WIP First Character Sculpt
I think I've complained of this more then once before, but I feel like my ability to rate my own work is kind of limited. Anyway, I'm currently working on this bust of a friend. I've included some basic reference of the subject and I'm looking for fierce criticisms. Being my first human sculpt I know I'm all over the place on consistency / relevance.
Also, does anyone have much of an idea of
how to do short hair as in the ref? Is it best to use a separate mesh or to sculpt directly onto the skull. If so, in say Mudbox how would you go about creating strands?
As for fine details (eg. pores, wrinkles ... just not up to that level of Sub-D yet.)
[More progress, no crit, so posted again with new renders below]
Also, does anyone have much of an idea of
how to do short hair as in the ref? Is it best to use a separate mesh or to sculpt directly onto the skull. If so, in say Mudbox how would you go about creating strands?
As for fine details (eg. pores, wrinkles ... just not up to that level of Sub-D yet.)
[More progress, no crit, so posted again with new renders below]
Replies
It does feel like the scale is out a bit. Does it look a bit like the distance between the nose & forehead is too much? I'm trying to put that down to the angle / perspective in the photos but I just don't know.
Last Update:
http://blog.senorfreebie.com/Forum/xr/005_006.jpg
I'm sure one of the fine lads of this forum will be along soon with tons of info.
Looking at the screen shots and without knowing how your scene is set up, my first thought would be that it looks like you have been sculpting with an orthographic view rather than a perspective one. If so, that would explain why your distances between features look a bit off and "flat".
I usally use the default setting of 50 in Zbrush's perspective setup and an FOV of around 45 in a max perspective viewport.
Also if you know the person you are sculpting well, could you not get some better ref? Ideally with a consistant FOV and lighting setup in your shots.
At the bare minimum, having a really nice three quarter (front/left or front/rightside) shot alongside your side and front reference will be a big help. Three quarter shots help you place the eye socket properly, in particular how far the socket sits back in the skull, which in turn helps you with the eye, nose and brow proportions. It also helps you place the mouth correctly and helps avoid the "duck lipped" look that a lot of head sculpts created by artists still learning the ropes on character creation, tend to show.
The three quarter shot you have here is quite nice but the lack of a neutral expression doesn't really help. The other shot has far too flat lighting to be of any real help as the lack of shadow is hiding any information as far as the subjects bone structure is concerned.
It seems you are not quite sure how the final model is going to be presented, is the idea to do a high detail sculpt and then create a lower rez model with normal maps etc?
If the latter is the case then you can always use alpha planes for the hair, though they can often "jar" with realistic looking model. Hair is a pain either way, my opinion would be to get her head sculpt looking nice and then create some sculpted hair, either by working on head model with clay style brushes or by placing a sphere primitive sitting within the head model and the sculpting the hair "out" onto the surface on the head model.
I'm sure there a plenty of heads around here and on zbrush central that will give you a good idea on how other artists have approached this kind of work. Keep going!:)
I realised I'd been on the wrong settings just recently and corrected it. Unfortunately Mudbox doesn't give you a lot of control over FOV. I also feel I'm not overly confident with making really contrasty details at the moment. I don't think I have enough Sub-D but I'm also pretty new to sculpting ... I've done a fish and an arm before this. So I don't really know where to contrast things up.
Unfortunately I don't have access to this person at the moment. Perhaps think of the project as a 'surprise' for them? But I do have heaps of ref. Here's some more for the sake of the thread:
Is the lighting in this shot better? I'm still getting used to mudbox's viewport settings.
Cheers for your help. The intention is to create a low-ish poly model all baked down. It's really for still renders at present but I like to keep my work dual purpose where possible since I'm a game artist before anything else. I think I'm going to opt for the sculpted option. It seems like a god-send that her hair is so short but I think it's going to be about the toughest challenge in the piece.
I'm feeling a bit silly for not starting out with a full body but that should be easy enough to solve later on. Maybe I'll cover all the eventual seams with clothes or something. I'm particularly conscious at the moment of this looking too masculine. What do I emphasise to get around that?
Looking at your other reference shots, I would try to calm down the "sneer" lines you have sculpted in on the nose where the wings of the nose meet the laughter lines (it is most noticeable on your side shot), also the bottom of the nose should be slightly lower. That bit of cartilidge in the centre of the two nostrils usually hangs lower, then curves back upwards to meet the edge of the nostrils.
Her forehead looks quite masculine, a female brow tends to have a more, gentle, rounded shape, without the hard, defined ridge on the brow that males have on their foreheads. Of course this all depends on the individual. I would lose that adams apple in the neck too, or at least reduce it in size!
I would also suggest filling out the fleshy part above the upper eyelid, this will help soften her expression and lose some of the harshness, again the lower right reference shot shows this would help.
As for the rest, I'm a ZBrush guy so I can't help you with the camera setup in Mudbox.
Quick and dirty fudge in photoshop, I don't know the subject so these are just small mods to make the sculpt look a bit more feminine.
I have slimmed the neck
Lost the large adams apple
Brought out the brow and pushed the top of the bridge of the nose back.
Brought the chin down slightly
Narrowed the head and raised the top of the head.
Filled out the upper eye above the upper lid.
Hope this helps.
I think you need to step back a couple of subdivs and get the main shapes correct first. Currently:
-the head is too wide/not tall enough
-her nasal ridge is nonexistant
-her chin is too high and far back
-her jaw corners/hinge too low and sharp - which makes her look manly
-her chin needs to be rounder from the front view
Snader:
-What sections of the head would you like to see the growth in? Do you think the back, top of the skull goes high enough (under the hair)?
-You're right about the nasal ridge. I was looking at a ref with lighting that was too flat there.
-With the chin, I guess you mean basically make it protrude more. By rounder, do you mean flatten / smooth out the details?
-You don't think the jaw on the model reflects the reference much? She has quite a slavic jaw shape. I'm having trouble figuring out where that area needs to sit.
As for orthographic photos. That's impossible I'm afraid. I'll update shortly with the changes I can make sense of done. Thanks for your help!
Anyway; onto the updates:
Basically I attempted to tackle every point raised.
Edit: Didn't see the draw over. What you've done there makes sense. I've tackled some of the problems in similar / identical ways. Need to bring in the width of the head and slim the neck though, for sure. It looks a lot better like that. That said, I'm not precisely trying to be flattering, as much as I'm trying to be accurate.
So I decided to once again go through all the ref I could find and I found one close to orthogonal and it showed some pretty huge flaws. Don't worry about critting anything highlighted by the following incredibly unartistic image:
Also implemented every geometry change suggested as well as a very thorough pass from the above profile shot. I also used a front on shot...
Also I think I'd go with more neutral facial expression.
/edit
Last update for the night. I've gotten to a stage I'm pretty happy with, with the hair. I feel like I'm almost ready to go on to texturing. The hair ended up easier then I thought it would be once I figured out some neat techniques. As did the face in general. I think young women might be about the easiest to sculpt since their lines are usually so soft. Anyone have much of an idea how to do dark red hair dye as a texture? I can and will look it up but it seems a little tricky.
Also, is the hair perhaps a little too clumpy? I mean, in the reference, it's not so clumpy, but I'm hoping a nice shader will take care of much of that.
The below is a Vray render, with some very basic compositing done in Photoshop. I'm not sure where to take it... ignore the lack of a body on the character ... I'm mostly interested in commentary on the face's sculpt / scenes colours, shading etc. Excuse the dark water drops, I didn't maske the AO layer in photoshop to account for the water.
Raw render; http://blog.senorfreebie.com/Forum/xr/019.jpg
Scene setup 'roughly'
Around these objects are basic procedurally textured boxes for the sake of reflection & GI.
The camera sits at about the mouth ... but I feel that gives a better perspective for the overall shot.
The lighting & environment is a vraySun / Sky
The background planes are really basic
The water is particle based ... not sure how I feel about the spread / size of it. I did want to motion blur it a little but it seems that didn't come through at this res.
And yes, I intend to add more detail to the face in time. But for now I want to 'launch the surprise' with something along these lines. I'll also probably end up trying to make this suited for a genuine real time but before I do that I'll need a body.