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The FearMe daily (or damn near it) Update Thread

The basic goal I'm attempting here is to eat a slice of humble pie, go back to my basics, and build my skill set back up all over again. I'm going to attempt to create or detail a new head every day or two, and post a little process about it's creation when I can. I welcome any and all criticism. I have two purposes here: learn form, learn detail. I'm picking head's due to my inexperience with full body proportions, and I don't think I want to overwhelm myself right off the bat.

Please excuse my compression for today, as all my work has been done on my laptop today without photoshop. Lolzmspaynt guyz.

I attempted an old man today:
oldman2.jpg

It was simply put that I was trying to fly without wings (my own words for that one). Too much attempt at detail with a lack of basic form. I agree with this, so I made my goal to study skull anatomy and facial proportions for a couple of hours, and create a very basic low poly shape before attempting to go any further. Someone mentioned the good advice of sketching over your figure to feel if the proportions are satisfactory:
skulloverlay.jpg
This is on the 2nd tier of detail level.
From there I felt the jawline was off, as were the eye sockets and nose line.

At it's very basic level, this is the mesh thus far:
lowpolyside.jpg
lowpolyfront.jpg

I think in this primitive form, the brow line looks too high. I'll be changing this tomorrow. (Spent for the night). At its highest poly level, the mesh appears like so:
highpolyside.jpg
highpolyfront.jpg

Pretty interesting to see the effect of only manipulating things at the lowest level, and some of the detail that results from it. I don't want to take this head any further without some fresh eyes viewing it, so leave this for all to comment on. smile.gif

Replies

  • Ruz
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    Ruz polycount lvl 666
    why not just build a low poly head with more detail in it.
    I find this much easier than building from a near blob.

    you could just get the silhouette perfect in max then export the head to zbrush when it looks like a head( albeit low poly with good silhouette)
  • aesir
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    aesir polycounter lvl 18
    ruz is right. Its way better to build a basemesh in max and then sculpt subtle details in zbrush.
  • PolyPutty
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    I agree with Per128 you need to take some formal anatomy classes where you do nothing but copy the model. This is the fastest way to learn anatomy with the guidance of a teacher their to help. I would also recomend taking a figure sculpting class as well I need to get around to doing it. I have a guy I work with who has taken the class and his understanding of the forms of the muscles is just amazing. I would recommend starting with Drawing unless you have a natural talent for sculpting.
  • Marine
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    Marine polycounter lvl 18
    don't try and work exclusively in zbrush, you'll just screw yourself pretty badly. rough out the piece in zbrush, export it and build a new low poly base with better poly flow in max/maya/whatever around it, then sculpt that.
  • Ruz
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    Ruz polycount lvl 666
    also imagine if you had
    to sculpt a real life clay head with a paintbrush. it would n't be much fun really:)
  • Spark
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    Spark polycounter lvl 18
    Wanted to chime in here, Mudbox and Zbrush are only tools. They do not or will not make you an artist, if anything they only show how you are not as skilled as someone who knows those tools and has a serious background in traditional art. Drawing from life ( life drawing/coffe sketches/ anything from life ) will get you further than taking a primitive shape, and trying to sculpt something out of it, when you have no knowledge of the basics on what it is that your trying to sculpt. I think as Per said, to many are trying this route, and honestly have to agree with him that no one has succeded this far.

    Spark
  • Mark Dygert
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    Doodling in ZBrush is fine and I think you can push shapes around and use it as a tool to HELP you learn anatomy. I don't subscribe to the idea that you need to code in notepad for 9 years before you can graduate to the big boy toys. Sure you can learn anatomy and critical artistic skills by making low poly meshes but it won't let you push forms around as fast as ZBrush. Of course that speed will let you make mistakes and you might be moving so fast that you don't realize you've made mistakes, but as long as you're not in a god awful rush to the highest level of detail you should be able to use it fine to learn anatomy. Believe it or not people actually learn from mistakes but the point is to spot them and not rush right past them =P I like you can just as much of sitting down and drawing out details in Zbrush as you can with pencil/paper. But the point (again) is to slow down and learn.

    There isn't a make awesome button!

    Slow down, breath, and come back to your sculpt after some time away and crap will jump out at you. Of course working from reference will help you contrast what is wrong, and by all means study, study, study and draw, draw, draw.

    Someone posted a High res 3D skull a while back, I hear it works great when using it as a locked guide under your base mesh. I haven't tried it out yet but I imagine it could be helpful. It might be more helpful to build your own base skull based on the abundance of ref and go from there...
  • FearMe
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    Quick note before post body: I guess this thread is going to end up being a blog, for lack of a better term. If this is frowned upon, I can discontinue it to save some bandwidth. Personally, I'm hoping for it to be a reminder/motivator for the time being.

    Ruz/Aesir: You guys are right. Honestly, I'm just not that familiar with a 3D environment to do that yet. Practicing every day to get there. Mayas tool interface is frustratingly slow. I downloaded Silo, so we'll see how far that goes.


    I signed up from some basic drawing/figure classes, they'll start in mid January. My fundamental skills have always been lacking.
    Today I spent my time going more basic, a Remington 700:
    remington.jpg
    Not much to critique really, there's a basic shape with some sloppy edges. But that's what I need to focus on right now, shape and form. I don't want to spend too much time, for fear of getting lost in meaningless details (this has always been a problem of mine.) Mechanic/solids before organic. Walk before running.

    Tomorrow I'll be grabbing a sketchbook and some soft pencils. I did some #2 on computer paper for a little while, and was just disgusted with what the results were. Definitely need to spend a lot of time in this department. Really nothing worth posting in that department smile.gif
  • Steve Schulze
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    Steve Schulze polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    to sculpt a real life clay head with a paintbrush. it wouldn't be much fun really:)

    [/ QUOTE ]I usually use a rake myself. Its not that dissimilar to working in a sculpting program with a tablet.
  • FearMe
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    EQ sent me a great tutorial for getting a better feel at how things should flow:
    http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/joanofarc/body1.asp
    So far it's been a great tutorial and as a result, I'm getting a better feel. It's paint by numbers sure, but its a good way to learn your way around your 3d app. My result so far for the day:
    joan.jpg
    The upper half has gone about twice as fast as the lower half as I figure out little tricks. I'll probably shelve this one for a few days to try something else.
  • Marine
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    Marine polycounter lvl 18
  • Target_Renegade
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    Target_Renegade polycounter lvl 11
    It looks like you have a womanly shape done, but it also looks
    like shes standing in a weird way. I'd definitely like to see a side profile...
  • FearMe
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    Sorry gentlmen, I am right smack square in the middle of finals.

    smokenade.jpg

    Have a crappy smoke grenade!

    Target: The reference has her standing pretty much tiptoed.
  • FearMe
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    Holy shit I graduated.

    So I've been trying to work on a hand with proper edge loops around jointed areas without having too high a polycount. Each finger tip I'm trying something different for the best form. I think the index finger looks best, and the rest of the fingertips should go that way. However, I wanted opinions. I've found that as I try to pose it (like the slight drooping of the thumb), the geometry works out a lot better, as it presently sits kind of flat and unnatural.

    handpersp2.jpg
    handpersp.jpg

    And for Target Renegade:
    joanside.jpg
  • Baddcog
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    Baddcog polycounter lvl 9
    I think the index looks good too but the top of fingernail needs brought foward quite a bit. Almost right to the end, maybe just a hair behind the next polys down.

    You need a palm pad at the base of the thumb.

    Bottom, the pad along outside of hand (pinky side) should come right out to the edge. It should curve out from wrist then curve back in to meet the base of pinky.

    On top the middle vert between middle knuckles should be slightly higher.
  • FearMe
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    Revised as per Badcogs crits:
    hrevised.jpg
  • Baddcog
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    Baddcog polycounter lvl 9
    I think it's looking pretty good now, but top view there smile.gif
    I'd say the sides of the fingers (index/pinky) are too wide.

    The middle knuckle on middle finger too skinny.
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