpt a little something every day. Sometimes one hour, sometimes when I get “in the zone” I lose track of time. I remember one day I started on something about 11 am and the next thing I knew, it was 1 am. I’m retired on disability so I have a lot of time for this.
As for my background experience, I’ve messed around with Blender for the last couple of years but I got really tired of moving vertices around the screen and I eventually found Zbrush. At the time I found it I wasn’t even aware that there were digital sculpting programs so I was (and remain) amazed at the freedom and powerful capabilities it puts at my finger tips. Other than that, I really have no background in art at all, with the exception of some art classes in high school. I used to be pretty good at copying images by other artists but was never really able to create anything of my own. For a while, I painted copies of Frazetta and Boris Valejo works and usually sold them to my friends for 20 bucks or so. Unethical as hell, I know, but I was a teenager and well… ya know :D.
Anyway, if you have questions ask away! I love posting in these forums and really enjoy the opportunity to help others when I can. If I can’t help, then I may at least be able to point you in the right direction.
For a good starting point, I highly recommend Introducing Zbrush 4. It’s a great way to start learning the ins and outs of Zbrush.
