How would you approach these leather straps?

MyLittleWeirdFriend

Hi I am trying to recreate this in 3D

And im struggling specifically with the leather straps specifically
My version looks more like this, My supervisor at my internship does not think they look good and that they are abit too clay-like, 
The more i sculpt on the worse it gets it feels right now and i feel stuck.

the way i made the low poly of them was to extraxt pieces from the mesh below, using the mask extract in the sculpting mode of blender.  and hten i have been sculpting with the Crease,Pinch and Cloth Brush to try and add details.

My supervisor has not given me any instruction that relives my feeling of being lost, so im turning to the polycount comunity! How would you specifically approach making these straps? 

JamesBrisnehan

The leather straps in your reference has much more squared off edges, (90 degrees give or take) and smooth surface. Yours is kind of mushy, and one layer of leather just gets smushed into the next. It looks like you went into adding detail before defining the basic shape.

I'm still pretty new to Z-brush myself, (so take this as a suggestion more than expert advise) but I think you could try using the 'Layer Brush', 'Clay Buildup Brush' or maybe use the 'Flatten Brush' inverted (by pressing Alt) to block out a leather strap kind of shape with hard edges. (I just tried out the inverted flatten brush as a test, and it worked great) Then use the 'Trim Dynamic Brush', and the 'Polish Brush' to smooth out the surface, and if you need to, the 'Move Brush' to clean up the overall shape. Then I think, if necessary, use the 'Dam Standard brush' to help sharpen up the edges and separate the layers of leather a bit more, and help get those 90 degree angles.
Only once you have a clean and well defined strap shape, carefully add extra detail.

Hope it helps, but keep a backup if it doesn't work. Good luck.

MyLittleWeirdFriend

JamesBrisnehan said:

The leather straps in your reference has much more squared off edges, (90 degrees give or take) and smooth surface. Yours is kind of mushy, and one layer of leather just gets smushed into the next. It looks like you went into adding detail before defining the basic shape.

I'm still pretty new to Z-brush myself, (so take this as a suggestion more than expert advise) but I think you could try using the 'Layer Brush', 'Clay Buildup Brush' or maybe use the 'Flatten Brush' inverted (by pressing Alt) to block out a leather strap kind of shape with hard edges. (I just tried out the inverted flatten brush as a test, and it worked great) Then use the 'Trim Dynamic Brush', and the 'Polish Brush' to smooth out the surface, and if you need to, the 'Move Brush' to clean up the overall shape. Then I think, if necessary, use the 'Dam Standard brush' to help sharpen up the edges and separate the layers of leather a bit more, and help get those 90 degree angles.
Only once you have a clean and well defined strap shape, carefully add extra detail.

Hope it helps, but keep a backup if it doesn't work. Good luck.

Thank you for taking your time! However i use blender and therefor dont think i have access to all those brushes. im a cheap bastard XD 
but you are definitely onto something,  It made me start to play with curves to make a base mesh and it looks alot better, alot cleaner and alot squarer. 



hopefully this can lead to something, i plan to very carefully add som folds and details to this  

JamesBrisnehan

Oh yah, that works too. Ha ha, I don't know why I assumed you were in Z-brush, but since you're in a modeling program, . . might as well model. It looks a lot better

jose.fuentes

your second one looks waaayyy better, I think you are on the right track now.  While the front facing parts of the strap look way better, If I were you I would focus on the top and bottoms of the straps, those are still super lumpy.  Look at your concept, and see how they are smooth curves, one you make that then try to bring some harder edges between the tops/bottom and the front of the straps.  Also, make sure that when you start adding the imperfections you don't make the entire strap lumpy.

stevston89

I would remove almost all of the curved shapes from the leather straps. You want them to feel like they have tension, not like they are hanging off. You can even see in the concept there is very little curving. Here is some reference:

Steve0105

Hey, this video:

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

has something very similiar along the 1 minute mark.

For stylized art, it's best to keep the shapes large, and have a slightly exaggerated bevel along them. Hope that helped.