hello all. my first post here at the zbrush forums. this will be my thread of updates.
first time i’ve devoted some time in zb3 playing with the AMAZING rake tool
with the roma matcap material setting. just messin’ around with this character…nothing really too defined in terms of design. i just wanted to see if the cg rake would able to provide me with the same feel as a real rake on clay. im glad to say that it does 
I’m liking the work here so far. I haven’t quite figured out the rake tool personally. When I see others do it, it looks so natural, but when I try it looks somewhat out of place. I’m not really sure what utility that sort of thing serves in actual clay sculpting, so that could be part of the problem. Anyway, nice sculpting. My only critiques are the somewhat underdefined teeth, ears, and nostrils.
hey gio good to see you here on the zbrush forums i hope your zbrush work is as good as your mudbox work really looking forward to your freedom of teach dvd on digital sculpting and looking forward to your future posts here on the zbrush forums good to see another traditional sculptor has joined the zbrush community.
hi gio, nice to see you here 
i directly recognized your style and i like it as always 
only critique i have is the nose, which looks a bit dirty to me.
I think it would look a bit better with sharper cut planes and with nonsymmetric raking!
oh yeah!!
I love the surface of him. Glad the rake brush is working for ya!
Ryan
twitch: the rake tool is typically used to clean the forms you’ve laid out
in the lay-up phase of sculpting. typically during the lay-up stage, forms are very gestural with many tubes of clay making a form, for example. the rake is used to polish these forms, getting rid of any crossections that are wobbly or unclean. the rake is also great for drawing form on your surface…its a great
subtractive method of sculpting. with this test head i have, he was pretty much smooth…all the form shifts you see were all done by the rake, using it
to define sub-forms and planes. this is why i was really impressed by the tool in zb since it behaves exactly as it does a real rake tool, which is the closest thing we’ve come to practical sculpting in cg yet (in my opinion).
troy: thanks man. just having fun with both softwares. glad you’re looking forward to that dvd
cral: thanks. its nice to post some works here in the z-forums. agree with you on the nose. unfortunately for this critter, he’s pretty much done for. i’m moving on to bigger and better z-things after having had the playtime i’ve had.
ryan: i have you to thank for showing me the way of the rake in Z! thanks man!
Great! Can’t wait to see what you turn out!
Thanks for the break down of the rake tool. I take it that from this point you smooth it out again or sculpt straight on top?
brett: yes, its a back and forth process. when i do smoothen out the rake marks, i make sure not to lose the high points of the form. thats why i usually set my smooth to a very very low value.
I’ve tried it out this morning before work already! Haha. works excellent. You get instant detail and underlying forms. Thanks for the tip. One day i’ll do real sculpting. Nothing better than having your own creation sitting on your desk.
some form exercise with this one…turned out looking like the hulk, so i guess i’ll call it the hulk
cool exercise. You could have put him in a little pose. Use that transpose goodness! I’m a bit confused about the thing sticking out of the top of his shoulder. What’s that? Is it the acromion? That’s a NONO, especially for someone at your level.
Keep it up!
wowwww, really coollll sculpt!! loveeee the expression of the last model! great work dude!
-Fabian
wow!! really great see you here!! i love your works
Alex Oliver
Hey Gio,
Cool to see your latest works. Keep them coming!
Cheers,
Ricardo
Wow! Great sculpt. Also, it almost looks like a charcoal drawing coming together. Great stuff.
r
hey lookin good man. I hope all is well over there.
thanks for the kind words! its fun posting in this forum being that the community of artists here are top notch.
here is a model i started in mudbox, brought into zb3 for detailing and further refinement. its sorta my rendition of frankenstein’s monster. very much an unfinished piece, which will most likely remain that way.
yup,yup! 
Superb! Please just finish the ear off :D.
