I demand brutal honesty ! ...some help too :)

Busterizer

I finally found some time to try and learn to make stuff in zbrush in proper way. I spent around 2-3 hours on this horrendous looking character (supposed to be a girl, mind you ) I would appreciate if someone could point out all the flaws and maybe a way to fix thous (not that I don't know what flaws I have/will encounter).

I started from sphere and worked my way to this horrible stuff with dynamesh so there are some triangle parts for some reason until I decide to use zremesher to remove those(maybe I should fire off zremesher at this point? *shrug*).

I am looking to make 7.5-8 heads tall human proprtions, but not too stylized at that.

At the moment I have a problem figuring out what I did wrong with the proportion, is the head too large, is the body not wide enough? *shrug* How do I proceed?

dang87

Get some pictures of anatomy, there is a butt ton out there on the interwebz. Preferably real photos and not someone's drawings. Start with that, match it and compare it using image plane for zBrush.
Hope that helps. Happy Modeling!

PyrZern

I got a few here for ya.

http://www.pinterest.com/PyrZern/anatomy-overview/ Here for more and for larger size.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Also focus on the word "gesture." When I say that, I really also mean google it and understand what it means within the context of figure drawing and pose/composition. It'll make even your static meshes feel more alive.

Stiff is usually bad. Gestural is good. Sometimes sexy.

pmiller001

Reference reference reference amigo!

Busterizer

After a few failed attempts and starting over a few times, this is what i got with some of pyrzern reference (thank you).



Now I am not quite sure how to go about doing hands for the character since I know that dynamesh won't really allow it, and there is no way to really increase number of polys to part of the mesh.

KurtR

Take a few anatomy classes over at Uartsy. Ryan Kingslien and his crew got some amazing stuff to get those neurons organized. Digital Tutors also have a good portion of anatomy courses for zbrus now, one is called "hands" i believe.

PyrZern

I'd start her hand as a separated subtool. And just overlap it with her wrist.

carlobarley

hey hey hey
great improvement from the first post.

here's some feedback and a checklist

you need to have measuring lines to check proportion (red lines)

you need to study bony landmarks such as anterior interior iliac spine, tibial tuberosity, patella (kneecap) olecranon process (elbow) medial epicondyle of the humerus, posterior superior iliac spine, as these will determine rhythm and gesture of the figure. try to remember the anatomical names, because when you study anatomy books, they use same language vs. "this bony protusion" etc (blue lines)

you gotta block in everything in the same resolution and not think of hands and feet as an afterthought. a good way is to use insertbrushes in zbrush and use insertcube for the palm of the hand and insert cylinders for the fingers. same principle for the foot. you can also use zspheres to block in the joints of hands/feet, combine meshes then dynamesh the entire piece
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeGolX2_yIA[/ame]

and then always put side by side your work with your reference and compare and contrast, is it same? or does it approach believabilty?

peace and hope to see more!

Busterizer

ok, I completed initial base mesh, hands and feet were made with insert meshes but than I had to go back to 3ds max to fix hands and feet since both dynamesh and zremesher apparently hate me. Model appears off but actually it matches the reference almost 100% (I will fix some small stuff as I go).

I started putting some detail to the mesh and proceed with putting major body landmarks. At this point I am trying to figure out how to fix the creepy face that I keep producing when attempting to work on female face in zbrush (it is harder than I thought).

fabiomsilva

the proportions seem ok at first glance, with the exception of the head being extremely thin.
the lower legs curvature seem a bit extreme as well and she needs a bit more curve detail on the waist/torso region as seen from the sideview.

hope this helps!

Busterizer

Ok, fresh update on my progress. I think I got all of the stuff right. I still need to fix a few things, and maybe add/remove in some places. Overall I am happy on how this thing looks now. I think after I complete the ears and maybe fix few things, it can probably serve as good base mesh for my planned female characters (maybe).

Chantel-sky

Definitely improving

This might be useful http://www.mediafire.com/download/6a...f+the+Head.rar Which is high res photos of this

Busterizer

I tried to fix some of the face, but i feel like I didn't do much, I possibly made it somewhat worse. And, at this point I can't really see any way to improve this aside from adding more small details which is problematic due to my dual-core cpu making anything above 2 mil polys very risky to work with because of zbrush crashes and laggy performance.

slosh

Not bad. But definitely needs a lot of anatomy work before you can think about adding details. I wouldn't even go above subd 3 with what you have now. I think you may have subdivided too far as it is right now. Keep it low and try to sculpt in as much anatomy and proper structure as you possibly can. Don't worry about details until you nail that. Compare yours to reference over and over...you should start to see obvious differences. It's looking better though!

ljsketch

Definitely an improvement from the first pose. I second slosh on the subD's. Start with a low poly count and get the proportions and silhouette down first. It's still not too late to drop that count down though. You could use ZRemesh to do so, then divide back up again.

Busterizer

so, i couldn't effectively fix the head and the face, so i decided to create new one as separate and later just re-attach it to the body that I have (probably after I fix the body too). I see problems around lips and the nose, I am working on fixing that before moving on to other areas.

Chantel-sky

The angle of the skull in the middle needs more work, as it's a common angle people use when presenting their work.

This might be useful, can't remember the thread it came from now so if anyone knows could they share the link.


One thing that really helped me getting the proportions of the face right is find a front on reference image and use spotlight and also exploring this site https://www.anatomy4sculptors.com/anatomy.php?menu=194 click on anatomy and go nuts!

Busterizer

ok i made all the fixes I wanted plus the one from reference above, apparently matcaps work against me

Gheromo

Keep working at it, you are having progress however you seem to be making same mistake as many other artists when they learn zbrush. Make sure you got perfect shapes of whatever object you are trying to achieve before going high resolutions. Work as low res as possible and make best silhouette and shapes.

Swizzle

I'd recommend downloading Zbro's head basemesh and playing around with it without subdividing it.

It's a good base to start from because it has decent proportions and topology, but it's not so detailed that it'll get in the way. Try to make it look like other people and characters, or just play around with proportions.

One good exercise you can try is to make likenesses of recognizable people without subdividing at all. This will give you a good understanding of proportions and general landmarks without having to worry about pesky details.

killnpc

Busterizer

This is what I have after lowering polycount and using zremesher + few hours back and fourth between the reference.


I think I am not communicating my problems in the right way. All this time I am following digital tutors videos on the subject, that use dynamesh to create stuff, but dynamesh can't really go back in subdivisions without messing stuff up; and I have also looked at some of the vidoes on youtube that tackle modeling of the head/face. So I used those as well as ref images as point of reference to make my own. Reference images I used is the head turn around from catwoman that Kend did a while back, if had perfect front side views so I figured I could use those to get me started. But I am not looking to replicate his result. Right now it matches the front/side views but given apparent lack of polygons and lame topology, this right here is the reason why I went with higher subdivisions on dynamesh.

I downloaded zbro's base mesh, and I completely forgot this thing existed. The problem I am having with this is that it doesn't really get me anywhere. Simply moving around stuff on the basemesh could get me desired result but I don't really learn anything significant since I already know how stuff should look like, but I can't create it exactly on my own. Base mesh like this one is already quite defined.