More cloth...

Nothing too new - one with lace trimmings and one without. Mostly just some adjustments to the placement of the cloth - mostly how it covers the breasts more now. Though I'm not so happy about the way the cloth interacts with the nipples (it's more visible in the version without the lace). So I'll probably adjust that a bit.

It's still using a basic shader with a few tweaks which looks better than the shader from my previous post. The lace is also pretty flat at the moment as it has no bump applied. I'll still be playing with the shaders later on. There are still no textures aside from the lace and a rough bump material for over all coverage. This will change once I've sorted out the UV's etc.

G

Posing

It's all been going a bit too slow as I've been stuck in a bit of a rut and have also been a bit lazy. Anyway.... I've finished the ZSphere posing and now I'm cleaning up the pose deformation and getting the muscle definition sorted out to match the pose. I've just started on her upper torso. Once that cleaning up is done, it's on to the expression. Shouldn't take too much time to get that all done then I can start setting up the final scene. I've also been testing some VRay shaders, but more on that later.

I'm also about halfway with the clothing. I'll post some updates on that soon.

G

Rigging and Posing with ZSpheres.

I've really been been enjoying the freedom and ease that ZBrush's ZSpeheres offer for rigging and posing. I always used to have to painstakingly set up the skinning and posing using Max's biped and Character Studio, which would take ages to do and never really gave me great results (probably because I'm not a character rigger).

I find this works so much more easily and not to mention quickly for what I need. It took roughly 10-15 minutes to create this rig, and the best part is that it skins the character on the fly. It works incredibly well; even really hard areas to rig and manipulate like the shoulder areas are no problem - the arms rotate upwards and the mesh deforms with no problem.

There are still a few areas to pose and tweak: the hands and fingers haven't been touched yet and I might still tweak a few other areas. Once the ZSphere posing is done, I'll do a bit of clean-up sculpting to areas where the muscles have deformed and shifted and then also give the her an expression of some kind.

G

More render tests...

I posted these to my deviantArt account a few days ago -  thought I should share them here as well.

Another one of many test renders that I've been doing (I'm enjoying V-Ray). The image on the right is rendered with GI and 2 lights (+ one for the eye highlight). The one on the left is the same but with no GI. Neither are using V-Ray Environment.

I'm mostly done with the sculpting (still might tweak one or two things here and there) and texturing - the bump map still has one or two areas that are inverted (the eyebrows which will be removed when I do the grooming and one or two moles, etc.).

I should be starting the hair and clothing for her soon, meaning that she'll actually start to look like a character.

G

Render tests...

I started testing out VRay for the fist time in ages. Okay I lie, I tested  it on a earlier version of this model months back and she's changed a lot since then. It was quite a basic quick test only using a diffuse map and no SSS. But honestly, the last time I used VRay was back when it was free and still in Beta testing.

These are a few of the latest renders I've been testing. The first two in the row of four have GI enabled whilst the last don't, thus their more waxy quality.

This full figure one is the last one that I've done today. The shading is by no means finished, but I'm still really happy with these results. There's still a lot to do to her, mostly:

- Finish sculpting and cleaning up her anatomy;

- Add asymmetrical anatomical detail; 

- Her texturing (diffuse) is about 95% done - finish a few things here and there;

- Update and tweak secondary maps (glossiness, bump, etc.);

- Add hair (her eyebrows are only textured in at the moment but I'll be grooming those with a proper hair system as well);

- Pose her;

- Clothe her;

- Create environment;

- Render, render... and render...

More to come...

G

Some new character stuff...

I have just finished a couple of months freelance work on some characters for a game trailer cinematic, so now I'm officially back to some of my own work for a bit.

This is what I started working on a while before I started the above mentioned work. Nothing too exciting, just a standard base nude figure for a character I'm working on (more on her at a later date). The nice thing about doing this base figure is, I can use her for multiple characters just by making a few model changes and texture tweaks, which will allow me to focus on the character. She's not going to be a real-time character either.

(edit: I have just realised that this base mesh was derived from an older model made a couple of years back that was never finished.  I've essentially adjusted a lot of the anatomy and proportions - I think I've also added in some extra topological detail as well. Looking back at that old one it's really quite bad and I think this one is quite an improvement over that... hopefully...)


The texture work is about 98% done - just a few small touch-ups here and there. At the moment I've got one 8K (8192x8192) texture for the skin and one 4K (4096x4096) texture for the eyes. I've left her eyebrows in for now as a guide for when I get to do the grooming of the hair later on.

As far as the sculpting goes, I'm only 3 subdivisions in as I'm still just fleshing out the shapes of the muscles and proportions, etc. She'll most likely be a lot less toned than she is now, so I'll be smoothing those muscles down a bit when I move on to higher subdivisions.

Hopefully I'll have more updates on the actual character soon...

G

Zombie slowness

I've been rather slow lately getting any personal work done of any sorts.

Anyway a small update on this severed zombie head. Still some detailing to do (sores, etc.) and symmetry to remove. I also still need to work on the severed area as well as finish off the teeth, and then it's on to texturing.

G

Detailing zombie head

Added some porous detail to the head. I'll offset the overall symmetry by dislocating his jaw (I've added that detail on another layer in ZBrush). I'll post that in my next update, once I'm happy with it. I'll also add more deeper damage in places. I originally had part of his jawbone exposed but wasn't too happy with it and found it a bit distracting. Again this is a prop for another character, so I'm not going to go into too much detail with it.

Not too much left to do except what I've mentioned above and a few other things; his teeth haven't had much done to them yet - I'll most likely break and skew a few as well as remove a couple. The "severed" part of course needs work (loose flesh, etc.)... then it's on to texturing the sucker!

G

Severed zombie head progress

Some progress with the head. Still filling out the basic symmetrical volumes before I go in and add any detail and offset the symmetry.

G

Severed zombie head sculpt

Finally got back into some Zbrush work this weekend. Started this severed zombie head prop. No detailing yet; just bashing out the basic shapes and forms of the underlying anatomy. Decay and whatnot yet to come.

G

Girl Bust 01 finished

I'm finally calling her finished... There are areas (especially the hair) that could still be worked on, but this was meant to be a quick sculpt of about 5-6 hours which became a bit more than that... so, time to move on.

Oh yeah... the headphones are loosely based on the Panasonic Retro Style Monitor Headphones.

I have a couple of ideas for my next bust...

G

Female base head close-up and tweaks....

I just thought that I would post a close up view of the head. I made a few tweaks to the shape of the head and face.

More to come later.

G

Anatomy tweaking

I've been working on all three of my current projects at the moment: Girl Bust, Punk Girl, and this my Female Base model. Nothing much to see here really, just some minor anatomy tweaks (again) before I move on to the next sub-div level (still on 3). I've scaled up her head a bit, along with a few other adjustments.

I'll post updates on the others over the weekend I think...

'til then.

G

Girl Bust 01 and some hair.

This has taken me an hour or two longer than I initially intended, but I think it's been worth the extra time. I've Mostly just been experimenting - trying to loosen up and get a more natural quality to my sculpts.

Anyway, I think she is mostly done. Just the hair now... I've blocked in some rough shapes so far. Not sure I'll stick to this hairstyle though...

G

Girl Bust 01 B

Some progress... I think I've spent a few hours on her now. I should have done more in that time as I tend to get bogged town tweaking silly things instead of moving on and leaving the tweaking until the end. Anyway... I have also sculpted some hair for her, but will post that once I've made her asymmetrical and possibly re-posed her.

I've also noticed that the shape of head/face has changed quite a bit since the last image... I think for the better as well ;)

G

Girl Bust 01 A

This is second bust I've started since getting home from work tonight  - the first was a total mess which I threw away. I'm quite rusty doing these sculpts so need more practice.

This one has taken around 30 - 45 minutes so far... I'll still add hair to her once most of the bust itself is done. The anatomy is still pretty rough... but anyway, I'm trying to loosen up.

G

A small bit of work

I've been working on my base model on and off. She's still only on sub-division three, which would actually be sub-division 4 as my base mesh is more detailed than usual (see the wireframe here). I'm sticking to this level of detail for now until I have most of what's needed before sub-dividing her more.

I've also been working on my Punk Girl on and off. I need to swap out the old mesh with the new retopologised mesh in ZBrush so that I can bake the normal maps. I've been doing some tests by bringing the new retopologised  mesh into Zbrush, but I'm getting spiking which sucks ass (strangely enough I never had this problem with my female base mesh when I tweaked the mesh's topology and brought it back into Zbrush). I also tried re-projecting instead, setting the PA Blur to 8 as suggested, but that didn't help too much - still getting weird spikes in the ears, eyes and mouth areas. If it becomes too painful I might just bake the normals in xNormal.

Edit: For some reason the hand thumbnail seems to be a different colour to what it is meant to be?!?

G

Polygroups

I haven't done too much work on her since my last update - I've just been refining some areas and concentrating on the base forms. I've only used  3 levels of subdivision so far, that also being partly due to my lowest subdivision being a bit higher poly this time around.

I've also decided to use polygroups for this mesh, I know they are nothing new but they make editing tricky areas like the fingers and toes far easier.

I should hopefully be starting something new soon as well. Whether or not it's with this female mesh or not I'll have to see. I'm also hoping to carry on working on my punk girl...

G

New female base model

I  started a fresh base female nude model a couple of weeks back. I know I've made a few in the past but I wanted to correct some topology and add in some mesh detail to the base model before sculpting (ear, finger nail and toe nail detail). Doing this will also eliminate the need to go back and retopologise once I'm done. I've decided to go with a slightly higher detail base mesh, rather than the low poly one's that I have used in the past - I initially used the base mesh from one of my last base models and added in all the extra detail.

I also decided to give UVLayout a go. It's pretty good but takes a bit of getting used to the old school interface. However, there are loads of tutorial videos on the author's website. Just dig a bit and you'll find them.

I'll hopefully start building a character around her soon. Just not too sure what yet... hmm.

G

This is something I started working on a while back and haven't taken her much further. I would love to get back to working on her. She was mostly  inspired by Tat Girl from Feast II & III. I originally set out to make a game version of her, but I'm not sure if I'll still do that. I'm planing on having her covered in crazy tattoos, etc. Oh yeah, the hair is purely a rough placeholder model. I roughed it in so that I could get a basic idea of the hairstyle I was aiming for.

G