WIP stylized elf statue
polycounter lvl 3
I'm working on a stylized statue I made myself in Zbrush and moved to do the low poly in Blender and I want to have my retopology finished and looking clean.
Anyone could give me tips where to fix it and make it better?
Replies
Cool idea! Do you have a concept or any reference you're working off of? The thing that's standing out to me is that it looks more 'lumpy' rather than carved. Check out how sharp the edges are on these pieces:
https://warrenscherich.com/large-stone-sculptures
@HarlequinWerewolf Yeah I´m using references and a concept I did and throught the sculpting process I added extra details. My idea is to have the statue attached to a single pillar and also on its own. I could add more details around the "clothes" but I struggled a bit having something done with them. Besides that Any ideas also in the retopology? Might comeback again to Zbrush and add more stuff to it withouth making it feel heavy.
Hi! Regarding the lowpoly, I would partially collapse some edge loops, have them split as the shape gets larger or in areas where more geometry is needed for silhouette relevant details - make use of triangles.
Design wise, the shapes lack a bit of flow and dynamism imo. With the initial concept being rather vage/flat, no planes defined, you could overpaint the current state using the renders existing values to further refine the design.
Concerning the sculpt, I agree that large areas (bottom, back) look bit wobbly/undefined. The capes edge might come out noisy in the final asset, being wobbly and thin.
Keep it up!
@Fabi_G Right. I am a bit worried on collpasing to many of the edges but maybe on the back especially will be great to lessen them. I could think to try to add more volume to the sculpt by adding like cloth waves so it doesnt look so flat or like the 4 statue reference have more details like rock cracks and sharp edges.
My issue will be that I focused too much( even having not much detail) on the face and front part forgeting the rest of the model. So now I will try to redo a bit the sculpt and add more to it either being waves or marks so I try not to make it too empty and round.
Thanks for the feedback :)
I decided to work more on the sculpt to make it less empty on the bottom and back by adding marks to it and using a brush to make cloth waves
hey, I think you could still make it more readable (especially from behind) by visually separating the statue more (head, shoulders, waist, ...) using direction changes. Maybe easier achieved if built from separate elements, once shape is finished merged together. Here is a rough overpaint to illustrate:
Desided to scratch the other version I did and tried to sharp more the mesh
I think the readability has improved. Could push it further still. Again, I can only recommend drawing over screenshots to explore solutions before sculpting 🤓
What sticks out to me the most, is the border of the cape being very thin and wobbly, almost like a metal sheet. You could go over it with inflate brush to get some material strength, then trim it into shape using trim lasso and trim brushes. Having the cape a separate object from the face/upper body would help here.
Keep it up!
Hi Again. Been busy with family busyness and other things and I came back now for the statue. After a day of work I got not only a more appealing looking statue and a retopo which Içm still looking ways to clean it with 3406 polygons. Testing the baking on Substance painter there were no major issues with it on missing details but on the ear which has something weird on it. :D
The main thing to remember in retopology is to maintain your silhouette. You have a bunch of loops in the back of the statue that aren't needed and could be collapsed into triangles. Something like this but you could definitely take it further
I finished the model a month and forgot to show the results. Thanks for the tips everyone :D