Welcome to the Z Brush Forum

Forum Moderators: fly028

Z Brush F.A.Q (Last Updated: 2023 Sep 06 1:16 pm)



Subject: Alien Creature creation stages.


Teyon ( ) posted Mon, 14 March 2016 at 9:55 AM · edited Mon, 18 March 2024 at 6:33 PM

Content Advisory! This message contains nudity

Here's stages of an alien creature from concept to final model. TeyonAlexander_Week3.png


Teyon ( ) posted Mon, 14 March 2016 at 9:57 AM

Stage one. Starting from a Sphere. I will be using only the Move,Clay Buildup and Dam Standard brushes, along with the transpose tools. NO ALPHA MAPS. step1.png

Here I have the beginning of the torso blocked out. As you can see, I'm keeping the shapes very simple, choosing to concentrate only on the basic forms.


Teyon ( ) posted Mon, 14 March 2016 at 10:00 AM

step 2b.png

Using Masking, the Move brush, Claybuildup, Hpolish and Smooth (I forgot I also used those), I start pulling out the rest of the base. Eventually I end up with this.

step3.png

It's kind of like an armature to build my muscle groups on.


Teyon ( ) posted Mon, 14 March 2016 at 10:13 AM

Then I pull out the muscles groups using a combination of the move, clay buildup and smooth brushes. I try to pay attention to the boney landmarks so as not to completely destroy them. They are crucial to the model looking right down the line. Eventually I end up with my primary forms.

primary.png


Teyon ( ) posted Mon, 14 March 2016 at 10:17 AM

After I have my primary forms down, I review the model to make sure that everything is working the way I want in terms of proportion, scale and weight. If anything is off, I use the move brush to correct it. I try to give the model a natural relaxed T Pose to make the process of sculpting anatomical details easier. Once that's done, using the damstandard, clay buildup and smooth brushes, I start in on my secondary form. work in progress2.png


Teyon ( ) posted Mon, 14 March 2016 at 10:22 AM

After the secondary forms are done, I go in to create tertiary details like small wrinkles around the ankles, knees and elbows, wrinkles in the hand and neck and abdomen, etc. These are done using clay buildup primarily, though sometimes using masking and the move tool in conjunction with smoothing can work too. At this stage, I also add in veiny details using masking to draw out the veins and then using the clay build up to build them up and the smooth brush to soften them as they fade under the skin.

(unfortunately the screen grab of this stage got corrupted)


Teyon ( ) posted Mon, 14 March 2016 at 10:27 AM

Finally, there's the detailing phase. Many people will just grab an alpha and go to town on the model but this can sometimes (often really) end up looking noisey and uninteresting. What I did instead, was, using the Damn Standard brush at low settings, I manually made criss crossing cuts into the model (think infinity symbol) The feeling I was going for was a rough but fleshy skin like chicken skin. To help with that look, I used the clay buildup and smooth brush to add in bumps. Sometimes I would also use the Dam Standard brush set to ZADD to make sharper, scale like bumps (at the wrist, along the sides of the obliques and the shins).

skin.png

skin1.png


Teyon ( ) posted Mon, 14 March 2016 at 10:40 AM

Content Advisory! This message contains nudity

It's important through all of this that your character reads well at a distance. You have to try to make sure that none of the stages destroys the work done on the stage before. You should be able to see the model's various stages based on distance from the camera. At a great distance you should only make out the primary forms, as you get closer you'll then see the secondary forms, closer still, the tertiary forms and then up close, the surface detailing. It should all work in conjunction with each other and not compete for attention.

forms.png


RAMWorks ( ) posted Mon, 14 March 2016 at 12:02 PM

COOL. Your so good at this.... :-)

---Wolff On The Prowl---

My Store is HERE

My Freebies are HERE  


Teyon ( ) posted Mon, 14 March 2016 at 12:20 PM

Thanks!


foleypro ( ) posted Mon, 14 March 2016 at 1:51 PM

Nice work..

You keep mention this Damn brush...?


Teyon ( ) posted Mon, 14 March 2016 at 1:57 PM

Yes, the Dam_Standard (short for Damien Standard - named after the creator of the brush). It's a standard brush in the ZBrush brush palette. Open the ZBrush Brush Menu and hit the letter D it'll show up. It's a great brush and very handy for detailing.


dardezen ( ) posted Mon, 14 March 2016 at 2:55 PM

Thanks for this breakdown Teyon. Very informative.

Regards,

dardezen


Digital Artisan

OS X | MODO indie | ZBrush | Unity | Blender | DAZ Studio | PP2014


Teyon ( ) posted Mon, 14 March 2016 at 4:18 PM

Happy to do it. I should mention that along the way, I made changes as needed. Changing the forms on the back so that the lats look better, erasing and redoing a much softer detail pass on the chest to arm connection, etc. Don't treat your model as precious. Be ready and willing to make changes as needed.


Teyon ( ) posted Tue, 15 March 2016 at 9:26 AM

Keep remembering things to tell you. So this was a method taught to me by Gio Nakpil to help understand creating good form language, the building blocks of any good sculpture. It's a method I like but not what I would use in production, as it's a little time consuming. However, it's good to do as practice when you have time, so that when working in production, where speed is important, your hands already have a feel for the right forms to make or being ready in case you need to make drastic changes without destroying the underlying forms.

Some other good practice:

Take a sphere and turn it into a cube in ZBrush using Dam_Standard, HPolish, Clay Buildup, Move and Smooth brushes only. Then take that cube and turn it back into a sphere. It's challenging but it can really help you in defining hard and soft forms when working in production.


TruForm ( ) posted Fri, 13 May 2016 at 1:36 PM

This is really great work!


Teyon ( ) posted Sat, 14 May 2016 at 10:17 PM

Thank you. :)


Marque ( ) posted Mon, 04 July 2016 at 2:24 AM

Nice, gives me hope. Just learning so this is exciting. Thank you and looking forward to more.


Privacy Notice

This site uses cookies to deliver the best experience. Our own cookies make user accounts and other features possible. Third-party cookies are used to display relevant ads and to analyze how Renderosity is used. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understood our Terms of Service, including our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy.