3D Toolkit - 2nd Character Sculpting Process

 

2nd Character Sculpting Process

For these next set of blogs , I will be talking about the entire step process of making the the character design that I have previously talked about in previous 3D toolkit blogs with this set of blogs discussing the set steps made for the model such as going through sculpting , retopologising , uv unwrapping and the posing sections of each area.

Video Sculpting Process

For easier explanation , I created YouTube videos whilst I was creating the full character showcasing different time-lapse of each model with this model starting off with the sculpting process

Important Notes before process

Base Body Model

To start working on the model , I imported a base model mesh from the Zbrush's program lightbox to cut time from creating the base model from scratch plus with model I am able to use the inflat tool to alter the proportions to what I want from my character concept art and using the knife cut tool to remove the head , hands and feet since they would all be different segmented pieces.

Base Head Model

Similar to my Base body , I imported the anime base head mesh from Zbrush's programs lightbox to help as this base mesh hand similar proportions to what I wanted and using the knife tool to cut of the ears and utilise the flatten tool to create the eye sockets.

Starting of with main set of tools

Inflat : The inflat tool is able to increase the size of the sculpts polys adding additional workroom which in my case during the video section whilst working with the body , I used this tool around the calfs and arms to increase the proportions to fit my characters style better.

Standard : The standard tool was mainly used for in the heads sculpt section primarily used when creating the separate marking on the face whilst during the body portion of the video , standard is used to created the separate scales protruding out of the body.

Snake Hook : The selection of snake hook tools were only used in a small section of the entire face sculpt which was during the time of making the separate horns that came out of the top section of my characters head piece.

Flatten : When it comes down to talking about the flatten tool , it was mainly the tool i used alongside standard and the main final steps for each proportion of the characters different segments such as giving the scales along the body the shape and rough texture that I was going for or instead of using the smooth tool whilst creating the cloth around my characters waist using the flatten tool in my opinion gave it more style of being a worn down and ruined cloth than using the separate smoothing tool.

Smooth : The smooth tool was primarily used during the head sculpting phase when smoothing the pieces together whilst they were segmented such as the centre horn since it was created whilst being masked and moved around causing the edges to break so I smoothed the edges down to make the horn seamless with the heads shape.

Knife Curve : With the knife curve tool , it came into use when it came to cutting sections off the base models that I was using as a base such as cutting off the hands and feet off the base body model due to my character concept art my character has his feet and hand segmented off his body and one of his hands being replaced by an oversized claw and this is also seen with the base head model having the ear segments cut off with my character having oversized fins instead of human shaped ears cause them to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Move : The Move tool was mainly used once again on the head sculpt whilst I was making the different ear shapes and both sets of horns as I would mask around the whole head then delete a set segment of that head and use the move tool to drag out a section of the head to create the new set of horns and ears.

Details on the Model

Bandage & Cloth Creation :

Working on the process after working on different sections of the main body , I started creating the clothes by masking off certain areas and using the exact tool inside the Zbrush sidebar using different thickness' for each set of clothing and using the flatten tool to apply rough edges to the side of the bandages and creating folds in the cloth around the waist , with the extraction tool it makes creating the clothing an easier solution as whatever has been masked is then extracted over the top.

Centre Horn Creation

To create the centre horn , I used the masking tool to create a set area around the head and used the move tool to extrude out at a certain height to create a base for the centre horn and alongside the flatten tool I managed to roughen up the shape to get the finalised shape that is the most similar to my final character art.

Scales

Creating the Scales around the whole body was created using a combination of using the standard brush , inflat and the flatten in repeat when it came to creating the individual scales and using the inflat tool as a way to set the heights and width of each individual scale before flattening each scale and giving them the correct thickness and height that I want to be.