started with the basemesh… i want to study the anatomy of Bull/OX/Cow using this basemesh… i also want to learn the anatomy of as many animals as possible, so will be sculpting only muscle definitions and won’t be concentrating on minor skin details too much…
oliveira: Thanks, Alex. I can only return the compliment!
anandpg: Sure thing, Anand! Let me know if and when you’d like me to upload or email you the obj.
namnocilis: Looking good! Cant wait to see the beef your gonna put onto that beasty! 
here is a pic of the gecko I want to study and sculpt. I’ve done dogs and and other animals of that nature I want to work on something i dont have a lot of knowledge of. I’m gathering refrence will be starting the base mesh soon.
@namnocilis: very solid and clean model, perfect start! The tail could use some tweak?
@oliveira: wow, very promising! Any idea already how to make the hairy stuff?
Alright, since I had been “suggested” to take on something fresh for this workshop, I thought which other animal could be interesting to realize. Now, like others have pointed out the difficulty of hair is given and to make the right choices for “simulating” or “interpreting” it in a digital model. Anyway, I chose now to take on a cheetah, I find the mfascinating ever since I watched some high-speed footage of them running. That is layered animation in perfection: although the body jumps and leaps like crazy the head hardly moves horizontaly and/or vertically. Okay, so here is my start, since Ill reuse my horse rig and mesh, I tweaked the horses proxy geo to become a cheetah ( Im not yet good enough at this zSphere thing). I think it looks okay so far, but Ill need some better reference for the exact proportions. 
sapienz: Hi Max! Great start, dude!
Looks like a really good mesh, except for a few triangles below the ear, 5-sided faces around the nose and that 5-star vertex in front of the eye… I would just make a quick test run in zbrush and try sculpting detail on those areas to see if they work fine… if they do, then nothing to worry about.
Wow, you sure are sharp. I’m actually still trying to pickup ZBrush as a modelling workflow, so i wasn’t paying much attention to the triangulations yet. Thanks for the headsup!
JUNE 19, 2008
Great job so far everyone…some really nice ideas happening…
Thumbnail sketch #2
I worked some more on this Z BRUSH relief sculpture…mostly tried to get the composition more dynamic. Still working from imagination,…i’ll have to get to the library and get some good refference for the sea lions, to get more accuracy on the faces ect.,…but I have the basic composition in place, which is the most important element in any image…and is a good place to start 
Glenn
SpiritDreamer: Looking excellent! Amazing, you’re doing this from memory alone. Have you been around sea lions a lot?
pencil-head that looks great, do you mind if I ask what is your work flow when you model? I was thinking about trying a new approach for this workshop. keep up the great work
I have decided to do a dragon for this. I have started doing a digital paiting for the concept in photoshop because im not very good at digital painting yet. I have no clue how to do this zbrush either so im not sure if im making it too hard on myself or not. I have a few questions:
Here is what i have done of the concept so far. I’ve spent 5 or 6 hours just doing this lol. I’m quite a beginner at digital painting too so i might be spending too much time just doing the concept. Crits and comments more then welcome. Encouraging words are great too haha
well here is a quick sketch of what i’m aiming for…the sketch is kind off crappy but hopefully everyone gets the idea… i’m already modeling the bases for the animals but i dont have much to show… hey thanks anand for your words and time. big fan of yours and magdalena… its cool to know that you are all humans in the real world but heroes in my head… thank you all and more to come soon
I’ve always loved watching the Hardcore Modeling Contest thread… but was always too intimidated to try it out. I’ve just dabbled in Zbrush a bit… did the first couple of videos on Meats Meier’s “Intro to Zbrush 3” Gnomon dvd. This seems a little less intimidating… at least it’s not a contest, just a workshop. I think I will try. I might be biting off more than I can chose both skill-wise and time-wise, but let’s see what comes of it!
I know I’d want to do some kind of horse. I’ve always loved horses. It’s the first thing I started drawing when I was a toddler. I like that we can do fantasy based creatures as well. I might do something with that too… maybe something more exciting than just a plain ordinary horse.
Since I’m new at this though… what is the typical workflow?
Do I design the base mesh in a neutral pose first? Or do you start the base mesh out already posed?
I don’t know much about Transpose, but isn’t that the tool in Zbrush 3 to pose your model? Just want to know the correct order of action so that I don’t start off on the wrong foot.
Thanks for the help. I bet I’m going to learn a lot from this.
Hi Alekzsander! Welcome!
flatulentFuzz: Hi Samuel!.. Glad you will be joining!.. A dog would do great!
Hi Giorgio! Thats great! Please feel free to post any reference to this thread that Rebecca has provided: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=643678
I think your idea of “zsphere, scuplt and then pose” will do fine. It is not at all difficut to pose after sculpting, although you may have to apply a few corrective tweaks.
Hey Nitin! Started already! bless you! Good mesh!
TheRazorsEdge: Hey Felix! Great! you may upload the mesh and post the link on the reference thread if you like.
psebesta: Hey Paul! That’s probably the cutest gecko I have ever seen!! 
vlad74: Hi Vlad! Welcome! There is always a first time!! 
Buexe: Hi! The cheetah looks great! … only, that second pose doesn’t go with the theme (“in repose”/at rest)
Ravis3057: Hey Ryan!! Great choice!!
sapienz: Hi Max! Triangles usually cause “pinched” areas where it is difficult to sculpt, so it is best to hide them in places where they won’t be seen. As for 5 sided faces, Zbrush tesselates them into (i think) a quad and tri each while importing, so you face pretty much the same problem there!
Hey Glenn!! Awesome!! I am loving it!:bounce:
pencil-head: Hey Tristan! Its looking great!
Dragons0088: Hi Luke!.
1: Since the theme is “animal in repose”, I would rather that you modeled the entire body along with the head, unless you could imply that the dragon is at rest by its expression or something.
2: It shouldn’t be too dufficult to join them after, though I would recomment that you make the whole base mesh even though you plan to sculpt only the head at first; you could just hide the body area for faster working.
3:it is your choice, but if you propose to have the mouth closed for the final sculpt, I guess there isn’t much for modeling it open.
4: Again your choice, but imo, teeth are better kept separate from the main mesh.
5: Since the spikes are apparently so many and so close together, it could get really confusing if you model them all into the basemesh. I would suggest adding the spikes later-on as subtools or using insert mesh or something.
6.no, I dont think this will be too difficult for you to attempt(I believe nothing is, if you are patient enough!) Approach it one step at a time, as you would approach a drawing: Gesture first, then volumes and then detail. Happy sculpting!
AUMAKUA: Hey Nick! Awesome!!:bounce:
kdubayoo: Hi Kelly! Welcome!! you came to the right place!! No pressure, no stress! Just sculpt, learn and have fun!! Yes, it would be easier to start of with a nuetral, symmetric pose. Please have a look here if you need a once-over on zbrush basics, including Transpose. Also, please feel free to post any specific doubts/problems… There are so many experts already participating, and yet to join! … and I will be only too pleased to be of any help, in my own way.
As far as modeling goes, i’m not doing anything out of the ordinary. Just adding edgloops, extruding faces, and some soft selection etc. But what i did was took the zsphere model in zbrush and sculpted it only up to 3 subdivisions just to get a basic shape to work from. After that I took the second subdivision into 3dsMax and starting modeling from that. Now i’m going to start sculpting and lastly posing in zbrush. Luckly I use the increment save in max so I did a little timelapse for you.
pencil-head - nice frog so far
AUMAKUA - great start!
Glenn - beautiful, warm feel to it
JUNE 19, 2008
GREAT JOB SO FAR…EVERYONE…
Thanks …Razors Edge…I haven’t seen the real sea lions in over 25 years…I used to like to watch them when I lived in California on the west coast of the U.S…I once went to see them in a huge sea cave in the state of Oregon, a state up north of California…There were about a thousand of them in the cave having their babies on ledges on the sides of the rock walls inside of the cave…they have been coming there for thousands of years, just for that purpose…The proof was the body of a petrified one that had turned to stone, laying on a ledge in the cave…They were also laying all around on the cliffs on the outside of the cave entrance, just soaking up the sun and napping…Anyway, it was a sight that would be hard for anyone to forget, waves crashing through the entrance of the cave, with sea lions riding in and out on them, with a magical spotlight shining through the entrance of the cave, illuminating the side walls, ceiling and water…Really an amazing, loud,and beautiful sight…I walked away with a whole different sense of TIME…and a great memory of sea lions.
Anand / Magdalena…THANK YOU…
I worked on this a little more this evening…still working from memory and imagination…will have to go to the library tomarrow to get some good reference material…like for their whiskers, subtle facial expressions ect.
All done in Z BRUSH so far…using the 3d flat plane tool to sculpt on, and the regular alphas, textures, materials, and colors in that program.
Glenn
Anand, great workshop man, thank you !
Glad you like it, thank you Magdalena
SpiritDreamer, really good work, love the style, especially the rocks and water look a bit like
lapis lazuli stone
