The Thing
polycounter lvl 12
I haven't done much 3d work since starting my new job, so I thought I'd try my hand at doing some character work. So I'm modelling The Thing, It's my first time using zspheres, and my first real work in zbrush, so any crits would be nice.
Here's what I've got so far:
It's not much, but I like to think he's shaping up ok. I'm really going to need to define those muscles if I want him to look good, which will be a fairly new experience for me.
Thoughts?
Here's what I've got so far:
It's not much, but I like to think he's shaping up ok. I'm really going to need to define those muscles if I want him to look good, which will be a fairly new experience for me.
Thoughts?
Replies
I've been working on the head for a fair chunk of the day.
I'm going to hold off adding the stone until I've finished the whole character, although I'm beginning to think I should break him up into seperate objects so the polycount becomes a bit more manageable.
I've split the mesh into seperate peices, detailed the head, and I'm about to start sculpting the body.
Thoughts? Crits? Anything? :S :P
To be honest, I found the movie adaptation version quite bland - depending on which comic artist drew him, The Thing has a lot of potential to be very stylized, especially with the facial features. I think, tempting as it may be, you've dived into the surface detailing too soon - if I were you, I'd spend more time on defining those facial features (and the rest of the form) before starting on the surface cracks.
If you aren't working from any one specific reference, think about how a person made of rock would be defined - right now, it's a fair start and it's pretty recognizably The Thing, but some of the facial features are far too smooth to read as rock well.
Again, if it were my project, I'd go for a very stylized look as opposed to 'realism', as it would allow for more angular features and muscle definition. Since he doesn't have much in the way of a costume, it's that musculature definition that has to provide a lot on the way of silhouette and facial expression - not to mention that using hard, well-defined edges could also make him appear more menacing and pissed off.
I'm presuming this is intended as a high-res sculpt, as opposed to an optimized in-game asset?
My version of the thing is going to be based off of the comics, definitely not the film. More specifically, he will be mostly based off the Ultimate Fantastic 4 comics, and most of my reference is coming from that and from some Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 concept art.
As for your suggestion of a stylized version of The Thing, I have considered it, however for a while I have being wanting to sculpt something that closer resembles human anatomy; which is a funny thing to say when you're modelling a man made of rock, but I feel like this was a good time to do so.
Oh, and I plan on baking this high poly mesh down to a optimized game mesh. Providing all goes to plan.
@3D-209: You and dan are right, it doesn't look right at all. I think tonight I'll go back a few subdivisions and sharpen some of the smooth edges, then really refine the rocks that make up his head. Hopefully that will make him look alot more threatening, and less sad.
I'll see what I can come up with.
He's definitely looking alot better now. I'm thinking I should maybe try and flatten some of the rocky faces, and maybe add some high frequency rocky detail on him. My only concern is that he's becoming a bit hard to read with the way I've sculpted the rock.
Like link.
It really does help.
What I've found out is that it's lot easier and faster to feel free and exaggerate masses/forms first and tweak later then sculpt 'the careful' way right from the beginning. Especially when you're learning.
I'm interested to hear more about these face planes, this is honestly the first I've heard of them. It sounds like it has to do with the planning and breaking up of the face into seperate planes?
Think of a face not as a single smooth, curved surface, but as a series of flat planes. This is one of Loomis' diagrams illustrating this principle.
This idea not only makes it easier to visualize and recreate the face accurately, but also makes it easier to draw the face from different angles while retaining the proportions.
To be honest, I probably would have made a simple base mesh in another package at first, then brought it into ZBrush for sculpting, but I hear good things about Zbrush's hard surface and planar sculpting tools in the newest release - haven't had any reason to use them myself yet, though.
Here's another that may help you.
http://www.learning-to-see.co.uk/feeling-the-form
The medusa tutorials go through some of the new planar brush's to make a rough starting Asaho head.
http://www.3dworldmag.com/page/3dworld?entry=tutorial_files_for_3d_world9
Basically the way I see it, it boils down to if you do and learn those planes above, you can turn that into any sort of head, male, female, monster. You just move bits around smooth them, and it will look right or at least good(as long as you dont deviate to far from the planes).
You'd do better to study the bone and muscle structure, but the planes are quicker and almost as good.
The face is one of the most complex things to sculpt using those planes it speeds up and help you understand it.
I'm learning it myself. I'm not recreating that Asaho head perfectly, I just use the flatten and clay brush to rough out parts similar to it, to start with, then I start on the actual face that I want.
Thoughts?
I'm trying to avoid looking at the movie version of the thing, because I don't like the way he looks in it. So most of my reference is coming from the comics, and the way the thing is drawn in them doesn't really translate too well to 3d.. I guess I'm going to have to take a bit of an artistic license here. I'll be back.. :P
At least I got rid of the blobbiness.
The planes are much easier; you should have no trouble with it.
He doesnt appear to have a chin, and the transition from that forhead thing and the outside of the eye doesnt look quite right. It might look better if it was a ninety degree overhang.
I redid the head again, It has become quite a learning experience. I took dfacto's advice and had a shot at making it more like the image he posted. I'm pretty happy with the result this time. His face is alot more defined, and he has alot more character. I'm sure there are still plenty of things wrong with him though.
but try to go even more angular with the shapes by using the flatten brush
lol, that sounds rather patronising!
nice update tanka
ps: I think his head is a bit too small
I can't wait to get home from work and get back into this.
GCMP mentioned that his head was looking a bit small.. I think once you see the legs done, I think it's more a case of his upper body and arms just being really big, and I think it suits the character.
Looking nice as is...
you should go in with the inflat brush to bulge/fill out those stoney masses and then use the flat/slash brush to really give it some sharpness and an angular outlook
I'll have a look into your suggestions aswell, but I don't know if I really want him with bulgey stone, I'm actually liking the smoothness, with the rocky pattern. I think he looks alot more like he does in the comics.
I've been busy the last few days, but hopefully I can dive back into this soon.