ZBrushCentral

WIP - seated figure

ZBrush Artworks
#1

Hi, everybody,

This community is producing some really impressive work! So much of it, as well.

I am a student at the University of Teesside, final year, video game art course, and I have started working on a figurative sculpture for my portfolio. :) In layman's terms, will be trying to make it in a classical style! And I hope to make it rockin` :+1:
Looking forward to any c&c, so please comment :)

bazinis.jpg]skulpt04.jpg

Attachments

bazestinklas.jpg

skulpt01.jpg

#2

First off I’d like to say congrats on the near graduating.
Now for the CnC. You mentioned you have 7working days to put towards this, that is more than enough time to put out great work on a non-animating model/sculpture. The main thing to really consider is
do you learn software quickly? You said you’re getting your degree in games so you should have a good understanding of polyflow, texture, etc. If you already understand 3D then learning a new software is no different than learning to use a new tool. If you know how to use a manual screw driver it’s not too hard to figure out the electric version. The same goes for Zbrush. And there is the really BIG question. Do you know sculpture? Do you understand form? Do you understand silhouette? Can you draw? Anyway
those are the principles that make great sculpture. Zbrush doesn’t do it for you, no more than having a sweet pencil/brush makes you a better drawer/painter.

That being said, look at the form of your current pose. That looks very painful and off balance to me. Get a friend to try to keep that pose, even if you capture them in motion chances are they are going to have to try to get into that pose. For what seems to be a relaxed pose (I see it as having a ****y attitude) it doesn’t seem natural to me.

If your instructors haven’t already tried to beat it into your head. REFERENCES!!! always use references! 80%-90% of your time should be spent looking at the references and the remaining time actually spent with “pencil to paper”.

I apologize if I am generalizing in my CC. You may know all of these things and know them very well. But with little information I will assume that you don’t to make sure I don’t assume that you know more than you do. Too little information is worse than too much.

You may want to retopo the mesh to give him fingers as well (those will suck to try to do with a solid mesh).

Hope this helps to some degree.

#3

Thanks for the reply!
Yeah, quite general info, but the insight to the pose is a very good one. It is not a pleasant pose, is it? The reason being was that this is the expressive quality of the piece - I’m kind of feeling like I’m in a similar position, where I’m exhausted and want to sit down and relax. But can’t do that, must work harder!
Albeit sorry that my work sucks. If it was good, you would`ve seen or felt that it is supposed to be like that.
I hope that this observation will surface with the facial expression and lighting at the end. I guess, I don’t know actually :confused:
Tell you what, goast, next time I’ll definitely play around with the pose!

For my drawings, anybody can go onto my profile and there’s a link to my makeshift portfolio site.

On a side-note, do you think it is sensible to give out a DeviantArt portfolio (the one I currently have linked at http://al-sukelis.daportfolio.com ) website for games companies and on networking events? Or do people shun away from that and want something designed by yourself?

Here’s an update, had 4 more hours on it:
[skulpt05.jpg]

Oops, I guess playing with the lights messed up the presentation of the sculpture.

As for reference, I have in front of me G. Bammes “Die Gestalt des Menschen” and one of Bridgman’s books. Plus, the internet and some saved images. I also work with a big mirror behind me, so sometimes I look and compare with that. But I don’t feel like it’s helping that much, though. Will try to sit down and photograph myself in a similar pose


#4

Litho

I wasn’t bashing your skills. Far from it. I like the piece overall and I think it can have a very strong presences if the lighting and composition are done well. I was mainly just commenting on the pose as a whole and giving you insight to determine if you think you can pull off a good sculpt in 7days of work.

I just checked out your “make shift” portfolio and that is fine. It gives me the content I am looking for. I don’t have to wait for load times. I don’t have to wait for flashy flash stuff to load. Right to the point. I actual like your site. Your 2d skills are nice (a little too many still lives for my taste) and your 3d has a nice range to it, environments, characters, etc. The work that is in your 2d section looks very “this is my school work”. Bring your own flare to the 2d side.

On that note
what do you want to do? You should tailor your portfolio to read as such. Do you want to do characters? Environments? Animation? Textures? Lighting? I’m not sure by looking at your site. It says computer game artist, but I don’t see a single image in a game engine. So which is, 3d stills, or realtime 3d?

As to the deviant art portfolio for networking
I wouldn’t bother to open the link. Your business card and anything else you gave me would go into a garbage can as soon as we finished our conversation. Deviant art, zbrush, cgsociety, etc are great for networking on the web, in person, you need to have a site. It doesn’t even have to be all that great (unless you’re looking for a web design job that is).

The content is what is important, as well as having the confidence to spend your money on getting a domain name and hosting it. UPDATES are the most important thing I look at when digging through portfolios. A lot of the times I see that a person has a great portfolio, great work, etc. So I keep them on file
for a project that might be coming up in a month or two. Then when I go back to see what they’ve been up to
it is nothing. That gives me the idea that you aren’t passionate about what you do. You don’t use your free time to push yourself as an artist. It also tells me that you don’t have tons of ideas just bursting from your head all of the time.

The stuff that is being updated doesn’t have to be anything finished or even that pretty. Napkin scribbles are a great way to jot down ideas. You could have an idea for a sweet set of armor, a bad-ass APC, etc. You might not have the time to really bring those ideas to life, but you have the idea, and that is what is important. I mean, if I’m hiring you, you’ll have the time to make the ideas come to life. But if you don’t have any ideas to begin with then you’re just another modeler (important as well, but I will take a creative modeler any day over a technical one).

Anyway, I’ve been blabbing on long enough

My $0.02

#5

Goast, thanks very much for the reply - that info was what I was exactly looking for! You helped me out a great deal here. :+1: Thanks for the review, that was really helpful as well!
I didn’t know about/haven’t given thought to the renewable content, and that having a domain is important as well. Are you in the games industry?

Another update - don’t yet like the overall view. It’s really really cumbersome and hard to control the sinousness and smooth forms :frowning: Thus when I was working the heck out of the lower subdivisions, this created me some problems of too much of a craggy mesh in the upper ones, ehh. Still, I think it’s going along quite okey in terms of time. About a work day more on this (I have Sundays dedicated to this).

[skulpt06.jpg]skulpt06pozos.gif
but the more upright pose is too casual, although from one view I got a nice compo (upper left one). But not really what I’m aiming for. The more reclining version is tempting
 I’ll sit it out and come back with a fresh eye.

#6

Mostly had the feet done, slightly worked on the left manus hand and the face.

[skulpt09.jpg](javascript:zb_insimg(‘167825’,‘skulpt10.jpg’,1,0))

This is still on 77 000 faces.

Attachments

skulpt10.jpg

#7

<img src=“http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/6110/skulpt11j.jpg” alt=“Image Hosted by ImageShack.us”/><br/>By <a target="_new" href=“http://profile.imageshack.us/user/litho”>litho</a> at 2009-11-29

#8

You’re making good progress on this, but I have to just say that looks like one incredibly uncomfortable, unnatural pose. No one would ever sit like that for even a moment, and the gesture/rhythm of the figure is just not there. How about reposing the left (supporting) arm so he is resting on his elbow (bringing the rock up to a good location), and relaxing the left leg by swinging the ankle in more naturally? I don’t mean to sound rude, I hope for your success.
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#9

Thank you!
Yes, you are absolutely right. There is no spatial rhythm of the piece and that is a big mistake on my part.

I’ve honestly tried to repose it, several times even, but failed. There are no reposing tools (well, there are, but very limited) in the software that I was working with. :frowning:

This is a piece done on the theme of “Exhaustion”.

It might be put into my modelling reel first or second: (I will not state the title of this in the reel or portfolio website)

skulpt12.jpg

To put it simply, the body - without the drapery, hair and the rock, - is only 77 k triangles.