ZBrushCentral

The Sculptor (WIP)

Hey there,

I wanted to do this piece of my husband’s grandfather who is a wonderful sculptor and a really great guy. I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go and play in his studio and have him critique my work from time to time. Even though he doesn’t fully understand working in CG, he has always been very interested in the work, especially anything that was created in zbrush. Anyway, I am hoping to make this a nice piece so here is my progress.

I originally wanted to include part of the table in the scene and put wood shavings and that sort of thing on the table but I am thinking perhaps a clearer view of his face would be better.

Next, I’ll start building the background pieces and his apron strings etc.

-Kathryn

Attachments

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Maybe you want to add something he is looking at?
In this stadium it seems there is something else focusing his interest.
A fly? A bee? Or maybe some pictures of an eagle.
I am a little bit afraid of his thumb to be honest :wink:

Looking forward to see how it’s going on.

Thanks for the feedback, Knacki :slight_smile:

Yes, I’ll shift his focus so that he’s actually looking at what he is doing and I’ll keep working on that thumb :wink: In fact, that entire left arm (his left) looks a bit strange now that I look at it again.

But the head is great.
Just some tweaks on arm hand and pose and you’ll be spot on.

I found a nice pic of a wood sculptor. Maybe an inspiration? Even to do it completely different.:wink:
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/display/24792367

what a great idea… as i am woodcarving myself, i would suggest to let him look at the sharp edge of his chisel. thats what carvers do, observe what the edge is cutting… and, as the eagle is already relatively smooth, indicating the finishing stage of the carving, i would suggest to let him hold the chisel in a flatter angle, as if he would shave off very thin pieces to smoothen the carving further… actually, in this stage of work, a mallet is rarely used, but i see its nice to have it in the composition and explain better what he is doing …

Here’s a quick update. I added some of the background pieces, added the apron strings, and made some tweaks to his forearm and thumb. Still need to do some more work to the fingers. I also moved his eyes so that he is looking at what he’s doing.

Knacki: Wow, what a great photo! I will definitely look at that while I am working. Thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

Kokoro: Thanks for your comment. I haven’t played with Mesh Insert brushes, but perhaps I could insert a block at the base of the sculpture and make it look a bit rougher so the mallet makes more sense. My hope was that anyone who knows Don would recognize the sculpture I was trying to capture in this piece.

I scribbled on the screenshot a bit. Blue indicates things I will fix soon, black is stuff I might add to the scene.

donProgressComp_12.JPG
donProgressComp_12copy.JPG
donProgressComp_13.JPG

This is cool! I like that you are doing this of you husbands grandfather. Shows a lot of respect and admiration!:+1:

Ethanashton: Thanks very much for your comment. :slight_smile:

Made some minor adjustments to the pose and started detailing the background a bit. I think I will tweak the pose a bit more and continue to make corrections and add a few more pieces. Hopefully I will be ready to start painting soon.

Apparently, I appended and sculpted the preview mesh of the new topology I created for the apron strings instead of appending the new skin I created for it. facepalm So, the apron strings are gone now, lol. I’ll rebuild them soon.

donnewcomp04.JPG

Love what you are doing with this piece…Great job so far…:+1:
The only thing that is not coming across, is the direction that he is looking in… Right now, it appears that he may be steering at a reference photo beneath him on the table top… …I think that if you want him to be looking at the work that he’s creating,…maybe, and this is just a suggestion that may or may not be useful to you, and nothing more than that…I would turn his head myself,…so his head is facing the sculpture at hand that he is working on…This turning/rotation of his head would add to his stance, and also show off the muscle in his neck that runs from the near center of his collar bone up to and behind his ear…adding to his sense of strenght as he sculpts…Just a thought…:slight_smile:

This is coming along so nicely, looking forward to seeing it with colors and a nice render :stuck_out_tongue:

SpiritDreamer: Thanks very much for your feedback. You were exactly right about where he was looking. I think that was what Knacki was trying to point out to me early on, but at that point I thought my composition would be more focused on his face, so I only moved his eyes. I think I’ve worked it out now.

Xerotin: Thank you for your kind words. I think I will start painting next week.

I went ahead and pulled his arms in and moved the sculpture closer. I think this solved the problem where he wasn’t looking at the sculpture and is in a better position for him to be working. I added in another sculpture, rebuilt the apron strings, and tweaked some of the issues that were in the background. I will go ahead and start painting and thinking about materials. I think this is closer to the composition I will be looking at in the final version.

Let me know if anything looks odd. :wink:

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I like this too. You have modelled his face with great sympathy and care. I think that a little more work on the hands too would be worthwhile. They’re OK, but I’d like them to feel more like they’re genuinely holding the tools.

I’m also anxious about your plan to make this a polychrome illustration. As a sculpture of a sculptor, it seems appropriate to keep it monochrome.

Furthermore, a lighting setup that separated the background from the foreground is something the picture needs, compositionally. As it stands, the originally posted WIP image is winning in that regard.

Best wishes and good luck with the piece,

Rory

i really like how this piece is developping, you did a great job on his face, and as he is now positioned, the concentration on his work shows. well done… i agree with rory on the backgound, it takes too much attention, (i think because it is so detailed) … also, the smaller bird in the background, i think it is the model after which he is carving, is destracting the lines. i would remove it, of find another place. his left arm\elbow area seems to bend somewhat odd… i am looking forward to see the final, it is coming along very nicely

Wow looks amazing!:+1:
I’m really looking forward to see this texturized :grimacing:

Cheers

Benne00: Thank you very much! :slight_smile:

Kokoro: Thanks for your comment. I agree the background is too loud at the moment. My plan is to knock it back in the rendering phase with the depth cue. If it is still too distracting at that time, I will definitely rethink it. Thanks for pointing out the arm, I think it swiped it with the move tool at some point and didn’t notice it.

Rory: Thanks very much for your comment. I agree with you on the hands, I’ve been a bit timid with them. After I read your comment I pushed them further and I think I am happier with them now. I hope you’ll let me know if they are still lacking.

Your note on color is interesting and I will keep it in mind. My plan is to use a limited palette of warm colors. If later in the process it is just not coming together as I had hoped, I will go back and revisit this idea. Thanks again for your comment.

I finally got around to sculpting a bit more detail in the skin. I started painting it today and setting up the skin material. I will probably add more age spots etc a bit later but I think I am going to move on for now. I know the hair looks bad right now and I think it will be that way for a while. I am planning on dealing with it more in photoshop.

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Awesome skin.
This gonna be a really nice piece!

For my taste, posing still could be more believable.
Maybe it’s different looking from another angle?

Hope it’s O.K. if I place a suggestion for heads position? I can delete it if you want.
For me that’s minimum. Shoulder could also be changed a bit.
Big progress anyway.

Hey there Knacki,
I don’t mind at all. Thanks for your comment! You’ve been very helpful. I will make that adjustment and see how it looks in a bit. My brain is still in lighting/rendering mode for the moment. I think I will create some wood bits as in that picture you showed to me early on and see how they look.

I think that lighting and rendering are my weakest areas but here’s where I’m at for now. I went ahead and started playing with some test renders. I used two lights and exported the passes out to photoshop. I made some adjustments there…still a long way to go and I’m obviously not finished painting yet but I wanted to have a better idea of where I was going with it.

I would be very interested in any feedback here. I’m thinking the general consensus will be that it is too dark. The shirt is also too …crunchy looking, I’ll tone that texture way down and it might be a little dark anyway. I was having some trouble with the clothing mats. I know the blur on the mallet is crazy too. I’m guessing it’s a touch too orange as well. I definitely want the piece to feel warm with slightly muted colors and good contrast. I really love Fabricio Moraes’ Steamnocchio piece. http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/steampunk/entry.php?challenger=16918 So I have been thinking a lot about that piece.

postTesting01.jpg

It’s been cool to watch the progression of this. It’s a nice homage to your relative. I really like the fact that you are teaching yourself this stuff. It takes a lot of patience. How are you learning to render and texture? I’m not as far along as you, but I’m starting to get curious about this stuff. Keep up the good work.

Well done! That’s done the trick, on both my points; hands and lighting looking much more like it. :slight_smile:

Congratulations.

Rory

Excellent choice.
Unfortunately I can’t help you in realizing lights in zBrush & Photoshop.
I would do lights etc. in 3ds max & Photoshop.

Concerning posing - which is not that much part of your thinking in the moment :wink:

I watched several videos to see what I don’t like in your pose.
I found a rule.
Hammer is in 90° angle towards tool working direction.
Head and view direction is pointing to tools forefront.
Both direction lines are hitting on the sculpt.
Shoulders are around 90° to tooling direction, or same angle to tool direction.
Of course with some variations, but never like in your pose.
This is everywhere the same. I saw Irish, Chinese, Japanese, American Sculptor.

Very often the view direction line is very close to tool direction line.

If you want to show him working directly in the moment of this picture you have to obey this rules and it will work.
Or place a little bird on his right arm and you are absolutely free in posing :smiley: