taking the time to make a new account to expose someone? never saw that before.
Yeah, it`s horrible, we all should praise and follow blindly whatever is given to us.
cool your jets, guy. i’m just saying, if someone has something to say, just say. it’s silly to hide behind a fake account. and this picture would have been perfect if it didn’t make it to the Top Row, which apparently is the equivalent of Mt. Olympus around here. But since it made Top Row, it’s now the duty of the people to over analyze and tear it to pieces. sometimes, it’s better if you don’t know how a magician does their tricks 
So quite a bit of this image is taken from photos…I stand by my original comments. Since there’s no wires or render passes or any work shown I think its kinda not too good of an example of top row stuff…I’d say Sorenson post pretty much sums up what I said from the start…and to not mention the best feature of ur image is taken almost directly from someone elses picture to me, waters down digital art. Why not just take a pic?..you cant use this for anything production wise…and if it’s just going to be an image with heavy PS work it should to me at least be something far more creative.
hmm… this photomanipulation is sad but picture still looks great 
for the moment I thought that at last someone find ultimate solution for eyelashes 
AHaha classic.
Sorenson, nice work.
cool
hey
there awesome work
congrats for the top row
about the ongoings in this thread the community here is just great and awesome
they are hard some times but they are great at heart too
so guys smile all the way up
preach art
wow. fantastic 
Whatever about the work created in this thread. I find it even more ludicrous that some user would create a false account such as “Sorenson” with a single post just to pick holes in the artists work. Some people can’t stoop low enough, eh?
I can’t believe I’m continuing this debate, but…
Two things:
First - I can’t believe the effort that has gone in to investigating whether this artwork is all that it claims to be. Personally I’ve got way better things to do. Seriously, there are better things to do with your time people.
Second - Despite the foregoing point, time wastefully spent or not, it does appear to me that the whistle-blowers have a legitimate point. Indicating that the hair was photoshop’ed while failing to specify that it was a photo rather than painted, I can accept as a simple oversight, but failing to mention anything about the eye’s being derived from a photo is a pretty significant omission and causes me begin to wonder whether any of this was intentionally sly, particularly given the lack of any response from the artist (I must say that I had wondered whether the eyes might be derived from a photo, as the face was clearly rendered in Zbrush, but I very much doubt you could render eyes like that in Zbrush). If deceit was intended the artist should feel ashamed - if not, then I hope he has learned the importance of being transparent about the real nature of the work he is showing. In either case it is such a lesson to the rest of us.
Hi Guys,
It has been years since the last time I posted here at ZBC but I do drop by very often to check out everyone’s work especially the Toprows. Unfortunately I have to agree with everyone who’s being negative about this “artwork”. I think anyone could have picked an actor/actress and do the same i.e render a bust in zbrush, then photoshop the hair and eyes.
The thing that kinda triggers the negativity of this work to me is that the owner hasn’t been around ever since he posted his work even though he made it Toprow, but he’s been around at 3DTotal (Site that I check everyday) to post his image.
It would certainly be different if the owner could post some wireframe or explain his workflow to prove wrong to everyone who’s been negative about his work.
“In either case it is such a lesson to the rest of us”
Yup, I know my way to the top row now:
-google image of cute actress
-desaturate it with your program of choice
-import the jpg image in ZBrush
-use image plane to load it
-and now the important step, really showing the power of ZBrush: save it a a PSD!!!
-post it in different forums and enjoy the praise; people are in such a bad need for heroes theyll buy any crap and will throw stones to those who try to question your methods (freakin whistleblowers, who needs them, they ruin our pink lives, arrrrrghhh).
P.S.: I am aware the mistery dude OP made the exaggerated pores and cracks on the lips in ZBrush
Not everyone will agree whether something deserves top row. It is subjective. We have all seen works that we felt deserved to be top row and were not made so as well as works that were not near the quality of other top row works.
But this is not about that. This is about honesty. The poster put up an image with photographic elements-the most impressive looking elements of the work turned out to be photographs.
He has not responded with a single reply. This post needs to be taken down and the issue of transparency needs to be addressed.
This is not about whether the image is a good piece of art or not. It is a beautiful image. It is about getting recognition for the use of a tool that was not used and, from what I can tell, at least some level of deception.
If I take a portrait of a celebrity and project it on a plane in ZBrush and take a screenshot can that really be considered a Zbrush piece of art? Most would say no. And certainly if I said nothing about my process most would consider that a form of plagiarism.
I hope the mods will do the responsible thing and address this issue as not doing so will either invite more sub-honest posts or increase the negativity of top row responses.
Been tracking this thread for a while, just for the amusement. I just wondered what the prize was for achieving ‘top-row’ status? I ask, as it seems to me there are a lot of people feeling they’ve been cheated in some way by this piece of work being up there. I don’t get it.
I think the model is great but the render is too harsh.
This is so inspiring!
You did an amazing job with the hair and the skin.
Wow.
I’m still a noob to digital sculpting, but have been a traditional sculptor( as a hobby ) for a little over 10 years. One thing I gotta say is that when I started learning these programs and digi sculpting I was offset by how digital artist do certain things to get the desired affect. In traditional sculpting its called found art in digital sculpting its damn near borderline cheating.
But cheating at what? Nothing. Are these artist who do statues for companies that use face scans from variuos actors or actresses cheating? My point is if this artist should be shunned or outcast because of his/her methods then there are a whole lot of users that need to go the same way. I haven’t seen any rule book on digital sculpting and from the hundreds and hundreds of works I have seen here, NOBODY is above “shortcuts”.
I ask, as it seems to me there are a lot of people feeling they’ve been cheated in some way by this piece of work being up there. I don’t get it.
agreed i think some miss the point that Z brush is a TOOL serve as a means to a solution.
It’s not to say that the hardcore don’t have a right to cry foul but considering the hundreds of top row entries per year… I think it’s reasonable AND proactive to show how Z brush can be used to create a compelling image.
We work in the art of smoke and mirrors ladies and gents.