Anatomy to character studies *NSFW*

vavavoom

Hi,
I'm trying to improve my anatomy sculpting through base and likeness sculpts.
Any help greatly appreciated

*Latest*
Further anatomy studies:








Character play.


Back to basics. A base sculpt from muscle reference.



A likeness attempt:

vavavoom

Trying to better the likeness sculpt, I searched out the best photos I could find of side/front view.
Couldn't find any high res photos but made do and with some low res ones that fitted side/front as close as possible, then cross referenced with high res photos different angles to try and grab details/landmarks.

I'm not aiming for hyper-real detailing, just aiming for a nice clean sculpt that captures the likeness.

carvuliero

vavavoom

Thanks @carvuliero !

I'm gonna have another play with the likeness soon and try to address the things you mentioned

I can see what you mean about raising the nostrils for the smile. I think I was following the side reference too much (without the smile) when I did this part and didn't adjust it accordingly.

This particular area was confusing to me. Her cheeks seem to extend out quite far?

She has a really interesting face which is why I wanted to challenge myself to try and sculpt it, but it's certainly much more of a challenge than I originally anticipated, especially as her face is very asymmetrical.  ( ͡◡ ͜ʖ ͡◡)

Here's a shot of my approach to try and catch the likeness, I hope it's helpful:

From this shot, It looks like the left cheek/jaw needs to be way more fuller?


Meanwhile, I took a step back to basics and tried a base sculpt based on facial muscle reference:

carvuliero

I think thats combination of racial specific anatomy [flat asian face ] and baby fat [more specifically buccal fat pad ] + depends on the angle this extra bump will be visible or not  with a bit more rotation it will look like my drawing

About the front view my diagram whats to show you that forehead is a bit wider in your case

In the 3/4 view you could see how tightly lips wrap around the teeth

vavavoom

Thanks always for your continued help @carvuliero

I'm currently gonna try a fix at the lips curvature around the lips,
Here's the area I'm most having difficulty understanding:

The bottom I can just about make out from the shadow I need to thicken inside to wrap closer to the gums.
The top lip edges seem to protrude a lot...?


One of the hardest things I've found trying a likeness is that the face can look so different from reference photo to photo  (⩾﹏⩽)

carvuliero

You can totally use your own face to study and understand what you trying to do and then you could apply it to your subject

If I can suggest something key the the mouth is the corner form where all muscle connect [the node modiolus] so if you place this form in it correct relations then you just  have to wrap lips tightly around the teeth from canine to canine[first 6] from there you shoot for the node

vavavoom

Thanks again @carvuliero

Edit: This is kinda cringe to look at now, but I'll leave it here as reminder to myself where I'd got things really wrong 

(＊╯_╰)

carvuliero

Head proportion look off check of eyes are in the middle it look to me that the whole face should move up , yeah she definitely need cheeks , also you could push her pelvis/belly foreword

vavavoom

Thanks @carvuliero

Yeah, looking at it now, the face attempt is terrible...  I totally messed and lost the fundamentals   v( ‘.’ )v

I spent a some time re-learning what I thought I'd got down (clealry I hadn't) and started again...

I feel It's a big improvement and I used a more glossy material while sculpting which helped see details more clearly, I think using the quite flat material was not good for seeing the forms and shapes.

Anyways, here's where I'm at now:

carvuliero

Much much better , you could try a few things to see if it look better for example bigger eyes and smaller forehead ,definitely longer neck 1/3 or 1/2 head , bigger ears , a bit squareness to the chin , in side view move neck foreword and make it slimmer in front view

Try to separate checks, infraorbital triangle form and mouth by defining tear trough and nasolabial fold and still retain her young look

vavavoom

Thanks @carvuliero

Adjusted:
Squareness of chin, lips, ear size

Eye size and forehead I'm not sure I want to change so much, here's the kind of proportions I'm aiming for:


Here's what I have so far after changes:


The head/neck positions are my next task, as I want to attach the head to the body from my earlier works.
Once I've got the head and body as one mesh I'm gonna address the neck area and position.

I'm going for a slightly over 7 heads tall, roughly 5'6 tall figure.



The head needs more work in areas, but I'm gonna push on and make into a single mesh and give the body more work to finish/polish it up

vavavoom

Joined the head and body together, try to get neck length correct, did a quick and dirty paint and material to try get a better feel.

Had a bash at the face forms again, try to make it more refined. still trying to get things right...

Here's where I am at. From now I'm going to go around cleaning and polishing the body, while continuing to work on the head.

I'm trying to get that kind of ever so slightly stylized 'computer game' appearance yet close to real anatomy, like in the MGS style I posted above. 


*Forgot to include the eyebrows, also face is very messy right now as I'm trying to refine forms.
Will clean up soon...

carvuliero

Is fake boobs look intentional or happen stand ? Rotating them to the side and removing line on top will fix that

I think you could get a lot more from the legs with few minor adjustments also arms might need so proportional  calibration

vavavoom

As always, thanks @carvuliero   I'll have a try on my next anatomy session. Your posts are so helpful to see things outside of Zbrush that I miss when I'm sculpting in the program.

Really appreciate your help!


Here's the anatomy I was referencing:

My idea was to try and get my sculpt as close to the ref as possible, then adjust proportions after to try and get that idealized look seen in computer games I mentioned earlier.

Been kinda getting burned out with anatomy, so apart from adjusting proportions I decided to have a play with some concepting to take a break.
Hoped it would give me motivation to fix up the anatomy if I had a character/goal to aim for.

Here's what I came up with:
I made her a little under 7.5 heads tall and did some quick and dirty mesh extracts to build clothes etc.
Decided to try out a Sci-fi, Star Wars kinda vibe...

It's a quick and dirty pose, painting, simple detailing, etc just to get a feel of proportions and overall feel of the character.

I'm quite happy with it as a first attempt, but obviously need to return to fixing the anatomy and polishing.
I have basically 0 experience with Marvelous clothes, or Substance designer, but hope to learn them so I can maybe take this concept to a finished character.

I'll attempt to fix the face next chance I get to work on it some more ~

vavavoom

Had some time to work on the head.
There's a few areas I still want to refine such as the cheekbone area, also the nose bridge needs to be higher I think?
I'm trying to get a kind of neutral look, but she looks a little intense, I'll play around with the nose bridge area to see if that helps...

but I feel it's pretty much there in terms of the look and style I want.

Really want to try out Marvelous soon to try and make the clothes look better as I move forward with the concept... but gotta nail the anatomy first and make the necessary fixes.

carvuliero

Yeah I know this scan but still just letting you know that she has fake boobs ,doesn't really matter if she fully clothed

I think brow and cheek still lack volume [corner is not there] use 3/4 to get projection and relations

Curiouslittlecritter

Very nice work here! I can see you are making great progress. As for the facial muscles carvuliero is talking about maybe these reference will help:



Getting those cheeks right it HARD! I had to get a 3D face scan to study those more. Hope this helps! I feel your pain!

Also small note for the way your character is standing. Think of the s-curve, she is standing with her upper body too forward. It may seem silly, but it helps to make her more life like. Like this image:

vavavoom

Thanks so much for all your help folks!

Took all the feedback and have been doing some more studies to try and improve.

Here's some stuff I've been working on to keep learning, different face types, all at different stages of progression. Hope to put what I think I've learned back to finishing my character soon~~~

If anyone can happen to recognize any of the faces at this stage that would be super cool bonus (I realize the roughness at this stage adds an aged look to them...) ~

Thanks for looking






And here's a progress on leg/feet study. It took ages to try and get the feet looking satisfactory to my eye.
When searching other learning sculpts to reference, It seems a lot of people really neglect the feet and they look rather ugly or goofy looking.
I certainly found it hard to get a shape down that I was happy with....

vavavoom

Further studies.
This time I wanted to challenge myself to more unconventional body type sculpting.
Searched out super-sized models and found this model had a very striking body shape.
It was a refreshing break from a more standard body type and hoped it would help push my knowledge of underlying anatomy more.

I hope to find time to circle back to earlier sculpts and improve on them later. I found I have a bad tendency to become over fixated on a sculpt and miss a lot of mistakes. 

However, next I want to try a super body builder build. Also, I have a few interesting male faces I want to try so I don't get fixed only only sculpting females.

Thanks for looking.