Learning Diary - Daily ZBrush Anatomy Studies for Characters

ChanceTrias

Introduction

Hello everyone! I thought I'd introduce myself first as this is my very first polycount post. I am currently a university student working towards becoming a industry 3d character artist. I have around 3 years of experience prior to school working in freelance. This month of school I have a lot of free time to myself to further dart down the character path I have recently embarked on. While participating in multiple disciplines being environment, hardsurface/prop and vfx, I have taken a liking to character art to being my primary discipline. 

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This thread will serve as my diary to document my progress on learning anatomy for characters. I have pushed learning anatomy to the side a ton and with all of this free time, I can make the most of it learning something I struggle with. My primary focus is to learn better form, details/tertiary, proportions and landmarks. I have sculpted human bases in the past but were assisted with IMM brushes within ZBrush. I want to be able to sculpt it from scratch, so I will be focusing on things that were assisted more often than not. Face/Head, Hands, Feet, Back, Legs, Arms, these parts will be my main focus to improve. I will also look into hair studies later on, specifically using hair cards.

I hope this thread can serve as inspiration for other artists to pursue and conquer their own weaknesses instead of being afraid of them. Thank you if you read this far lol. Let the studies begin!

Hand study:



Bodybuilder back study, speed sculpt:

kanga

Looks like you started with a too high rez. Unless you are experienced the work is always going to look like lumpyvill. Start low, get the layout right, then go in and define the sculpt.

Just my opinion, but concentrating on separate body parts as a study method leads to unbalanced learning. You can see this at times with models that have a reasonable figure but awful feet for example. In the beginning do entire figures, do loads of them. Don't fall into the trap of detailing them too much or after 6 months of work you will end up with a highly detailed mediocre piece, which is a waste of time. Also the best start is to go generic. Nail that first before starting to creating characters. Your anatomic study will provide the building blocks for you to make amazing stuff later.

Use a reference like Daz (free) to aid you while you sculpt. Have it on a screen next to your main screen. With Daz you can zoom and rotate around your reference while you work. You can switch off the model's textures to help you concentrate on forms.