Red Robin (2nd character)

TheDarkKnight

I recently finished the Cg Workshop : Modern Game Character Creation with Jonathan Rush (excellent class btw)

I started my second game-res character (and also my second Zbrush Project) and thought I'd share my progress here as I continue to figure stuff out along the way






It's supposed to be Red Robin from the Batman Universe.
Feedback very much appreciated

Mark Dygert

Watt!? oh...

Crits (to be brutally honest):
- Lips look like they are playdoh snakes stuck on a melon.
- Torso looks too long and the legs too short.
- There is a lot of small details when the bigger form is very much off, its critical not to get sucked into the tiny details until the base is correct.

TheDarkKnight

Thanks, brutally crits are good, I'm here to learn

-I agree about the lips, still pretty new to the whole Zbrush phenomenon so really just trying at the moment
-Will look into the anatomy problems tomorrow when I get home!

Thanks!

ES_139

dude, im not too good at zbrush either but i think the idea is to create as much form as you can out of the subdivision your on, rather than working on just the highest subdivision. It looks like you have divided it loads of times and then started sculpting as opposed to building up the form as you go.

Disco Stu

When zbrushing its best to first dig deep and then add on again, back and forth to get nice volumes.

meatle

To be blunt it would benefit you greatly to focus on very plain character and really nail down the form and proportions to it, rather then getting caught up in the artistic decisions of a character that is lacking both here. You need to back up and work on giving yourself a solid foundation.

I know it tempting to get into all the cool things but you'll find out later that you've been wasting time and how much better your work could be.

I really don't mean to be a douche and I've made the same mistakes I'm advising you against making.

Heres something for proportions: http://realcolorwheel.com/human.htm

Also I've found Ian Joyner Character Production for games (Gnomon workshop) to be solid learning material.

achillesian

start with a good topo base human mesh (from ref) in maya or max then sub-d and add stuff in zbrush, rinse repeat for accessories

d2king10

I know there is this whole zbrush/mudbox fad going on right now, but it is probably in your best interest to just learn to poly model in a modeling program to get your basic forms, shapes, and flows down before jumping into a sculpting program. I know sculpting has much faster and satisfying results, but if you can't get a good base down, then you wont have a good anything.

Also, really look into proportions, yours are all over the place and can really kill a model.

CheeseOnToast

Great little site here for anatomy reference and practice :

http://www.posemaniacs.com/

TheDarkKnight

Thanks for the advice everyone, I guess that settles that, I'll start over

I was looking in to getting the new Scott Spencer book : [ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/ZBrush-Digital-Sculpting-Human-Anatomy/dp/0470450266/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263226185&sr=8-1"]ZBrush Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy[/ame], hope it's any good

Well lets call this model a complete failure then

TheDarkKnight

I'll think I'll turn this thread into a WIP thread as I make my general base mesh, which I'll then use to make my "Red Robin" character

Was also looking at getting a 1month subscription for 3d.sk, recommendable?
Heard alot of good things about them and thought it might be worth a shot?

meatle

Not a failure if you're learning from it

"experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted" Randy Pausch

Best of luck, I look forward to seeing your progress.

CheeseOnToast: Great link man, much appreciated.

Mark Dygert

meatle wrote: »

CheeseOnToast: Great link man, much appreciated.

Yep, great link, just don't forget about skin and fat.

TheDarkKnight

Last question for the day:

I tried to get a subscription at 3d.sk but it says 24.95 Euro for every month, do you have to cancel your subscription if you just want to try it out for a month?
Or does it automatically ends at the end of the paid month?

AnimeAngel

you have to cancel i believe

Joao Sapiro

you can get all the images you need from google and lots of other sites with nude or not humans , what i would advise is stick with real life models , and study , study s, study , and get drunk.

TheDarkKnight

made a start on my sculpting base mesh today

Started with the head with images I got from 3d.sk
Anything really standing out so far?





Anything that looks really wrong/off (aside from the obvious no ears )?

Been awhile since I modeled a face using front/side images, so have to get some practice again

d2king10

Look at the nose ridge, noses don't generally look like that. Thick about the bone structure under it, if anything it shouldn't dip as much as it does.

Mark Dygert

Is this a base mesh for sculpting or a low poly head meant to resemble the ref as closely as possible?

TheDarkKnight

This is supposed to be a base mesh for sculpting, based on the reference
It doesn't look like the ref one bit, was tired as hell when I made this, but to be honest I don't quite see where I could improve it, because as far as I can see my reference matches up (yes I'm a n00b like that )

TheDarkKnight

Did abit of vertex pulling/moving in Zbrush and came up with the new mesh on the right ,which IMO looks alot better, and closer to my ref.

Opinions?

TheDarkKnight

Ok did a very quick Zbrush session on my Basemesh, liking the results so far, looks alot better then my previous head (start of thread) already, IMO

TheDarkKnight

Ok started a new sculpt today, using my base mesh, liking it so far

makecg

great improvement!!

SpeCter

he finally got some better looking lips(not perfect, but definately better as the old ones)

keep it up

TheDarkKnight

thanks for the feedback!

I'll definitely look into the lips

one question though, when should I start looking into extracting the cowl, and what do you guys (or girls) suggest would be a good level to do that from, right now I'm at level 3

TheDarkKnight

Did some small work on the body today, and added some "props"

Been having trouble extracting the cowl though, I mask off what I want to extract and push extract right?
I take the smoothing and thickness levels down, but it ends up looking like crap, losing alot of my form.

Anyone got some suggestions?

Thanks in advance!