45 Days of Zbrush
vertex
Hi all,
I'm new to the polycount community and (sort of) new to Zbrush. I studied computer animation and have always loved modeling. I'd been longing for a LONG time to get and get good with ZBrush, but always put off even getting the trial because I didn't want to waste the limited time I would have.
Having recently found myself out of work I figured it's as good a time as any to finally get comfortable with it. I'll be posting as close to everyday as I can manage (no promises though). I'll also be posting to Tumblr and Twitter.
I would greatly welcome any critique, but mostly I just want to have a place where I can be held accountable and compile all the work to look back on later.
I'm new to the polycount community and (sort of) new to Zbrush. I studied computer animation and have always loved modeling. I'd been longing for a LONG time to get and get good with ZBrush, but always put off even getting the trial because I didn't want to waste the limited time I would have.
Having recently found myself out of work I figured it's as good a time as any to finally get comfortable with it. I'll be posting as close to everyday as I can manage (no promises though). I'll also be posting to Tumblr and Twitter.
I would greatly welcome any critique, but mostly I just want to have a place where I can be held accountable and compile all the work to look back on later.
Replies
Here's the project for April 23. Following an excellent tutorial on vimeo by Isaac Oster. Starting this one over because I let it get too high poly (and used dynamesh) before really getting the shapes properly set up.
Here's another shot at this exercise. I didn't get much farther though, before feeling stuck again. I'm used to sculpting on Maya, and when I start to feel like I'm fighting against the polygon flow I'm not really sure how to move forward. I did use dynamesh, so maybe that was the mistake that lead me to getting stuck... but I used it because I was already feeling stuck and like I was fighting the edge flow. So I'm not sure. If you have any tips on general workflow, that would be quite helpful! I know a good way to approach is to get as much detail in as possible before adding more division levels, but that still seems to sometimes leave me fighting the mesh.
Thanks!
Alternatively, if you're getting a mesh that's too dense from Dynamesh but don't want to lose your detail, duplicate your mesh, turn off Dynamesh, set it to something lower res, then subdivide and project from your duplicated mesh a few times to get all your detail back.
Thanks for the help!
Here's yesterday's exercise. Not terrible, a little lumpy still, and the back of the ear could have used a bit more work. Overall a successful exercise though, I would say. I used zremesher at one point, but on too high a subdivision level. I'll try the "duplicate-zremesh-project" workflow next time.
Question: is there a way to change the default tools that zbrush loads? I've got all those annoying 2d brushes I've no use for, but I'd like to put the polysphere (and maybe some other things) to load by default so I don't have to load them in every time I start a new sculpt.
Here's my current WIP. No specific reference for this one, but I did start gathering reference to start a bust of Alton Brown. Why? Because he's awesome.
Dynamesh seemed to behave a little better with this one. Well, except the part where it welded little bits of the mouth together...
Here's some more work on the previous model. A bit better, but I'm still looking for a workflow I think works really well. The next thing I'm going to try is starting from separate pieces for each mass. Although I think before that I will try some hard surface things. Maybe a crystal formation or something fairly simple.
oh... I forgot to give him eyebrows... ah well.
Oops, I forgot to post the in-between. So this was for May 2nd.
I think I've finally come upon a workflow that makes sense to my clean-topology-needing brain. I'm setting up separate pieces for a base mesh that can be re-purposed later. I first saw Leslie van den Broeck using this method for a dwarf sculpt, and was able to find his tutorials and materials for it on Gumroad, so that's really good for reference. Of course I can't tell if this method will REALLY work well for me until I use the base mesh for an actual sculpt, but I think it'll be a lot better than struggling with blobby topology.
I also learned that Zremesher gives me pretty good results when set to .1
Sure, he looks awkward, but I think it's coming along nicely. Unfortunately my trial is coming to an end as well! Only 10 days left
Started an attempt at a portrait... Ehh... it's getting there. Maybe.
That aside, at this point I'm trying to get all the subtools together (I started this from the previous base) dynamesh them, and then zremesh it after putting in a few guide curves. Unfortunately I've tried every permutation and combination of settings and cannot seem to get something decent for that resulting topology. I've seen Leslie van den Broeck use this workflow and it seems to give him good results which I have just not been able to replicate...
I have additionally been confounded while trying to delete subdivision levels. I have 2 subdivision levels and delete lower, but then I still have two? my current and a mysterious new one? or I try freezing them and upon trying another operation it uses the lowest level which I didn't think still existed?
Ah well, I'll accept defeat for today.
I've learned how to properly use Zremesher with guides and gained new hope in my endeavor! Here's some progress on the AB bust. Plenty of work left to be sure, but I'm happy to FINALLY have a workflow that doesn't leave me wasting time getting the mesh do what it simply doesn't want to. I only have 6 days left on my trial, but it was well worth it. With my new found knowledge I'll strive to a get at least a few portfolio pieces out of the deal.
Well, I finally finished this guy and quite honestly I'm proud of the result. I suppose I could go in and add the minute surface detail like pores and the like but I have no interest in that. However my trial is quickly coming to an end, so no time to rest on my laurels. Next I'll be doing something much more stylized (and hopefully faster). Stay tuned!
Well, I have one day left in my trial and this is what I'm working on. I don't believe I'll be able to finish by the end of today (or tomorrow) but I'll get as far as possible.
Also, I've been unable to locate the source of my concept. All my searches and reverse google image search only lead back to pinterest entries, but the original, or any information on it eludes me. I can't help but shake the feeling that it's probably already been made into 3D...
Looks like I was right, here he is:
Well, with precious little time I whipped up a body base to perhaps be posed and sculpted into some torso studies. Unfortunately as I've come to realize while working on this, my anatomy is REAL shaky. I gotta brush up.
Posed the base for a quick torso study. I'm shocked I was able to produce that much in one day, but this looks pretty good to me.
*sigh*
and so, the 45 days come to a close. I made some good progress, and if I ever come up with the money for a zbrush license, it'll be high on the shopping list.
Thanks everyone for the feedback and help!