Torso Sculpt Female

So! Here is the first Sculpt I have worked on. This was a warm up to try put to test of what I have learnt and try get some ideas of good techniques to set up a simple sculpts.

The images show how I used Zspheres to create the basic shape. Here I had the chance to get the pose ready and try start to think of proportions. Then I can convert it to a sculpt able mesh where I block out the form and then slowly add more details to get something like the front and side images of a female figure in this example.

The actual sculpt I am fairly happy with but theres some mistakes that I would want to rework, such as the proportions of the torso. They seem abit to long in the truck which then puts out a few other things. Also was my first attempt at sculpting a female figure, although my reference she was toned I think I over modelled some of the areas. In future I think I will try do a whole rework on things to get rid of over modelling as I think thats a common mistake in sculpts. Less is more it seems to be the case.

Some learning points from this is to make sure proportions are good as they do muck you up so I will develop that more and try to make sure its one of the things I keep in mind when making changes as sometimes you get lost in the sculpt and forget the basics.

Zbrush Sculpting Begins!

Now that I have broken down, researched and completed many exercises and techniques of each component of the body, I feel I have enough knowledge to develop sculpts further and use it to create more realistic sculpts of the body. Also I can look at topology as it will be based around muscles that I have sculpted ready for better animation ready meshes. Also all the exercises have been a great development of how to sculpt and areas that are really noticeable on the surface of the body once in certain positions.

Now I will take what I have learnt and do the same but sculpting now. So I plan to sculpt sections of the body then make quick full body poses to start take what I have learnt into 3D.

Neck Ecorche

The next muscles are very hard to sculpt as there are a few muscles that can vary due to neck orientation and some only show when the neck is raised or shoulders and tensed. Again these images show some of the muscles underneath the chin, these muscles are hard to spot with out the head and neck raised. Sculpting the neck is going to be a challenge as I have seen many attempts with necks and they always seem tensed or unnaturally big, so I think get the right shape and planes of the neck muscles will give great realism to my sculpts.

Full Leg Ecorches

Here is more of a full body exercise now. I have really tried to get all the muscles I can name on this image. The idea of using multiple images really helps see how the planes of the body change and how muscles effect the silhouette of the body. This images really gives me a chance to look at the legs and really try see all the plane changes. Good example of this and something I will need to attempt my self later on is the plane changes between the quads (muscles 28,29,30), Satoruis (49) and the abductors of the inner leg.

Upper Legs Ecorches

In these images I have started to bring in what I know about the legs, I have looked into the upper legs at the moment but plan to move down next week. However the legs are quite a challenge. But this week I have worked on one of my favourite sculpts to date. The image at the bottom is something I would love or recreate in 3D. So working on this sculpt was a really plus for me and taught me alot as the material is dark so finding some of the landmarks and placements was quite hard! The mix of having real reference and image of sculpts is really interesting to me as artists 150 years ago or more were getting these things right and they didn't have the resources we have nowadays.

Research: Legs

Here are a selection of images and diagrams I have been following in Dr Richers book explaining the quite complex setup of the legs and knees. I really wanted to grasp the idea of how Knees work as they are big noticeable section of the leg that everyone can recognise as being wrong or right. Some of the key muscles that make up the deformation of the legs are the Vastus lateralis, Rectus Femoris and the Vastus Medialis. The make up the deformation above the knee that we normally  refer to as the quadricep muscles. Also the Gastrocnemius muscle which are known as the calf muscles. 

Here are more articulations of the knee. I have this many images of different positions as the knee changes and creates different planes once moved so I thought it was important to try look as many examples of knee placements. Also alot of muscle deformation happens as the bones move so different muscles will work when its bent than when its straight. Same with the arm muscles the Bicep is flexed when palm is facing up but relaxed when facing down.

Upper Body!

Now I have research the whole upper body (minus head and hands). I have used a new technique using drawings made by Brague with a similar image with a real model. The idea is to fill in the drawn image with the correct muscles. The drawing shows great silhouette of the body where muscles overlap and intersect by having a simple line crossing another. This gave me enough information to place all the muscles on the body.

For the Arm muscles there are several section of muscles that I had to learn and locate. First set of muscles were the Triceps with the 3 different sections, being medial, lateral and long head of the triceps. The Extensor muscles that are found on the lateral side when the palm is facing forward and then the Flexors on the medial side which.

The Extensor muscles consist of the Extensor carpi radialis longus, Extensor carpi radialis Brevis, Extensor Digiti Minimi, Extensor Carpi Ulnaris and finally Extensor pollicis brevis and longus. All these muscles form the lateral side of the forearm. A nice fact is that there is a muscle named the Brachioradilais longus runs along side the Extensor carpi radialis longus and appear that they form one muscle that is noticable on everyones arms (labelled 11 in the image above).