Thanks for the Breakdown post.
Awesome stuff as usual! Any chance we could get a render breakdown?
Thanks for the Breakdown post.
totally agree!
Thank you harbottle
Fantastic work Will! Thanks so much for the great breakdowns and explanation of your process! I really dig the toy/puppet piece posing approach too. That is a common approach for character rigging and posing as well on various film/game pipelines to keep things fast, so it’s awesome to see you using similar strategies…definitely keeps things very flexible. Truly top notch form, anatomy, weight, balance, expression, and detail. Thanks again for sharing with the community! Looking forward to seeing more!
John
Beautiful cloth on the Spartans… how did you do that?
Outstanding layout and clean order with your work sir. Thank you for sharing. You inspire
You said with subtools that “I also try to keep everything in separate subtools for the same reason”…I myself am still trying to understand the value of subtools and the benefits of it. What I wanted to ask is, when do you start separating the body parts in subtools? Do you do a full body low render sketch first and then separate that way? Man your work looks so smooth. Thanks for sharing
Awesome work! But I love your action figure style body types you pose! How handy and cool, especially for doing statue work!
jaw dropping sculptures, I bet you are looking foward to zb4r7, with 64bit support I imagine it will be a godsend to speed up your workflow.
My good googly goodness what stunning craftsmanship.
Man I’ve been a huge fan of your works for a looong time. love the movement and keen details in it. just wow, that’s all
Hey Harbottle! I love the breakdown and explanations you gave.
I have a little question regarding your posing process. You mention in your break down that if you need to do any pose changes you take your figure back into Maya to repose, and then all the extra pieces will “follow along for the ride”. Does Maya offer any advantages over transpose master? Also, I’m assuming the ease of switching to maya comes from the GoZ plugin?
Also, perhaps you can help me clear up a difficulty I have. When it comes to having to pieces of skin press together how do you sculpt that realistically (like bent elbow, bent knee like your post, butt etc). This is one of those things that almost feels easier to do traditionally.
Thanks for posting all your inspiring work!
~Jose
Very Inspirational! Thank you for the break down.
Your methods and craftsmanship produce outstanding visual spectacles, so Ill give them a try for sure on my next personal project.
Quick question if you have the time: Do you use pose-able symmetry (for the face) after you articulate the pose to a desired level?
Thank you for sharing!
The difference is that everyone got access to photos, not everyone got access to scans.
Wouldn’t you consider it cheating if you and someone else was going to make sculpts of Scarlett and you had to do it from scratch and the other guy got scans?
Do you think it’s cheating if a painter use a projector? (Painters have been accused for doing that.)
When scans will be available for everyone to use, no one, or atleast very few, will think of it as cheating anymore.
@ Subtool
That’s borderline DUMB.
Everyone can’t afford ZBRUSH, a powerful computer, and a 27 inch CINTIQ… Do you consider it cheating if you have all those mentioned items versus someone with a mouse, basic cpu and SCULPTRIS in a human figure sculpting contest?
Will is a capable artist regardless of scans, he has shown that. Even with SCANS most artist STILL screw it UP. You still require SKILL and SELF DISCIPLINE regardless the TOOLS you are using.
Scan data and TOOLS are littered all throughout the internet…
http://www.agisoft.com/features/professional-edition/
Noticed all the POSER and MAKE HUMAN SCREW UPS…
But nothing is wrong with SHORTCUTS if you have the SKILL to use them and that skill requires mastery, the masters always make things look simple and effortless, yet it generally took several years of STUDY and PRACTICE inorder to reach that point!
Wikepedia describes Wisdom as is utilizing KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE, understanding, common sense, and insight most optimally!
I would conclude by saying “WILL HARBROTTLE” is a GENIUS…
HATE his methods all YOU like I wager you will never be able to DUPLICATE this RESPONSE thru your work with that attitude!
Have to agree. Tools have never made the artist, regardless of discipline.
I think these works are amazing. Absolutely stunning. I also dont agree that scan data is cheating, but its not the same as starting from scratch either. Much the same way having the eye for being able to recreate textures, forms, etc is much more impressive than taking a photo. (although the photo can be just as beautiful in its own right). I have seen people using microsoft paint create incredible work… for microsoft paint.
Thanks to everyone for all the interest. I’m happy to answer questions. Sorry if I missed some.
johnchen – What would help me the most is folders or groups like in Photoshop and Maya. 
In the meantime, I keep things organized by ordering my subtools from head to foot. I can find anything I’m looking for “relatively” easily this way – even with hundreds of subtools. For example, a belt is higher in the list than a kneepad, and a kneepad is higher than a boot.
Myselfsama – I don’t use goZ. It doesn’t play well with my Maya scenes. Besides, goZ doesn’t preserve polygroups. And I polygroup everything. What I meant by parts “going along for the ride” is that you can “parent” parts to other parts or to groups and then move them. Maya also remembers pivot points and orientations. This makes posing, unposing and fine-tuning whole characters much easier for me. You can make adjustments all along the way to account for costume updates or pose changes. As for bent body parts – you’ve hit on one of the main reasons I keep all body parts separate. If the biceps is separate from the forearm, you can sculpt on one of them without messing up the other.
Takai – Yes, poseable symmetry on heads especially. Just be careful. Poseable symmetry isn’t perfect. As you work on the piece in ZBrush, it can begin to stray from symmetry - sometimes without you really being able to tell very easily. I usually send the head to maya, re-center it and check the symmetry at several points along the way. Sometimes the head gets WAY out of symmetry, but I didn’t notice because our brains are programmed to see heads as symmetrical even when they aren’t. Usually you just start to notice that something is looking “off”. I add natural asymmetry usually near the end, and often on a separate layer.
Cheers!
Will
Thanks for getting back, I showed a few people at work your sculpts, most agree its damn amazing. cheers
Thanks for your workflow description,please keep posting your great Stuff William
Hey Will, I’ll try to learn how posing in through maya works. I have another question however, I find that your anatomy work is very incredibly detailed and accurate. You mentioned that you use alot of reference and such from 3dsk, however I’ve noticed that most if not all of their photos have a very even flat lighting, making it difficult to discern sculptural form. Before you posted your latest in depth tutorial, I was going to ask if after getting client approval for a pose you shot your own reference from a model. But I’m wondering if perhaps you can share more information on the subject. Thanks for your time,
~Jose