Zbrush - How can i define my shapes better?

Obscura

Hi polyounters.I working this high poly model.I made the featers with clay tubes, then i used flatten on the edges to make is a little more sharper.But i think its not the best workflow for this.it looks wavy and pinny:( Help me plz! Which brushes are good for this beveled shapes?How can i fix the wavines?or anyone know a good tutorial?thank you all!:)

tristamus

hPolish, TrimDynamic, TrimPlanar, Flatten, Pinch

cryrid

Some slash3 or Dam_Standard might also give you soem added crispness

Ace-Angel

Pinch and DamStandard, should help, as well Slash. Look up the Polish functions too, they can be useful.

The best solution would be to make each feather a separate piece, and merge them as one subtool, but still each one being a different polygroup.

At the same time, is it necessary? I haven't seen many metal/statue sculpted creatures in real-life that were sharp in detail, they relied more on varnishing and acid washing parts to contrasts, so you're model currently looks pretty close to what someone would have in their home in terms of antique.

Obscura

Thank you all guys. Your answers are very useful!:)
Ace-Angel - When i modeled the basemesh, i was thinking about to model the feathers to separated elements.But its a way too long workflow, and i wanted to model it from only one piece, because the real statues are sculpted from one piece too.The another reason is why i wanted to use one mesh, is that i am not very good at zbrush at all and i want to improve my skills.

Another question - If i work with a planar model, for some tileable stuff (it would be a winding carwings there), which is the better workflow?:
Model that shapes inside 3dsmax, and then zbrush it to detail it?
Or sculpt all the details inside zbrush?

Oniram

id say model the shapes in max and bring them in. it helps because generally all the feathers shouldnt be made from 1 object.. as they wouldnt be 1 object in real life. modeling them separately will give the appropriate spacing in between and you wont really have to worry about any of the issues you're having now.

Obscura

thanks Oniram, but its a statue,made from stone.and i think the real statues are sculpted from one piece usually.atleast in this case, if the statute is like that, the body and the feathers must be made out of one piece.so thats why i want to sculpt it from one object:/

Ace-Angel

Just model one feather, and copy each one to a different location over and over again, then hide the bird and merge-all visible.

Done, now you have many feathers.

But yes, generally speaking what you have there is pretty close to rock, just use Cavity Masking and Polish to try and get some of those sharper details in.