NLC-DavePhipps

DavePhipps

I'm starting the Noob Learning Challenge late so I don't have a moodboard. I'm heading straight into thumbnailing /brainstorming. Here's what I have so far. I try and get a more out tomorrow afternoon so I can start fleshing everything out.
For now we have the Knight, Female Mage, and Assassin.

DavePhipps

OK decided on the female mage. Here's my start on her.
Yes she's a WIP, but suggestions are always welcome.

almighty_gir

cool man. now what you should be aiming to do is reproduce her in a veriety of angles and poses. you want to make sure when you come to the 3d bit you can already visualise her from all angles.

example from my rogue thread:

DavePhipps

OK starting the sculpt. It's a beginning and obviously unfinished but advice is always welcome at any stage.

DavePhipps

Just wanted to add that I'm moving a bit away from my concept and going to go a bit more stylized. I'll be going more for a Danger Girl type body rather than realistic.

DavePhipps

Sculpting has a learning curve that's steeper than I thought. I've spent the entire evening watching and reading tutorials.
Now that I'm looking at the rough sculpt something is off but I can't put my finger on it.
I'm hoping another set of eyes might help, so feel free to school me.


Paint overs are welcomed and encouraged

PyrZern

Get reference :P
http://hazardousarts.deviantart.com/art/Twins-Full-Body-280042225

DavePhipps

Hmm... nice ref.
Looking at more and fixing a bunch of things.
Once I'm happy with the shape I'll update

almighty_gir

couple of bits of advice here:
1. don't change your concept half way through by just saying "i'm going in x direction now". either stick to your original concept (the best choice) or draw your new idea out the way you did the old one.

2. don't use so many subdivisions... when you're learning, be as low detailed as possible and just use the move tool, so you can get all the shapes right first, and THEN start sculpting in details.

DavePhipps

almighty_gir wrote: »

couple of bits of advice here:
1. don't change your concept half way through by just saying "i'm going in x direction now". either stick to your original concept (the best choice) or draw your new idea out the way you did the old one.

That was going through my head last night as I was working on this. Good advice. After my earlier posting I went back to more realistic poprtions. She's looking better now.

There's not alot I can do about the subdivisions. I'm sculpting in sculptris and it tesselates dynamically as I sculpt.

DavePhipps

ok, I found a way around the tesselation. I was having a massive brain fart and got some 3d tunnel vision.
I'm now blocking out a quick base in Wings and importing it into Sculptris.

DavePhipps

I started over with a new base I made in Wings and imported into Scupltris.
I think I'm now looking at refs more than sculpting.
Hopefully it will pay off when I'm done with her.

PyrZern

Looking better now :P
More ref !! Underwear advertisement, makeup magazines, build up your collections :P

mbischof

I think it would be a good exercise for you to compare the model against correct human proportions. Find some good reference of a woman in t-pose in front and profile views, then match up your current model with the reference images. You will want to ask yourself questions like: is the distance from the wrist to the elbow correct, ankle to knee, knee to hip, etc.

DavePhipps

Thanks for the advice. I was surfing about last night looking for some but can't seem to find a good side pose. I did find a few good head ref pics, and I'm now fixing the face and head shapes.
This is frustrating because I used to have a nice ref collection years ago before I stopped doing 3d. They got destroyed by a hard drive failure. Time to rebuild that.

PyrZern

Hope this help ya.
http://charligal-stock.deviantart.com/art/T-Pose-front-stock-207676650
http://charligal-stock.deviantart.com/art/T-Pose-stock-3-207676891

DavePhipps

Thanks PyrZern. I added both poses to my collection. I've found so many basic mistakes in my base form that I feel like the noobiest noob ever.
I got to work on her a bit tonight and fixed a few things, but I'm too tired to do more and am heading to bed early.
Thanks for the advice and pics everyone.

DavePhipps

OK, third try. All I can say is [EMAIL="#@$%^%"]#@$%^%[/EMAIL]!!!! This is harder than I thought it would be. I'm having to quickly reteach myself anatomy, and teaching myself to sculpt at the same time. I think maybe I was over ambitious enter the NLC, but I'm not giving up on this.
I think I've got the basic body shape here. I need to make eyes, tweek the head shape, make feet, finish hands, and fix breasts.
Oh yeah, then make hair clothing, and weapon... sigh :P

Brian "Panda" Choi

How would one go about starting to make armor/clothes/accessories for the base sculpt (subtool in Zbrush)? I've asked before on my thread, but it seems like people are hitting this a lot more.

DavePhipps

I truly have no clue yet. I'm not even using Zbrush, she's being made in Sculptris. I'm probably going to make part of the clothing in Max or Wings and import it.
One method I have seen is to use mask and mesh extraction to start the clothing base. There are a few youtube videos on the subject.
Here's a simple one.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXx12G0-9Lw&playnext=1&list=PL42C9C6249919A5DE&feature=results_video"]Creating Clothing in Zbrush Pt 1 - Mesh Extraction - YouTube[/ame]

PyrZern

Can't help with ZBrush, sry Out of my area. I usually build the whole thing in Maya, and yeah, all in Maya... I will need to learn to use ZBrush soon though.

Oh, and Dave, guess what, I found a another nice Ref as well. Don't thanks me, I saved it to my collection as well xD
http://leadbirdie.deviantart.com/art/Human-Anatomy-For-Artists-V-109260302

Oh, I think her head/cranium is too big ? And might wanna move her knees lower a bit.

DavePhipps

Thanks PyrZern, that should help alot. I checked out the rest of his series and therre are quite a few more there that will help too.
I truly wish I hadn't stopped doing art for so long. It's a struggle getting back up to speed.
Here was the last decent thing made baxk then. All created in Max, no sculpting. I never finished her though. That was 2004 or 2005.


I'm hoping to bring my skill level up to where I want it to be finally. With the help of people like you and the other Polycounters I'm sure I'll get there.

DavePhipps

I'm bowing out of the Noob Learning Challenge due to time constraints and lack of skill. I'll keep following along to learn more though. Good luck to the rest of you.