Anatomy/Sculpt Help

froudy

As part of my university course, I have to make my first ever character in the style of Quake/Arena Shooters. However, as I am new to this I have become a bit stumped at where I am. I'll post some pictures below, any helpful pointers or useful links would be appreciated! I'm going for a muscley, bottom-heavy character while still maintaining a level of realism. The face is something I have tackled a fair few times, and so I have left it for now, though I can tell it's not quite right yet, my eye isn't developed enough to place why.  Planning on adding armour and things on top but I appreciate how important it is to get a good base (maybe even one I can use again in later projects). Thanks very much! 

ps, perspective is on, I'm not sure if that helps or hinders with the critique

Alex_J

Some people have tiny hands, but for an exercise like this it's probably best to start with idealized proportions. So I'd make those larger. The upper back shows a lack of anatomical understanding. I'd look a little deeper into that. 

I'd recommend grabbing the zbrush Ryan Kingslien ecorche in the tool section of Lightbox and putting that right beside your own model. This way you can isolate individual muscles and see exactly where they attach to the bones. I think that is probably the thing that a lot of beginners miss -- they think of the muscles only as bumps underneath the skin. When you model that way, you inevitably miss key details and it just ends up looking off. 

After focusing on the skelton and muscle structure for awhile, also consider skin and fat wrapping around the entire thing.

Try not to become so focused on a single feature that you are zoomed in for a long time. When you zoom back out, you may find that you've totally messed your work up by not maintaining that "whole object" perspective. 

Remember, even on a doughy body type, certain spots are still going to be pretty bony, like the knees, ankles, elbows, wrist. 

Consider some anatomy sculpting tutorials from the big names on Gumroad. You'll still need to spend time studying anatomy on your own, but you'll pick up great time saving tips and also learn new ways to use the tools in zbrush to help you work smarter.

froudy

BIGTIMEMASTER said:

Some people have tiny hands, but for an exercise like this it's probably best to start with idealized proportions. So I'd make those larger. The upper back shows a lack of anatomical understanding. I'd look a little deeper into that. 

I'd recommend grabbing the zbrush Ryan Kingslien ecorche in the tool section of Lightbox and putting that right beside your own model. This way you can isolate individual muscles and see exactly where they attach to the bones. I think that is probably the thing that a lot of beginners miss -- they think of the muscles only as bumps underneath the skin. When you model that way, you inevitably miss key details and it just ends up looking off. 

After focusing on the skelton and muscle structure for awhile, also consider skin and fat wrapping around the entire thing.

Try not to become so focused on a single feature that you are zoomed in for a long time. When you zoom back out, you may find that you've totally messed your work up by not maintaining that "whole object" perspective. 

Remember, even on a doughy body type, certain spots are still going to be pretty bony, like the knees, ankles, elbows, wrist. 

Consider some anatomy sculpting tutorials from the big names on Gumroad. You'll still need to spend time studying anatomy on your own, but you'll pick up great time saving tips and also learn new ways to use the tools in zbrush to help you work smarter.

thanks for all this! I will be getting to work now ♥