Sculpting Digital Characters with Cesar Dacol Jr

So I signed up to this online course: ZBrush - Sculpting Digital Characters with Cesar Dacol Jr, which starts in November 2007. For more information, see: http://workshops.cgsociety.org/courses/000055/. This should be a great help in getting to grips with the nuances of digital character creation. I will post my results here in time.

I have not yet returned to the minotaur to retopologize it, I knew it would be a thankless and slow operation and I have shyed from it. When learning things the hard way (blindly) it takes time to learn each step, much research is needed and many of the terms mentioned at first seem alien and require further investigation. Since installing ZBrush a few weeks ago, my progress has kept me interested and I find myself dwelling on this digital approach constantly. In the studio working with traditional materials, I begin dwelling on the pro's and cons of the two sculpting processes and the possibilities of bringing these together to form a new workflow.

I have also played with MudBox, which seems a solid and intuitive program, my first impressions was that the sculpting material 'felt' more like a clay, wetter and easy to texture. Some time will be spent using MudBox in the future when I get these initial projects behind me.

I'll post some more pictures soon, and begin to gather my thoughts on the differences between the two sculpting medium.

Gnomonology

FREE:

Male human head basemesh with organized topology. UVs are unwrapped. Ready to be imported into Zbrush or reorganized to match another design.

Can be downloaded Free from the great folks at Gmomon: http://gnomonology.com/tutorial/197

Antoine-Louis Barye

The First of my artist profiles, which will focus on sculptors from antiquity to the digital age, and give a brief outline of their career and showcase thier works that fascinate and inspire me.
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First up is Antoine-Louis Barye, the French 'Romantic' sculptor whose animals studies and mythological scenes capture the energy and tension of the moment in the twisting forms of his stylized but studied sculptures.


Born in Paris, Antoine-Louis Barye (September 24, 1796-June 25, 1875) began his career as a goldsmith, like many sculptors of the Romantic Period. After studying under sculptor Francois-Joseph Bosio and painter Baron Antoine-Jean Gros he was in 1818 admitted to the École des Beaux Arts. But it was not until 1823, while working for Fauconnier, the goldsmith, that he discovered his true predilection from watching the wild beasts in the Jardin des Plantes, making vigorous studies of them in pencil drawings comparable to those of Delacroix, then modelling them in sculpture on a large or small scale. In 1831 he exhibited his "Tiger devouring a Crocodile", and in 1832 had mastered a style of his own in the "Lion and Snake." Thenceforward Barye, though engaged in a perpetual struggle with want, exhibited year after year these studies of animals--admirable groups which reveal him as inspired by a spirit of true romance and a feeling for the beauty of the antique, as in "Theseus and the Minotaur" (1847), "Lapitha and Centaur" (1848), and numerous minor works now very highly valued.

Barye was no less successful in sculpture on a small scale, and excelled in representing animals in their most familiar attitudes. Examples of his larger work include the "Lion of the Column of July," of which the plaster model was cast in 1839, various lions and tigers in the gardens of the Tuileries, and the four groups--"War, Peace, Strength, and Order" (1854).
In 1852 he cast his bronze "Jaguar devouring a Hare." Fame came late in the sculptor's life. He was made Professor of Drawings at the Museum of Natural History in 1854, and was elected to the Academy of Fine Arts in 1868. No new works were produced by Barye after 1869.
The mass of admirable work left by Barye entitles him to be regarded as one of the great animal life artists of the French school, and the refiner of a class of art which has attracted such men as Emmanuel Frémiet, Peter, Cain, and Gardet.

(From Wikipedia.)

Recreating Topology in ZBrush

Using ZSpheres, you can create new topology in ZBrush as well as shrink wrap that topology to your existing model.

There are several reasons you may want to adjust your model's topology: To Remove Polygon Stretching and adjust the edge flow of your model. And/or to Create an animation ready low resolution base mesh.

Although I do not intend any of these early models for any use beyond my own learning, I understand that becoming aware of possible difficulties will be beneficial down the line.

It was becoming aware of topology that made me stop working upon the octopus before it’s completion. I may recreate the octopus from scratch at some point because it had a great form to work with... and I really like octopus.

The ZBrush Manual is found here: http://www.zbrush.info/docs/index.php/Main_Page

Some good introductory tutorials:

http://www.zbrush.info/docs/index.php/Tutorial:_Warrior_Image

http://www.zbrush.info/docs/index.php/Tutorial:_Sculpting_A_Skull

Document size: 3840 x 2880
HD Geometry divided twice giving: 52.69 million points (3.293 million active)

MINOTAUR 3

Here is the first passover with the sculpting brushes in ZBrush. I spent maybe 3 or 4 hours on this over two days before my wacom tablet drivers decided to die... so I'm posting this before I update and reboot...


3.293 million active points.

Once all the symetrical sculpting is complete I plan to repose the creature, give it some asymmetric quality and perhaps accesories.
The components such as eyes, teeth, garments, belts/buckles and armour will all be modelled seperately and added as subtools.

MINOTAUR 2

I went back to the minotaur block in and spent a while tweaking the form. Several areas caused issues with the geometry. The way the fingers joined the hands and the area of the neck took several hours before the flow of form and the adaptive skin worked. After that it was case of shifting the pose a little and trying out different shapes for the beast's body.

some of the differing body shapes the model went through

Zsphere Modeling

Here is quick video that demonstrates the building of a character with ZSpheres in ZBrush 3.0. The video was posted to YouTube by ChromeLtd.

Zbrush2.5 meshExtraction

Cool Tutorial

Zbrush 3.0 Trailer

A good overview of the functions and capabilities of one of the most exciting software tools ever!

Building Creatures - Aaron Sims

Building Creatures using Zbrush from Aaron Sims and the Gnomon Workshop.

Gnomon workshop are the greatest source of 3D training resource in the world, check them out now... http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/, http://gnomonology.com/

Another Demon Head

A quick (20 min) sketch of a boney demon head... just freestylin' like.

MINOTAUR

So I started this Minotaur. Modelled with ZSpheres, slowly flicking between ZSpheres and Adaptive Skin Preview, it took about 7 hours to get to this final shape.



















Below are some of the variations of shape during the construction.

errr...

Gentle Giant Studios- ZBrush Rapid Prototype output

What is Digital Sculpture?

from Zack Petroc

Takara Microman

I bought a few of these Micromen from ebay about a year ago, (two sizes of Male body and one Female.) . The 100mm articulated figures have good form and are easily manipulated to mimic 'natural' human attitudes. Great for quickly posing and sketching from or visually checking proportions, balance and flow. -

Much better than those wooden pieces of crap you get from art shops or Ikea.

Freedom of Teach

I have just purchased this anatomical model from freedom-of-teach.com. I plan on doing some serious study of the anatomy and I'm looking for a decent Life Drawing class in my area.

Anatomical Resin Figure.

Cast polyurethane male figure with ecorche muscle and partly revealed skeleton.

Highest quality sculpt, hand-painted and cast.

Dimensions: 24" x 5" x 10".

By sculptor & VFX artist: Andrew Cawrse

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My plan is to develop a few 'basic' maquettes to be used for the basis of anatomically precise characters and creatures.
My first move was to grab a basic skeleton from Poser (standing in symmetrical pose) which I will export into 3Ds Max and build upon with 'correct' topology of body mass and form. This will then be taken into ZBrush or Mudbox (I'm gonna try both applications) for detailing, and exported (hopefully) as a workable model.

ZSphere Modelling: Octopus

So I started out to make a full figure of a man, but I stumbled upon the symmetry options and suddenly there were tentacles everywhere....

Below; the internal ZSphere armature used to construct or 'block in', the model.

Again, I modelled this with no reference, so it will probably be anatomically incorrect. I just intuitively worked at it to find the right 'feel'.

Best work is done using plenty of reference, these early pieces are nothing but experimental shapes.






The suckers on the tentacles do not have enough geometry to shape them as I would like, so I just drew circles to indicate their position.





The foundations of this model (the topology created by the original ZSphere armature) were not considered to any degree of depth. So the geometry of the model could not be used for animation. I consider these first models 'sketches' rather than final sculpts. They are also just exported 'screenshots' not true renders.

STONE DEMON

This screen grab shows my second 'play' with ZBrush 3.0. Again I started with a polysphere and mucked around with it until I had a shape a I liked.

He has the look of an ancient aquatic demon, made from fossilised coral.

SCULPTING SOFTWARE

The first step in the transition from traditional to digital is choosing the software. I have worked commercially as a sculptor for over a decade now and always kept a keen eye on the development of computer based art, but the process of orthographic views, polygons and NURBS (in apps such as 3Ds-Max and Maya) always seemed a world away from the hands-on process of working in wax.
There are now several applications that deal with surface modelling these include: ZBrush, Mudbox, Modo and Silo. It is up to you which package you choose to begin with. I have chosen to begin with Zbrush, it was the first software to get me excited watching the 'Angler Fish' demo by Pixolator, that came out with the release of ZBrush 2.0 back in 2005. You can view this movie here: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=3193
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This was such an eye opener that it prompted me to start saving up some cash to purchase all the hardware and software (including a Wacom tablet and a powerful new computer that could actually run the software comfortably).
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Two years later (Hey, I been busy ok) I have finally set myself up to learn the digital tools and make the transition. Last week I finally sat down in front of my system and had my first play with digital clay. Here are my results:

The four heads are all tweaked variations of the same sculpt which I worked out from a single Polysphere. No reference was used, this was just a quick exercise to get to grips with the interface and check out the tools available.

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The speed of the modelling was an astonishing experience. A similar head made in clay or modelling wax would have taken much longer to get to this stage of a block in. Using only the basics of ZBrush my results have fired a passion to pursue and realise the full potential of this digital sculpting tool.