1st ZBrush Sculpt
sublime tool
Hi guys 
Seldom I felt as much out of place as after looking at the things people post here, but none the less I am going to share my current project.
As final project for my year long school I am doing a character with ZBrush followed by a game version made in Maya.
I am now pretty much done with the scuplt as far as I can get it on my own without some feedback, so before I start working on the game mesh and textures I wanted to see what professionals think about it?
The chest plate needs to be redone or at least some detail added and I am not to happy with the cloth attached to the bracers, but I am pretty much out of ideas how to make it look correctly.
Any critic - as bad as it gets - is highly appreciated...
Face is based on a model called Niece Waidhofer
Seldom I felt as much out of place as after looking at the things people post here, but none the less I am going to share my current project.
As final project for my year long school I am doing a character with ZBrush followed by a game version made in Maya.
I am now pretty much done with the scuplt as far as I can get it on my own without some feedback, so before I start working on the game mesh and textures I wanted to see what professionals think about it?
The chest plate needs to be redone or at least some detail added and I am not to happy with the cloth attached to the bracers, but I am pretty much out of ideas how to make it look correctly.
Any critic - as bad as it gets - is highly appreciated...
Face is based on a model called Niece Waidhofer
Replies
Ps. I'm bad at paintover, and anatomy is my big bane right now.
These simple paintovers already help me lot to see those things much clearer. Getting the resemblance perfect isn't that much of a priority right now as I had to do the face for a project before and just sticked with it for this whole character. Still for practice purposes I will probably try to adjust those areas.
As when it comes to how brutal I want her to look... I haven't decided yet. For now I guess I would try to just some wear&tear sculpted on the armor and relying more on textures for leather, cloth and maybe face. Though I don't plan to make her too rough anyways. I just ain't sure if I should rather sculpt all those details?
Slosh is right. It should be an animal head on a shoulder pad on a shoulder, not a head directly on a shoulder :P Unless, you make her a druid or a necromancer or something wild.
Regarding the lion head it is supposed to be completely made of metal - so not an actual cut off head placed on the shoulder. The previous attempts to put it on a more destinctive shoulder pad made it look even more clumsy, but I guess I will have to attempt it again and see if I find a solution.
Something like:
I am right now working on a new shoulder pad based on the belt buckle. I will go a more traditional path - probably more something like the picture you posted. I had looked up those reference images, but at first tried to aviod them as I didn't want it to look like these or the Lannisters armor. Yet failing as badly as I did I am looking now for a bigger compromise
Here the blocking of the new version of the new shoulder pad:
I hope I am getting at the right path now
Maybe its a little too far on to the arm, or its too large. it seems to throw off the balance of the character.
I'd recommend messing with the positioning and size a bit.
What you guys think?
I guess I will have to reduce its size.
Perhaps you should avoid having eyes on him? it feels a bit distracting
it draws the attention to the shoulder pad
Just one thing is really sticking out like a sore thumb at the moment-- her lower lip.
Right now it's a little lumpy, but also you're missing the muscle that softens the transition of the corners of the lower lip.
I wrote "fatty deposits" here but don't listen to me I never took classical anatomy. I just know there's a defined shape there, and it's squishy. :V Possibly it's a bit of muscle.
You can see that on most of these, especially the real female refs. Second from the bottom, left is probably the most applicable example, though it's low rez.
The side of the jaw/cheeks could also stand to be pushed in a little further but this could always just be zbrush's wonky perspective so I don't think it's as necessary.
Looking forward to seeing this progress!
Thanks for your advice! I will take again a look at this area. Here the main reference I used:
@Others: Thanks for your comments! I added the pupils because without them it looked odd - and normally I am not a fan of sculpted pupils, but I also saw in many references them sculpted ...
Here the latest version with the reduced size:
Two parts that really don't sit well with me are the belt and the wristguards. The wrist guards sorta come off as a bit wonky towards the bend/cloth wrap. Te belt is a bit wobbly, too. Like you've adjusted it one too many times. I'd think about straightening that out and then considering how it would react with the cloth you've provided underneath it
It was an overall learning experience - both zBrush itself and the workflow. I never sculpted before, just a little bit of drawing every now and then. But sure, like the shoulder pad I redid many parts of this sculpt 1-3 times
Regarding your comment - yes, I am not really happy with the cloth for the bracers. I did them as a whole in one mesh (leather straps, armor and cloth) and now it bites me
And that belt got me really on the wrong foot. First time I am doing a higher poly model (previous 2 where just beneath 5k tris) so it was the first time I had to make the belt as an own object. So I guess I should redo it and tight it up more?
Personally, I'd probably redo the belt, just to clean it up. But I think you could just fix it with dynamesh and the trim curve tools. It's just the edges.
That's what i call third and fourth generation newbies.
@skodone: I fumbled in Maya... and then again in zBrush... when it comes to hair I am the worst source for advice
I also shouldn't have started with Katheryn Winnick's hair from Vikings... ( http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/3d/90/27/3d90273a12c4713dafc031ceeca43f2d.jpg )... bad idea... I will see what I can squeez out of this idea once the textures are started...
I don't think it was a bad idea, even it proved more challenging then anticipated.:thumbup:
so here an update of the face... not sure if I got all your advices right, I can just hope so - maybe at least it improved a little?
Here also pictures of the high poly sword I made for her. I made it in Maya and just sculpted some details in zBrush. Details are not too crazy as I guess I am going to lose quite a bit of those to baking and texture resultion anyhow and I would be pushing the limits of what my PC can handle in zBrush...
So any advices what needs to be changed?
here a preview of the finished version - at least for now finished, as I have the deadline tomorrow, but I might review some parts again...
Its just a quick rendering with Marmoset, while I am finishing Poses and the video for tomorrow... it will be a long night as were the last few weeks...
Thanks for your advices guys, you really helped me
By the way - this is the game version model and sword have 18815 tris... using 2k maps right now, sword has its own, smaller 512x1024.
Clip for the presentation at school can be found here: https://vimeo.com/108623685