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Learning Diary - Zbrush Sculpting for Characters and Creatures.

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  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    Hello everyone, how you all doing? I hope everyone is doing okay, last month was troublesome for me, but i'm better now and more excited to study and sculpt more than ever before.

    I'm currently working on a troll based on a concept by Alfonso Pardo Martinéz:


    CONCEPT BY ALFONSO PARDO.

    The initial project was to make a quick study of the head, but i decided to make the whole body, when doing the body i then tought it would be fun to make a little base, so here's where i'm at now:




    Also i did a 1 hour sketch from a fun zombie, i'm thinking about adding those sketchs on my routine:


  • jStins
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    jStins interpolator
    Great progress in this thread, keep it up! 

    I'll leave the anatomy advice to the experts, but a couple thoughts on the most recent troll... I think you did a nice job capturing the overall proportions and mood of the character, but the stylization feels a bit inconsistent. For example you have some very sharp transitions between the shoulder muscle and upper arm whereas the concept shows much softer transitions in this area. 

    Stylization is all about varying degrees of simplification and exaggeration of different visual components. I think in the case of the troll concept the proportions and silhouette are exaggerated while keeping softer edges and transitions between the anatomical forms. 
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    jStins said:
    Great progress in this thread, keep it up! 

    I'll leave the anatomy advice to the experts, but a couple thoughts on the most recent troll... I think you did a nice job capturing the overall proportions and mood of the character, but the stylization feels a bit inconsistent. For example you have some very sharp transitions between the shoulder muscle and upper arm whereas the concept shows much softer transitions in this area. 

    Stylization is all about varying degrees of simplification and exaggeration of different visual components. I think in the case of the troll concept the proportions and silhouette are exaggerated while keeping softer edges and transitions between the anatomical forms. 
    Hey, thanks for the reply and the advice! I will keep that in mind, the transition is really harsh right now because the arms and the body are actually 2 different meshes, I was working with dynamesh so I didn't merge the arm to the body because it would mess with the biceps by melding it to the body. After the pose and proportions are finished I will merge it all and soften it, thanks again!
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    Hello, I hope you all are having a great weekend, I'm still working on the troll, this is probably the project that I'm having the most fun so far, I already learned a lot from it.



    I will make this character able for 3d printing, that's it, any feedback is welcome!
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    Hello everyone! I'm really happy to share my finalized study! It was a bit frustrating at first to make the cuts, but it was really fun still, i feel like this is my best project yet, at least the most complex:



    I have more images on my artstation post: ArtStation - Wild Troll - 3D Print Study, Raphael Fabris

    Thank you for reading this and stay safe!
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    Hey everyone. I'm currently working on a stylized Cammy from Street fighter, here's the progress so far: 


    Head:



    Body:



    I'm not sure if I'm gonna keep posting here, I've noticed that I got only a very few clicks when posting something and almost zero interaction, maybe long threads are not a thing people like. I might keep posting to share my progress for those who are following it, but I have a offline diary progress on my computer;
     
    Thank you so much for those how helped me in a way or commented over here and good bye, until the next post, maybe.. :sweat_smile:

  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    Hey everyone, I'm back, I can't just give up on my progress diary! :smiley:

    But I did gave up on the Cammy, at least for now, I felt like cheating, I've started the body from a basemesh, so there was no study on proportions at all, the head is different and I had to fix the anatomy after posing her but still.

    The whole think about how I was cheating myself made me frustrated, it did hold me from sculpting until a few days ago when I thought to my self "enough is enough" and stopped postponing my anatomy studies, but before I show the head study that I did let me share a few shots the Cammy WIP:









    That's it for the Cammy, now about the interesting part, the anatomy study! My main reference was Jon Bernthal, but as I expected, one who is a noob when it comes to anatomy can't achieve true likeness, so of course I failed, but I did the best that I could to make a good looking head from scratch, here's the blockout:
    It's important to note that I'm studying from a course of an amazing teacher named Rafael Souza!

    After getting the main shapes "right" (I did a few primary changes afterwards) I did the secondary details, and I have to say, studying the nose, mouth and eyes made a difference here:


    Next was more refined details:


    And finally (after a ton of tweaking) I added some skin details, here's the final shot:

    Feedback is appreciated!

    I'm really happy that I actually did a head study, I don't know why but I was apprehensive about start studying the human anatomy, maybe because of hearing about how complex it is.  

    That's about it, the plan is to make a few sketches and move on to female head. See you all, stay safe.
  • Phoenix995
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    Phoenix995 interpolator
    you really are improving a lot! great stuff!
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    you really are improving a lot! great stuff!
    Thank you!
  • Lether
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    Lether polycounter lvl 8
    Well, it is very interesting to see your improvement ! Anatomy is very difficult ! That is very cool to see you don't give up with this ! You are inspiring :) I'll definitively take example on you :)
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    Lether said:
    Well, it is very interesting to see your improvement ! Anatomy is very difficult ! That is very cool to see you don't give up with this ! You are inspiring :) I'll definitively take example on you :)
    Thank you, I'm glad you found inspiration in this thread!
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    Hello! I'm here to tell you guys that, once again, I did not follow (kinda)  my own plan to focus on anatomy, I wanted to make a realistic orc, but not a finished project like that stylized one I did a few months ago, but something to study a bit of overall anatomy AND the making of a badass orc! 

    So I chose Nikolay's Orc Cyborg course,  because he teaches a bit of anatomy, It's was really cool to follow his workflow here are the results (both the head and the body were created from a sphere):




    And that's about it for that orc, I do not plan on finishing it but I believe it was a solid study, now I started studying female stylized anatomy, this one I'm studying on my own, but I did start from a simple base mesh once again, but at least this one I did changed a lot of things including the proportions:

    Here are some somewhat SFW images:



    I'm sorry about this one, but I was just messing around with poses:




    I will finish this lady, but I can't hold my self on creating creatures, so here's my current creature project:


    Based on a concept by the amazing artist Khoa Viet!

    And that's it for now, keep up with the studies everyone and stay safe!
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    Hey everyone! I'm here to share a bit more of that stylized turtle that I'm doing, I'm starting to believe that stylized characters are my jam, at least they are the ones that I have the most fun making.

    Now, the whole project is based on a main concept by, again, the amazing artist Khoa Viet, here's the concept:


    But since that's a 2D image, I wanted to add a few more items to give more logic and variety when creating the 3D art of this bad guy, so I've added a box to support the kettle and a gourd to balance the scroll.

    Let me share a few WIP shots of the PROP's (Also a cute baby turtle):

    The box was based on a really nice concept by Mikhail Logachev.


    Here are the props with the baby turtle, I will remake the bag because it honestly looks really bad:


    And here's the whole turtle, after remaking the bag and some fixes I plan to start the main character:


  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    Hey everyone, just want to share a new WIP of the turtle, started the character and changed a few things.
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    Hello everyone!

    It's been a while, and that was because of the exams from the college, which is finally over, it feels.. weird to finally finish it after 5 years, i'm now graduated on civil engineering. Well.. now I'm a bit lost on what's the next step, quite lost actually, anyway, I opened the turtle project today after almost a month, and it felt like the project wasn't mine, like I can't work on it because I'm not capable, weird stuff, I guess this is the post about weird feelings huh?

    But let me share how is the character going so far, I've added the ropes to make it look believable and a mighty huge Sword because I like big swords!



    And that's it, I want to focus on 3D without feeling guilty about not studying for college now, I hope I can find a commission or a job soon, it's quite scary to have finished the studies and still not have a job.

    Thank you everyone, and stay safe.
  • JohannesAg
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    JohannesAg greentooth
    Nice job man, it's really cool to scroll through here, tons of improvement in this thread. 
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    Nice job man, it's really cool to scroll through here, tons of improvement in this thread. 
    Thank you man! I'm glad you're liking this thread.
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3

    Hey folks! Xmas is right here! I hope you all have a wonderful time, and also have a great fresh new start next year, i suppose this year wasn't easy for everyone, for me it was like a fallout aftermath from 2020. But i'm hopeful that next year things will be different for you and me! Things will be better.


    I'm doing a dwarf after a course from flippednormals, it's amazing how much I learned from it, even to the course was considered an introduction to sculpting.


    Also do you guys remember the dwarf I did September last year? I've made a comparison shot between this new one and the old one:

    And that's it, for now, Merry Christmas everyone, and stay safe!

  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3

    Hello everyone, I'm here to share an update on the little dwarf study i'm doing. I gotta say that i'm having a blast sculpting this bad guy.


  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3

    Hello, happy new year everyone, I wish a great year for you all full of success and happiness.


    I finished the dwarf study. It's was really fun to sculpt this guy.



  • waronmars
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    waronmars polycounter lvl 17

    Looking good, you are improving a lot!

  • RaphaelFabris
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3

    Hello everyone, I'm here to share a stylized mouth sculpt, the one from the top was made somewhere in the middle of last year, the one from the bottom is a recent study!



  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3

    Hello everyone! How are you all doing? In my journey of studying stylized female characters I've started working on a witch from an amazing concept by the great artist @rit.aria on instagram. I started it from a sphere to practice the blockout, and I was having a fun until the arms, it was really frustrating to get them right and still feels too small.


    Well, if it's too small what's frustrating about it just resize it right? Well yeah, but me dumb dumb, I've dynamesh the arm with the torso and now the whole thing became a big mess and now it's 10 times harder to make any adjustments on the body. But why didn't I just used a trim brush on the arms, redynameshed it and remade the arms? Because I only thought of that while writing this.. Again, me dumb dumb.


    Anyaway, heres the model! That's the result of a day of working on her, although I had a lot of problems doing her, I'm happy with the results, i will share the final model here soon.


    That's it for now, stay safe everyone.

  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3

    Hello everyone, I didn't made a proper render of the witch but I finished her a while ago, let me share how it turned out.

    Now I'm doing another creature, one based on an amazing concept by the incredible artist Nicola Saviori, the name of the art is Rudolph. The horns were a nightmare to blockout, they are really asymmetrical in the concept but for now it's just mirrored, I will change that later.


    Here's a closeup of the axe and the face.

    That's it for now, thank you for reading this and stay safe.

  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3

    Still working on it.


    Don't feel like writing a bunch on nonsense today so see ya.

  • wirrexx
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    wirrexx ngon master

    wow seeing the first sculpt and these new ones. You've leveled up a lot!!!! great work

  • RaphaelFabris
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3

    Hey guys, I've been studying more about game ready props lately and finished my first game ready prop, it's a stylized chest based on a concept by Alexandra Kostecka.

    I know that I created this diary focusing on characters and creatures, but I figured it would be of no harm learning more about prop creation, also after talking a bit with a person that works on the game industry he gave some tips, one advice that he gave is focusing more on prop creation, because the market is bigger and not so hard to enter as it's for character artists.

    My dream is to work as a character artist in the game industry, but I can't do that without even having a chance to enter it, let's hope that this new path of the journey focusing on props for now leads to an opportunity.

    Sorry for the long text, here's the result of the study:

    And here's the high poly:

    If you want more images and details here's the artstation link: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/YKgkPK

    Before that whole prop idea I started a course from hoOman about a game ready dwarf, tho i will most probably not finish it now, I still want to share a few shots of the high poly creation of the armor that i did:


    And that's it for now, for those who follow this diary, don't worry, I don't plan on abandoning it, but i can vanish for a month or two once in a while, anyways, thank you for reading this and stay safe, bye.

  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3

    Hey y'all, I'm here to share the WIP of a high poly scene I'm modeling, the concept is from Room 8 Studio.


  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3

    Hey everyone! I want to share with you guys the result of the scene above! It was really fun and challenging to texture it, and I'm starting to love substance painter, not gonna lie, I hated the first time I used it on a character from a course I posted here a while ago.


    There's a really cool turntable I did which a friend of mine edit with a music I chose and some effects plus more detail of each prop here:

    https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lRLYbo

    And that concludes another prop study, I'm having a blast making these game ready props, but I think the next personal project will be a stylized character.

    That's it, for now, stay safe everyone!

  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3

    Hey! I started a stylized weapon project, a glacial sword based on a concept by Maeve B. I think I just finished the high poly.

    Same thing as the last 2 projects, will make it game ready to train texturing. The plan is to learn unreal and make some ice effect on the blade, I'm a bit afraid because I didn't find anything about it on YouTube after a quick search, let's see.

    That's it guys, stay safe!

  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3

    The ice effect was not possible, not only I didn't find a proper tutorial on what I wanted but I realized my pc is too old to deal with unreal.. Here's the final result, now for sure the next project will be a character..right?

    Artstation link(with a generic animation from mixamo): https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LelL6w

    That's it, thanks.

  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3

    Hey few(if there's any?) guys that still read this thread, I'm here to tell that I will end this journey, at least for now, on this diary, it's taking quite a time to take shots of the work that i only share for pretty much zero views and zero iteration and comments, it's quite demotivating, but the worst was I discovered someone was getting the images I shared only here and sharing on Twitter like it was his(her idk) work.

    Quite annoying to be honest, so that's why i think it's for the best to just move on, but I don't want to end it all with just sadness, so I want to share that I was finally able to get hire as a full time 3d artist at a studio, that's really cool.


    So, that's it i guess, if i feel like sharing any work i will make another thread, but IDK, farewell to you that followed this thread, dm me maybe we can share contacts and still see each other evolution.

  • wirrexx
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    wirrexx ngon master

    its been a bloody pleasure!

  • Dabou Master
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    Dabou Master polycounter lvl 8

    Well it was incredible to see how fast you made progress (It was even more impressive for me as I can't find time to come as often as I wish these times).

    It's super cool that it paid off :)

    It's also a bit sad to see that people take your art to pretend it's their own (maybe try to see this in a positive way, no matter how annoying it can be, and see this as a bit flattering maybe ?)

    PLEASE do post here a link to the new thread if you ever make it, as I'll probably miss the new one if you don't.

    I wish you the best for what's to come next 😁 (yeah I'm struggling a bit with my english, I lack practice, sorry).

  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3

    Hey guys.. it's been a long while huh, but I feel like posting some of my progress over here again, so let me share the wip of a prop I'm doing RN.


  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    Well hello there, it's been a while.. again.. so, here's the thing after discovering plasticity and practicing for a few days I've decided to take Duard's course "AAA props with fusion", but instead of using fusion I used plasticity. The study was great to also learn new tips on Painter and realistic texturing.

    Here's the result, after seeing the renders again I can see that some parts of the models are too noisy.



    But here's the deal.. I miss creating and sculpting some stylized characters.. I miss it a lot.. So I'm not sure what I'm gonna do next, my plan was to create another realistic gadget but on my own to solidify the concepts I've learned so far, and I feel like I HAVE to do that to improve my skills since that's what I do in my work now(props in general). 

    Anyways, I will have to stop and think about what's next and what I really want.
  • Alex_J
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    Alex_J grand marshal polycounter
    your characters are fantastic. I hope you keep doing stuff like that :) it's much more fun that military lasers
  • pxgeek
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    pxgeek keyframe
    Glad you decided to update your thread.
    I really enjoyed scrolling through and seeing all the improvements you made!!
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    pxgeek said:
    Glad you decided to update your thread.
    I really enjoyed scrolling through and seeing all the improvements you made!!
    Thank you!

    Alex_J said:
    your characters are fantastic. I hope you keep doing stuff like that :) it's much more fun that military lasers
    Oh you're making me even more confused :lol: I will try and merge both, not military stuff but props + characters!
  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    Hey guys.. ok.. it's happening.. I'm back at characters! I'm struggling to get used to sculpting organic shapes again but it has been super fun until now.. Actually it's been a while since I had this much fun studying and doing 3D. But I'm super grateful and don't regret focusing on props for the last year or so.. because that gave me a chance to enter the industry and I learned a lot about the whole pipeline (optimization, UV, texturing, etc).

    I did a project with the help of a course from Rafa Souza.


    That helped me getting back on track on how to actually block and start a bust.

    And of course I had to try doing something on my own but more on the Stylized theme, so I chose a concept from Yao Deng.

    It's still a WIP, but I wanted to share it like the old days of this thread :)



    It's almost done, I think I will give it a week and a half more and will share with you guys the final result in this post.

    Thank you to everyone that's reading this, sometimes I look back at this thread and this keeps me motivated to keep studying and improving, I hope that this can inspire some of you as well.

    Stay safe.

  • RaphaelFabris
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    RaphaelFabris polycounter lvl 3
    Hey guys, here's the finished Gul'Dan. It was quite enjoyable to get back at sculpting organic stuff, my plan now is to create a game ready char(i guess?)





    Artstation link: 
    https://www.artstation.com/artwork/39QwZB

    See you all in the next post, stay safe.
  • Dabou Master
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    Dabou Master polycounter lvl 8
    Damn I missed your apparition, twice !
    How far you've progressed so quickly is depressing to me to be honnest ^^. I'm glad you're back though, it's thrilling to see how much you're still improving. I'm a bit jealous, I must be doing something wrong on my side :lol:
    Eager to see what you'll do next ! (Good luck on the gameready character if you do so :wink: )
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