Human base models with liberal license?

armagon

I've been looking for some base human models to quickstart my sculpts. Getting the anatomy right is very hard for a beginner, and i'm trying to learn more about the basics: clothing, hair, etc. So far, i've been using MakeHuman, but the quality is not that good after some subdivisions in ZBrush. It also lacks detail.

Does anyone recommend a good set of base models with a liberal license? Anything from Creative Commons would be good.

Glacierfox

Download Daz Studio (it's free) and export either the male or female Genesis 3 models as an FBX or or OBJ. I always use those for starting points. You can pose them in Daz too if you want before export. They have nice symmetrical topology. Take in into make or maya first and delete the bits you don't want like teeth and eyes then you can retopologize in Zbrush or something.

armagon

I'm sorry to tell you, but that's illegal. You have to buy a license from them in order to use their modified content in commercial or non-commercial projects.

Glacierfox

You don't have to apologize I'm completely aware you have to buy Daz Studio content for use, as is, in your own projects. However, I export the base model from Daz studio and that's it, to work from as something to start with. It's just something with the correct proportions to work from. I completely retopologise in Zbrush and sculpt it into something completely unrecognizable, nothing apart from the proportions is retained. Literally no one in the world would be able to tell I'd used a base from Daz because the base model is only used for size and proportion reference. Of course I'd purchase something from the Daz store if I needed it, which I have in the past, then regretted it because it's just all cheesy looking dudes with plastic looking faces.

A lot of people use Daz for flat character art for reference, posing bipedal armatures, literally posing and copying for reference. They don't pay for that. This is exactly the same.

If you need a base to work from, it's right there. 

But you really should just work on your anatomy though and build up characters from nothing. That's what I do if the base needs to be weird shaped like a goblin or something but if it's just an average person I'd just use a pre-made base instead of wasting hours doing something pointless.

Obviously you have to actually sculpt it into something of your own and completely rebuild the face into something new, but to be honest, if you're the type of person to race 50 miles to return a pen to the bank that you accidentally put in your pocket, then you know....keep looking. Possibly someone on here might be able to give you a one for free that they use.

kanga

I second the recommendation to use DAZ as a reference. I often have the program open in a second monitor while I work. Actually that is what the software was originally intended for.