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The workflow for creating a detailed, posed character

ZBrush Artworks
#1

Hi all,

I am yet to produce anything finished with ZBrush… :o So far I’ve only been experimenting and familiarizing myself with the tools. But it’s been an exciting voyage of discovery regardless.

There’s one thing I’d like to learn about the easy way rather than the hard way, and that is the overall workflow involved in creating a posed, detailed model into the scene.

What I mean, is that ZSpheres are a great starting point for creating and posing a character, but it’s mainly good for sketching - adding more details with ZSpheres has seemed rather difficult to me.

Then there’s the Adaptive Skin that you can edit even when building your ZSphere model. This is a handy way to add detail to the model, but if you change the ZSpheres too much, you may lose the changes to the skin, or they may “explode” strangely.

I would otherwise pose the ZSphere model before adding detail, but if you pose the model, you cannot use Symmetry any more. But you cannot pose it after adding detail, either, because then all the editing you’ve done on the skin may be lost.

So what kind of order of doing things, what kind of workflow would you suggest for creating a posed, detailed character?

Thanks.

#2

Hi Skaven252!

Im new to this aswell and I would very much like to know… :slight_smile:

I figured it out, if we are two asking, we would get an answer twice as fast! :smiley:

I wish us new Zbrushers good luck in the future! And to all veterans of course!

#3

One of the easiest and best ways is honestly to build body parts separately. You can then snapshot them into position on the canvas, in whatever pose you like.

This has several advantages. For one thing, it is much easier to texture less complex shapes. In addition, you can create a library of “parts” and then keep them handy for a wide variety of uses. Any time you need a similar figure, you just modify the base pieces as necessary and then snapshot them into the new pose.

Several of the best-known artists in here use this technique. It’s very effective! There’s not even a need for multi-markers.

In short: put the power of the pixol to work for you.

#4

Thanks Mr. aurick! :+1: :+1:

I will be trying that, once I know how to start…

Perhaps I can find a little tut about snapshooting in the F.A.Q Forum?

Well any tut which will guide me when creating seperate body parts and then moving them together, that would be great!

If anyone feel like posting a link I would be very glad! :smiley: :smiley:

Thanks again!

#5

You don’t move them as a group – you put them into place one at a time using the Gyro (see the Transform Palette page of the Quick Reference Guide).

It works well to place a marker for each piece as you go, and put pieces that touch on separate layers. That way, if you need to change something you can clear the layer that it’s on and then use the marker to recall it. You can then make whatever changes you need before snapshotting it again.

Snapshotting is simply what happens when you convert a polygonal object to pixols on the canvas. This is done by changing to another tool, another layer, or by pressing Transform>Snaphot.

#6

Hi there! My personal workflow is such…

  1. I create the base pose of the zsphere character…usually with arms out to the side 90 degrees from the body or with them hanging down at a slight angle. I do everything in symmetry at this stage.

  2. I save the base pose. Then I go out of symmetry and pose the character.

  3. I then model the skin. I know this sounds difficult BUT a lot of practice will get you feeling more confident about doing this. I do not feel at this stage (for me at least) that it is any more difficult to model the character out of symmetry than it is to model it in symmetry. It just takes more work is all.

Don’t get me wrong…working in symmetry is great but it tends to get one used to doing things the “easy” way. After all…how often do you see an organic object in real life that is in perfect symmetry? Sculptors don’t generally sculpt in symmetry. You don’t often see sketch artists or painters working in symmetry. This really should be no different. Just practice, practice, practice in symmetry until you are comfortable with the tools and their effects then go for it!!

Cheers :slight_smile:

[EDIT]
Here is a sample picture to illustrate what I am describing as far as posing goes.

You may find these links helpful as well…

Modeling In Preview Mode

The Harpy Project

#7

mentat7 as always i really like your pics and in this picture your lights are fantastics!!!very good lights!!good job!
:+1: :+1: :+1:

#8

In my opinion, you should start with a sketch. Quick-sketching is much faster than modeling. Use sketching to work out some details, but mainly to get the proportions right. It doesn’t have to look good: it can be a scribbley mess, as long as you get the form right. This should help prevent problems like heads, hands, or feet that are too small or big, arms that are too short, etc.

Sketch the figure in the pose you want to model: if you want to piece together the model from parts into a fighting pose, then sketch the finished pose, but if you want to model the character in one piece using ZSpheres, then sketch the character in the neutral pose in which it will be modeled, arms out to the sides, hands open, legs straight and slightly apart. You can make several action sketches for the later stage of posing, but you want the neutral pose first.

Then keep the sketch in the background as you model, using it to determine the proportions of the individual parts as you model.

I think the small amount of time you spend doing a sketch or two will either save you a lot of time during the modeling portion, or make your model better than it would have been, or both.

That said, modeling in ZBrush with ZSpheres can be very fast, and is somewhat like sketching anyway. So if you are taking the approach of modeling the whole body out ZSpheres, and you are experienced with them, and you have a good feel for human proportions from experience, then you could literally ‘sketch’ with ZSpheres themselves. Of course, if you want your figure to have armor and weapons, or other accessories, then you might want to go back to doing the 2D sketches first, since that may affect how you approach the base model.

#9

Whew! What a day at work… anyway, thank you for your tips, everyone! Building the character part by part. Of course! And then you can seal the (possible) seams with the Blur tool, I reckon.

One thing I figured that might work, is to actually snapshot a ZSphere model into a layer and use it as a guide of sorts. Kinda like sketching out a wireframe figure first, then covering it with clay. This should make it easier to place the character into the scene, so it should be easier to figure out a good pose for it.

And Mentat7, I want to thank you again for all your help. Your scripts, tutorials, explanations, they’ve all been extremely helpful in learning the secrets of ZBrush. :smiley: :+1:

#10

Hey, that’s a good idea about the wireframe for sketching out the pose first – I’ll have to try that after I make my box of parts

A related idea is to have temporary objects in one layer solely to provide a reference surface for aligning and positioning objects in another layer (e.g. to distribute things around a spherical volume, all pointing outward) – afterwards the temp layer is deleted or made invisible