Hippy Soldier Bust - Class Project

CMendenhall

Hey Gang!

I am charged with creating a bust for my character class. I will be creating an unsuccessful draft-dodger who has been forced into the Vietnam war. He will be in an army uniform but will have various hippy memorabilia attached to his person.

Any critique or suggestions to make this project really shine are greatly appreciated! Also, any ideas for combining these two themes in interesting ways will be greatly appreciated as well!





I have started on his basic anatomy, I still retain the subdivision levels, so I can go back and make any adjustments needed.

CMendenhall

I need to sculpt out his neck more, but what is really giving me problems is the shirt. I modeled the shirt in maya and then put it into zbrush. I want to keep the nice edges on the collars but can't figure out the best method for this. Does anyone else have any suggestions or pipeline preferences for doing clothing? I am also not sure how to handle the pockets properly. I think I may just scrap the current shirt and try to model it again.

daemoria

A good way to keep solid edges is to store a morph target while they are un-detailed. If you end up destroying the edges, just use the morph brush on the correct sub-d level to restore them.

As for critique, I dont have any to offer at this point, it looks like you've got a solid start. Keep at it.

DWalker

I always think of the admittedly anachronistic Oddball as the epitome of the hippy soldier.


Realistically, though, there were limits to what a soldier could get away with, even in the '70s. Pvt. Joker from Full Metal Jacket is probably the closest they could get away with.

CMendenhall

daemoria on 01-19-2014 07:16 PM
A good way to keep solid edges is to store a morph target while they are un-detailed. If you end up destroying the edges, just use the morph brush on the correct sub-d level to restore them.

As for critique, I dont have any to offer at this point, it looks like you've got a solid start. Keep at it.

Thanks for the advice Daemoria! I never thought about using morph targets like that, but now that you mention it, it seems so obvious. I originally was going to build the pockets separately, but now I am going to redo the shirt in Maya and extrude the pockets out, I think.


Dwalker, Those are some great references! I have never seen Kelly's Heroes, so I checked it out. Oddball's character is phenomenal. Because of these references, I softened up the face and neutral expression for my bust to make him seem more approachable and friendly.

Quick update:





I am also thinking that the block out for the shirt is far to formal for the character's personality I am going for. Perhaps it should be unbuttoned or something.

CMendenhall

Man, I finally got back to this. Changed a lot about the face structure.