anatomy studies and you

Frawmus

I know a big part of getting down the anatomy for sculpting is just studying it and practicing it. I was curious on how everyone went about it or discovered any tricks that helped them remember to not skip a shape or just to have it down quicker. Did you do it part by part or overall forms then broke them down into smaller forms etc. Just a curious newbie

SuperFranky

I'm no master, but I can offer this advice: big forms are the most important, silhouette is the king (For Zbrush: move tool is your best friend). Don't go into details before you triple-check everything from forms to proportions, or you'll regret it later. Also, keep your eyes sharp, learn to remember forms. If you want more help, don't hesitate to pm me, I'm always happy to help.

stevston89

The most important thing about learning anatomy is understanding the structure. The point of knowing anatomy is being able to predict how things will look and them make it look that way. When you understand the structure you will know how things are supposed to look. You will also be able to use that knowledge to exaggerate properly. I would focus on learning the bones/ large muscle groupings and how they function. Break it down into sections ( The arms, torso, leges, etc.). Also for the face Ryan Kingslien has a great tutorial up on Zbrush workshops. Here is a link. It does cost $50, but it is well worth it.

Anchang-Style

Maybe checking out the Maquette Workflow will help you? You can get a very detailed overview through Ryan Kingsliens Page for free, you have to register but the ZBrush Lesson is for free. It's basically placing Dynamesh spheres in place of Muscles and body parts, pro: you can deform and adjust each without changing others. There is one, where you build sort of a skelet with ZSphere on which you build the Maquette. When you are done you can Dynamesh the whole thing and beeing left with a pretty good base mesh. It kind of forces you to put muscles and shapes of the body into the right position and the right shape. Piece by Piece putting together a human but beeing able to change everything all the time. It is a nice workflow for beginners and for dynamic posing (eventhough a lot of people just straight up use dynamesh but that needs a lot of anatomical knowledge and a lot of experience).