Sketchbook: Tim Smith

DustyShinigami · Feb 2023

Hi. Welcome to my digital sketchbook. I hope I go about this right. I specialise in characters and I'm aiming to focus on real-time for my portfolio. I'll be using this to log my progress with a new project I'll be starting. I'm planning on making my first ever mech/robot. Due to the time-frame I have, I'm not planning on anything crazy complex, so I've decided to pick the Death Egg Robot from Sonic 2. :) I plan on making a real-time version of it, so apart from my usual breakdowns and research, I need to find similar projects of anime-styled mechs that have been made real-time.

Any feedback or suggestions throughout this would be super welcome! :)

DustyShinigami · Nov 9 2025

Current progress with an anatomy head sculpt...

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DustyShinigami · Nov 10 2025

Further progress with anatomy bust:

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DustyShinigami · Nov 19 2025

Current progress with the head anatomy exercise. Taking it from muscle and planar to likeness and adding skin and fat...

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DustyShinigami · Nov 19 2025

Current progress. Starting to work in and soften the forms/shapes.

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DustyShinigami · Nov 20 2025

Current progress with optimising my character's clothing. Had some technical issues I've had to try and get around. Some of the thickness UVs I'll have to deal with later when prepping the low/mid poly. So far I've done the chain-mail, the gloves and vambraces, and the boots.

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DustyShinigami · Nov 23 2025

Done some more refining of the head anatomy study and softened some of the forms.

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DustyShinigami · Nov 26 2025

Reached a milestone with my character project. All clothing has finally been optimised and UV unwrapped. Now I can go into ZBrush and refine, clean up, and push further.

Took some pics of their low poly and high poly.

Linen shirt:

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Jerkin:

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Pants:

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Boots:

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Gloves and vambraces:

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Chainmail:

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DustyShinigami · Nov 28 2025

Been working on refining my character's boots. Also removed the left one and made them symmetrical.

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Also did a bit more with that skull. I think I'm reaching a point now where I don't know what else to add/do, so will start looking at adding tertiary details soon.

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DustyShinigami · Dec 4 2025

Found some better 'master' references for the boots. For the front, side and back. Been going back over the boots and the compression folds.

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Also blocked out the top teeth for the skull I'm working on.

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DustyShinigami · Dec 7 2025

Actually really struggling to get the leather compression folds right for these boots. I've started it again from scratch and had some paintovers done for me, but it looks and feels exactly the same as before. :-\

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zetheros · Dec 7 2025

most people use marvelous designer for folds. If you want to hand sculpt them though, you can drop in some alpha map detail to use as a 'base', then clean up and sculpt over that. It's a good method, I use it myself for basically everything. You can find them for a few bucks (or even free sometimes) just need to watch for what licensing is attached.

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DustyShinigami · Dec 7 2025

zetheros said:

most people use marvelous designer for folds. If you want to hand sculpt them though, you can drop in some alpha map detail to use as a 'base', then clean up and sculpt over that. It's a good method, I use it myself for basically everything. You can find them for a few bucks (or even free sometimes) just need to watch for what licensing is attached.

Yep. Everything was done in Marvelous Designer to begin with.

I'm now just trying to refine and clean up some of the simulation noise. I have been trying to use some alphas as a base, though when trying to match the above reference, I've found that a number of the alphas aren't right for the job. So I've tried to manually sculpt them.

DustyShinigami · Dec 8 2025

Been practising and using an approach someone suggested to me for the compression folds of the boots. This is where it currently is...

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DustyShinigami · Dec 12 2025

Reached a bit of a roadblock with sculpting folds on fabrics for my character. So I've been focusing on some cloth fold exercises. Working on some for Zombie Art School - a course I've signed up for that starts next February - and I've started following SpeedChar's cloth and fabric sculpting course. Been practising sculpting folds on a pair of jeans.

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The first exercise for Zombie Art School involved making some clothing in Marvelous Designer...

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And now I'm making them from scratch in ZBrush.

DustyShinigami · Dec 16 2025

Completed the second exercise for Zombie Art School. Not overly happy with it, and was struggling to read the reference when it came to the spiral zig-zag folds on the arms, but I've spent WAY too long at them that I needed to move on.

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Also started following a clothes and folds sculpting course. Finished the first exercise - some more jeans. Again, not particularly happy with the results. Still need more practise.

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DustyShinigami · Dec 17 2025

Completed the second exercise - a tank top:

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DustyShinigami · Dec 19 2025

Finished sculpting a cushion as part of an exercise. Will tackle some draped cloth next.

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DustyShinigami · Dec 19 2025

Completed the next exercise - a t-shirt:

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Next - some shorts. And some hanging drapery.

DustyShinigami · Dec 19 2025

Haven't touched my character's clothing for exactly one week. After the practise I've been having, I decided to go back to the boots and see how things went. If anything, I'm feeling a bit more confident with them. 🙂

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DustyShinigami · Dec 22 2025

Completed the next exercise from the course I'm following - shorts

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DustyShinigami · Dec 23 2025

Took a few tries, but did a crumpled sleeve exercise.

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iam717 · Dec 24 2025

ooph sry been busy but something like these i hope they help i gave variation so you can get an idea of what you think would be the best approach for your needs and skill set. The one you reference is fine also i suppose though i never seen that one.

1. Quickest clean method for production

2. the Reverse zbrush to marvelous

3. Blender playlist if you ever feel the need to learn blender routine

DustyShinigami said: Thank you. ^_^ Which video is that? I've been following and using a combination of a guide posted on ArtStation and Laura Gallagher's from Outgang.

Glad to see you continuing and going really hard at it, congrats on the self motivation.

DustyShinigami · Dec 24 2025

iam717 said:

ooph sry been busy but something like these i hope they help i gave variation so you can get an idea of what you think would be the best approach for your needs and skill set. The one you reference is fine also i suppose though i never seen that one.

1. Quickest clean method for production

2. the Reverse zbrush to marvelous

3. Blender playlist if you ever feel the need to learn blender routine

DustyShinigami said: Thank you. ^_^ Which video is that? I've been following and using a combination of a guide posted on ArtStation and Laura Gallagher's from Outgang.

Glad to see you continuing and going really hard at it, congrats on the self motivation.

Oh nice. Thanks for sharing those; I'll give those a watch. ^_^

Heh, sometimes it does feel like motivation can be quite low at times due to personal struggles and family issues, but I do try each day as best I can. ^^; Once this course I'll be doing starts the beginning of the new year, that should give me some re-newed motivation especially as it'll be full time.