Old man


Edit: Final render clean straight out of Blender. Post processing still to be done.

Original post:
Creating an old man, based on some familiar faces from my home village, with some exagerated features, to be a mixture of realistic and comic.
I brought inspiration both from the local rural old man, as well from Miguelanxo Prado, I love his comic books, and he often portrays this kind of male in short stories

I’ll keep posting the progress as I go.

After creating the basic forms with Dynamic Topology, went on the retopology process and for that I tried for the fist time the BSurfaces add on.
It’s a breeze to work with, helps to make the job done very quickly, while maintaining a manual aproach to it. I love it!
I’m finding I really like to do retopology :slight_smile:
Here I show the dynatopo version, and the retopo’ed one, with the shrinkwrap modifier.
Dynatopo:



Retopologized:



Wonking on the secondary forms

Adding details around the eyes and mouth for now




This looks very cool, the details look amazing! Are you planning on animating this?

Thanks solowy! :slight_smile:
I’m planing more of a portrait, so I’ll create different blendshapes for his facial expressions.
I might make an animation after with all the different face movements :slight_smile:


I think I’m finished with the secondary forms.
For the tertiary forms, instead of proper 3D sculpting, which will strain too much my computer, I’ll create a bump map texture with the details.
Since at the end would have to bake the micro details into a bump map, I think I can get away with it. It will make my life much easier and quicker… :stuck_out_tongue:

I like where you’re going with this. Why not apply some dirty vertex colors and play around with them a bit? I think that would do wonders for your material.

Thanks teaLeaf! For now the applied material is just a basic mix between SSS and Diffuse, and then a Gloss in the end. I haven’t done yet the diffuse texture.
Correct me if wrong, but I’m not sure if I can apply dirty vertex colours to the subdivisions of a Multiresolution modifier…
Anyway, this is just to preview the sculpt for now, and I’m overlaying a bit of AO in the composition, to highlight a bit the wrinkles


Finished with the tertiary forms. It’s basically a bump map texture (8192x4096) but does what’s supposed to, specially at this resolution. Impressive how it makes the rendering so slow!
Now I’ll create the diffuse, specular and SSS texture.
After that I have to dress and hair do him :slight_smile:

The teeth were created by Ever Hobbes, downloaded from Blendswap


New update. Eyes finished and added a hair preview.
After a while without looking at it, decided to change the shape of the eyes. It wasn’t quite right.
No textures yet on the face. Only basic colour diffuse mixed with some SSS and glossiness, and a bump map for the small details.

I can imagine the rendering being slow with a bump map texture of that size! I’m sure giving him face textures will add more realism to the face. The hair seems a little bit thick though. Reducing it a bit might help. Overall, this is coming along great and I can see him start to take shape!

I like the overall shape of the head. But I think the bump of the last sculpting pass is too much. And I also think that he perhaps will have fewer hairs. His skin looks very rugged now. Other than that really nice.


Thank a lot, minoribus and solowy for the valuable input! :slight_smile: I’ve reduced the hair thickness and density, and the bump map. Do you think now is still a too rugged skin? I like how it’s coming, but I sure need a new pair of eyes :smiley:
After a week a bit off blender (bodypainting, parenting and music), came back and finished with the diffuse map (i think, for now). Started with a blend of a base color, dirt vertex, displacement and normal maps, and then some more layers for colour variations, freckles and spots.
Added some unfinished eyebrows as well.
I’m starting to play with Blend shapes so I can test different expressions while being able to come back to the neutral one.

I can’t get the B surfaces add on to work?? :confused: it always comes up with an error… :frowning: do you know what would be the problem?

Wow, this looks a lot better. The hair looks nice as well. The only thing that seems a bit off is the eyebrows. The shape is good but I think it needs a bit more density since there is still skin showing through. The texture is nice, I like the redness on his nose and cheeks.

Nice work on the topology looks very even and animatable.

Thanks solowy! Yes, I have to work the eyebrows a bit more… About the redish nose and cheeks, at first I had him more red, because I want him to look a bit like a stereotypical old Mediterranean guy that loves a good glass (or two) of wine every meal :slight_smile: But at the end I always go back just a little. Less is usually better. I’m still undecided though :stuck_out_tongue:
Thanks teaLeaf, I always take longer time at the beginning to prepare it to take the most potential out. Even though I might end with just one portrait of him, I can’t help thinking of all the hard work I’d have if then I wanted to animate him. :stuck_out_tongue:
Nervertheless, it makes my life easier making the facial expressions :slight_smile:

Started experimenting with his facial expressions, with blend shapes.
I know there’s still stuff to do before, but so I can check if it is going in the right track.
Changed the lighting a bit and another HDRi, to give it more brightness and contrast

Of course, it’s better to see the images in full size, to see the details correctly




Some more renders, two different angles






The attachments from the last post don’t work for me. I get an error message instead. The facial expressions from #19 look very good. especially the first one. This looks like he would really speak.

The bump in the high res images is good now. Still on the edge - as a matter of taste - but good. It will be reduced again a bit once you’ll incorporate some SSS into the shader.