Hi all!
I´m pretty new to this and I´m challeging myself to try to make a stag beetle.
If you have ever seen one of these creatures they have like a ledge (is that the right word? of fold on the edge of the plates covering the wings and I have trouble getting that to happen.
Do any of you talented people know to achieve this.
Edit:
Forgot to mention that the plate covering the wings is a thin subtool.
Husse
Post a close up of the edge. I would say mask the edge off and then invert the mask in the masking panel. At that point you could maybe use the transpose feature to bend it, or you could inflate the whole edge and afterwards go underneath it and use the smooth brush to knock back the underside lip.
That was a good idea I think, thank´s!
It would be great if there was a brush that could do “bending”.
Husse
The transpose tools with masking are generally what is used for precise deformation. But I’m not sure about what you want to do without seeing a more explicit illustration of you intention. For more subtle brush based sculpting, skillfull use of the Move or Nudge brush may achieve what you want.
Also, remember that sometimes just pulling points out to the desired location at the lowest level of subdivision is the easiest way to get the form that you want, if you have the geometry there to support that form.
Thank´s Bingo!
Unfortunately the subtool was to high poly and I couldn´t reconstruct the mesh since it contained tris for some reason…
What I ended up with was making an inverse mask around the edge and used the pinch tool. it kind of worked even though it didn´t exactly turn out like I wanted but hey, I´m still doodling and learning : )
This is how it look at the moment:
Sweet, it came out great. Did you adjust the brush modifier so it would pull towards you as you pinched? I have advise for polypainting your models to look more earthy and alive. Do an underpainting over the entire model using bright colors. For flesh I’ll do yellow, red and blue (painting them in the apropriate places). For bugs you could throw some purple in there. Joints tend to be redish, fatty areas yellow, and pits where there is lots of veins (like around the eyes or armpits) are blue. Then using the spray stroke type paint in the main colors your going to use for each section slowly. Set your RGB setting low like 10. The key is to cover it all but let it tint the layer you paint over it. The end result feels warmer and less plasticy. I learned this technique for 2D digital art and doing flesh tones, but have since used it on 3D models of green skinned monsters and it works just as good.
Thank´s a million for your advise Hylland!
I´m still trying to learn how to texture and polypaint. I have used your technique on an alien head i did the other day and that looked great. I sure gonna try your color scheeme!
I´m still having a hard time figuring out the texture and painting features in ZBrush but hopefully I´ll get there some day… 
The pinch tool I used in the default settings, I will try to tweak them a bit.
If you have more suggestions on my model it´s most appriciated!
Husse
Maybe some ridges down the length of the main pincers so they don’t look so perfectly round, and a little more shape to the head crest. I’m not looking at a pic of a stag beetle at the moment so it’s hard to say. Sometimes things fall into place if you use the rake brush to rough in some shape and then go back over it with the smooth brush (just by holding down alt).
Thank´s Hylland!
I have been trying to get it to C4D for rendering but no luck…
Imade a render in ZBrush and put a lens blur on it. I will try to get some more details in it eventually.
