NEWBIE! learning anatomy, uploading daily progress.

seigearts

Hey guys this is my second monthly learning thread.
I will be learning to sculpt anatomical male and female figures throughout this month and uploading daily progress here in this thread.......any help would be awesome.
although I did learn basic anatomy and proportions before ( proko's youtube channel and some books), i will be going through all of that again alongside sculpting.
I will also be working on a ecorche model using the skeleton from ecorche subtool in zbrush as a base.

Goal : To get the male and female figures (overall proportions, planes and anatomy) right, and to accelerate sculpting process.
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(DAY 1/30): Did this one without any reference to see where i currently stand......just like i did in the head thread.well, that is weird in more than on way.
had no idea how to even go about sculpting a body,
used zspheres in the end. Let me know if you guys have any better options for creating a base mesh.

Tnx for readin.

Nick_Simmons

Good luck to you this month man.

I want to start with what I think most people will be echoing this whole month:
Start with the bony landmarks and define plane changes
https://shop.3dtotal.com/3dtotal-anatomy-male-planar-figure.

use these images as reference clipping tool them if you need. Buy the figure if you're really into it.

Before trying to define the muscles just understand these plane changes. Be careful, dont make the classic mistake of only thinking of the body as a series of interlocking muscles!

For this specific attempt you need to consider the egg shape of the rib cage and the gentle s  curve of the back into the pelvis! Looking forward to the next one.

seigearts

Nick_Simmons said:

Good luck to you this month man.

I want to start with what I think most people will be echoing this whole month:
Start with the bony landmarks and define plane changes
https://shop.3dtotal.com/3dtotal-anatomy-male-planar-figure.

use these images as reference clipping tool them if you need. Buy the figure if you're really into it.

Before trying to define the muscles just understand these plane changes. Be careful, dont make the classic mistake of only thinking of the body as a series of interlocking muscles!

For this specific attempt you need to consider the egg shape of the rib cage and the gentle s  curve of the back into the pelvis! Looking forward to the next one.

thanks for all the tips.
collected some planar and proportional references from over the internet,
big S curvy shapes > planes > anatomy......got it.
learning all that muscle shape, origin-insertion stuff did get me into that interlocking muscle mindset so it's awesome to be on track before making too many mistakes.

(DAY 2/30) :
feels like another day wasted......anyway, revised whole torso anatomy today and started the ecorche somehow......will finish it by tomorrow and start to sculpt torso again.
**used ryan kingsley's skeleton model as base skeleton**

Alex_J

Best way I have found to make gains in anatomy is to study from real life. you have a body. You spouse/partner has a body. It's just much easier to move past what seems like mysteries when you see the thing in real life 3d.

There is lots of errors to be made in translating from a 2d image to 3d viewport. I'd recommend starting out by scullpting things you can see in front of your face IRL. Like your own hand. Then your foot. And your leg. Then you friends head.

This is just me telling my earlier self things that I learned a little later after hitting head against too many brick walls. But you keep at it you'll get better no matter what.

You first screenshots look like the vague idea of a human body. Seems about appropriate because you didn't use reference.

seigearts

Alex Javor said:

Best way I have found to make gains in anatomy is to study from real life. you have a body. You spouse/partner has a body. It's just much easier to move past what seems like mysteries when you see the thing in real life 3d.

There is lots of errors to be made in translating from a 2d image to 3d viewport. I'd recommend starting out by scullpting things you can see in front of your face IRL. Like your own hand. Then your foot. And your leg. Then you friends head.

This is just me telling my earlier self things that I learned a little later after hitting head against too many brick walls. But you keep at it you'll get better no matter what.

You first screenshots look like the vague idea of a human body. Seems about appropriate because you didn't use reference.

hey thanks for the tip.
Although I can't get a real life guinea pig to pose naked for me.....I am considering getting a 3d scanned human for it, i think that might do as well?


(3/30) : unfortunately a sudden crash corrupted the almost finished ecohe torso file.
Researched on design theory and stuff (sounds easy, hard to implement).
Did some proportion and structural study i guess?
saw rafael grassetti using this method in his IG story (female anatomy tutorial sneakpeek)
and though i will give it a try.
although i cheated by sculpting over a ecorche model, it was still very informative.

i am thinking about two pathways now.....
1. keep doing this and add some anatomy with each sculpt looking at references, and eventually get rid of underlying ecorche. or...
2. look at some 3d scanned model and sculpt what i see....first in isolation then whole body.

Ashervisalis

Check these out;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3boCwp9uLsY&t=87s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAVGcCuSjxA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAmm-Hw4Tk4&t=428s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DJ96YyQ-vo

seigearts

@Ashervisalis thanks for the links, didn't realise they had more of these videos

(4/30): did some more anatomy, form studies.and anatomy tracings......gotta do something about my over smoothing habit.

Nuclear Angel

If you are over smoothing you are probably working on a too high subdivision. Right now you can probably reduce that model to 10% of what it has right now and that will make the model much more clean and you cant get stuck in details. Overall right now the forms and volumes are lacking, as well as some proportional issues of the size ratios of the muscles. But keep it up, what you are doing is a good exercise. 

Ashervisalis

I think you should include the limbs in your studies.

seigearts

After messing here and there, I have now decided on this approach.........until 10 oct : complete the ecorche and full body anatomy, keeping the forms and planes that muscles create in mind, so that no part of body is a mystery to me when sculpting >>10-20 sculpt anatomy over a pre-made base mesh to get the general feel of proportions and forms >>20-30 sculpt male and female bodies as a whole while grounding them to reality looking at references.

(5/30): wasted most of my day on something irrelevant. Probably going to pull and all nighter to compensate for today.
started anatomy study with ecorche, am also creating notes to remember, f.

seigearts

(6/30)

Nick_Simmons

In my opinion the ecorche study isnt really benefiting you the way some other studies might. ecorches are great for understanding  muscle deformation and developing very deep understanding but what youre losing is the artistic approach to structure and form.

Like i said previously at this stage you are in serious danger of getting lost in the muscles. Find the bony landmarks and, if you're trying to improve your sculpture, you need to be starting from the basic form and sculpting plane changes. The contrast between hard and soft shapes is a big part of what sells artistic anatomy.
This is a bridgeman study: look at how he conceptualizes the shapes as simple primitives to establish proper volume. Thinking about muscles like this will yield stronger silhouettes and shapes. This is how you need to be thinking of anatomy  while sculpting at first. Once you get the design down then break out the ecorche to truly understand the function behind the form. Just trying to help you get the most bang for your buck! 

seigearts

@Nick_Simmons you did make a point there, I am currently at a point where I don't really know what it is that I am doing, it was the same with the head sculpts initially. Although that sculpting planes advice was something I hadn't thought of before, I thought to add the Knowledge of what creates those planes might help understand them better? ( I kinda rushed through the anatomy learning phase, had many things going on at that time)

Thanks for the advice though, will get back to silhouette and plane study while keeping ecorche study BTS.

I must say though, ecorche did kinda taught me the placement of landmarks compared to whole space occupied by body, Although that's more of a observation thing, I suck at observing enough right now.

seigearts

(8/30)....this was a disaster. anatomy and the big shapes are all over the place and gives a boxy feeling overall.
Think i should buy raf grassetti's gumroad course, or any similar to that.

Nuclear Angel

Something I think would be useful for you, is to make an entire full body nude character where you spend some time on it. This way you can look at the entire character and compare it to references. I think that you right now need to just make more stuff, an entire body is a great exercise, instead of trying to segment the body down in to these chunks. 

bkost

I'd like to reiterate what @Nick_Simmons is saying and the importance of not rushing into details. You'll pick up this mindset as you delve deeper into your artistic journey and begin to see this one tip I wish I learned earlier, Nail down your Large primary forms first. Then you may proceed into the secondary and tertiary, start with the big chunks and slowly work your way down. 

Your large forms are the foundation! What's a pretty building without any support? A pile of scrap. 

Pickup the Anatomy4sculptors ebook and study proportion and planes of the body first. I look forward to seeing your progress in this never ending journey! Cheers

allmighty_thunder

Man this is a good thread of learning keep it up

seigearts

@bkost understood. guess doing a large number of base meshes with just the landmarks and somewhat anatomical shapes will do it?
grabbed anatomy for sculptors.thanks for the advice.

Nuclear Angel said:

Something I think would be useful for you, is to make an entire full body nude character where you spend some time on it. This way you can look at the entire character and compare it to references. I think that you right now need to just make more stuff, an entire body is a great exercise, instead of trying to segment the body down in to these chunks. 

I will admit. i haven't spent any considerable amount of time sculpting yet. Had to sort out some stuff irl,so most of the time i did theoretical study while commuting rather than practically applying it. I am pretty much free now.

gonna start with basics again (full body proportions / forms / planes then detailing ).
i will refrain myself from sculpting isolated parts now and focus on full body.

allmighty_thunder said:

Man this is a good thread of learning keep it up

thanks for hopping by...appreciate it.

(9/30)......Initially i tried to go for planar body with this one, but it's late night and I am out of coffee.
will try again from scratch, proportions are all over the place anyway.

Nick_Simmons

Nice man, this latest iteration is a step in the right direction. To improve, begin to define the bony landmarks shown here:
 

The areas highlighted in blue are where the bone is very close the skin and can be clearly seen from the surface. Almost no matter how much body weight or muscle a person has these bony identifiers will not disappear. The only exception is in the case of morbidly obese people.

In your reference pay special attention to these ares and begin implementing them into your studies! Keep it up.

seigearts

(10/30): sculpted a bunch of abominations today....10 days down and haven't made any progress at all.
I will revisit and sculpt muscles over a base ztool tomorrow then convert that to planar body.
will do one full body daily thereafter....base + muscles.

Nick_Simmons said:

Nice man, this latest iteration is a step in the right direction. To improve, begin to define the bony landmarks shown here:
 

The areas highlighted in blue are where the bone is very close the skin and can be clearly seen from the surface. Almost no matter how much body weight or muscle a person has these bony identifiers will not disappear. The only exception is in the case of morbidly obese people.

In your reference pay special attention to these ares and begin implementing them into your studies! Keep it up.

thanks for the handy ref, will keep this in mind.

Nuclear Angel

What you are doing now is great, I would say once you nail the proportions on these basic shapes you can start trying to add anatomy on top of it. You are definitely going in the right direction! 

seigearts

(12/30).....meddled around with proportions today, this one is 7.5 head. also, Started using full dynamesh approach.
sculpted from memory then adjusted a little bit according to reference. Need to visit pelvic, arm and leg anatomy again i think.