3D character model progress

SherifRateb

Hey guys, This is my second Zbrush project and I would love everybody's input. I am teaching myself 3D portraits and decided to go with an older guy just for the details. All opinions and tips are welcomed!
I'll be posting progress on this forum every now and then so be sure to check back again in acouple of days
Original photo by Sheraz Mushtaq: https://www.instagram.com/hellosheraz/
  

Colton

Nice start! If you find yourself running into any issues with the face, Rafael Grassetti has the best tutorial on creating a basic human figure. He has a full tutorial but you can specific features for a couple dollars. I promise he's not paying me to say that, I've had really good luck with them in the past.

Also for the shirt, you can get a free 30 day trial of Marvelous Designer and create the base shirt there. http://www.marvelousdesigner.com/

SherifRateb

Colton thanks for the tips.. I'll definitely look into that

Vertrucio

You're working at too high a subdivision level too early. Even with a face that wrinkled, there are still basic flowing forms underneath that you need to get right. Right now it's just random lumps on top of random lumps, and the reason why it appears random is that it's hard to accurately place those lumps without the refined form underneath to anchor and measure from.

SherifRateb

Initial wrinkles added

SherifRateb

Hey thanks Vertrucio for the input.. I'm aware of that, unfortunately a bit late through the process. I started with subdivision levels then I messed up and lost them for some reason. Do You recommend dynameshing or remeshing and then going up again in subdivison levels to retrieve the details?? D you recommend anything at this point? Polycount at 1.7m btw

Abrvpt

Hey Sherif, I'll recommend some remeshing. You can try either ZRemesher of do a classic retopo.
If you had subdivisions at some point and didn't changed the geometry, you can always try Reconstruct Subdivision, located in Tool > Geometry, above divide.
If you find yourself doing the basic shapes at a high subdivision and ending again with blobby surfaces, you can go back to a lower subdiv, smooth, go up again and smooth the rest of the lumps. It's also why I recommend remeshing or retopo because the workflow is slightly different as you can't go back on lower subdivision. In fact I never really got into this workflow and I use dynamesh only for rough sketching.

Some crits as well on the sculpt itself, the eyelids are too thin, and also the upper eyelid don't go forward enough compared to the lower one, as shown on this:


Maybe the eyeballs are located to high in your sculpt. Try to draw or sculpt the iris in the center of the eyeball, then you'll have a landmark to help you position the eyeball with the eyelids and vice versa.
Keep up, and sorry for the long post! 

Vertrucio

Zremesh down to a very low poly,count then project all, subdivide and project all, then continue until the point where it's easy to move the big forms around. Do that, can you can probably project some detail back onto the new model.

In addition to the eye comment above, remember that the eyeball doesn't fit the whole eyelid opening. On the inside edge of the eye there's a bit of tissue that fills that corner gap.

When you finally get back to painting wrinkles, remember that wrinkles don't just cut into the skin, they are folds where flesh also rises around the wrinkle.

SherifRateb

Abrvpt what do you mean by that you only use dynamesh for rough sketching? Do you just take it back to another software to finish it up?

SherifRateb

Hey thanks so much Abrvpt and Vertrucio, that's some pretty critical info I got from you guys.. I'll be working on all of the details you mentioned and I'll post an update soon. I'll mention you both in my nobel prize speech 

SherifRateb

Hey thanks so much Abrvpt and Vertrucio, that's some pretty critical info I got from you guys.. I'll be working on all of the details you mentioned and I'll post an update soon. I'll mention you both in my nobel prize speech 

SherifRateb

I finally found time to work on my model.. here's the update. I redid the wrinkles and finally got my subdivision levels back.

Vertrucio

Sorry it took so long to get back to this, I know how hard it is to get crits. However, again, you've gone way too detailed before you should be even thinking of adding wrinkles or any surface detail.

Again, step back in subdivision levels, get the forms right, screenshot that and show your work. Right now, there's nothing to comment on because you still have the same bad underlying sculpt. Doesn't matter how many wrinkles, greebles, and folds you put on a bad underlying sculpt, it won't look good.

Snakes

Hey Man, great second study. This is actually super impressive for a 2nd study. There's a ton of critique you could get about this piece, but I honestly feel like when you're just starting out for at least the first few sculpts any specific critique isn't particularly valuable. Aka talking about subdivisions or anything particularly technical. (Totally under the impression you're new to Zbrush, if not apologies!)
Anyway, so I guess I'll try to give some general critique which really helped me when I was starting off. Again, I don't think anything will help you get better than simply practising as much and as often as you can and one of the best ways to do so when it comes to portraits is pump out as many as you can. Dedicating too much time to one portrait study (especially when you're brand new to it) is a bit of a trap which all new artists fall into, I did! I appreciate dedication as much as the next guy, but you'll absolutely learn the most if you put this portrait down, move onto the next one. Aim to only spend a full day's worth of time on em, or a couple if need be. I also believe its really important to learn how to create the forms from scratch before you ever touch a basemesh, so starting off with a dynameshed sphere in zbrush is totally cool for this, especially for simple sketch portraits. You're already doing that  though I think so great work, you're on the right track man. 
So nobody has addressed this yet but an exceptional way to get better at doing portraits is by actually studying anatomy, you'd think that would go without saying right? A lot of people wait a long time before actually starting anatomy studies. Understanding anatomy (Bone structure/Bony landmarks, muscle formation, proportions) goes hand in hand with creating amazing portraits. So with that said, I'd take the time to do a little research, read some anatomy books, do some little 2D sketches in your note book, everything helps.  A book i'd recommend is https://anatomy4sculptors.com They break down anatomy into shapes which are easy to understand and also make a good base. 

At the end of the day this was a sweet 2nd study, keep crunching, move onto the next dude and keep at it, everything the other dudes have said is important so keep it all in mind but the most important thing is that you have fun! Hope my rambling helps you out, look forward to seeing whatever you show us next.