Dude, one thing that I did for a few weeks was download a skull model for ZBrush (I'm sure if you search for one you'll find a free one that's accurate, that's how I found it) and forget about sculpting for a while.
Instead, I open it in ZBrush, and draw it from every possible angle on paper. It's just quick drawing, I'm not concerned with rendering at all. I do around four of these every day - they only take about ten minutes each.
That said, it's important not to rush them. They have to be accurate, otherwise there's no point in doing it!
Anyway I did this for a couple of weeks, then started sculpting. I can't overstate how much it helped. I'm going to start doing it for the muscle soon as well.
You could hide those seams with some construction details, like stitching.
Well, he's a figure made of cloth, so seams should go where the real seams could be expected. ADMIN EDIT: the image ShroomUVs.png is hosted on a site known to distribute malware and as such we've removed it because it makes browsers throw nasty warnings.
Currently what I plan to try and focus more on, So I can get the proportions memorized and down in my head at any angle.
Or should I be aiming more towards really fleshing out the figure drawings to be anatomically correct?
Was recommended this -> http://www.proko.com/figure-drawing-fundamentals-course/
on another thread, and it looks like its full flesh.. Maybe Ill progress towards it. Just start simple with proportions and learning how to draw again XD
the figure drawing image you linked is mostly a means to get shapes and anatomy established, more of a technique than style. would be careful about memorizing proportions too much, when it comes to life drawing it is all about what you observe, not what you know. However, having a base of "thingie is so far away from other thingie" is good I would maybe recommend slowing down a little, and really learn how anatomy works, not just how it looks.
I think you can apply the links, and feedback posted earlier in this thread in reference to your sculpture to drawing as well.
Side note, are you finishing pieces? or getting 60% through them and moving onto something else? I highly recommend pushing yourself to call something done, make a pretty presentation image before moving on to the next project.
the figure drawing image you linked is mostly a means to get shapes and anatomy established, more of a technique than style. would be careful about memorizing proportions too much, when it comes to life drawing it is all about what you observe, not what you know. However, having a base of "thingie is so far away from other thingie" is good I would maybe recommend slowing down a little, and really learn how anatomy works, not just how it looks.
I think you can apply the links, and feedback posted earlier in this thread in reference to your sculpture to drawing as well.
Side note, are you finishing pieces? or getting 60% through them and moving onto something else? I highly recommend pushing yourself to call something done, make a pretty presentation image before moving on to the next project.
and moose-seption
Ah okay, I will try to start there, then add layers until it is something sort-of-human
For the Skull, I have finished it as fully as I could at the time. I should likely go back and open it and try to add as much detail as I can and sit down with Artistic Anatomy and make sure I have all the right bones and structures in there... But a voice in the back of my head is kind of beating me up. It KNOWS I don't know how to complete the skull so it pushes me to stop while it still looks correct >.< (Mushroom man on the other hand is almost finished, will add the stitches and probably not repost him there though :P)
I'll take your advice and really try to flesh out whatever I do next. I am considering jumping the gun and attempting a full human sculpt, just so that I can sit back once its all "Done" and identify everything I need to refine and learn. Or perhaps just a bust since the face is so detailed already. Ill keep hammering my head against Artistic Anatomy and trying to figure sculpt, and hop myself into a sculpting project to really finish.. Any recommendations? I don't want to throw myself into a bad trap if I do go and sculpt a bust rather than just another skull ;\
Things are a bit slow here as we are downsizing and theres lots of packing to do
I'm a lost moose if you can't tell :P Trying though.
Todays mess : http://i.imgur.com/1jYft39.png
Just retried the same idea I did yesterday. A bit more depth to it, but its hard, Going to try a method of bringing in more detail tomorrow. Rather than drawing line work just going to do it all with shading.
Getting better... I need to redo the entire gesture sculpt, since theres something wrong at the fundamentals of the chest area. I think it was the obliques that completely messed up my upperbody.
Will redo the sculpt and if this next one comes out well I will continue and try to get it to the finishline. Maybe i should consider just trying to fix this one, but I feel like my skills just aren't at the level to tear it apart and rebuild ontop of it.. Feel like it would be easier just to start from the beginning, which could also be good for me.
One thing I didn't like about the book I am currently following along, Is that his model just skips steps.. Like we're doing one thing, then we move to the next and he has a BUNCH of changes to his model that he didn't note. So then I am like...a bit lost as to what to do for those forms. Anyhow, It works though. I am learning slowly. Practice makes perfect, right :P
Decided to just hammer through! After cleaning it up I felt a lot happier with what I had done.
Still having an issue on the abdomen, figuring out how to fix it.. Without messing up the other stuff I have..3d is complex! I could just taper it in if it was 2d :>
I suggest you take anatomy slow and do different parts first before jumping in and doing an entire character. For example spend some time making eyes, ears, hands, legs etc before working on a complete anatomy study. My thoughts
Following along this book just because I really have no clue what Im doing and its all so overwhelming, but I did take that into consideration before I began doing anything. How to tackle it, The book I have luckily just starts with a very broad gesture sculpt, and then spends each chapter doing a study of every part of the anatomy. So I will be getting extremely detailed and focused on each part! Right now Its just overall
Thank you for the positive vibe
Will do when I get to find time to do gesture sculpts About to begin studying each part of the anatomy with this dude
Small changes, fixed the forearm to be more proportional, Head etc. Hand needs to be bigger.. but I can't seem to get the scale tool to work with me. Will have to see about doing it manually when I get to that focus
ETA: JUst noticed my thighs and calves are wayyy too small. Will have to fix that up as well XD
I cant help but noticed that you been concentrating on the muscle too much.
From my point of view, you are lacking in the general volume and curve of the human body
Here are some example.
Block out all the basic shape of the human body in Zbrush.
You will understand anatomy faster and more accurately.
Because there lesser details, it will be more easier to handle.
Spend more time focus around the joints. Especially the shoulders. It's harder to get right, and more important than ab muscle that will usually be covered by cloths.
Its been awhile. I wanted to come back strong so I'm going to try to be a lot more focused, I want to start from the top and move to the bottom of the human body doing anatomy.
(Though if its a bad idea to focus purely on getting to the point of making a decent looking head sculpt/bust please interject!)
Any guidance on where I should go next is appreciated! The current plan is to sculpt another skull, and then start placing muscles on top. Will try to make another piece for the jaw and connect it in, or figure out how to make the current one better with everything connected.
I did three skulls before this. scrapped two and the third one wasn't quite as good as this one.
ETA: Some things I remembered after the fact was that the red material is kinda hard to tell the details. I remember being told to use a different material, which I will try out next Skulpt (Hehe) and I sculpted in ortho, which I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to :P?
I would definitely recommend trying to keep your sculptures low in polygon count to start with (even when using dynamesh.)
Once you feel you have gotten the most out of your polys, with the form and silhouette following the planes of the face/figure, only then go up a subdivison level.
This will help to ensure that you have the underlying fundamentals of the human figure there before you start adding in the fine details.
I think most people have been through a similar problem (Including myself) but remember we are all still learning and you are improving vastly!
Thanks for the tips guys. I do need to start building up from lower polycount. I really saw the lumpyness in the lips I sculpted.
Speaking of lips, I have a long way to go. I think tomorrow I will do some studying on masking and such, I just couldn't get them close enough together without it, and my crappy masking attempts made it look worse than it is now.
I switched over to start sculpting things in perspective, Idk if it will help me more or not.
When I first started using Zbrush in June last year, I learnt how to do body parts first, after learning the basics ofc and just last month I did a female face every day and when I had a shitty day where nothing went right I would sculpt lips over and over (which I sucked at the most)
So keep at it!
Use Lots of reference, switch materials every now and then and don't get attached to the first thing you sculpt.
Digital Tutors taught me not to sculpt in perspective, but I also learned recently that it's good to turn on perspective to check other angles as ortho is only good for front and side
Everything is 1000x harder when you try to put it all together!
I've gotten started on it! This took a lot longer than I'd like to admit!
I have only built out the anatomy from a flat surface, so when you add curves and slight changes making everything look so weird..its quite difficult! Will try to get this sculpt further along this weekend!
Will go back and do some lip anatomy again, refresh myself on eyes and ears, and have a go!
Focus on making planes with trimDynamic. You're just making yourself work harder by trying to have rounded subtle forms already. Seriously, start with a blocky foundation and smooth it out once you have a solid place to stand on.
Also, if you want to imitate the isolated sculpting form before, polygroup out specific areas of the face, and just isolate select them if you just want to focus on that particular Polygroup.
Would resetting and doing all this over with more defined planes like you said be better? Or continue and try to define them with what I have. If you have any other advice on how to define planes/tutorials it would be much appreciated! I have definitely noticed I struggle to define different planes, and I'm not sure why that is!
Just literally use trimDynamic and dynamesh sculpt your way through on this sculpt. Push and pull with the Move brush. You need to get comfortable really getting your sculpt stretchy and loose to get it to where you need it to be. Be as destructive as you want, with dynamesh, you can treat this like it's actually sculpey. No need to be delicate.
And when I say planes, I literally mean planes. Make planes on the face. Hard edges, hard transitions.
Like the ones on the Asaro planar head. Just replicate that relative to your bust's proportions.
I've been practicing the anatomy some more of the head, mostly because im scared of making the head entirely at the moment (haha..)
I screwed up the eyes pretty majorly, anyway. Just wanting to post because..progress tracking..why not..
(Sorry for the crappy screens)
Learned -> That while dynamesh is fun I should retopo and make things subdiv for a cleaner end result
Kind of rushed it towards the end because I felt I had spent sooo long on it. Really wanted to move onto something else~ So this next project Ill finish completely, paint and all. Since it requires it :P
Not home right now but I figured I'd post something here. Theres been a couple changes to this model, but I thought I'd share anyhow
Do you think I should sculpt the hair as is or paint it? Im not sure how to capture that cartoon style exactly! Then the eyes are quite...interesting as well. Need to do them asymmetrically. Iris or no.. I'll figure it out!
Was gone for a few weeks, room flooded and shenanigans with claims etc
I think I like her how she is, I DID attempt the hair style like you suggested SuperFranky, but I couldn't get it to fit. We'll see what the hair looks like in the end. Going to refine the body and such and post it up here soon (Its done, just needs a little clean up)
ETA: That one little strand still bugs me. will fix it in the retopo.
Replies
Instead, I open it in ZBrush, and draw it from every possible angle on paper. It's just quick drawing, I'm not concerned with rendering at all. I do around four of these every day - they only take about ten minutes each.
That said, it's important not to rush them. They have to be accurate, otherwise there's no point in doing it!
Anyway I did this for a couple of weeks, then started sculpting. I can't overstate how much it helped. I'm going to start doing it for the muscle soon as well.
ADMIN EDIT: the image ShroomUVs.png is hosted on a site known to distribute malware and as such we've removed it because it makes browsers throw nasty warnings.
Just a quick thing to let you all know I am still hammering away at it.
Not really a figure drawing, but this is something..
Should I be doing more of this style figure drawing -> http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b6/cb/4e/b6cb4e0805de21fef4fe504e3cacfdfb.jpg
Currently what I plan to try and focus more on, So I can get the proportions memorized and down in my head at any angle.
Or should I be aiming more towards really fleshing out the figure drawings to be anatomically correct?
Was recommended this -> http://www.proko.com/figure-drawing-fundamentals-course/
on another thread, and it looks like its full flesh.. Maybe Ill progress towards it. Just start simple with proportions and learning how to draw again XD
I think you can apply the links, and feedback posted earlier in this thread in reference to your sculpture to drawing as well.
Side note, are you finishing pieces? or getting 60% through them and moving onto something else? I highly recommend pushing yourself to call something done, make a pretty presentation image before moving on to the next project.
and moose-seption
Ah okay, I will try to start there, then add layers until it is something sort-of-human
For the Skull, I have finished it as fully as I could at the time. I should likely go back and open it and try to add as much detail as I can and sit down with Artistic Anatomy and make sure I have all the right bones and structures in there... But a voice in the back of my head is kind of beating me up. It KNOWS I don't know how to complete the skull so it pushes me to stop while it still looks correct >.< (Mushroom man on the other hand is almost finished, will add the stitches and probably not repost him there though :P)
I'll take your advice and really try to flesh out whatever I do next. I am considering jumping the gun and attempting a full human sculpt, just so that I can sit back once its all "Done" and identify everything I need to refine and learn. Or perhaps just a bust since the face is so detailed already. Ill keep hammering my head against Artistic Anatomy and trying to figure sculpt, and hop myself into a sculpting project to really finish.. Any recommendations? I don't want to throw myself into a bad trap if I do go and sculpt a bust rather than just another skull ;\
Things are a bit slow here as we are downsizing and theres lots of packing to do
I'm a lost moose if you can't tell :P Trying though.
Todays mess : http://i.imgur.com/1jYft39.png
Just retried the same idea I did yesterday. A bit more depth to it, but its hard, Going to try a method of bringing in more detail tomorrow. Rather than drawing line work just going to do it all with shading.
Will redo the sculpt and if this next one comes out well I will continue and try to get it to the finishline. Maybe i should consider just trying to fix this one, but I feel like my skills just aren't at the level to tear it apart and rebuild ontop of it.. Feel like it would be easier just to start from the beginning, which could also be good for me.
One thing I didn't like about the book I am currently following along, Is that his model just skips steps.. Like we're doing one thing, then we move to the next and he has a BUNCH of changes to his model that he didn't note. So then I am like...a bit lost as to what to do for those forms. Anyhow, It works though. I am learning slowly. Practice makes perfect, right :P
Still having an issue on the abdomen, figuring out how to fix it.. Without messing up the other stuff I have..3d is complex! I could just taper it in if it was 2d :>
I suggest you take anatomy slow and do different parts first before jumping in and doing an entire character. For example spend some time making eyes, ears, hands, legs etc before working on a complete anatomy study. My thoughts
Thank you for the positive vibe
For general gesture sculpts id use dynamesh/zspheres (zspheres in Zsketch mode) to their complete advantage
Small changes, fixed the forearm to be more proportional, Head etc. Hand needs to be bigger.. but I can't seem to get the scale tool to work with me. Will have to see about doing it manually when I get to that focus
ETA: JUst noticed my thighs and calves are wayyy too small. Will have to fix that up as well XD
I cant help but noticed that you been concentrating on the muscle too much.
From my point of view, you are lacking in the general volume and curve of the human body
Here are some example.
Block out all the basic shape of the human body in Zbrush.
You will understand anatomy faster and more accurately.
Because there lesser details, it will be more easier to handle.
(Though if its a bad idea to focus purely on getting to the point of making a decent looking head sculpt/bust please interject!)
Any guidance on where I should go next is appreciated! The current plan is to sculpt another skull, and then start placing muscles on top. Will try to make another piece for the jaw and connect it in, or figure out how to make the current one better with everything connected.
I did three skulls before this. scrapped two and the third one wasn't quite as good as this one.
ETA: Some things I remembered after the fact was that the red material is kinda hard to tell the details. I remember being told to use a different material, which I will try out next Skulpt (Hehe) and I sculpted in ortho, which I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to :P?
tl;dr -> I made a skull
I noticed where the skin to the side of the nostril is that it needs to cut in more.
Made a couple better than this, but didn't save and want to study the mouth, and then combine both.
Looking good though, but have you brought any of these to completion yet?
I would definitely recommend trying to keep your sculptures low in polygon count to start with (even when using dynamesh.)
Once you feel you have gotten the most out of your polys, with the form and silhouette following the planes of the face/figure, only then go up a subdivison level.
This will help to ensure that you have the underlying fundamentals of the human figure there before you start adding in the fine details.
I think most people have been through a similar problem (Including myself) but remember we are all still learning and you are improving vastly!
Keep it up dude!
Speaking of lips, I have a long way to go. I think tomorrow I will do some studying on masking and such, I just couldn't get them close enough together without it, and my crappy masking attempts made it look worse than it is now.
I switched over to start sculpting things in perspective, Idk if it will help me more or not.
So keep at it!
Use Lots of reference, switch materials every now and then and don't get attached to the first thing you sculpt.
Digital Tutors taught me not to sculpt in perspective, but I also learned recently that it's good to turn on perspective to check other angles as ortho is only good for front and side
Everything is 1000x harder when you try to put it all together!
I've gotten started on it! This took a lot longer than I'd like to admit!
I have only built out the anatomy from a flat surface, so when you add curves and slight changes making everything look so weird..its quite difficult! Will try to get this sculpt further along this weekend!
Will go back and do some lip anatomy again, refresh myself on eyes and ears, and have a go!
Also, if you want to imitate the isolated sculpting form before, polygroup out specific areas of the face, and just isolate select them if you just want to focus on that particular Polygroup.
And when I say planes, I literally mean planes. Make planes on the face. Hard edges, hard transitions.
Like the ones on the Asaro planar head. Just replicate that relative to your bust's proportions.
I screwed up the eyes pretty majorly, anyway. Just wanting to post because..progress tracking..why not..
(Sorry for the crappy screens)
Learned -> That while dynamesh is fun I should retopo and make things subdiv for a cleaner end result
Kind of rushed it towards the end because I felt I had spent sooo long on it. Really wanted to move onto something else~ So this next project Ill finish completely, paint and all. Since it requires it :P
Just getting started, taking this concept to the finish line.
http://sluggieart.deviantart.com/art/Huntress-488183308
In hindsight this is actually a lot more difficult than I anticipated!
to some of your most recent pieces its really great and send out a clear message as long as you work hard and are willing to learn you can.
Keep up the work and improvement
Something fun to share
Do you think I should sculpt the hair as is or paint it? Im not sure how to capture that cartoon style exactly! Then the eyes are quite...interesting as well. Need to do them asymmetrically. Iris or no.. I'll figure it out!
I think I like her how she is, I DID attempt the hair style like you suggested SuperFranky, but I couldn't get it to fit. We'll see what the hair looks like in the end. Going to refine the body and such and post it up here soon (Its done, just needs a little clean up)
ETA: That one little strand still bugs me. will fix it in the retopo.
Changes to the side view changed the jaw, so trying to rework it without messing up the sides again.