Practice ZBrush Sculpt: Denzel Washington

teggs

Hi,
This is a practice sculpt of Denzel Washington that I am working on and I would really appreciate some feedback. I am trying to focus on capturing his likeness as well as improve my understanding of the anatomy of the human face. If you notice anything wrong with the anatomy or the likeness is not quite right. Please point it out.

Here is my reference sheet:


This is the sculpt in ZBrush:


Here is the sculpt with some color:


Thanks,
-Teggs

Saman

I think you have a bit of likeness already but you have some more work to do. First things I noticed was that his face is too far ahead from his neck(see the range between his neck and chin) and his eyes are a bit too large. What I would recommend would be to put some planes into your 3d scene and add two of the pictures you have on these so that you can follow the shapes more easily. This will give you a good start and you can capture the likeness easier after you've followed those ref-images.
keep it up!

teggs

Thank you, Saman for taking the time to write up a critique. It really helps getting some feedback. After working on a model for quite some time it is often difficult to pin point exactly is wrong with the model. I will definitely throw some planes in my scene with a few of the ref-images on them and make the changes you suggested.

MainManiac

bottom lip too big


Other than that its pretty good. Keep note of basic human head proportions like eye size etc.

Fomori

Eyeballs look too big and the bridge of his nose too thin (or possibly too defined). The top of his head (cranium?) needs to be wider. Good start though.

carlobarley

looks like you are modeling/sculpting mainly from the front view of denzel, be wary of photographic barrel distortion.

king kong ain't got shhhh on meeee

ebagg

One thing that would help refresh your perspective on this and carry most of the likeness is taking your refs and drawing on top the main forms of the face on his face. Be aware of the perspective distortion in the reference as you do this. After nailing down those planes in 2d you should be able to revisit this sculpt, quickly see where the likeness is off and make the changes necessary to really show the likeness!

Main forms reference;

Swizzle

You have a good base to work from, but there are a lot of fairly subtle things you need to do before it's unmistakably Denzel Washington.

First, you need to soften basically everything. Denzel actually has a bit of babyface going on, even though he does have some noticeable wrinkles. Tone down the definition of basically everything and try to make the forms more round and less sharp and blobby.

The other posters are right about the barrel distortion, especially in that top left reference. Beware of distortion from the camera and make sure to compare to as many other refs as possible.

I'd suggest you try to ignore features like the eyebrows and the stubble; they are making areas of his face looked shadowed when in reality they're actually darker. This is leading you to sculpt forms that aren't there.

More specifically, you need to adjust the shape and proportions of a couple of specific areas:

- The eyes are way too wide and the irises are too large and centered. The upper eyelid should be covering more and the lower eyelid less.

- You've sculpted his nose the way you THINK it looks instead of the way it ACTUALLY looks. He has a very distinctive nose shape, but you've given him a generically African-looking nose that's wide and round. You need to soften it and widen the tip considerably. You also need to flatten and round the bridge so it has a much more gradual transition to his cheeks.

- You've given him sharp, slightly lumpy eyebrows. These should be smoothed down and blended with the upper eyelid in a convex curve. His eyebrows are very thin, so it's easy to confuse them with shadowed areas.

- The nasolabial fold needs to be softened and blended more with the surrounding flesh. It's in approximately the right place, but you've carved in too much and it needs to be shallower.

- Along with the nasolabial fold, you need to make the plane of his upper lip/muzzle area match more closely the front plane of the cheeks. This and the nasolabial fixes should help sell his face shape better.

- The cheeks need to blend more smoothly with the lower eyelid, especially where it's closest to the outside cheekbone area.


I did a paintover that I hope you find useful:

teggs

Wow, thanks for all the feedback everyone!!! I never expected to get such helpful and fast response to my post. I really appreciate it! I am still reworking the sculpt and have not made a ton of progress so I am not posting WIP shots of the model at this time but hopefully I will soon.

@frell- yep I will try and pay closer attention to overall proportions and take another go at his lip and size down those eyes.

@Formori- I think you are right about the nose being a bit too defined and his cranium probably should be a little larger. It is funny how easily you can start creating a face with ears and forget to leave enough room for the brain to fit in the skull. I guess as humans we sometimes focus too much on the features of the face that the overall volume of the back of the head gets left out.

@carlobarley- You caught me… I was predominately using the front view as a reference. I will have to avoid this in the future and thank you for pointing out the barrel distortion that you get from photographic references. Just being aware of this distortion will help me avoid it in the future.

@ebagg- That sounds like a great suggestion. I have let my 2D skills get a bit rusty so this would be a great exercise both to improve this sculpt as well as get some 2D practice in.

@Swizzle- Thanks for taking the time to create a paint over and really pin point those fine details that I have not quite nailed down. It is really helpful. I will revisit the whole model and see what I can do to improve all the areas you listed as well as the areas everyone else pointed out.

Thanks again everyone,
-Teggs

teggs

I just wanted to post an update with the progress I have made. I am still working on the list of things everyone pointed out. He has lost his ears in the new version because I sent the base mesh over to Maya and added in some extra edge loops to give me some more geometry to work with. When I sent it back over to ZBrush it didn’t project the higher subdivision details onto the new geometry very well so I just smoothed out the ear for now. I’ll drop down in subdivisions and sculpt it back in soon. Thus far I have really focused on sizing down the eyes and reducing the barrel distortion of his face. I am still working my way around the model improving things as I go.

Below is my little cheat sheet of things to fix that all of you suggested. I have been referring to as I work on this sculpt and it has been a huge help. I wouldn’t say I have any of these areas completely resolved yet but I think the sculpt is improving.

[IMG][/img]

[IMG][/img]

teggs

I did not mean for this post to go dormant for so long. I have worked on this sculpt off and on since the last post but have not really been pleased with the results so I have not posted any updates. I am still working on this piece but I can’t say I am happy with it yet. I sculpted on top of the old sculpt, tried starting from scratch again but I am not loving it yet. Below is an image of many of the variations that the piece has gone through. Some look more like Denzel some much less but with each I have learned quite a bit. The one on the top right is the most recent variation.



Recently I have been working on a completely different sculpt. The progress of that sculpt can be seen here: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=109198

teggs

Attempted this sculpt again, here are the results:

[IMG][/img]