Critiques welcome, especially on the head sculpt. This represents nearly a full day and a half’s worth of work. It is my first sculpt, and I think it kinda shows, but I’m happy enough with it that I’m going to go ahead with the re-topo, assuming nothing gets suggested here that makes me have to change everything.
A few things to note: The hair is a stand-in, just to make it read better. The ear is also lacking detail, and is again just there to make the head read correctly. It’s not likely that I’ll be changing the ear much, as the hair will just be covering it (and because I’m lazy). I’d like people to focus on critiquing the face. It is stylized (Similar to the Sintel character), so that’s something to keep in mind.
Wow, that’s a great face model; I can tell you’re experienced with this.
One thing I’d like to point out is that her legs look a bit chunky in the drawing. Not to be sexist or anything, but considering her waist size, they struck me as a bit chunky. Looks great otherwise, will definitely be watching this!
Edit: just read that this is actually your first sculpt. Oh emm gee. Seriously.
Body Mesh. This is a few weeks old, and I’m not totally happy with it. Most of it will be covered by clothing, however, and thus doesn’t really matter. Like the head sculpt, it’s more of a base, but for the clothing this time.
About the legs. I think I know what you mean about them being a bit “chunky”. This was intentional on my part. I see a lot of idealized women in CG images and other places that doesn’t really reflect what’s normal. Plus, this character is supposed to be athletic, capable in a fight, and just an all-around badass, and so I figured she’d have some lower body strength. Hence the leg size. The model sheets also reflect the thickness of the cloth around the legs, which also might make them appear a bit big.
Another quick update to the face geometry. It’s gotten a lot more dense. I did try to imitate the Sintel geometry in a number of areas, though the mesh is certainly still unique, as it was created from scratch.
Like the head sculpt, this is my first time doing a body sculpt. I’m not as happy with it as I was with the head. That said, It’s nothing more than a shrink-wrap/retopo target and not a final piece in and of itself. I would really appreciate some feedback on this if possible. Most of it will be covered by clothes, but I’m kinda forcing myself to do the whole process as I could use the practice.
Like the head, the hands are likely to be modeled separately from the body as well.
There are some really defined areas in the model like the elbow region. It actually gives it a sense of style and I like it. Only part that really bothers me is where the shoulder connects to the back. It seems like a bit too much. Other than that though I like the overall look and I’m looking forward to seeing where you take this.
Ya, I did this in one sitting, and looking at it again now I’m beginning to see things I really don’t like. It’s going to need a few more passes. You’re very right about the back of the shoulders.
Alright, here’s today’s work on the body sculpt. I think I have it in a place where I like it. The arm muscles are a little over defined, I think but everything smooths out with the sub surf during the re-topo, so I’m going to say that was intentional…
Discovering this thread.
Good job so far.
Maybe your mesh has too many edge loops. The face is very dense… But if you started the sculpt, maybe you don’t want to go back…
^Yes, it’s a bad habit of mine. I tend to make things very dense very fast. That said, density is comparable to that of the Sintel model, which I based a lot of the topology on. I’m also comfortable leaving the mesh this dense as I’m using the sculpt as a shrinkwrap target, and I’ve found that as long as I keep things clean, I have adequate control. If I ever don’t want to shrink something to the sculpt, I remove it from the vertex group I’m using for the shrinkwrap modifier. I did this for the ears and mouth.
One of the main reasons I’m doing the sculpting process besides just for the sake of practice is so that I don’t have to worry about getting too dense. Everything gets shrink to its proper place and I don’t have to worry about it (Too an extent. I still have to keep things clean and I still have to make smart decisions). I’m really starting to like the workflow.
The head is looking really nice, but something about the upper arm where it connects to the breast and shoulder blades seems overly defined. Visually the muscle is usually only truly defined on the top of the arm and then fades back into the fat of the arms and breast. Although the character appears to be strong, she has more of a lean/scrawny form than say an amazon type build where the muscles might be even more defined. I also realize you’re using it as a base, but hey, sometimes some minor things can change the way the armor sits or the character animates. Looking awesome though, keep up the good work and I’m excited to see more. :).
@Dorien: The hands, head and body will all be one mesh. I have trouble focusing on a bunch of things at the same time, so I like the break things up like that. Haven’t started the hands yet, so, who knows, maybe they’ll be done right there. I do have some hand reference art drawn up, however. The gloves also give me an opportunity to cheat a bit when it comes to matching vertex counts and whatever.
@LadyMischief: Thanks! Ya, I gave the sculpt another pass today. Made a few more tweaks all around, but I tried to fix what you mentioned. It’s tricky, but I think I like it now.
I figured I try out the new Sketchfab addon. Works pretty well. Thought people might want to actually see it in 3D:
Unfortunately, the back lighting on sketchfab is pretty bad and makes it appear flat (It’s not). I’ll see if I can tweak the lighting.
She’s looking really good. The back of the character is pretty amazing right now, you managed to get the smooth transition of the shoulder blades and the dip in the back.
The skye plugin is slow to load, but it’s really nice to be able to see all of the hard work you put into it. Looking forward to seeing more!
Here’s a preview of the sculpted model together with the head:
I just Booleaned them together real quick and re sculpted the neck area to fix the ambiguities. I think it’s reading pretty well, so I’m likely going to be moving on to the full re-topo.
She’s looking good! . . . even if she does look like a human/Grey hybrid right now!
The muscle-tendon bit at the front of her armpit looks like it comes down too far, but maybe I’m just not used to seeing muscular girls? That’s the only criticism I have, really. Looking forward to seeing her with hair and a skin texture.
