Sculpting the Teeth

Today was spent sculpting the teeth of my demon and refining some of the facial features. The picture looks a bit crappy because I don't actually render these WIP pictures as the lighting and shadows aren't quite right as I haven't set them up yet!

Once the main form was blocked out, I could finally turn off symmetry and start defining the facial features better. Because, in life (real or fiction), people and creatures are not 100% symmetrical. So here I have made one eye a little bit droopier and one side of the face is more bony.

The horns look out of place at the moment, as I just started them as I finished for the day. I plan to (with the advice from my girlfriend) have horns running down the spine of the demon, and have a horn protruding from the elbow.

I can't wait to get onto poly-painting this character and rendering him out.

You can view my WIP on Behance!
Also, follow me on Twitter and I have a LinkedIn too!

Refining the Body

I spent most of the day today sculpting the head and toning down the muscles of the demon. In all honesty, the way I previously left the head turned out to be rather phallic! But it looks completely different now, with some finer details being added.

I really think he's coming into shape now. Of course, I am far from finished, but the more it begins to take better shape, the more determined I am to complete it. The head I am pleased with. He looks angry and mean, by the shape of his eye brow.

I've really gone for "proper" anatomy here. Obviously it will never be proper, being a demon which isn't real. But the same muscle groups apply and I have a brilliant resource for muscular structure. I have that site open on my other monitor and it makes it easy to sculpt the muscle shape and depth across the body.

I found the previous version was too muscular; I much prefer it this way. However, things change all of the time, so it may look completely different (muscular structure wise) later on!

That's all for today. Tomorrow I will continue refining the body (silhouette) and creating the teeth.

A New Project

After I completed the little worm, I spent an hour or so trying out techniques for creating rocks in ZBrush. It sounds easy and boring, but rocks and stones are huge environmental assets for games and 3D films. I learnt a very quick and easy way to make a realistic looking rock that can then be exported into various programs to texture it, if required. Obviously, it's possible to texture the object in ZBrush.

This rock isn't textured; it just has the original red wax material that comes with ZBrush. It was simply starting with a sphere and using the move tool with DynaMesh on to manipulate the points into a rock shaped object. I adjusted the noise curve (much like the level curve in Photoshop) to create the bumps and divots you see on the rock. 

However, my next main project is to create a portfolio ready demon character. Again, I will be following a guide but adding things and doing things differently.

I started off using a tool called a ZSphere. This tool makes it incredibly easy to create rough poses for characters (it's what was used to create the worm). You then turn the ZSphere mesh into an editable mesh which can be sculpted on.

At the moment, I've been working on the top half of the body. The front and back muscles are near enough defined, along with the arms.The Clay Buildup brush is amazing to add rough details such as muscles. The next step is to continue defining the muscles and start to shape the head by adding horns/ears, and the general facial features.

In my opinion, it has got off to a good start, and I hope it continues that way!

Final Render

The worm is finished! 6 hours and 12 minutes of tutorials and videos later (but more like 10 or 12 hours of actually sculpting for me), it is complete. I must say, I am thrilled with the result. It's good mine is very different to the one in the guide.

The picture here is little so have a look at my project on Behance! Overall, the project was challenging. ZBrush was completely new to me (and most of it still is!), but I feel more confident and comfortable with the basic tools to move onto new projects. I already have another 4 or 5 courses lined up (about 28 hours worth) on ZBrush and 3DS Max, ranging from characters to interior design.

This is only the start of my personal 3D adventures; I've only explored the tip of the ice berg. I can't wait to continue exploring the vast area of 3D modelling and sculpting and sharing my progress here.

Progress

Since my last post, I have made significant progress in terms of detailing and texturing. The main body of the worm is pretty much complete, with little hairs, details and textures added, but the base and slime still need finishing off.

I decided to give the little guy a mohican! He's got bushy eyebrows that aren't well groomed either, to add to his evil, angry, menacing (?) look. I am really pleased with the way this is going; I thought I would struggle a lot but it's turning out to be ok. It is by far from simple, mind you.

I would say this worm will be finished tomorrow, then I can move onto other things. Unfortunately, I won't be including this worm in my portfolio come the time I finish it; the main reason is that I have been following a guide and I'd rather have my own, unique work in there. But this is a starting point from which I will progress.

This is only a short post, as I showed the new updates I made in one picture!

Much Better!

I must say, today has been much better in the ZBrush department. I only completed a few lessons of my current course, but that's because today involved a lot more sculpting rather than watching videos on the various features.

My worm is certainly looking much more like a worm! If you remember what it used to look like...

And now it looks like this! He's an angry little fella'!

I am literally so ecstatic right now, because it (to me) has gone really well and I am so pleased with the outcome. Although my hand hurts now because this is the longest time I've used my tablet for.

That's all for today; I will go to bed happy knowing I am getting better with ZBrush.

Starting Off

Well, my first working day went okay. I was a tad optimistic at first, thinking I could get to grips with ZBrush quickly. I started off following a book on how to create realistic games characters; it has a step-by-step guide on what to do, but not how to do it, if you get me? This didn't go down so well - I ended up doing the first step about three times because I was having difficulty working ZBrush's interface and navigation system.

So, instead I bought a one month subscription to Digital Tutors. It's fairly reasonable at roughly £30 a month, but obviously, like with most subscription based companies, you can save money if you buy 6 months or a year up front. Digital Tutors is amazing; I am currently working my way through a 6 hour course on the introduction to ZBrush. It teaches you how to navigate around the program, sculpting, texturing and much, much more. Each lesson is between 5 and 12 minutes long, so it doesn't feel laborious at all. It's actually very enjoyable.

The first few lessons are basic ones, such as basic sculpting, painting and deforming geometry. It's only in the later lessons where the bigger project starts. So, from the first few lessons, I messed around with the different tools and made a silly looking alien-type creature.

It's not brilliant, but like I said, I was just getting to grips with the different brushes, tools and the interface of ZBrush.

The current course I am following consists of 44 lessons; I have just completed lesson 24 (day two, now). I am slowly getting used to the program, but jeez, there is so much to learn and so many features! I am building up to sculpting a worm, which is what the course guides you through while teaching you the basics of ZBrush.

So, I've still got the teeth to sculpt and the main facial features, along with the slime and base the worm sits on. But so far I believe it is going really well, albeit rather confusing a lot of the time!

I'll probably post updates every couple of days, to document my progress.

Quick Hello

Hey there; I'm Steffan, an aspiring 3D modeller and animator hoping to break into the games/film industry at some point. This blog will detail my projects, from final pieces to works in progress. I'll probably show a step-by-step process for some WIPs. I'll mainly be using 3DS Max and Zbrush, along with final edits in PhotoShop.

I, and my parents, have agreed that I will work "full-time" on my portfolio, 9-5 five days a week. That way I will always improve and hopefully get a nice job in Sweden or Germany somewhere!

I'll be posting my work onto my Behance page as well.

That's all for now, ciao.