Parasite Slave..

[Shawry]

Here is my first complete sculpt in Mudbox, Sorry for the lack of fancy presentation ( cause these are screen grabs lol ) My computer doesn't like Ambient occlusion lol, nor does it like going over 8.2 million poly's before it crashes. ;)

Any C & C most welcome... I have alot to learn.
Cheers.

[Wayne]

Skull references (http://www.mudboxhub.com/SkullReferences.rar)


This design has potential, but as you probaly realise the basic anatomy is letting it down a bit. So I've included some of my own skull refernces I use fomr my own reference files (I can't for the life of me rememebr who took these shots...but there are about 40 in the full set). I've included the important ones you'll need at a size large enough to be of a lot of use to you.


What I'd like you to do for your 'homework' is to try and overlay the front skull shot onto your model and see what areas you can spot that need work. You'll find that if you work something out yourself you'll remember it a whole lot better. My tip is to get the basic skull forms right at the start before you go off into character design land. This will give you an excellent base to work from.

Try to get the main shapes into you mind as a 3d object so that you know the basic form of it. After that its a matter of working out how to do each 'form'. You can simplfy things down abit obviously and treat the teeth / mouth area as a solid form instead of the individual teath etc....

If you can get ahold of some of the books by either Burne Hogarth or Bridgeman they are also excellent references.

I hope that helps.



Wayne...

[Shawry]

Thanks alot for the skull refs wayne.. appreciate it.

Ive done my " Homework " ;)
ive gone over everything that i can see, if i have missed something could u please point it out.. I get that i have to find it myself, but if i miss stuff im gonna miss it in future sculpts.

Its definately been a big learning experience doing this one, everything on that model is on the one layer.... oh big pain in the arse mistake that was.. lol it didn't click untill i was half way through it.

Parasite Slave was sculpted with no reference at all...
It wasn't even ment to be anything other than stuff around with a single brush, then ended up as that.

Do most people sculpt around 30+ million poly's? cause i found that 8 million isn't even enough detail in certain areas, and it sucks my computer can't go any higher. but i guess its not really important untill u understand everything anyway.

Yeh ive seen some other artists who have some of those books, You can never have too many books or reference, but One doesn't always have the money lol haha
someday i'll be able to get some :)

Thanks for the crit and Help, i'll keep practicing!

Adam

[Wayne]

Thanks alot for the skull refs wayne.. appreciate it.

Ive done my " Homework " ;)
ive gone over everything that i can see, if i have missed something could u please point it out.. I get that i have to find it myself, but if i miss stuff im gonna miss it in future sculpts.

Its definately been a big learning experience doing this one, everything on that model is on the one layer.... oh big pain in the arse mistake that was.. lol it didn't click untill i was half way through it.


Oh I sculpt on one layer a lot of the time.....mainly as thats how I learned many moons ago. But as a general guidline try to put major changes on a layer when learnings o its easier to remove later.



Do most people sculpt around 30+ million poly's? cause i found that 8 million isn't even enough detail in certain areas, and it sucks my computer can't go any higher. but i guess its not really important untill u understand everything anyway.[/quote

The polygon count is 90% of the time down to polygon flow. If you go with a flow it takes less polygons, against it wil tak FAR more. But there are loads of tricks to get the most of of sculpting at low resolutions...I came up with a shed load 'back in the day' I may stick on a quickstart vid at some point.

[quote]
Yeh ive seen some other artists who have some of those books, You can never have too many books or reference, but One doesn't always have the money lol haha
someday i'll be able to get some :)


Oh I understand the money problem..3d is expensive at the best of times. Although some books like the bridgeman ones are technically out of copywrite and have pdf version legally online for free. (Although reprints with changes are subject to a brand new copywrite BTW and not legal.)


As for the eyes, I'd strongly recommend to anyone to do these and the mouth and ears as seperate studies as they can be very chalenging when you start out....and even later on.


Wayne...

[Shawry]

Cheers man,

So would you recommend using a base model that already has proper flow-lines, over using one of the default models in mudbox? even tho some of you might use TopoGun or something similiar?

yeh ur lowrez sculpting tricks would make a great Quickstart Vid ;) hint hint....lol
How is "Wave 2" comming btw ?

I think i'll try a skull next and some independant eye n ear studies as u suggested.

Thanks very much for all your help wayne.

[Shawry]

Ummm..................... what are you talking about??

[Wayne]

Cheers man,

So would you recommend using a base model that already has proper flow-lines, over using one of the default models in mudbox? even tho some of you might use TopoGun or something similiar?

This is one of those answers that doesn't help a lot.....lol. The simple answer is it depends. It depends on how strong your poly skills are already (if you are comfortable with poly work then its a good idea to start wiht a good edge flow.) But you can also do what I do , which is use a very low poly base (sub 100 polys) and the retopolgise this once you have your medium res forms nailed.


Some artists refuse to work wihtout a good poly base mesh and some like me will work with whatever they can be bothered to mkae at the time lol. I've used both and while you have far more freedom wiht a low res cage of sub 100 polys, a higher res poly mesh with proper edge flow is far easier to sculpt over. There are things both for and against both of them. (As a sneak preiview...there is a section in the mudbox book I'm writing on this very subject in depth explaining all the whys and wherefores.)


yeh ur lowrez sculpting tricks would make a great Quickstart Vid ;) hint hint....lol
How is "Wave 2" comming btw ?.

As soon as I have a bit of time after doing the masterclass at Animago Animation & Film Festival in Berlin I'll try and get one recorded on the low poly side for you. mainly as those are techniques that can be applied even at higher polys. I'm a big beliver that just because you CAN sculpt in hundreds of millions of polys these days...it doesn't mean that you HAVE to. If something looks bad at 1/2 million you can bet your arse that it'll still look bad at 100 million.

Wave 2 ...Hmm I've actualy had no less than 3 candidates for a wave 2 dvd ...... eahc had lots of pluses and a few minus points. I've been trying to find a perfect balance. Wave 2 has sort of been nailed now content wise, so I may also rlease a 'special' dvd with a limited physical dvd run of a few special models...including the 'requiem' model session in full from start to end at normal speed. But thats still in early days yet decision wise.

Plus to be honest I got a fair bit of heat from some people for being so 'visible ' during the 2009 release so thought a break would be a good idea lol...oh and there may be a suprise regards this place soon-ish.

Wayne...

[Wayne]

Yes Finally

I still cant even get close to being there, being on the exact opposite end of the country n all, but Ill strain my ears and try to hear the awesomeness from over here. Put on a hell of a show I, Parasite is back :D



I'll do my best then to SPEAK VERY LOUDLY!! lol.



Wayne...

[Shawry]

ah k... well at the moment im kinda more comfortable starting with a mesh that ive done before hand, but wouldn't mind giving the retopo way a go, see how that feels..cause ive never done it yet..

Keep hammering away at your book man, really looking forward to that..!
As for the wave 2 - Well im keen... hopefully it will be a big hit, but if u only end doin a limited run of it, count me in, I'll pay whatever u want for it.. Im a big believer in paying for stuff.

I don't understand why people would give u Flack for doin awesome things n helping people... thats just retarted.. tell them to go jump in a lake... a nice subzero one.

Sweet, suprises from you are always pretty kool.

Sorry to talk your head off man

[Hulahuga]

[QUOTE=Wayne;3587]Skull references (http://www.mudboxhub.com/SkullReferences.rar)


/QUOTE]

Nice, thanks man!



And good start on that sculpt man! What I noticed on your "homework" sheet was that you made an extremely clear indention underneath the cheekbones.. That's not always necessary since people tend to differ a lot in that area...

[Shawry]

thanks alot hulahuga, i'll keep that in mind . cheers