Learning Diary: Character Sculpting in Zbrush

Shyralon

LATEST:

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Hi all,
for the last few days I've been trying to improve my knowledge of Zbrush (I barely know anything about it right now) and learn proper Character and Creature sculpting.
So I watched the ZBrush Basics Digital Tutors video and started sculpting, trying to do at least one sculpt (which means an ugly bust at the moment) a day.

So for now I will only do highpoly sculpts and not worrying about retopologie or anything like that, maybe proper rendering and texturing if I am happy with one sculpt, but we will see..

The reasons why I am doing this thread are:
- to keep me motivated doing this
- to document my learning progress (hopefully there is one..)
- to get tips and critiques about my work

So, as I said I started a few days ago:
My first sculpt after a long time of not doing anything 3d related:



And the yesterdays sculpt:



Both of them were just freestyle doodles I did to get used to sculpting in general, not really worrying about anatomy and stuff.
I saw disneys Frozen yesterday and was pretty fascinated by the stylized characters they had, so I tried myself at a stylized head:



So, as you can see there are tons of mistakes and issues right now, and I have a whole lot to learn But sculpting stylized characters was pretty fun, so I think I will focus on that for the next days while learning some more techniques.

Shyralon

Todays sketch.



Excuse the bad render, I don't know how to properly render yet, have to watch a few tutorials about that the next days.
Actually I'm pretty unhappy with todays (fast) sculpt, things haven't turned out the way I wanted to.
Another question: For learning ZBrush techniques, do you recommend sculpting freestyle or using a concept as reference?

stevston89

If you want to make compelling character sculpts you really need to stop focusing on details and start focusing on overall form and anatomy. Take your time with it as well. It does you no good to speed though the process without having the knowledge of the anatomy first. I really recommend doing anatomy sculpts before attempting a full concept. Just get a lot of anatomy reference and don't focus on details just large forms. Also if you are no good at concepting it's not a great idea to concept the piece yourself especially at a beginner stage. You are just going to be fighting both the poor concept and your lack of knowledge/ experience at the same time.
Good Luck!

rino

okay, take it easy. last thing you want when you are starting out is to do speed sculpts. take your time, learn things right, get the basics down -- then you can do speed stuff.

also, "not really worrying about anatomy", you should at the beginning.

Shyralon

Oh, now that you both mention it, starting with anataomy REALLY makes a lot more scence. I think I was so much in my Yay-I-want-to-create-something-rush, that I totally ignored the most important things...
So anatomy practice and large forms ot is, starting tomorrow.
Thanks for your advices

Shyralon

Here's the progress of the anatomy practice sculpt I started today.

wizo

that is looking much nicer than previous sculpts! nice progress!

as for crits, the pecs and shoulders are looking good but try to make the transition in the muscle a litte sharper (pinch brush), the abs are too wobbly, define the main mass for the "belly" shape first and then cut in to define the abs slowly, this sculpt is a good example of what to aim for : http://www.gd3dart.com/images/torsostudy.jpg

good luck!

Brian "Panda" Choi

@Shyralon: Switch matcaps to a gray lambert. The default skin one kind of sucks for looking at the sculpt critically. It makes everything feel too soft.

Shyralon

Worked some more on the sculpt, added more of the arms (I learned that I don't like making arms..) and tried to make the details and the ab/belly area more sharp and clean. Actually I'm having lots of trouble with the legs, maybe I'll practice doing them first seperatly..


And the grey version (I actually like the skin matcap, so I just use both versions):

Shyralon

If you guys don't find any major anatomical mistakes on that, I declare my first practice sculpt as finished. (hands, feets and head I will practice separately at first, because I REALLY suck at them).



I guess the most important thing I learned on this sculpt are not the anatomical things, but the importance of good reference, before I did everything from my mind..and yeah, you can see the result of that on top..
Next plan is a head practice piece (with references this time!)

Brian "Panda" Choi

If you're gonna add vascular details like veins, sculpt it in more subtley if you're aiming for realism. They're uncomofortably popping out right now, in my opinion.

stevston89

Less detail more form. You are still focusing on sculpting details such as individual muscles, veins, etc. You really don't have a lot the forms and proportions correct. The arms are too long, the pectoral muscles are too big, the muscles in the abdominal area aren't working, the veins look very weird, the legs are lumpy and lacking proper muscle structure, the neck is to short, and the entire back of your model looks wrong anatomically.
A lot of your model is very lumpy as well don't subdivide so much.

You really shouldn't worry so much about the muscle details until you have the correct structure. Here look I made some comparisons of yours to a 3d scan. Your muscle too defined and not shaped properly, but more importantly your overall forms and silhouette are flat. The second image is what is the most important. If your large forms and silhouette are correct your details are easier to place and people are more likely to trust them.






TLDR: stop focusing on the details and focus on the gesture and form.

Shyralon

Woah, that's an awesome critique, thanks a lot!
There are so many things I haven't noticed o_O
Guess I have to get back working on my sculpt

Shyralon

Was pretty busy last week, but now I found the time to go back working on the proportions based on stevstons critique. More or less completly deleted all the details I had before for a new start
Before I will continue doing the details, I'd love to get some critiques about the proportions first..

Shyralon

Shyralon

Sorry for reviving this old thread of mine, but I thought I could just use this one instead of creating a new one.

So after a long time of focusing more on environments and other things, I started doing some sculpting studys again and thought it would be nice to get some feedback.

My first try was a full body male anatomy study, which didn't turn out too great:


After that I thought I should go back to the basics and created a skull:


And here's yesterdays sculpt, a torso study:


Every feedback is very welcome, go ahead and tear my work apart :d

Shyralon

And here are tonights sculpt:
First a study of the female torso:

And here some sculpts of the mouth area:

Shyralon

Sculpting faces is just so goddamn hard
Here's another face practice sculpt, still looks kinda weird, but I can't really figure out what exactly is wrong. I think the jawline could be more defined (since it's a male) and there's something wrong with the overall headform

Shyralon

Todays study.
Slowly starting to have fun instead of frustration when sculpting faces

Wendy de Boer

You should really put in the ears, because they are a reference point for the overall form of the head.

Shyralon

Another head sculpt!
And with ears o.O

Also tested fibermesh for hair, don't like the result, maybe I should just dynamesh-sculpt it..
Any tipps on creating good hair?

Shyralon

Had a lot of sculpting today, couldn't get anything to a point where it does not look too awkward. Started over 3 times, all in all spent almost 4 hours on this face, which I still don't like..
(I think it's by far not as good as yesterdays sculpt, and yesterday only took 2 hours)
but anyway, just keep practising I guess.


Especially the eyes are weird on this one, because I had to move them quite late.
Only thing I kinda like on this one is the mouth..

PyrZern

Keep working on it. Focus on the planes and angles of the face first. The more it fails, the more you know how to not fail. Don't waste time on skin pores or lips texture. They don't matter one bit right now. Big shapes only.

Shyralon

@ PyrZern
Thanks for the image, that's a great reference, really helpfull for understanding the face.
The only reason I put in the skinpores is that I really enjoy using alphas, I know it's unnecessary for learning the face, but it's fun and doesn't take too long

Here's todays sculpt, tried to pay more attention the the planes of the face.
Not necessarily better than the ones before, but atleast I'm getting faster doing these.

MattQ86

I can't recommend giving Rafael Grassetti your money enough.

Shyralon

Rafael Grassetti is awesome, didn't knew he has tutorials, definetly have to take a look at these.
Here's todays sculpt.
I kinda like the front view, but side view seems a little off, just noticed that after rendering.

Shyralon

No updates the last days because I was on vacation.
Now getting back to it, here's yesterdays sculpt.

happybell

Shyralon wrote: »

Rafael Grassetti is awesome, didn't knew he has tutorials, definetly have to take a look at these.
Here's todays sculpt.
I kinda like the front view, but side view seems a little off, just noticed that after rendering.

I would strongly suggest you to refer to an actual woman's face and sculpt her likeness and also take notes on the anatomy of a face. The sculpt looks quite manly for me.

Shyralon

Actually that's what I am doing, the last one for example used Tom Cruise as reference, I just suck at likeness^^
Taking notes and analyzing the characteristics of the face before sounds like a good idea tho

karytsukino

Nice attempt... Still don't look like Tom Cruise, but the only way to improve is keep trying... So dont give up! Keep working!

ChaosWWW

If you're going for likeness (also good to learn the proportions of the head) then overlay a picture of your reference on top of your sculpt using the eyes as an anchor point and see if everything lines up. If not, adjust appropriately.

Right now I'd say your biggest issue is proportions. Specifically all the features appear "stretched", making the forehead too short and the mouth too low. Remember that the eyes are usually halfway down the skull. Actually in general I'd try studying the skull more, you're missing most of the bony landmarks like the zygomatic and the angle in the temporal region. Also, it's easy to ignore but I'd focus more on the ears if I were you. Your lobe is merged with your head when it should be hanging down as a separate piece. Also remember that the ears define the silhouette of the head from the front, so really define the primary forms.

Also I think it will be in your best interests to use a less "fancy" matcap like matcap grey or just the standard material. I recommend using standard and changing the lighting every once and a while. This helps you see the subtle changes in the forms without the program "lying" to you.

Brian "Panda" Choi

@Shyralon: To start getting a handle on proportions and the basic planes of the face, just attempt to recreate the Asaro head one-to-one. It's not going to be creative, but it will hopefully inform your workflow going forward. After you've made it, you can probably use it as a base model for many other heads.

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76733

http://adam-fisher.deviantart.com/art/Asaro-Head-Sculpt-Model-Download-340299173

Shyralon

Thanks for the replys
I actually do switch matcaps often during sculpting, I just use this one for the final render because I like the look of it

Didn't do much sculpting the last days, but at least a few anatomy studies on paper:


Next I plan to create the asaro head, sounds really helpfull

Brian "Panda" Choi

It is a happy thing to see anatomy drawings

Shyralon

Todays sculpt was completly done without reference since I have no proper internet at the moment Not happy especially with the mouth, but couldn't figure out what exactly is wrong (since no reference..)

Shyralon

Next one (this time with reference again):

Shyralon

Testing polypainting, skinshaders and rendering in marmoset toolbag:

Also made a little summary of the faces I did so far to check if there are some mistakes I keep doing with every sculpt. I would say mainly making the head too long and the forehead to short..

Shyralon

moonlazer

MattQ86 is right, Grassetti will melt your brain with knowledge. His gumroad is excellent. Another useful tool I find myself using before I bought figure reference is a app that Scott Eaton collaborated on with other artists via kickstarter awhile back.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lecorche/id515026024?mt=8

Super helpful to have realtime reference on shapes and form on your phone, tablet etc.

Keep pluggin at!

Wendy de Boer

Shyralon wrote: »

Also made a little summary of the faces I did so far to check if there are some mistakes I keep doing with every sculpt. I would say mainly making the head too long and the forehead to short..

There are also problems with the shape of the lips in all of your heads so far. The corners of the lips are too sharp and they don't roll over and tuck correctly. Take a look at this example:

https://www.anatomy4sculptors.com/anatomy/xlarge-Head-neck-Block-outs-145.jpg

There's a lot more useful information on this site, check it out:
https://www.anatomy4sculptors.com/

Shyralon

Played Bioshock Infinite again and decided to start creating a boy of silence, here's the WIP of the head.

Shyralon

Crosspost from the anatomy challenge.
Not really happy with it, especially the back, have to learn more about the back-anatomy :O

Brian "Panda" Choi

Break down the muscle groups in the back as shapes if that helps you better visualize how and where the muscles originate and insert.

Shyralon

Now that the semester started, I won't have as much time as before for doing these studys since I have to work on my semester project
But I continued working on my boy of silence.
The arms and legs are blockouts obviously.
Also got my hands on keyshot and testing it for rendering.

Lloth

those things where so freaky. The helmet looks cool man

Shyralon

Long time no update because I somehow ended up being the programmer for our semesterproject and had to focus on programming to make things work.
Still managed to finish the highpoly of the boy of silence (also did retopo of the body, but no images so far).

and another face sculpt:

Neck looks weird tho, should have spent more time on it.

kanga

Keep it up you are definitely improving.

bkost

kanga wrote: »

Keep it up you are definitely improving.

That's for sure!

Shyralon

Did a retopo of the last face sculpt.
Never did face retopo before and to be honest I didn't expected it to be that hard

Shyralon

Finished most of the programming for our semester project, so I started creating one of our two main characters, a brute like skeleton. Highpoly is about 50% done hope to finish the next days and have it retopoed and baked by the end of the week.

Shyralon

More progress.