Student WIP - Huantalien

[system]

Hello, long time lurk, first time poster.

I am taking a ZBrush class and my teacher recommended that I post here for critique on my first real serious ZBrush character, so here I am !

I consider myself an intermediate sculptor / ZBrush artist.

I am going to attempt to sculpt a character out of a concept by great creature artist Carlos Huante: [http://www.carloshuanteart.com/](http://www.carloshuanteart.com/) 
  
 Here is the concept sheet for easy viewing: 
   [![00_Concept.jpg|851x356](upload://8s6jhYUdNoa8hCY2wDSgWfLO2AN.jpeg)]![05_SecondPassSculpt.jpg|1092x822](upload://wOCxSTW4MzgWfAgeuBj9uK13HOD.jpeg)

<b>Notes:</b>

• I am having some difficulty reconciling the differences between what I know about human anatomy and what I am seeing in the concept. It would probably help if I studied a little bit of animal anatomy - which I know I am lacking in. I don't know anything about how tails work, anatomically speaking. I'll work on finding an animal anatomy book.
• What is that thing on his hip? At first I was treating it like a pelvic crest, but then it didn't seem to work properly as a ball and socket joint. So now I think I will model it like some sort of scale plate.
• I think I will give this guy one more pass, then retopo him in ZBrush - I want to eventually have him be a game friendly character.

Crits would be most welcome at every step of the process =)

Thanks !

-anders h.

Attachments

[system]

This is going to be a nice character. Indeed the anatomy gets a little strange around the pelvis. I guess you should study frog or lizard anatomy before continuing with the sculpt. Still a great start.

[system]

Here is my retopo in progress:

[]

I have been working on the retopo all week in ZBrush and I have to say, I have NO desire to ever retopo an entire character with ZBrush again. It was like pulling teeth. It got to the point where I could only endure doing like 20-30 polys at a time, then I’d have to go do something else and come back to it. So needless to say, this took a very long time to complete.

And the retopo is still not up to snuff in areas, so I am bringing the model into Maya now to fix some issues:

1. The hands and feet have bad edge flow in some areas.
   
2. The legs need more resolution - they have about 6 faces around, whereas the arms have 10-12.
   

I am definitely seriously considering finding a better retopo solution for the next time I decide to retopo an entire character.

1. 3D Coat
   
2. NEX for Maya
   
3. Or I wonder if I can get my old Topogun beta updated still?
   

Anyways, on to the final retopo, projection, and final sculpt.

[TeckZ]

About anatomy, dude… Just “calcuate” where in his body weight should be " kept lifted" ) guess u see me )

Learn more about POSING FIGURES…ull find there much more info for urself rather in anatomy

Luck

Pz

[slocik]

i think you are trying to give him too much human anatomy, you already lost some forms from the design, also i feel you changed the feets too much ;/ I think its a good start, but i wont call it even 10% done … you have chosen a really difficult charter to model ;]

[system]

@slocik - Could you be more specific about where I’ve lost forms from the concept?

Is it normal for my posts with attached images to take a very long time to appear in this thread? I created a post about 15-20 minutes ago with a pic of the retopo (with adjusted pose), the pic appeared in the main forum bottom row, but the actual post has not appeared. What’s up with that?

[system]

Small update. I was eager to get back to sculpting, and I’ve been working on the bust area after I lost a ton of time doing the retopo. Here’s a small preview:

[]

You can see I’m being liberal with the concept here…I’ll probably push things pretty extreme, then bring it back a little bit when I start to apply alpha texture. I’m going for rubbery skin, with a touch of reptilian. Looking at komodo dragons, toads, and old people for reference.

I’m trying to get as much done by Friday as possible. I would like to be able to put a prop in (like the staff in the concept), some teeth, and then transpose him. But my schedule is looking pretty tight in the next couple of weeks…

I’ll update with turns once I give most of the body a good pass with tertiary forms.

[Ichiban]

Very nice it’s coming along !!! good job

[slocik]

i was talking about his arms and legs ;d and i see some tris on your retopo, zbrush +tris in base model is never a good thing ;/

[system]

@slocik - Thanks, I will be sure to build out his arms and legs a little bit. Also, I did bring the base mesh into Maya and optimize it a whole lot. The topo is much better now than what is seen in the last pic.

Update:

]

I am becoming dissatisfied with the look of the stretchy skin under the neck...I'm thinking that the folds of skin might be too thick...

What do you all think? Crits plz - paintovers especially appreciated  :) 

I think I'll take out my D'Artiste Character Modeling book and look at the Locust's rubbery skin as reference..

[system]

Hello again my adoring fans !!!
I finished the “Huantalien” assignment - so this is what I actually turned in.

]

   I did rush the end a little bit - could have spent more time on the feet, the alpha details, and the posing. I plan on polishing this up for my final portfolio before graduation, and then texturing the low poly game model. I'll post all of that here. 
   
   Crits welcome, like usual.  :p

[The_Cheshire_Cat]

Awesome stuff, keep it up.