First head sculpt — Any Feedback?

beis

Hello!

I am working on making a head bust for my 2 year old son. This is my first time trying to create a finalized sculpt from ZBrush, texturing a human in Painter, using XGen for a groom, etc. here is a screenshot of my current render:

This being my first time making a human, there’s already a lot that I would change next time. (Thankfully, 2 year olds are pretty easy going — as long as it has eyes, ears, mouth and nose, they’re fine with it, haha). 

Any recommendations on what I should focus on to polish here, or what isn’t working right now?

beis

I’ve spent a little bit more time working on this, and I think I would to move on. There’s still plenty that I would want to clean up, like the hair/grooming, the skin, etc. — but I’ve lost my motivation to go further, and I’ve already got what I think I wanted to learn from it. 

Any other feedback would still be appreciated!

Brian "Panda" Choi

Show us your reference photos you were using of your son.

This is off, but I don't know what what it's off relative to.

Biggest thing missing is the philtrum underneath the nose.

JamesBrisnehan

Hmm. . . well, It's um, a starting place.
The sculpt seems to be suffering from a lack of form and anatomical structure. Everything is a bit soft and undefined. The areas around the eyes mouth and nose are missing all of the details of how those parts of the face fold, connect, and transition into each other. (Like, for example how the upper eyelid normally tucks into the orbital socket when someone is looking forward or upward, creating a small, but deep fold.) But I think all of that is just do to a lack of experience. You said you are still pretty new at character sculpting right? With more practice, and anatomy studies you could try to sculpt your kid again when he is 3 or 4 and really nail it next time.

There are lots of ways you can practice as well. Some people like to do daily speed sculpts, to force themselves to focus on just the largest forms like silhouette, proportions, and what character artists like to call the "planes of the face". You could follow sculpting and anatomy tutorials online. There are tons of video tutorials both free and not. Even some of the videos on YouTube are pretty good (like this one I found with minimal searching: You can even break out your pencil or paint brush and study faces in 2D. 

I'm sorry if I sound harsh by just saying "you need more practice" instead of giving a critique like you asked, but gaining the ability to sculpt faces well takes a long time, and a lot of learning. But don't loose heart, everyone has a starting point.

beis

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

Show us your reference photos you were using of your son.

This is off, but I don't know what what it's off relative to.

Biggest thing missing is the philtrum underneath the nose.

Thanks Brian! Here’s an image. Right off the bat I realized that his eyes were positioned way too high relative to the nose — feels a little elongated:

And you are the right, the philtrum (just learned what that meant! Haha) isn’t really present here. I had originally sculpted it in, but it got wiped out while I was retopologizing, and it’s definitely missing here. 

beis

JamesBrisnehan said:

Hmm. . . well, It's um, a starting place.
The sculpt seems to be suffering from a lack of form and anatomical structure. Everything is a bit soft and undefined. The areas around the eyes mouth and nose are missing all of the details of how those parts of the face fold, connect, and transition into each other. (Like, for example how the upper eyelid normally tucks into the orbital socket when someone is looking forward or upward, creating a small, but deep fold.) But I think all of that is just do to a lack of experience. You said you are still pretty new at character sculpting right? With more practice, and anatomy studies you could try to sculpt your kid again when he is 3 or 4 and really nail it next time.

There are lots of ways you can practice as well. Some people like to do daily speed sculpts, to force themselves to focus on just the largest forms like silhouette, proportions, and what character artists like to call the "planes of the face". You could follow sculpting and anatomy tutorials online. There are tons of video tutorials both free and not. Even some of the videos on YouTube are pretty good (like this one I found with minimal searching: You can even break out your pencil or paint brush and study faces in 2D. 

I'm sorry if I sound harsh by just saying "you need more practice" instead of giving a critique like you asked, but gaining the ability to sculpt faces well takes a long time, and a lot of learning. But don't loose heart, everyone has a starting point.

No worries! I definitely feel the same way about it - I think our munchkin is much cuter than this monstrosity, haha!

Thanks for the pointers — I definitely am starting from the bottom up, and without an art or anatomy background (I studied programming in school), I’ve definitely got a long way to go to develop these skills. I like the idea of micro-projects to get practice; I’ll try that out sometime!

Cheers!

NikhilR

This is a lovely thing you're doing for your son!
And you'll certainly get better in capturing a likeness the more you work at it!

That said, have you considered 3D scanning (Photogrammetry) to get a model to work from as a base? 

You can manage it quite easily with a number of free apps out there, and of course Agisoft and a good cell phone/camera in good lighting conditions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEsRcFQ1_H8

They do this often in the realistic pipeline, especially when they need to make people that exist in 3D

P.s: I'm sure whatever the result, you'll be a hero to him regardless!

beis

@NikhilR That’s a great idea! I haven’t tried photogrammetry before — I will have to give that a look! Thanks!