monk / shaman

dabu

Hey all,

Been a while, finally back to do some art for myself. I'm trying to learn Zbrush, so I thought I would start with a character head.

Still working my way through the practical guide PDF. If anyone knows of some good tuts, please send them my way!

So Im just trying to get some good meshflow going on this guy before starting. I haven't touched this model in about 2 yrs, been cleaning him up. Please ignore the seam up the middle, just quick screenies, WIP

Oh, and those are hair, not antennae. The ref is just a lose idea, I want to age him considerably.

thnom

I really love the model its got a style about it- where the concept image just looks badly shaded. I really like the mouth -- but I'm not sure whether it needs those thin polies -- I don't think they break the vertical at all.

Daz

hey Dan, good to see ya working on some character Art. And yes, I'm still here, but not for long!
I'll be *REALLY* upfront with my crit, seeing as that's the only useful kind of advice right?! This mesh is definitely showing it's 2+ year age! :-) Heck, I look at meshes of mine from 6 months ago and think WTF?! Seriously, for models this low poly, just throw it away and start again. You don't need to build on topology that you made 2 years ago, unless that toplogy is VERY sound, which this isn't.

First off, If you intend to throw this in zbrush, you gotta build a predominantly quad model. If you import this into zbrush as is, I dunno man, it's just gonna be messy as hell subdividing all those tris. The fact of the matter is, that mathematically quads subdivide an awful lot nicer than tris.
Here's the recently released zbrush learning kit page: http://pixologic.com/zbrush/class/classroom.html. Tons of cool info stuffs there that might help.

Secondly, and relatedly, I think you need to be MUCH more aware of toplogy and its purpose. The toplogy is sort of meaningless, haphazard and sloppy. Overall that bunch of edges you got there combined do manage to in total make up the form of a head, but they don't make a head in an efficient and or aesthetically pleasing, meaningful way.

I did a real quick paintover on the right to try and illustrate my point. Note how my edges are defining key flow lines in the bonestructure of the face, but yours are just sort of random. I've got the essential line from the nostrils to the side of the mouth ( 1 ) , the infraorbital brow ( 2 ) , a line for the cheekbone ( 3 ) etc etc. Edge loops define the contours of a face in the most efficient manner possible. Try and create flowing lines that actually represent a particular structure in the face. otherwise, what do you need them for? Hope this helps. Edge loops and topology are hard to grasp, but it'll make a world of difference to you once you do.

dabu

Considering that I'm using a certain female character head as a mesh/ topology reference, yes this completely rocks! Seriously, your stuff looks like it was engineered, I have no idea how you hand place each vert so precisely.

I really want to keep going on this guy, but I have an art test due in a week, and its probably going to suck up my free time for the next wee while.

Btw, I found out that certain other studios in the area pay royalties... can you imagine if we got royalties for, well, you know.

Mark Dygert

If you are importing this model into Z-Brush you should be working in Quads or polys not Tris. I learned the hard way that Z-Brush doesn't like triangles. once you get it to a place you are happy with it, convert it to quads and remove the extra edges.

John Warner

not only does zbrush not like triangles, it doesn't like anything other than quads connected with poles. that is, all the verts idealy should only have 4 edges heading away from each of them.

that isn't as much of a big deal but if you're not careful, but if you work long enough i find that you start getting strange pinch marks. you've got to be very careful with your mesh when you're woking with zbrush. idealy it should be clean as possible.