Using Reference Planes to Sculpt Likeness. Is it cheating?
polycounter lvl 11
Hi. I've recently was having a conversation with a friend who is a professional in the area and he hinted that reference planes are somehow a crutch when it comes to sculpting likeness. What do you think? Should we use reference planes until we get confortable enough to try to likeness just by looking at the model?
Replies
In a production environment, you're going to use the tools you need to so you can get the job done. If you have to sculpt a likeness and you have good ortho views of a subject, you should use them to the fullest extent you feel you need to.
If you're more comfortable just looking at the reference and sculpting, that's just as valid a method.
Use the reference images!
However, sticking to a reference photo for likeness may not be the best idea. Here is the thing: Reference photos of people always have some sort of perspective distortion in them, you can't model over them as if its an orthographic illustration. So you're going to have to look at perspective angles, and compare your work in perspective to nail a reference. It helps if you know how to spot how much perspective distortion is in a given photo.
This is the classic example, if you can get a reference photo taken with a 350mm lens, great, use that as a strict reference, its about as close to orthographic as you can get, if its shot with a more normal lens though (many photos will be) you're going to have to wing it.
Use every tool and technique that gets you the BEST result you can because ultimately that is what matters, I used to be heavily involved in martial arts when I was younger, everyone will teach you how to throw a punch differently, its down to you to adapt and apply your best technique to get the best result, exact same thing here.
It is a relief to know that it is okay to use them.
Oniram, MethodJ thanks for the honest, direct responses.
cryrid, I think the same way. For now I'll stick to it, but as I get more experienced, Ill try to move away from it.
Swizzle, reading your comment remind me of an article by Gary Marshall, talking about the impostor syndrome (a belief that everyone else is brilliant and that you're an arse, that any success you've had is entirely due to luck, not talent or hard work, and that it's just a matter of time before you're unmasked as the hopeless fraud you truly are.)
Which in this particular case, suited me perfectly XD
EarthQuake, I am aware of the lenses/angle of view distortion, that is why, besides the reference planes, I use several reference images of different angles in my second monitor. But that example you posted is extraordinary. Thanks!
ExcessiveZero, That is an excelent analogy. Thank you.
It's not cheating but they can be a bit of a crutch that you learn to do without after a while, for most things anyway. There are still somethings you will probably want to use a reference plane for but their use will start to drop the more confident you get.
You will still use referance images to compare what you've made but it probably won't be in the same viewport as your model where you're snapping points to a plane praying that it looks right. You'll look, you'll learn and you'll compare and you'll get better at all three of those and the dependence on direct external precision forcefully guiding you will start to diminish.
Use it while you can, it can be great tool in helping you figure out what is off about your model. After a while you'll find its more of a safety blanket that doesn't get used and sometime in the future it will be more of a pain to set up and you'll just skip it. But don't be an idiot and abandon it without learning all that it has to teach you, there are some really valuable lessons and its a great tool, it just isn't great for everything and you'll learn when to use it the more you do this stuff.
Good luck! Have fun, find joy in learning new things, don't be scared of not knowing.
Try to ignore the purest who use "always statements". Try to learn the reason why those "rules" are written instead of just memorizing the rules and following them blindly. Do what works best for you and don't be afraid of learning a few different ways of doing something, it might not work out for that one project but you might use it on another.
thank you very much for your words.
The learning curve of this area is fun, but some challanges are difficult to overcome, and criticism and comparisons are very harsh, so you never really know if you are doing ok. Thanks everyone for helping me with this issue.