So You Want To Make Rocks?

PhoenixWolf

Yeah..soo tell me, am i doing it wrong?
Please take a look all feed back is appreciated.

Visual Target:


what i have:

ScottP

It looks like a good start, but how is that one small rock supposed to mimick your reference pictures?

maximumsproductions

I like how it's going right now. I feel it could use a horizontal line or 2 to help give the rock a sense of age and judging from the concepts a more fierce extrusion that help deviate from the rocks main form.. Though I just started on my journey of rock sculpting so I'm interested if you continue to finish this up because I'm looking forward to this kind of reference being imitated correctly.


just don't make a giant turd like me and you'll be fine T_T
http://i50.tinypic.com/10i8phv.jpg

ScottP wrote: »

It looks like a good start, but how is that one small rock supposed to mimick your reference pictures?

And I agree with Scott, you may want to look for another reference of a lone boulder or something that would better show more angles of the object rather than the face of a cliff.

ZombieWells

Here's a rock a did a while back, I hope that it helps as a visual aid. Its all in Zbrush, but for more complex rock formations I use a combo of Z and 3D coat. You would like to have clear cut and defined areas for your rocks, and try to balance noise and calm as you compose them. As for your reference, if can be broken down into pretty clear layers. Then you can make tiled textures out of them or uniques if you want.

Roxxor

The tile breakdown is great stuff. Looking forward to the progress on this one, as I struggle with rocks too.

PhoenixWolf

so my overall target is the first image to be shear and maybe teh proper workflow is to make a good tile and then map it.

so here is some progress there were alot of trial and error and redo's but i think my next step is to make the shapes more defined and shallow like the first image



also wow @zombiewells nice sculpt man hope to get to that level of quality and im curious as to how you manage to sculpt in that surface detail maybe it is a combination of brushes but i'd like to know.

@everyone else thanks for the feedback

for the 2nd image i might add those details sparsely

PhoenixWolf

@zombiewells how did you get those harsh dramatic shapes? and those cool details? it seems that when i sculpt its always "mushy"

Progg

PhoenixWolf wrote: »

@zombiewells how did you get those harsh dramatic shapes? and those cool details? it seems that when i sculpt its always "mushy"

Try using HPolish and TrimDynamic with a Hard round Alpha

PhoenixWolf

ok thanks

PhoenixWolf

where do i go from here? or what do you think is wrong with it?

i tried you Hpolish and trim brushes but they tend to smash the surfaces around. I'm not sure if these even read like rocks. I was thinking of trashing this getting better reference and starting over because it seems i'm at the point of no return/recover.

Swizzle

You're making some good attempts, but it looks like you may be getting caught up in some of the details at the expense of the rest of the thing. You should focus on working from the general to the specific. Get the largest shapes in place first, and then move on to the smaller ones, then smaller, and smaller, until you're finally at individual cracks and scratches.

Find the overall planes of what you're working on. Then tackle the next level of detail.

PhoenixWolf

i was going to move on but since you created this GIF ill do this section instead i should have something late tomorrow, thanks swizzle

should each planar face be a different mesh or should this whole section be one?

PhoenixWolf

here is some progress, not much but it's a start


then:

then:

Stinkhorse

Hey that third one is starting to look pretty good PhoenixWolf!

fantom

Hey. This image looks like rocks from Rage. Keep going!

AlecMoody

I think you are also working with too many sub divisions for your detail scale. Start with just enough to hold the hard edges and planes, when those are established divide again and move onto the next detail scale. It also looks like you are being a little timid with the sculpting. Get some really big clay tubes and trim dynamic brushes and have at it. You can easily clean up later.

Pix

I'm always curious how people manage to get such sharp results in their sculpts and all these intricate small details.