My 1st Sculpt - Cowboy

[MILES]

I suppose I've been dragging my feet with regard to using normal maps for models. In fact, I'm still relatively new to modeling itself and now is probably as good a time as any to learn the new stuff. I'll be stepping through my process as I go in this thread. I welcome any suggestions you might have, so let me know what you think. Thanks!

I decided to use a doodle from a few years ago as the basis for my model:



Base mesh constructed in Maya:



First attempt at sculpting in ZBrush:



(more to come...)

low odor

awesome stuff man...only crit would be that maybe the had could be a tad bit bigger...to seperate it more from the forearm

Ruz

great stuff and for a first zbrush sculpt - can't wait to see more
you seem to have approached the whole thing very logically

EarthQuake

Ah cool i was wondering when you would post this man! Its looking great so far, esp for your first official go with zbrush. Do you plan on working out a lowpoly and then doing a texture for him now?

[MILES]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

To answer your question, EQ, I do intend to see this through to completion. I suppose my next step is to get a working low poly version. Would the low poly version need to be different than the base mesh I created in Maya? Or would that do? Also, now that I'm going to be out of ZBrush, can (or should) I use triangles now to bring down the polycount of the low poly version?

I read where I might actually be able to use a lower ZBrush subdivision level as my low poly model. Due to my lack of experience in ZBrush, I deleted the three lowest (of the six) subdivision levels I had, some time ago. So if I go this route, I'll need to look to one of my older saved files.

PolyHertz

You could use zbrushs 'recreate subdiv' tool to rebuild your lower subdivisions. I tend to create the lowpoly by modifying the base, and optimize the geometry knowing that it doesn't have to be all quads.

[MILES]

Thanks, PolyHertz. Just what I needed to know.

Ancient-Pig

I love cowboys! In the non-gay sense

Looks good man - lots of character to him. At a glance, his crotch is way wide - although it may just be his stance throwing me off...

Carry on!

[MILES]

Thanks Ancient. I know what you mean about the crotch. The intent was to give him that chicken butt kinda look where his pants sag due to his thin physique/the pant cut/and pose. But I might not have pulled it off successfully.

I'd like to revisit some of these suggestions concerning the details, so I'll definitely be taking note...but I also don't want to get too bogged down in those changes at this time. For now, keep them coming, but I really want to go ahead and complete the cycle from start to finish one time...and then go back and do it a second time with those changes. This will help me keep the process moving forward and the next time through can serve as reinforcement of what I've learned without letting too much time pass between the next model I make and the next stage of this production process.

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As far as recreating subdivisions in ZBrush, I hit a couple of other issues:

1) I'm not exactly sure how to go about exporting all my SubTools (eyes, hat band, thunderbird) as one mesh in order to import them back for the reconstruction of my subdivisions (so I can get a lower subdivision of the sculpt).

[EDIT - Problem resolved using clone of primary SubTool, all other SubTools & inserting meshes into primary SubTool clone].

2) I went ahead and exported the body SubTool just to see how the Reconstruct Subdiv process would work, and was greeted with "Reconstruction Result: Unable to reconstruct lower subdiv-level, operations cancelled."

[EDIT - Okay, the problem has changed now. Apparently after using the InsertMesh option to create a signle SubTool for export, I now get the message: "Reconstruction Result: Mesh contains triangles, operation cancelled." I know I made this thing all quads to start with, so something must have gone amiss during the sculpting process. I've read that I might be able to export the mesh back out to Maya, convert it to SubD, then back to a Poly mesh again, and then import it once again into ZBrush, where I can then (hopefully) reconstruct down to the subdiv level I need for my low poly model].

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Wow, these problems just keep snowballing. 1st) Couldn't import .obj into Maya. So I exported with txtr and groups disabled. Fixed that problem. Now when I try to do the conversion, I'm apparently exhausting my SubD polygon limit in Maya and capping out at 100000.
I think I read somewhere where I may be able to export pieces of my mesh into Maya but sheesh. Talk about a crash course!

I suppose I'll spare you all the "blogging" until I ultimately reach a dead end. Sorry for the play-by-play. I reckon I'll call it a night.

Rick Stirling

Love it!

What you tried it with a LITTLE more shape in the legs (like the concept), making the thighs a wee bit thicker, down to a nice narrow knee, and then flaring out the hems? As well as defining the shape a little more then the legs would mirror the arm shape.