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My first model: WIP "Lizardman" (Questions)

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#1

Hi^^.
First of all, i’m 16 years old, live in Switzerland and my english is not really… Well, I think you will read by your self how bad it is :). Please tell me if I make any fatal mistakes. I’ll try to write as good as I’m able to. I’d be happy if your answers could be cept in a more or less simple english, thank you.

I started yesterday with ZBrush, watching a couple of tutorials at the ZClassroom. I made a little sketch of what i thought could be a nice first work :). (Sorry that’s my webcam, I hope the quality is good enough)
Picture 18.jpg

I hope you like it :D. But not even the rough form of my model is finished. there is alot to do before I can start working on the details.
But how? I have some problems:

  • The density of polygons on the head compared to the density on (for example) the arms is much to low. I dont know why, but it is like that. Is there a possibility to apportion (I hope this is the right word) the polygons equally on the whole surface? Means… recalculate without loosing the form.
    Because later on, I will be doing much more details on the head than on the arms.

  • I tryed (just for fun) to add some details, but my computer does not seam to manage this ammount of details (that’s what ZBrush says). How is it possible for people to draw fine wrinkles while I’m not even able to make a… smooth nare?!¨
    My PC is not the best one, but I think it is not bad either. or do I have to spend like 5000 Dollars on a PC to work with ZBrush efficiently?
    My System:
    *Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400
    *4GB RAM
    *ATI RADEON HD 4850

  • I’d like to do the Arms+Hands and the Legs+Feets with another… Layer/Subtool/Mesh/Object or whatever it’s called xD. But I have no Idea how to do that when there is no such thing like (like or as? hehe) a belt to cover the intersection.

With nice greetings (<-- I don’t know if I can use that in english but in German we say that) Holz (means “timber” in german and does not make any sense as a name xD).

Attachments

ScreenZB Kopie.jpg

#2

Excellent start… and your english is really good…better than my Swiss.

You should try the Ryan Kingslien tutorials…really superb from the Gnomon website.

Peter

#3

Thanks :)! I think I’ll watch them later (i have to learn for school now -.-, man I’m going to be happy to leave that institution when the time has come xD), or at least the ones that are for free ^^. I didn’t know this site, it looks intresting anyway :D.
I just added one more question to the first post.

I’m very glad to hear that my english is not that bad. Oh, and we in Sitzerland do not speak Swiss, there is no such language^^. We mostly speak strange versions of German, French or Italian (in my case it’s German). Swissgerman sounds stupid :P, in my opinion. In contrast English is such a beautiful language.
Oh sorry I went Off-Topic.

#4

Great start,
you should always start modeling at your lowest subdivision, and add more subdivision levels only step by step. That makes it easier to create cleaner sculpts.
Check the Classroom under http://www.pixologic.com/zclassroom/ for further tutorials and how to make a retopologie for your mesh to add polygones at the right places on your mesh.

Your PC is way better then mine :smiley: You shouldn’t have a problem to create some nice high-poly models with your configuration.
If you can’t subdivide your model, check Preferences/Mem and increase the MaxPolyPerMesh.

So und das ganze nochmal auf deutsch, damit du es vielleicht besser verstehst :slight_smile:
Erstmal gute Arbeit schon soweit. Allerdings solltest du die Subdivision Level deiner Model nur Stück für Stück erhöhen. Also erst möglichst viele Details auf der aktuellen Stufe machen, bevor du ein Level höher gehst und dann die Details verfeinerst.
Oben im Link findest du viele Tutorials. Um das Problem mit den Polygonen zu bewältigen solltest du dich mal mit der Retopologie vertraut machen: http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Creating_New_Topology

Zu deinem PC: Der ist ne ganze Ecke besser als meiner, damit kommst du eigentlich gut zurecht mit Zbrush. Für viele Details ist eine gute Polygonverteilung deines Objekts wichtig, dann kannst du auch schon bei relativ geringer Anzahl von Polygonen gute Details und Ergebnisse erziehlen. Und es belastet auch Zbrush weniger.
Wenn Zbrush sagt, das du nicht weiter erhöhen kannst, schau in den Preferences unter Mem nach und erhöhe den Wert bei MaxPolyPerMesh.
Hoffe das hilft dir erstmal weiter.
Viel Glück!

#5

Gud… :slight_smile: :+1:

#6

Wow, with artistic skills like you show in your sketch, especially at your age, you’ll be a monster maker in no time. Buy your ticket to Hollywood now.

#7

Is there any way we can see more of your sketches? Do you have a website? Just love that sketch! :+1:

#8

Ah cool, wer der Deutsch spricht^^. Freut mich zu sehen, dass ich hier nicht alleine bin :). Danke für die Übersetzung, aber Englisch sollte schon reichen, sonst machst du dir entweder doppelt Arbeit, oder niemand ausgenommen von uns versteht den Beitrag hehe :D. Ich habe prinzipiell keine Probleme mit dem verstehen von englischen Texten, solange keine unnötig komplizierten Wörter, zu denen es häufiger gebrauchte synonyme gibt, oder seltsame Redewendungen darin vorkommen. Ich übersetzte das nochmal damit es alle verstehen und wechsle dann zum Englischen :).

Ah cool, somebody that speaks german^^. I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one inhere :). Thank you for the translation, but english should be enough, otherwise you would make yourself work twice, or nobody expect from us would understand it hehe :D. I have in principle no problems with undarstanding english texts, as long as there are no strange sayings or unnecessary complicated words, for which also more frequently used synonyms exist (huff… I hope it’s right :)).

Okey. So I started with the retopo (yay, a new word xD) after watching some videotutorials. I’m pretty slow, but it should work. I read somewhere to only use quads, so that’s exactly what I did.
ScreenZB_Retopo.jpg
I hope everything is right with the shapes of the polygons.Please tell me, if not.
I have a strange problem: I can’t move the points of previusly made polygons anymore. Only the last XY polygons I made can be moved with the move tool. The rest is kinda freezed. Maby it has something to do with saving and closing ZBrush, which I did over night?

@Eric: Thanks^^. I hope you’re right. I’d really like to go in the United States and design characters for some big games. What am I saying? “I’d really like” is not comletly right. It’s more exactly what I’m dreaming of. I’ll leave this cold city behind me and I’ll be a Lead Game Character Artist… at least I hope so.
Is it strange for someone in my age to allready be focused that strong on only one direction?

If you’d like to see some of my sketches, I could upload them here, if it’s not to Off-Topic. I’m glad to hear that you like my sketch :).

EDIT: Is it normal that it takes several hours after posting an answer untill I can see it in the Topic?!

#9

What I do to deal with the mesh density issue is make the hands and head (and whatever else I need to have extra detail) oversized. Then once I make them a poly mesh I’ll use masking and deformation to shrink them to the proper proportion.

#10

omg i love your sketch , is he a water creature?

#11

Well, kinda. I thougt about that and I’d say that he has definitely no problems with diving and swimming, but he’s mostly a fast running land creature. Look at he’s big legs, they have to be pretty strong compared to he’s arms. His big horn plate is mostly used as a ram for fighting against other male “Lizardmen” (<-- I need a better name -.-) just beating they’re heads against each other. They do that for example to gain a… well lets call it wife xD. They’re not to dumb, but also not to intelligent. They can use very simple made tools, just as we know it from those prehistoric mans. But no forging, clothing or stuff like that. They also wear some kind of make-up (xD) drawing natural colors (think of blood or something like that) on bodyparts like the face. They’re not afraid of washing themselves which they do sometimes.
I didn’t think to much about those things… those are just thoughts thats come while doodling. Oh… one important thing:
I do not want them to wear any kind of loincloth!! That is (in my opinion) a big failing in the fantasy genre. As soon as creatures become some kind of inteligent, the first thing they seem to do is inventing some sort of ***** coverage xD. Well, every artist should do what he likes to do, that’s the point of being creative (as long as the artist is not doing he’s stuff for other people, which can be also a great thing). There are some great fantasy creatures out there, even with a lap-lap, or whatever it’s called xD. But I generally don’t like that, so I wont do that^^. My creatures will be proud of what is waggling between they’re legs xD.

Back to Topic, I redesigned the feet^^

Picture 18.jpg
Picture 18.jpg1280×1024 242 KB

I hope you like it and I hope that somebody can solve my problem, telling me how to move my polys (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, read my previous post^^). Otherwise i can’t go on :).

Holz^^

#12

I think something went wrong with your last image upload… we can see the thumbnail in the lower rows but can’t see its image in your thread.

Nevermind, we see it now. Great sketches! :+1:

#13

Yes it’s kinda stupid, it takes the post always several hours to show up!

Cool that you like the sketch^^.

EDIT: Okey, I finally found a solution for my problem in a topic about topology (very helpful, thanks^^):
“Q. When shifting topology vertices away from the mesh some of them seem locked, couldn’t move them at all. [more a statement really ]
A. You masked them by accident. You don’t get a visual clue, but trust me. Just play around with CTRL and LMB clicking and you’ll be able to manipulate them again. (Thomas Mahler)”

Link to the topic “Topology & Flow Lab”