Term 3 - Sculpting the male bust

1. Introduction: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Figurative Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva Welcome Hey there! Welcome to ZBrush Digital Sculpting: First Steps My name is Fábio Paiva and I have worked as a 3D modeler at Weta Digital on productions such as Avatar 2, Alita Battle Angel, Mortal Engines, Game of Thrones, among others. I currently work as a senior digital sculptor at Weta Workshop, where I have the opportunity to participate in film and museum projects around the world. In this course, I will share what I have learned from over 10 years of experience in human figure sculpting and by the end of the course you will be able to safely sculpt a digital male bust with a high artistic quality. I’ve really appreciated doing this. So, I hope you like it. Enjoy the course! 2. Time to relax: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva TIME TO RELAX Let's stop for a moment and remember why we do all this in the first place. Let's forget for a moment the limited demands of culture and work and simply sit and sculpt. Imagine that now there is no right or wrong. There is no better or worse. There are no requests from anyone. There is neither purpose. In the end, this is a game in which there are no winners or losers. Nothing to prove, nothing to defend. No debt to be paid. What is left then? What is left? Now there is only the act itself. At this time we have complete freedom. At least for ten minutes a day, it's all worth it. That's all I ask of you. Ten minutes a day with your studies. Here, I will be your art mate. Now, it's all about the practice. Our new art routine. It's time to relax. 3. PureRef: introduction: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - PURE REF - Program introduction Hey there, In this video about Pure Ref, an essential program to work with image references, I will show you the shortcuts I use on a daily basis. This is a free program. Just go to this website to download it: www.pureref.com When you first open it, you will only find a blank Grey canvas. These are images that I previously added to help me show its features. You will most likely bring images directly from a Windows folder, by just clicking and dragging it across. The same can be done with multiple images at the same time. Copy/Paste is also an option. Or even drag images directly from the Web Browser. Images will be loaded on its original sizes, so you can see how each image size is different. The first image is its own group, and all the others, brought as one, is another group. But we will not always have images with similar size like this. Instead of showing how to organize the images now, I will just follow the order of the shortcuts I am showing here. RIGHT CLICK and drag to move the whole program window around. Like so. LEFT CLICK and drag on any corner to change the window size. RIGHT CLICK will open the context menu with all other options, where you can find the HELP as well. By clicking on KEYBINDER, you can find every shortcut available. There are too many of them, and that's why I picked the most used ones to show you. Here are common commands for anyone who works with a computer CTRL + Z, to undo CTRL + SHIFT + Z, to redo Undo will even bring back deleted images, like so. COPY/PASTE will work even inside the program itself. Like I did with this image here. CTRL + N will create a new text box, and that's what I did here to write down the web address. Double-clicking this text box will allow you to change text and background color. Middle mouse button click and drag will pan the canvas, not the program window. The middle click on your wacom pen works as well. The mouse scroll wheel will zoom the canvas in and out. But if you are using a wacom tablet, just hold Z and left click/drag, since there is not scroll wheel on the pen. So, Z+Left click/drag. All these other shortcuts are related to how we can organize images in the program. Let's say all your images are on top of each other like this. If you just select all of them and press CTRL + P PureRef will organize them for you but it will not re-scale them. The next three shortcuts, CTRL + ALT + keyboard arrows (LEFT/RIGHT/UP), will match the images dimensions in different ways. I am selecting all of them and while holding CTRL + ALT, I will tap + LEFT + UP + RIGHT so CTRL+ALT+UP, will normalize their overall size. Now I can select it all again and press CTRL + P it is a lot more organized and easier to find the images. CTRL+ALT+LEFT, will normalize their height. And CTRL+P will align them all again. You can select multiple images and move them around with LEFT click/drag., These are the alignment shortcuts. SCALE is the image size on screen. So just select any image, hold CTRL+ALT, and left click/drag. One at a time or multiple images at once. To flip the image, hold ALT+SHIFT, and left click/drag. One thing I do very often is copy/paste an image, and flip it. Sometimes is hard to find good anatomy reference, so you just flip it to use on the other side. This last bit will control what each image box is showing. What we see here is not the actual image, but actually a frame. So if need to isolate just one portion of an image, I can just select it, hold C on the keyboard, and left click/drag a new window. This is a non-destructive way of organizing your images. By holding V on the keyboard and left click/drag, you can see how the image is intact and only the frame has been edited. If you end up editing the frames and losing track of it, you can just reset the selected frames by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + T, to reset the transform and CTRL + SHIFT + C, to reset the cropping. You will then have the image and frame on their original size. Let me show you with multiple images. Select all, CTRL+SHIFT+C, CTRL+SHIFT+T. Now everything is back to normal again. I don't really use much of the other functions and shortcuts, but if you want to see all the other ones, just go the help as shown before, and test it all as you wish. I really just use these ones. Unfortunately there is no way to group images, so it's up to you to group them manually like this. Next class I will show you how to create an ideal reference board, so you will be able to see how I group things together for a real project. 4. PureRef: ideal moodboard: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - PURE REF - Demonstration of an ideal reference board Hey there, Here's what I think is an ideal reference board for this course. Our goal is to sculpt a human male head, so some of my choices will look obvious to you. And I will go through each one of them. But first, let me just point out that I found all those images on the following websites: Google images, Pinterest and the other two. And the keywords I used when searching for them were these ones at the top. So you can do your own search. I usually search with English keywords as it gives me better results. For this anatomy reference group, I ended up being a bit more specific with the keywords, such as back of the head, human skull and its different views, back of the ear, an area that is usually ignored in most people's work. Starting with the main references of male portrait photos, the idea is not to look for one specific face that we are going to make a copy of. It can be done, but it is not our goal now. So you can see how I picked different races and ages. What I am actually looking for are facial features that look appealing to me. And that will inspire me in one way or another, which I will end up applying directly to the model, or at least serve as a reminder for me to try shapes that I usually don't do. For instance, this face has such unique nose and chin shapes. Same with this one. We can see how this distance from eye to nose is different between these two. So we have a wide range of options and I don't even know which one I will pick in the end. That's why it is good to have it all as a reminder. The same with the nose shape. When looking at them individually, we could say they are people with special features. Even this one, who I really like, has an amazing forehead shape, and great surface shape on his cheeks. More examples of square and large chins. Pointy ones. The age gap is really large as well. It all comes down to how we use reference as inspiration, And not as a direct copy. This one is really special, because his head and neck seems to be a lot bigger than the rest of the body. Even his neck feels really large and unique. These are all images that I randomly ran across and I felt like picking them. For the anatomy reference I was a bit more specific, picking parts that are usually ignored when people sculpt portraits. So I notice that pretty much everything on the back of the had is ignored and that's why I picked those ones of bald men. Such a great diversity of forms. The transition from ear to skull can be done so differently. Here we have some back of ear photos. They are female ear, but it doesn't matter. All the details, forms and shapes are great things to explore when doing our piece. The skull, one of the most important parts to master, because it will show what exists underneath the surface. And it will teach us that bones give a lot of form to the surface, much like muscles. I also like searching for 3D scans. So for these images, I was also looking for unique features. Much like his ears, or his head asymmetrical features, and this guy's head and nose shape. A really cool tapered shape. So all this put together will inspire me in a way that hopefully will help me make different decisions. Instead of doing what's most natural to me. So if I have a specific way of sculpting the nose every time, this is help remind me not to it that way. And finally a couple of examples of the great masters. Just be aware when looking at other people's work. If you are not able to tell good from bad, a bad reference will make you copy bad decisions or mistakes. I am sure that these ones are a great source of inspiration on how to sculpt a bust. They will also serve as reminders about forms and the complexity of the male head. Another important thing to remember, is to have it in the first place, before starting to sculpt. If you don't have enough references or good ones for that matter, you will end up stopping too many times to look for new ones. and waste time and focus. So even if you have to spend a whole day just searching for references, it will be a lot better than just picking a couple of images and getting new ones along the way. It is ideal to do this work before the sculpting process. I've made this mistake many times before, and it will probably be the difference between finishing a project or not. As a final reminder, I will make this file available for you but I urge you to look for your own references, so you get used to doing it every time. These are good references for a male bust, but if you are doing a full body study, a female bust, or anything else, all this work will have to be done from scratch again. 5. ZBrush: interface and shortcuts: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - ZBRUSH - My interface and shortcuts Hey there, In this class about ZBrush, I will be brief about how I use it. So my goal is not to give a full class about the program, because there are a lot of good and free resources for it. It is really simple to learn, and you can even use the official website for it: www.pixologic.com or YouTube as well. In just a couple of days, anyone can learn how ZBrush works. But I still want to show you a few things. At first you can see how the only button I added was the SHADOWS one. It will remove the materials shadow, but I will it later. The other thing I changed was the color interface, and that's all. I just like working this way, because if I ever change jobs or have to use ZBrush anywhere else, I won't need to learn or personalize anything. The only thing I have to do is set up my shortcuts. But before talking about them, I just want to show you the materials I use. I find this one really good for sculpting and it show the forms really well. But this dark shadows is annoying sometimes and that is why I have the Shadows button available. I just want to turn if off and have less contrast on screen. This other sphere is just for light position. But it does nothing when you are using a MatCap material. I don't use only MatCaps when working. I also like other materials, such as the Basic Material, but it has too much contrast and shadows when you first apply it. So when I use it, I turn off the shadows and move the light until it's almost pointing towards us. I really enjoy this new look, and this is all I do regarding the interface. Now, regarding my shortcuts, that you can see on the side, I've only added the main ones dealing with brushes and sculpting. I do use other ones, but for this course it won't be needed. If you have any questions, please let me know. So from 1 to 8 are the brushes I use the most. I just tap each number as you can see. And I find it much easier than pressing the letters, like so: B S T To select the Standard Brush. As you can see up here, 1 is the Standard brush, 2 is the Inflate brush, 3 is the Move brush, in my case, SHIFT+3 is the Move Topological brush This brush will only be useful when we have more than 1 object. So right now it does nothing. 4 is the Clay brush, 5 is the Pinch brush, 6 is the Trim Dynamic brush, which is one brush I use a lot when trying to find the form planes. 7 is the Clay Buildup brush, which you will see me changing its square alpha to a round alpha. But most of the time I will be using the round alpha, because it leave less marks on the surface. Both are great though. I will probably be using the square alpha in the beginning, and later on I will switch to the round one. Finally, 8 for the DAM_STANDARD brush, which also ships with ZBrush, used to make sharp cuts and lines. Instead of using the Space Bar or the screen sliders to change brush settings, I like to use the S, U and O keyboard keys. S controls the brush size. U controls the brush intensity. O controls the brush focal shift. As you can see the ClayBuildup brush has a focal shift of -56. And it is a bit harsher when compared to the Standard and Inflate brushes, which are set to zero. So it is a lot faster to use these three keys. The floating menu will pop up wherever the cursor is. And when you move the cursor away, the menu disappears. SHIFT+F is used to turn Wireframe ON and OFF but you can also click this button on the right-hand side. I have ALT+S set up as the SOLO shortcut, but it does nothing now because I only have one subtool available. But if I have two subtools, I can isolate one on screen without having to turn the eye icon off. Once again, I won't go through all the other tools and menus, or on how to select and isolate parts. I expect you to know it already, so we do not waste time with all this. This is all I ask of you regarding ZBrush. Knowing the basics, such as: Selection, working with Masks, working with Subdivisions, etc. In my demonstrations, I will show everything I use from start to finish. So I hope it will all make more sense when you see it all working together. I am sure you can learn all of this pretty quickly. I will also make my shortcut and material files available. And all you have to do is copy them to these two folders. You can pause the video and make notes. ZStartup folder. Hotkeys and Materials subfolders. Copy them and restart ZBrush. It should work and then you will be able to use both materials, including this second material I created, with a bit more specularity. This on would be a middle point between the other two I showed before. In conclusion, I hope it all makes sense once you watch me do things in ZBrush. 6. ZBrush: technical workflow: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - ZBRUSH - Technical workflow Hey there, This will be a quick video about the technical part of our workflow. So we can just use any primitive shape as a starting point. And it really doesn't matter, since we are using Dynamesh as our main tool of subdivision. But let me share some quick notes about how Dynamesh works. The first would be that the object scale will change Dynamesh behaviour. Let's test it out with this cube primitive. Make it a polymesh first. If you go to: TOOL > GEOMETRY > SIZE You will be able to see that all those numbers are set to 2. It has to do with the object scale. Let's what happens when we create a Dynamesh with a 32 resolution. After the Dynamesh, this is how it looks like. I will make a copy and undo the changes. So now I can scale the object up a few times. I will scale it up until we are at roughly 10 units. Remember that the screen zoom/scale does not affect how it works. Let's Dynamesh that again with 32. Notice the difference between the two versions. So this is a reminder to check your object's scale. If it roughly at 2 units, not only dynamesh will work as expected, but also the Dynamic brush settings also function properly, amongst other tools within ZBrush. Regarding the actual sculpting, we can use the brushes to do it as usual, adding and removing volume, but also by merging two or more objects. And this is something I will be doing many times here. There are many ways of doing this. We could add a new object as another subtool. Like so, adding a new Sphere object. Let's say this is what I want. So after adding this new subtool, I go to SUBTOOL > MERGE, and choose Merge Down. It will only merge the select subtool and one right above. These are still two distinct objects, as we can see by using the Move Topological brush. Merged but separate objects. Dynamesh will merge it all into one new object. This is one way of doing this, but we could just use the actual subtool, like this cube. By using the transpose tool, just hold CTRL and click and drag with left button. We again have three distinct objects within the same subtool. Same thing with the Move Topological. Dynamesh will once again merge it all into one object. Now, regarding the object's subdivision or resolution, we also have a few options. Dynamesh, Sculptris, Decimation Master, ZRemesher and standard subdivision levels, created when we press CTRL+D or the Divide button. This is what I call the standard subdivision levels. One thing to remember about the standard subdivision levels, is that they are lost after we use any one of the other options. So to make it clear, let me split them into two stages or groups. The first group is: Dynamesh, Sculptris, Decimation Master and they can be used interchangeably. The second group is: ZRemesher and standard Subdivision. and they will be used when we are sure about how our model is developing, and no major changes will happen again. This is the stage where we apply a ZRemesher and have a good topology to finalize the 3D model. Let me now show what I mean by working with the first group. I am working with a Dynamesh resolution of 32 in this case, so let's say I want to add more detail on this area. you can see that there isn't enough resolution. I can then change the resolution to 128 or 64 or whatever. Notice how the whole model has more resolution now. We do have more resolution for that part now, but the price was that the whole model is heavier now. Let us try something else. Back at 32, with its original resolution, I will turn on Sculptris mode, and it adds resolution just where the brush touches. It may be adding too much resolution, as this mode is controlled by the brush size. So to change this, we can go to the STROKE menu, and then SCULPTRIS PRO, and increase this number. So I will change it to 2 and press Enter. Now the same brush size is creating less resolution when using Sculptris. If we set it to three now, same brush size, different resolution. The same is true when going negative. Setting it to 0,5 will add even more resolution. Now, something you can do in all previous methods, after having all the details you wanted, but also in a way to avoid having such a heavy mesh to work with, is using the Decimation Master plugin. You can find it in the ZPlugin menu. At this stage all I usually do is pick one of the presets. In this case I will pick 20k (points). It is visually the same, but much lighter now. So I can keep working on this model. Turn off Sculptris and keep working. Now, after all this, making sure no big change are going to be needed. We can finally use the ZRemesher tool. Depending on how much detail you added on the first stage, we now have three options. I will use this sketch I created earlier, keeping in mind that I do not intend to change the design. I won't make big changes anymore. So the first option would be just using ZRemesher as it is and ignore all the bits of sculpting that will get lost in the process. I will try something around 2 or 3 and see how it looks like. So I lost a little bit, but that is still enough for me to keep working on it. Yes, I will have to do it again, but that was just a initial sketch, an idea to be further developed. That's why I think this is a viable option if you don't mind sculpting some things again. A second option would be using the FREEZE option. But in order to use it, the mesh must have subdivision levels. This mesh already has 200k points and it is a little bit dense already. So what can we do to make it smaller before subdividing it up to a million points or so? Well, we first Decimate the mesh, with a number that is much lower than the 200k I have right now. With 20k, it is visually similar to what we had. Now it's ok to finally subdivide it once or twice. After that, Freeze will temporarily remove the subdivision levels we had. Now ZRemesher will work much faster with the 20k mesh. I will try it with 3 this time... This is the new simplified form of the model. Now I just click on Freeze again and get the details back. Just a note that I left the model with two separate pieces on purpose. It will work as expected. But if this is a problem for you, We can just apply a Dynamesh before all this. Dynamesh will be useful on any of the options, as it will clean up the mesh for later steps. And if I do it on this model, it would leave a similar resolution all over the surface, merge both objects and close open holes in the mesh. In this case I made sure there were no open mesh holes. So I will now just apply a Dynamesh. 32 at first to see how it looks like. Not enough, so I try it again with 128. Not enough yet... Let's try 500... This is much better and now we have only one mesh. So for our third option, using this clean dynamesh as a starting point, I will just duplicate the original mesh first. So now I have two identical subtools. I can now use ZRemesher on the second one, but first decimating it to a lighter resolution is a good idea. This is the decimated mesh, so now we can use ZRemesher. With ADAPT on, the number 3 is just an approximation. That's why we end up with a mesh with 12k points instead of 3k. By making sure the visible tools are the ones I want my new mesh to be projected on, I can use the ProjectAll option, under Subtool>Project. So now I select the new mesh and everything else that is not selected but also visible, will be used as a projection. Click ProjectAll... It's a bit better. So I subdivide it again with CTRL+D or Subdivide. ProjectAll again... Subdivide again... ProjectAll again... Now switching between the two, you can see how similar they are. So I can keep working on this new subdivided mesh. And this is my approach for every model I create on this course. 7. ZBrush: sculpting workflow: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - ZBRUSH - Sculpting workflow Hey there, In this sculpting workflow I want to demonstrate how I use the brushes and the general idea of the steps of any sculpture. I based the course on this steps. Generally speaking, we will increase subdivision only when necessary using the methods shown in the technical workflow. But how do we know when this is necessary? The need comes from the natural steps in how we develop any sculpture: Large or primary shapes, Medium or secondary shapes, Small or tertiary shapes, and fine details. I sculpted a knee instead of a face for this example on purpose, to show that this method works with anything. In the classes that show the process of the face and skull, you will see that I define the primary and secondary shapes a little more geometric than with this knee. But I did it with the intention of you being able to see what I'm thinking. Except for the finer details step, there are no specific points to complete, each one defined mathematically and perfectly. There is no such thing! The process of primary, secondary and tertiary is a lot more organic. The steps are just a guide and this whole process is very natural. After a few pieces, each individual will naturally feel what is like to move from one step to another. I hope it is clear that it shouldn't be your priority to add pores, wrinkles and finer details to a poorly realized face or any other model. But if we can define a level of importance for each of those steps, without a doubt, the primary and secondary forms are the tops ones. They are the ones that will give life and uniqueness to your piece. I will spend as much time as needed in this part, without a hurry. Now, applying these ideas to this knee model, this would be the primary forms. Just a simple version of the general forms of a bent leg and a knee. It's almost just as simple as two cylinders. But with a hint of what a knee would be. The secondary forms add a bit more complexity, and it's even easier to know what is the inside and outside of this leg. Tendons and bones are also hinted at. Now the tertiary forms of this specific knee, is what I consider to be the final sculpt. From now one I would not add new forms or shapes, or do any major change. We can easily see muscles, bones and tendons. Now the last step, of finer details. It is not included in this course, but I still wanted to show how it only works based on what we did before. You can see how the major forms don't change when flipping between the previous model and this one. All this detailing would never work without a good foundation. This is true for any sculpture. Now, regarding the brushes being used, I basically only use Standard, Inflate and both Clay brushes, to "add digital clay". The brushes Move, Pinch, Flatten, Dam_Standard, Rake and Smooth, to refine all the surface in different ways. Look at those pictures I took from Bernini and Canova studies. Notice how they marked the shapes transversely to the direction of the forms by using a rake tool. This is a Bernini piece, and we can see how the leg form is vertical, and the rake marks are horizontal. The same with this foot, main form is horizontal and rake marks are vertical. In this sketch made by Canova, the arm is going in one direction and the rake marks going transversely to it. This method will be constantly used during our work as well. It will never be exactly the same, since digital tools work differently from real-world tools. This is something that can be applied nonetheless. The rake brush is great to clean the surface, and show intention in your modeling. In our case, this brush will not add or remove too much volume, but hopefully will make it really clear what your intentions were when doing the forms. This brush will be available for download as well. Now you will demonstrate how I use the brushes by sculpting an organic shape as a tentacle of some kind. I will slowly build the shapes, and preferably with a large brush size and a low intensity. I am aware that beginners may not have much mechanical ability yet, being able move the hand and arm in a relaxed and precise way. That is why it's a good practice to use brushes with low intensity. I will be using Dynamesh, the brushes and everything that I've explained so far. I am always looking from all different angles, making sure the forms look good from one angle and from all other angles as well. This is also a great study idea, in case you want to try to create an organic form without reference, while imagining only a tentacle-like form. Making sure it looks appealing from all angles. Let's go through the main points again: Keep the subdivision as low as possible at all times. Spend as much time as needed on each stage. No need to hurry. Give most care to primary and secondary forms. A large brush size with low intensity will help you a lot in the beginning. And never stop looking from all angles. Now please enjoy the rest of the video of me sculpting this tentacle. 8. Art Concepts: reductions: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - BASIC ARTISTIC CONCEPTS - Reduction Hey there, The idea of this section of basic artistic concepts is to encourage different ways of thinking. I hope they serve as inspiration rather than an exercise to be done. I consider them crucial ideas during my own development, as they helped me solve many of the questions regarding the artistic process, such as: - How to develop my own style and what it truly means - How to see the difference between more or less appealing - How do I analyze more objectively what I can create Among other things... The theory of reduction and stylization cross paths and may even be considered as two different explanations of the same thing. But keep in mind that precision and detailing are not important at this point. Hopefully, this video will give you a general idea of these concepts. Reduction, then, is the concept of representing something with more or less complexity. When drawing, for instance, this would be the difference between representing an eye with only one line or all the intricacy of a realistic drawing. In sculpture, this would be the distinction between hinting shapes or meticulously sculpting something, adding minor details such as pores and small wrinkles. In reality, artists are already working across this artistic spectrum. It could be in the eye, as I said before ... or in the whole face ... or the entire body In this first example, this yellow cube can REPRESENT anything, not just one yellow cube specifically. It could be a corn cob, a building facade, etc. However, we, as creatures who by nature create concepts for everything have this ability to imagine and accept representations as truths. But in this specific example, what I want to represent is a yellow taxi. Given the right environment (in a painting, for example), where streets, houses, and trees follow the same idea of cubic shape, it would be enough to say that this is taxi as is. But for what I am trying to explain, it's not. What about now? Maybe a vehicle, but not necessarily a taxi. Remember, it all depends on the general idea and the context of where this representation is part of. As we can see, by adding complexity this representation becomes more clear and evident. Though, not better or worse. These are the third and forth examples. In the fifth example, we get what we call photorealism. But instead of calling it photorealism, let's just describe it as "more complex". From the beginning to the end, all levels represented the same thing: a yellow cab. Let's go to the next example. Again, this cube could represent a multitude of things. And with more complex detailing, the idea becomes clearer to the viewer. In my mind, I already knew what my intention was: to represent a male face. But due to the lack of other references, this representation was very ambiguous, open for interpretation. At the last level of representation, once again, it's a representation of a photorealism, though, not better or worse. Let's go to the third example. In this last example, I selected some images of drawings and sculptures. I would like you to imagine for a moment that what we see here is not just "artist X or Y style", but different ways of representing a human face using a variety of media. Each one being depicted with the limitations of the chosen media: Pencil, pen, clay, marble... All that by the artist's own way of representing a human face. You see, then, that there is not just one way to represent objects or ideas, but an infinite amount of ways. These two for example, let's imagine that they were simplified as much as possible within the limitations of a pencil drawing and a clay sculpture. If any further simplification were to be done, it would probably be very difficult to the viewer to identify that these are faces, eyes, nose and lips. In the next class we will see how to classify and further develop the idea of reduction even more. 9. Art Concepts: stylization: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - BASIC ARTISTIC CONCEPTS - Stylization Hey there, Continuing on the subject of reductions, let's imagine a classification commonly known as stylization. It is probably a term that most people already know about. Going back to our initial examples, of the car and male face, we can place them within this line of stylized and realistic representations. Note that I did not place our examples anywhere on either end. And why is that? Well, there are probably even simpler ways of representing a face and a car than with a cube like how we did here. Maybe ways not even imagined by artists yet. So, conceptually, we will never reach this extreme of stylization. And so does the other extreme of realism. But for slightly different reasons. I think this end of the line can only contain one thing. And what is this thing? Think for a moment. To me, which is absolutely real. What we call objects in real life. The absolute reality. By definition, we will never come to either end using drawing or sculpture, as these media formats will always be just a representation of reality. But I want to make it clear that these limitations are not negative. Mainly because limitation is the mother of creativity. It is thanks to this limitation that we are forced to adapt our art. See then that this graphic does not represent artistic quality. "Better or worse" is just a human convention and cultural conditioning. A highly stylized or faithfully realistic work has the same value. It's us artists who, based on personal taste, are going to explore different places on this scale. Let's look at more examples. I personally like this region better. [ Me! :P ] But notice how all these different styles are representing different reductions of every aspect of a female face. Each one of them: eye, nose, mouth, hair shape... And they are all valid and interesting. In case you're wondering, "How do I know how much reduction to apply then?" Well, this question may have the wrong tone, if deep down you expect to have an exact and accurate method. There can't be a perfect method like this. Or else every artwork would look the same. So the best answer I can give you is: Gradually, with each study or project you do, ask yourself these questions: "How can I represent the shape of a face?" "How can I represent the shape of a nose, lips, ears, etc?" You'll still have to practice a lot and it will take time, but I'm sure you'll be in the right direction. So just by asking and trying to apply these ideas, this skill will develop itself. My main point is: Ask better questions to get better answers! [ better questions = better answers ] Now, let us do another experiment. A thought experiment. Using the example of sculpting a male face, as we have seen, questions arise about how to represent each facial aspect, right? We naturally split these issues based on the bigger forms of the face. Like the head as a whole or the eyes, nose, lips, etc... What if we focus on the eye itself, and then ask the same questions? How will I represent the eyelids? How will I represent the iris? How will I represent every small part of this region? Region that we only called "an eye". Going back to the first examples, you should note that the answer will always be to remove or reduce some details, exaggerate others, simplify various forms into one, and so on. Each artist sees and feels the world in different ways and so different styles will emerge from each of us. Your version of Reality will be different from mine, and therefore your representations and reductions as well. Try to remember the times you tried to sculpt something. How many of these questions have you asked yourself? Or were you on auto-pilot? If the answer is zero, I'm sure that just by forcing yourself to think about these new concepts it will make you sculpt a little better. The constant search for these answers will make you a better artist. 10. Skull: human skull pt1: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - HUMAN SKULL - Primary forms Before we begin... a reminder Now that the videos are getting longer I have decided to add a RED border on the video every time I am NOT saying anything. In this way you will be able to visually know where to pay close attention in case you're watching the video at high speed. O.. K.. EY..? That's it! Enjoy the class! Finally, in this Human Skull class, we will be able to apply everything we've been talking about. For the technical parts, we will be using Dynamesh as our main tool. Also, different brushes for form definition and form refinement. For the artistic parts, first develop primary and secondary forms, keeping in mind the concepts of Reduction and Stylization. And all this being felt as a unitary experience, having our main goal in mind: Creating a realistic human skull. Having all the references ready, I will be using a sphere and a cylinder as the starting point, but I could even use just one subtool. The thing is that those two separate objects make up the basic shape of a skull really well. Now I can merge both objects by pressing MERGE, and dynameshing again, I will have a good geometry to start working. Using the masking tools, or brushes alone doesn't really matter. As long as we have a rough idea of what we want to achieve. In this case I made the lower part of the skull a bit smaller because this is what I can see on the references. So I just felt that masking was a good of an option as any other. I am slowly hinting areas like teeth and jaw, so I have something to compare to and only then fix things and move on. Try to position things with no fear of making mistakes Eye and nose cavities can be blocked out from the beginning. And in case you don't get it right at first, just move it into place. Maybe you will feel better by choosing different reference points to work with and even do it all in a different order to what you see me doing. This is a good thing, because maybe you won't be able to see exactly what I am seeing on the references. It makes this process very unique to each of us. A couple more markings, like those diagonals around the nose and the volume around the eyes are good places to pay attention to. With the PINCH brush, my intention is to sharpen the edges around the jaw area. Anything that helps you see new shapes is a valid thing to add. This horizontal line is not the division between the teeth but actually a splitting line between the teeth and chin volumes. I try to imagine all the teeth being just like a big curve, or half of a sphere, or an egg. So I hope it is easy to see what I am doing when checking the profile view. I am also trying to keep the surface clean so it is easy for you to see what I am actually thinking. But this is not my actual approach when doing things anymore, only because I can already see things with ease even when working with a messy surface. If you are having a hard time seeing things, it is worth using the SMOOTH brush. You will have a cleaner surface which will help you see things. The DAM_STANDARD brush is great to add or carve out sharp lines. I am constantly using both techniques when trying to find the simple planes of the skull. Now, with a lot more things to compare to, I can again use the MOVE brush to shift things around. By using a big sized brush I can work on big portions of the model. I am constantly comparing my model with the references and with what I feel is appealing. Big changes like these can be made at almost any point when sculpting digitally. That's why this tool is so great. But if possible, it is worth trying to keep it mostly during the first stages of the sculpt. So can we make sure this happens? Well, we just need to spend more time on this blocking stage. Adding a bit more Dynamesh resolution. I hope it is clear what I mean by constantly observing the model. I just rotate the model around, looking at it, and barely sculpting anything new. I do it very often, and most of the time I am not even thinking about it anymore. For beginners, it will take a bit more mental effort. One more reminder about reductions, At this stage of the sculpture, my artistic tendencies and abilities dictate that, for me to be able to see certain forms, like the zygomatic region, my solution is to leave it only as a plane. This simplification of shapes allows me to have more control now, to make it more complex in the future. Maybe you will simplify it another way. But the crucial thing to understand is that each one of us solves the same problems in different ways. With the Snapshot command, in my case SHIFT + S, I can make copies of the model on screen so that I can compare more angles at the same time. To clear the screen, just press CTRL + N. See how powerful the MOVE brush is We can always change the general shape of the piece without fear. Overdoing it is a good way to find the perfect spot you're trying to set. Move the portions a lot more than you think you need and look again to see how you feel about the changes. We are now almost at the end of this blocking stage, but still considering all the angles of the piece. No rush to advance to the next stage. No issues with the simplicity of the shapes. This is the most important part, as everything will be built on these foundational forms. Now, I'm just clearing some more areas so you can notice the simplicity I'm looking for. We have reached this stage with safety, so we are now ready for the next. 11. Skull: human skull pt2: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - HUMAN SKULL - Secondary forms We can now look for greater complexity in some of the skull shapes. Always keeping an eye on the references and taking your time to keep looking from all angles. I changed the alpha of the ClayBuildup brush, because the square alpha leaves too many marks on the surface. Notice how I built the shape the same way I showed it from Bernini and Canova. I feel that it makes it easier to get to the volumes I'm looking for. But give it a try and do your own experiments. Here, some light markings to hint at the volume and position of the teeth. In our study, it will not be necessary to sculpt every single tooth, as we are concerned with seeing the main shapes first. So just as in the first part, simplifying and implying some shapes will help you find and improve other areas of sculpture. With one more level of subdivision, I will now be able to explore and find other details on top of the initial forms. Note that I use the SMOOTH brush after building a new form, almost every time. I've been forcing myself to do this a bit more in these videos, to make it clear what I'm trying to find and see. Again, more markings that will help me find other shapes. Maybe for you it will not help at all those same markings. So I urge you to be aware of what is really helping you to see the shapes. Again building some shapes with that technique. I try to use this technique even in areas where the MOVE brush would be enough. My reason is that there is a subtle difference between using MOVE or slowly building shapes with CLAY BUILDUP. And the difference is that MOVE doesn't transfer very well to traditional sculpture, but with the other way it does. It is very difficult in real life to do what MOVE does. Well, we can still move big portions of real clay, but not as easy as with ZBrush, especially if the piece is already a bit more developed. So a good tip would be to try to use MOVE brush a bit less over time when you are still learning. This will help you see shapes rather than unintentionally getting to them. If the shapes are getting lost and therefore difficult to know what to do next, one way to avoid this is to make sharp cuts like the ones I'm making and even try to simplify the region again. Those sharp lines I am doing are a reminder of which parts I am trying to find. This current stage already served our purpose because from here on the big shapes won't change. And whatever is added after this point, may improve another skill. Detailing for instance. And not the designing process of the main shapes of a skull. On top of this base model, virtually any tertiary shape and detail will work very well. Now is also a good time for you to compare your piece to mine and pay attention if you were able to see and sculpt the areas I'm painting now. Not only are these areas can give a lot of personality to the human skull, but they are also the regions that directly affect the human face. They are areas where mostly the bones are shaping the face, not muscles alone. To make a good face, these are areas that you should be able to see in pictures and references. If you missed any of them, this is a good reminder for your next study. Painted in blue, these are important parts to be explored, but they will not necessarily appear on everyone's face. This can be affected by gender, age, amongst other things. The total complexity of the skull does not matter now. Try to practice seeing these volumes in all your skull and face studies. 12. Skull: animal skull: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - BONUS: ANIMAL SKULL - Study idea Hello In this bonus video we will do some animal skull studies. This is useful for so many reasons that it is actually difficult to describe them all. The main ones would be: the realization of the similarity between all living beings on this planet, on how skulls in general share several characteristics. A new perspective on how to explore human and non-human forms And finally an assistance to your learning, by adding more information into your mental library, with variations on the same subject I will make this reference file available, but you should check the site itself, because in each of the skulls, there are photos more from other angles. The technical part of the process will be similar, using dynamesh or any other method you prefer. Although, when sculpting, my intention is to be a little more loose and chaotic. I won't necessarily try to find all the planes, like we did on the human skull, to only then advance to the next step. It is then an exploration of the primary and secondary forms based on what I think is more closely related to how our mind works. It is a lot more chaotic and I will be jumping between parts of the skull much faster, but always considering the whole. This is all that matters. My interest is not on details, but actually to explore peculiarities in the skull shape of other animals. From here on the video won't contain audio commentary, because I believe that watching other artists is of great help too. I will also leave the video at normal speed, so you can choose the optimal playback speed. Enjoy the video! 13. Generic bust: primary forms: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva GENERIC BUST - Primary forms - Hey there! Now we are finally ready to sculpt the male head but instead of moving on to adding striking features and personality I intend to show the progress of a generic male bust. And then, we will start adding more unique features to make it more interesting. We will use the same tools with the same care and attention and the same methodology. Even so it will still be hard, I know. Just take it easy and if you feel that you have lost control somewhere take a break and come back later. Starting again with the sphere, I will try to get to that basic skull shape and by adding a cylinder as a new subtool, we will have this egg shaped form with something that resembles a neck. I can also add some markings to remind me of the skull shape based on the study that we have done previously. So emphasize what you think is necessary to help yourself identify the forms that you are able to see. Now I added another subtool in order to build the remaining of the bust, Rather than making a floating head, it is always a good idea to add some type of base as if we were to place this piece on a table or platform. But to avoid having to sculpt the shoulder and a portion of the chest, I will try to find a simple shape for it. Pay attention on how I am trying various lines and curves. Different sizes too. Always trying to find something that is simple enough for our purpose. As the piece as a whole matters, I want to make sure that this base is part of the initial blocking stage. As I have mentioned before, the more details you add, the more reference points you end up with. So blocking the base showed me that the neck was something that required some modifications. One thing literally leads to another. Every decision counts. Now that we have developed the head a bit more, it is good a practice not to leave the other areas lagging behind. Everything must be relatively developed to the same level. Just so, in all instances, we will have a good representation of a human bust and you may not even notice, but are already working on those reductions. For example, representing a neck with a cylinder shape is an acceptable reduction. However, as we are looking for something more realistic, slowly adding complexity to reductions is the only way forward. Note how the neck is not a straight up line and from the front view, it is about the same width as the head. These are easy details to see in the references. In order to find the ears I mark the jaw line again. Then I roughly mask out an area similar to the shape of an ear in the middle of the head. I drew these lines to show you the reference points that I am using in order to position the ears. By using the transpose tool, I pull the ear shape out of the head and that is a great start point. After cleaning the surface with the SMOOTH brush the next important thing is to find good silhouettes and shapes for the ear. I do some work to improve the transition from around the ear to the head And then I scan the model to find any areas that requires some more work. Notice how the entire jaw and neck region adds complexity and realism to our model. Even though it does not have a face yet These are areas often neglected by beginners. Not intentionally of course. So I urge you to invest more time around this area. Bringing back the concept of reduction and stylization How do you think a good reduction would be for an ear at this stage? Would it be a rectangle? Or the letter C shape? Or a question mark shape? Or the letter S shape? Or a mixture of all of them? These are all questions that must be asked during the entire sculpting process, for every part of the body that you are sculpting, regardless of their size. Now it is a good time to show intention on each simplified form. The way I do it is identifying the sharp edges and making sure they do not pass unnoticed. The two large lateral neck muscles, are great areas to imply more forms and emphasize some sharp edges. Despite its complex name: Sternocleidomastoid its shape is quite clear and simple to find. As soon as you find it, you automatically have the basic form for the Adam's apple. Use the references to first see these volumes and then represent them in your model. The same applies for the ears. I make sure that the planes I chose to represent them at this stage are clear and very simplified. It would be fine to leave the head as an egg shaped object but I decided to add more planes to help you These lines that extend vertically from the chin to the forehead can be used as a good reference for seeing the frontal and lateral sides of a face. See how we already have a great foundation to keep working. Nothing prevents us from stopping here and artistically explore busts similar to this. Why not? Another idea would be doing studies that are not more developed than this. Where the main goal is just to explore different shapes of head, neck and ears. But for now, our plan is to continue developing this head on to a more complex level. 14. Generic bust: secondary forms: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - GENERIC BUST - Secondary forms Continuing from where we left off. The only way now being to make it more complex, I will try to find the best place for the eyes. What you will see happening in the next few seconds, is just a demonstration on how eyes, theoretically, can be placed anywhere on the face. Some places will look better, others not so much as you can see. Do not get stuck in the pursuit of precision or perfection of its placement. In this generic bust they are not that special anyway. Do not ignore the fact that the positioning itself can give many different personalities to your piece. It's a great exploration to do. With the following lines I just want to show what I'm using as reference to position the eyes. Very generic. Notice the inclination I adopted when blocking the eyes. This came from my skull sculpting practice. If your tendency was to just dig 2 random holes, take that now as a reminder. I will also mark several other details that are the result of my skull studies, such as on the cheekbone and forehead. Now that I've found a reference with features that I consider generic in nature. I can continue to develop the face. The line I marked for the mouth shows well what it means to add things carefully. To judge the position of the mouth, that is all I need. If I scale down the piece enough on the screen, I will even be able to see a nearly completed face. So all the changes I am making gradually are to bring back the feeling of a face. I keep adding things, then they may look wrong, so I fix it. Add more things, and fix it all again. A reminder about reductions: Even simple representations carry a lot of information. Use it to your advantage. This mix between skull and face is a great way to explore and simplify shapes. It is impossible not to see certain features and even personality of a face, even with a small amount of details and forms. And that is great! It shows us that we are on the right track. Never make lips with these two "worms". This is very common and it comes from the misconception that the lips jump out of the plane of the face. The reality is that much of what we consider to be the lips is just a different skin color. And not an additional form. Their volume and shape can sometimes be almost nonexistent. Regarding the blocking of the eyes, it is obvious to me to make the reduction to a sphere. If you find it best to reduce to a square, a line or a dot, it is also fine! But we know that the shape of a real eye is a sphere, and this being a realistic piece I decided to go that way. A small volume and some markings around it are enough for me to feel that they are eyes. I can now move on to the rest, fixing things, as now, for the first time, this bust has eyes. It gives us a lot more room to work on other things. Note that when blocking the mouth, we first need this spherical volume in front of the face as a general form. and a line separating it from the chin region. After that, a line between the lips and a line under the lower lip. If this was a real sculpture, try to imagine that I removed clay instead of adding more. Nothing to do with those two "worms" I showed at the beginning. Back on the eyes now, I am trying to find the curvature of the upper eyelid. I draw a line and judge it from afar. You can try squinting really hard too. It will help you see a simplified version of what you have. Like the mouth, the area around the eyes represents as much of the eye as the eye itself. I usually carve really hard all that area around the eye sockets. They give it a very realistic feel to this initial block. Again drawing well-marked lines to find what I see in the pictures. But I am still trying to simplifying everything. This is not the time to add details yet. A few more marked lines, in order to show you what I am thinking and also to make the design of each part really clear. I don't want to leave any part looking untouched or purposeless. I am almost at the end this step, but still giving equal importance to all parts, including, for instance, the forehead and chin. The more skull studies you do, you'll also be able to see and introduce more shapes into regions that, theoretically, hold little interest. From here on, I will again color parts that I believe are crucial to explore. I hope it is clear that it doesn't mean that your piece must have the same forms as mine does. On the contrary! What I hope is that you remember to work in these places, finding your own design solutions. 15. Generic bust: refinement: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - GENERIC BUST - Form refinement Hey there, In this class we will continue with the generic bust, aiming only at the refinement of forms. This step would be unnecessary in everyday life, but I want to make sure that we were calm enough to define this base model first, to then add more personality to it. Even now, I'll keep working on all parts simultaneously, instead of doing each part in isolation. The theory that the whole always matters more than the details will hold true until the end of our work. The technique of using the brush along the other direction of the form becomes increasingly important throughout the process. In this video I am using it in all regions, to ensure that I am satisfied with the curves and nuances of the surface. At the end of the video, I will show which regions can receive this treatment. Try to do it yourself with what you feel as you look at your piece. So when you get to the end, compare it, and see if you can improve. Just a reminder that I am still using the original dynamesh mesh, but with 1 additional subdivision level. ZRemesher is not required yet. Notice how I try to find different planes in the nose. These planes and simplifications work for me, but it's not the only way to solve this problem. I urge you to keep trying to find your own way of seeing things. I will not speed up the video this time, so you can pay close attention to the speed and direction of my brush strokes. I am not doodling or moving my pen in all directions. The movement is well thought out to build a form at a specific place. We are obviously making a man not so old and relatively thin. This is because, by adding wrinkles or fat, new problems will arise, and this is not the time yet. I suggest continuing studies mainly on this basic head for a while. With the eyes virtually untouched since the initial blocking stage, now is a good time to refine them too. You don't see me looking at the references, but I'm constantly switching my gaze between the zbrush screen and the reference screen. I already have experience with the main volumes of the face, but I still check it out. Your task is to always notice if what you are doing is because you know it or just think you know it. If you are in a region for a long time, going back and forth, doing it and erasing it, you probably lack clarity on how to better define it. One way to counter this trying simplified variations of the region. For instance: If you're having a hard time understanding the surface of the nose, why not try making a completely flat plane of it? or maybe If you're having a hard time understanding the surface of the eye, try making a sphere with only a few markings around it. This is almost like a conversation you have with yourself all the time. What you see now can also serve as an idea on how to simplify the eyes. Try to notice the simplicity in which I represented the eyelids with, and between them, just a small volume for the iris. It's not exactly the iris that gives this external volume to the eye, but I'm calling it that way just to make explanation easier. The ears so far were just a plane, and it served us well. But it's time to add the details they deserve. Since they have smaller shapes relative to the rest of the head, your mesh may not have enough resolution to define them. But just do as much as you can with the current resolution you have available. As long as when comparing to the references, you can still read the same volumes between photos and 3D. Now that we are done with this step, I want to show you this "map" I created. These lines represent two things: Firstly, places you should not overlook, as you can find it on any face to a greater or lesser extent. If you haven't looked for something in those places, your piece is probably oversimplified or missing volumes. Secondly, the direction of how to build these shapes, by using the Clay brushes. Moving the brush in the direction of these lines will make your piece look very natural and also help you see things. This model will be available for you to analyze it. See you next class! 16. Male bust: adding character pt1: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - MALE BUST - Features and personality, part 1 Hey there, I believe that at this point in the course, if you have followed the instructions and questions I propose, I imagine many things going forward will be repeated. And that's the way it is... The difference will only be the result you get when you finish each project. And after each of them, it will always be a little bit better, I'm sure. Let's keep jumping all over the model, without focusing too long on just one part. It is to be expected that we will see several different heads in the process, experimenting with different sizes and proportions. When it seems satisfactory, then we developed the area a bit. We compare everything again, and the process begins again. Be prepared to see me trying various things and maybe even going back with some decisions. It's a very organic process and I don't think there are ways around it. Ears and overall head shape are good places to start, by experimenting with different proportions and seeing how you feel. Having any idea what type of bust you are looking for would help. I have already made some decisions, such as: male bust, adult (but not old), realistic sense of shape and style. This alone is a great guide and I already know that I will not make it look like a Disney character for example. Some other questions may be asked about the features of the person we are representing. These features will define mood, attitude, appearance, humor, temperament, and a lot more. Certain physiognomic traits will reveal different personalities. I have only a general idea of ​​what I hope to achieve. I will try to avoid a very heroic face, but I seek some charismatic and pleasant beauty. Maybe some part of the face will have some quality out of beauty standards. I will also avoid traces of someone very maternal or docile. If you don't have a clear picture of what you want, initially consider leaving at least more striking shapes without changing much of what you've already done. From this point on, the work itself will help you decide on where to go from here. Trying different nose and mouth sizes, in particular, will give us very different looks. I can't say which one is better without trying first. Notice how the face changes after minor changes. If the eye has been positioned correctly and blocked as a small curve or sphere, there is no reason why the eyelids do not fit well into the shape. But if you're having trouble, a solution can be to place a sphere as a subtool and use it as reference or even use it as a separate subtool, making it eye sphere itself. It will work fine, but there will be a clear division between the two pieces and this breaks the illusion a bit. It is worth trying the one mesh solution. Another tip is to make your eyelids thicker than you think. Pay attention to how thick I made mine. Pause the video as needed and notice how I defined the curves of this region. A bit more work on the nose, but not only it but everything else as well will be further developed in the future. But only when I'm happy with the overall design of the face. Then I can use ZRemesher and the normal subdivision to refine each part. Remember what I said about working on the same things more than once? Yeah... again with the ears. And it won't be the last time. It is ideal to keep jumping over all parts, always considering the whole. Be careful when exaggerating these marks around the nose. They can make your model look much older than you want. But leaving completely without it, will make it even stranger. Note in the references that I shared, how they all have some information there to be explored. And not just "who is old". This is the difference between leaving something untouched, due to the wrong opinion, rather than studying the references to only then draw conclusions that will force you to work on each part of the model. Attention when modeling the ear. Mainly the anti helix fold and fossa or also known as the "head of the Y". I see people doing both ends the same size and proportion. Almost like those worm-like shapes we did on the lips. This must be avoided! References show how much more complex this is. With one of them being thinner and more pronounced. And the outside one being wider and even nonexistent in some people. With what we've done so far, you can see how the face changed. I'm not very satisfied yet and so I will continue to do more tests in part two. But first, I have to update and refine the base so that the whole piece feels the the same way to what I'm looking for. This end of the video will have no comments as I will only spend working on the base. Enjoy the video! 17. Male bust: adding character pt2: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - MALE BUST - Features and personality, part 2 Hey there, In this second part I will keep trying to find better forms for each area of this bust. As always jumping from one place to another, as I have done in every other step. You will notice the model rotating a lot more on the screen, because at this time there's a lot more to compare within the model. Having the model really small on screen may help you. The changes will be much smaller going forward, but the sum of them will give us a face with very different qualities. Working on areas like the line between the lips, behind the ear, shapes under the nose and the whole eye area will increasingly make it a more consistent bust. I want to make sure that I went through everything and took the time to think about them. It is bad when the shapes are sloppy, unbalanced and seem not to be the result of intent but of carelessness. For the mouth, what struck me most was the lack of contrast there. Not only for the practically straight line between the lips, but also as they do not have much differentiated forms. I will try to add more information in this area to create more interest. This part of the eyebrows has most of its volume defined by the hair portion. But we can imply more volume without having to make each individual hair line. This area will be revisited when we are in the finalization stage. So far I haven't used the masking tool that much, but the eye region is a good place for that. Calmly isolating each part, I can accurately hide or expose the upper eyelids using the MOVE brush. The same can be done in the ear to pull it out of the face, or between the lips if you are trying to show some kind of overlap, but you are having difficulty achieving the effect with normal brushes only. Note that even at this advanced stage of sculpture, I am still testing some general proportions of the face. And it's not because there is something anatomically incorrect, or that is necessarily ugly. It's just a feeling that came up from noticing all these new things this bust now has compared to what it had before. If you have an organic approach to the process, as I have shown here, it will happen naturally. I just want to warn you that this does not always happen in a work environment, where each step is much more defined and once initial steps have been approved by the client, they can no longer be changed. There are other people working on the same thing and the project has to move more linearly so that deadlines are met and clients are happy with their investments. But here is our world, our work, and none of that matters. Currently our mesh does not have enough resolution to define this inner part of the nostrils. So I will do what is possible and then I will pay more attention to the region. As I said before, all parts are important. See how all this back of the head is currently without interest or volumes. Working on the region behind the ears will force you to work on the skull and neck as well. all this will create much more interest. Note in the references how the part just below the ear is carved into the neck. Even with hair being added later, it is worth spending time on these parts, as our goal is to learn and develop skills, not to deliver work. Now I am working on the last few bits and pieces, as various parts of the mesh are no longer accepting more details and small shapes, such as eyes, nose and ear. Compared to what we started, I'm much more satisfied now. And finally I can apply ZRemesher so I can finish each part with the proper treatment. At this stage, what we have is good already. And it could even be considered finalized. But I want to show you that even without finer details we can push the quality of this piece even further. 18. Male bust: hair sculpt timelapse: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - FINAL MALE BUST - Bonus video: Hair Hey there, Before moving on to finalizing the face, I think it's going to be helpful adding this demonstration of how I sculpt the hair in a sculptural manner. There are so many ways of sculpting hair, that it is not possible to create a full lesson on it right now. They deserve their own course. Since this course is mostly for beginners, adding hair sculpting concepts would change the focus too much. There is no problem in doing hairless sculpt studies. There are a lot of shapes to explore in a head or skull. Just ask yourself: How many fictional creatures have a full head of hair? So I hope that during this learning stage, you can learn a lot by just watching me do it. Generally speaking, I am more concerned with the flow of forms. As in how the curves of one part, drive the eye to the next, thus creating a sense of movement. I avoid sculpting each hair strand, leaving the are with too much contrast. It would draw too much attention, instead of making us look at the most important area: the face. The face is where we are emotionally connected the most. That's my reasoning behind it. Since I am not concerned about individual strands, but actually larger shapes, I can give it a geometric look. I also avoid too many parallel lines or shapes, as they also create a pattern that catches the eye and seems inorganic. The tentacle study we did in the past is a good sample of how I should treat each of these curves. Each large sculpted volume creates a new curve, and so it should look pleasing from all angles. Same way we did with the tentacle. It took me an hour to sculpt this hair, and it is not even at a finalized stage. I am not saying this to rush you. I just want to show you how long this one part of the sculpture may take. I will speed up the video a bit and remove the background music as well. So you can pick the best combination for you. There will be no more narration on this video. So... Enjoy the video! 19. Male bust: finalizing: - ZBRUSH DIGITAL SCULPTING: FIRST STEPS - The Essentials of Digital Sculpting with Fábio Paiva - MALE BUST - Final touches Hi there, almost there guys. Before start sculpting, I will spend these first few minutes doing all the necessary preparation with ZRemesher and cleaning the mesh. It's going to be a bit more chaotic since I have a face that is symmetrical and a hair that is asymmetrical at this point. I decided that I want to continue with the symmetry on the face, but not on the hair. I will create two new geometries and merge them together and only then transfer the details of what I have sculpted so far. It is always a good practice to duplicate your main model, regardless of the technique you will use in this step. With it duplicated, I will create a lighter version with Decimation Master. In my case, the 75k preset is ideal. I also make a copy of this lighter mesh because that's the source of the two new ZRemesher meshes. First I isolate the hair and then, delete what is hidden with DEL HIDDEN. This is the result I get, and the only thing I have to look for is if it has enough resolution for the hair shape and if I selected all of its borders right. I can see this is not good enough, so I try again. Now that I am happy with the results I can do the same for the rest of the bust By selecting the part as best as I can, and applying ZRemesher again. Notice that we now have two pieces that overlap each other. Our job now is to clean up all the border edges so there's just a small gap between them. I will just use the selection tool and polygroup functions to the best of my abilities. Slowly isolating and deleting bits and pieces that are not needed This is not the best approach in a production workflow, but it's perfect for personal studies. An easier solution would be just creating one new ZRemesher for the whole thing with symmetry off. It would give us a good mesh to work with, but without the face symmetry. I just wanted to show you the difficult route, so you have an idea of what it is. Now that the face is finished, we can do the same with the hair. It will be a bit more difficult given the ear area and the odd flow of the polygons. Worry not! Everything will work out in the end. Both pieces are clean so we can now merge them. The gap between them will be filled with the ZModeler brush. I don't have a shortcut for it so I just press the keys: B - Z - M Leave the cursor right on top of an edge, and by holding the Space Bar, pick the options: BRIDGE > TWO HOLES Now just pick two opposite edges, and ZBrush will fill the gap for us. It is a very messy result but we at least have the Polygroups to help us clean it. I mask out the two initial parts so I can smooth the newly created gap. The area behind the ears could be a lot worse, with the overlapping hair and all that. But I like to clean it even if it is just a study like this. It is a good practice to do it regardless, as it happens a lot during production. I slowly clean it and do a 'ProjectAll', clean it a bit more and project again... and so on. With the ear area being clean now, I can mask them out, since the rest of the bust is simple enough to allow a single projection. I slowly increase the subdivision levels and do one projection at a time, so we can transfer all the previous details into this new mesh To finish it off, I will just smooth things out a bit. Just so we can get rid of the surface noise brought by all the projections we did. I will just be mindful not to remove too much of the sculpted information, or else I will have to do it all again. Finally, all ready for the final sculpting pass, and with symmetry available in most part of the geometry, if necessary. We will now work most of the time with the symmetry turned OFF. But I want to make some comments about it first. There are no rules about how and when using symmetry, or even if it is necessary to turn it off. My opinion is that in nature there is nothing perfectly symmetrical and that we are used to seeing imperfections in everything, including people's faces. A perfectly symmetrical face can look weird, and it will be really hard getting a good likeness of a famous person, if symmetry is not turned off. I've done everything symmetrical specifically for this course, excluding the hair, just because it's easier and faster. But if you are not a beginner anymore, why don't you try doing everything with symmetry off? This is something I have done many times on personal work. It is a great practice. With the base a bit cleaner, I can now work on the nose. There wasn't enough resolution before. I've added a few more references to show how the nostrils follow a basic spiral pattern. If you respect this feature, the nose will look better from any angle. For the iris, I will apply the classic solution of carving a hole and leaving a small shape on top that represents the reflection in the eyes, not the pupil. For the pupil, an even smaller hole can be carved. In this case I felt like simpler was better. It's also time to add the caruncle. This small volume in the corner of the eye. Without it the eyes look fake, since their shape would just go from one corner to another without interruptions That's why any nuanced shape will be better than nothing at all. An oval and stylized shape may work well for you. Give it a try! Any surface can be simplified or stylized... just a reminder about those initial ideas. The perfect copy of nature in an artwork will never achieve the quality of something that has been represented slightly stylized. Something I do very often is to use the brush DAM_STANDARD to add skin imperfections. By smoothing and adding more volume to the surrounding area of the cut it will give the skin a very natural look. And I will be doing this a lot throughout the video. I am now trying to find new shapes on the ear and also cleaning up all the area a bit more. I left the symmetry on for this since they are on opposite sides and it's hard to notice the similarities. Here I am again using the rake brush and when in doubt on how to further develop the surface and volumes this brush will help you see things a bit better. I will also spend more time working on the hair since it represents a big portion of my piece. I am still trying to avoid adding individual lines, keeping in mind the idea of flow and bigger shapes of the hair. Hair ends and hair divisions deserve a lot more care in my case. I will be using the STANDARD and SMOOTH brushes to achieve this. I try to pay close attention, even to small areas like these around the eyes so everything is showing intention in the sculpture. Always. There is no need to add every line found on a real lip. All it needs is something that looks real when looked from afar. A few lines and volumes are enough. So just be mindful not to do too much on this area thus creating too much contrast here when compared to the rest. This mistake would go against the overall feeling of the rest of your piece. I am again using DAM_STANDARD to add lines on the surface, and smoothing it out a bit afterward. I am trying to create direction with those lines the same ones that create wrinkles on our faces as we age. Without overdoing it, they will only help with the realism instead of aging the person too much. I usually add more lines, shapes and volumes around the eyes because this is where we first look when laying our eyes on any other human or creature. By doing this, the spectator will spend more time on this area, travel their sight all over the rest of the piece in a much more relaxed manner arriving again on the eyes. And now, we finally finished our piece. {{{HUEEEEEEEE!!!!}}} But this is just the beginning. We haven't even talked about expressions, sex, nationality. Regardless, this is a great starting point so later the other things can be explored. The following rendered images are just to show that it is possible to have a finished piece of work with this method that I showed. Not the best way of doing things on a film or game production but perfectly fine for 3D printing or personal work. And it is hard for me to remember exactly how much time I spend on this piece but I can give an idea of how much time a beginner would spend. By starting off with the skull studies and then following the method that I shared I imagine that a month is a realistic and acceptable time Ideally doing a little bit everyday, instead of a lot on just one day. This video ends here, and I will come back later with some final words. Nice work! 20. Final thoughts: That's it! Thanks for investing on this course, and have made it to the end. I hope these ideas will bring positive things in your work, and that the time we spent together was pleasant. I am aware that your journey won't end here, so... Good luck! Thank you!