Above is a generic character. It is a base. Characterization is a variation. Most character artists agree that the base is the most effective starting point. The lumpiness of your model has nothing to do with topology, rather too much topology too early and the inability to seamlessly switch resolution during sculpting.
Thanks for the clarification, I think I'll start again from the begining, I feel like I've screwed everything already by going too "characterized" (??) and it's probably not a bad idea to start a little bit better.
Hum, I understand your point of view about lumpiness but I beg to differ. I don't think I can do completely clean models for now (I'm working on it though) but I can tell you that strange topology will bring lumpiness at some point. To show what I mean, I took a capture of the actual model.
It's quite a mess, you can see it, I don't master the remesher tool and this topology doesn't help for clean look, even though I tried to stretch and squeeze some parts to have the loops not too badly placed (mouth and eyes for example).
At some point it would have brought some kind of artifact look to the whole piece.
Besides, I noticed that Blender is way less permissive than Zbrush as to the clean surface look, so yeah more mastery required on the Blender side for equally eye pleasing effect (in my humble opinion).
As for the polycount of the face getting too high too quick, I really don't know. I admit I struggle to know when is the good time to up the resolution of the model. In general I subdivide when I can't work anymore on the features like eyes, nose and mouth, but maybe I'm going too quick in shaping them before having a better general shape. Topology has its importance though and in this case the fact that quad concentration is higher where not needed than where it is (cheeks or forehead > lips or eyelids) might be a problem.
I'll start over again and be more careful about the original topology, I'm pretty sure I messed up at some point about this aspect in the earliest stages.
I would really just get your self a 3d head scan from here, and try to do a copy of it. Learn the anatomy and apply it to an actual face not try to make up your own. You won't have a frame of reference to see what is off if it is made up. If you use Zbrush you can use Splitscreen to reference the scan directly while you are working. Start with a sphere from dynamesh and work from largest forms to smallest only increasing resolution when you absolutely need it. Once you are really close make yourself a clean retopology and take that into Zbrush and continue to refine it. Here is a little gif of a head copy I did with the same process ( just to show how you can add detail only when you need it). You can find a more in depth guide by Georgian Avasilcutei here. If you can afford it I highly recommend it and it's not too pricey.
Thanks for the tips @stevston89 though everything feels pricey to me ^^. I'm not thinking everything should be free at all but investment is harsh matter sometimes (I mean there's so much to buy and learn from when you think about it ...).
I saw you giving the same advice to another person about the scanned model so I already noted the link somewhere (thanks though ^^) but I have one fear about this. Let's say I do it and learn from it and then I have to do another face, will I be able to do it based on pictures reference ? I mean you don't always have a 3D scan to help you figure things out, right ? Or is that just necessary while you're learning (except you never cease to learn) ? Sorry if my questions are annoying ^^.
I'm not using Zbrush, I just have Zbrush Core and I'm really not feeling comfortable with it right now but I'll give it a try soon I think though so thanks for the links and the tips.
As for the guide it definitely does look interesting (though I hope it's not too focused on Zbrush tools but on general methodology) and I will keep this one in mind but I won't be able to afford it soon.
Thanks for the gif, it might help. I say might cause it seems that there is an as big polycount as the one of my last picture on the very first step of yours . It seems that everyone has the right to use big resolution but me .
I will try again to do a generic face and will seriously think on getting a 3D scan.
@Dabou Master - None of what I said is necessary. It just going to be faster and easier to learn that way. Scans are the highest quality reference you can get. The point of it is to build a foundation of knowledge based on that reference so you can do your own thing later. You don't need a scan for each head once you learn the anatomy and structure you will be able to apply that to photo reference or whatever you want. But the point of your thread is to learn anatomy. (FWIW those scans are all 50% off right now. There is also a free head scan up there, but it is a little too unique IMO.)
Zbrush Core should have everything you need to follow along with the face tutorial I linked. I am not sure it has Splitscreen though? But you should be able to just pop back and forth between the scan and your copy.
The start of my head was not as high density as yours. It was like 35k polys (wireframe below). The issue you are having is either too much density or you are not properly smoothing out your forms. Often times the lumpiness on your model is caused by sculpting with too much density for the form and using too high intensity on you brushes. The other problem I see is that you Zremeshed a lumpy model and it created geometry poles around those lumps. So it will be nearly impossible to get a clean result when you subdivide.
I'm seriously considering buying one scanned model now you've reassured me about the process of how to make this investment useful . I'll just take time to choose which one, I see I have 11 days before the sale runs out ^^.
I don't know what can Zbrush Core do or can't do, I just know that more options are coming as the base was really thin in the begining. But anyway I have two screens so it's not too much of a problem anyway. Zbrush UI is just a nightmare for now so I'm not throwing myself in it right now ^^, but I'll do soon I think.
Yeah maybe I'll have everything needed to follow the guide but I don't like being limited to one tool, I love sculpting in Blender, what can I say ... But Zbrush Core has some limitations that are a bit annoying, like it can't read Zbrush files (ztl files if I remember well).
I'm definitely not smoothing out in the begining, maybe that's what makes the remesher do crazy loops sometimes. It's Blender remesher, not Zremesher so it might work not as well as Zbrush is a more advanced tool. But as you talked about doing a retopology at some point, that should get rid of all the bad stuff anyway so lumpiness shouldn't be a problem for the first steps I think (before retopo I mean).
So yeah I think it's my poor use of a remesher that is to blame, but I never used a remesher until a few days ago so I'm doing some tests with this one.
Hey there ! Here are some progress on the face. It looks less messy than the previous one I think.
Still quite some work on the nose and adding some flesh/fat on different parts of the face. Close to retopo but I need to get better eyes and nose before that (and to attach the ears but I'm not 100% sure they are well placed and at the right size right now). It seems pretty generic for now, I think. I've been testing only remesher for this time (no dynamic topology) so it might seem strange on some places and very smooth on others, which is kind of strange looking but none of it will matter soon. I might need to use a little bit of dyntopo for the nose and the eyes though before retopo.
I think the second one you have there would be better. You want a fairly neutral/generic face and I think the brow ridge on the first is a bit extreme. The hair could be confusing for figuring out the skull shape maybe something like this is better?
Replies
Above is a generic character. It is a base. Characterization is a variation. Most character artists agree that the base is the most effective starting point. The lumpiness of your model has nothing to do with topology, rather too much topology too early and the inability to seamlessly switch resolution during sculpting.
Zbrush Core should have everything you need to follow along with the face tutorial I linked. I am not sure it has Splitscreen though? But you should be able to just pop back and forth between the scan and your copy.
The start of my head was not as high density as yours. It was like 35k polys (wireframe below). The issue you are having is either too much density or you are not properly smoothing out your forms. Often times the lumpiness on your model is caused by sculpting with too much density for the form and using too high intensity on you brushes. The other problem I see is that you Zremeshed a lumpy model and it created geometry poles around those lumps. So it will be nearly impossible to get a clean result when you subdivide.