Improvement Project

A lot has been done one my improvement project. I think I have come to the conclusion that I don't like organic modeling in Maya, I think I'll stick to Zbrush for that.

The ear was on of the biggest things i wanted to fix and it's the thing I spent the most time on. All that's left is to fix the geometry where the ear will be connecting to the head,

The mouth needed a lot of attention as well. It hasn't been fully fixed yet but it looks a lot better than before

The chin no longer looks like the freakish bulge it did before, the geometry is a lot better and the neck muscles look a little more accurate.

Zbrush Mech Quick Update

Thought I'd throw up a quick update on my Zbrush Mech. I have been finishing up the chest and back before I move onto the pelvis. Here are some screen caps showing a bit off.

Like I said, super quick update. Now I need to go get cleaned up, it's time for the premier of season 3 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Zbrush Hard Surface Mech Model

So how about an update on my Zbrush project? I spent a good 12-14 hours straight  on this project yesterday. I spent a lot of my time learning new Zbrush techniques and what-not. I learned how to separate

the mesh into polygroups using polypaint, which you can see the mesh polypainted below:

The separation wasn't perfect, so I had to go in and do some more separation using masking. once the model was split into polygroups I used the group loops function to create some very defined edges between the pieces. Here are two images showing the polygroups and the group loops:

It took awhile but I think I finally got the hang of the hPolish brush, which is the key to hard surface modeling in Zbrush. I have been focusing on the chest piece and it's coming along nice. This model still has a long way to go but I am getting the hang of it.

Improvement project update 2

It's been awhile since I posted an update on this project, I forgot to upload my progress from last week. I have been focusing on trying to fix the sad excuse for an ear on this model. I have spent a good four and a half hours on this damn ear and I can honestly say I never want to model an ear again. I did a lot of research and based my edge flow off of different examples. Of course I hit quite a few problems along the way that I still haven't quite figured out how to fix.

Here is a look at the unsmoothed model. Their are some rectangles that look bad along the inside of the ear, but that will be a quick fix before I attach the ear to the rest of the model.

And here is the smoothed mesh

Here is the big problem I am still trying to fix. It is easy to see where the specular highlight abruptly stops and  how the smoothed edges curve around in weird random ways.

I'm still not sure on how to fix it quite yet but I'm trying to find a solution. Once I fix that little slip then I will fix up the mouth and the model should be good to go!

Zbrush Hard Surface Modeling

For the final project in my high poly modeling class I decided to try some hard surface sculpting in Zbrush. I have been watching videos by the incredible Zbrush artist Mike Jenson. I wish I simply watching his videos could put me on his skill level.

I developed a skeleton using Zspheres, the design is roughly

based off of one of his videos

Then I began laying out a mesh using Zsketch, here is the product so far.

I'm very nervous about a project like this because I am still very new to Zbrush, and hard surface modeling is not very easy in Zbrush. I am going to give it my all though and hope for the best.

Improvement Project Update

I have been trying to fix a lot of the edge flow problems that this model has. one of the biggest being the mouth. I may have to redo the mouth entirely in a retopo program like 3D coat.

The neck had a few issues that I have been sorting out, but it is taking longer than I hoped. The underlying muscle is defined well but the muscle doesn't link up where it should.

The ear is another mess. it may have to be completely redone as well. It was the first ear I had ever modeled and it came out horribly

Once I fix these messes I will be exporting to Zbrush to sculpt out the fine details.

Organic Model Update

Here is an update on the organic model I have been working on.

Here is the base mesh that I retopologized in 3D Coat and then did some fine detail work in Maya on

And here is some of the sculpting I have been doing in Zbrush

A shot of the back

It's coming along really well, right now I am trying to get the muscle definition on the arms correct.

Organic Modeling with Zbrush

For my High Poly modeling class we need to create an organic model. I decided I'd try to model one of my old sketches. I also figured I would finally give Zbrush a try and I have to say it is quite an amzing program. Zspheres blow my mind.

Improvement Project

I plan to improve upon a Model I made that was of a human face. The original project was meant to help me learn the edge flow of human form. The end product could use quite a bit of touching up.