HMC # 20 - Expressions: Me, Myself, and the Inner Zombie

#41

Hey Joel, Good work in the last update, seems like if you’ll be working in a mixture of skin/muscles, that will be great to see, keep it rockin. :buttrock:

#42

Thanks for the positive feedback Stridiggio.

I didn’t get as much done over my long weekend as I had hoped, but here’s my most recent WIP. It is a displcement test in modo at sub-D level 4 (there are 6 total-but I didn’t want to kill my machine rendering useless polys for this test). I’ve introduced some asymetry, but there is more of that to come. Apart from that I spent a lot of time experimenting in zbrush. One technique I’ve come across is a little unstandard, and I plan on developing it a bit more. It uses the snakehook brush with skin type alphas. The result is really cool and once I practice it and learn to control it a bit better I’ll post a detailed walkthrough on how I accomplish it, and I’ll upload the brush as well.

In the meantime, enjoy!


-Rage

#43

Oh wow, I haven’t seen this in a few updates. That is really looking cool Rage.

#44

Hey cool! Looking good.

Maybe you can lengthen the upper arm a bit. So that the elbow rotates just under the ribcage. I think he can also loose a lot of muscle. Get the skeleton look going more on the arms for example.

#45

Very nice progress here, Joel!:thumbsup:

You/he reminds me of the top bad guy from Total Recall. Can’t remember the actor’s name. :smiley:

I agree with Brett. The upper arms should be lengthened and he’s currently really got quite some guns for a zoombie. Not that it really matters for this challenge, but they generally look a little bit like rubber arms right now and the clavicles look like they have a huge gap between them.

Keep the updates coming!

Cheers!

#46

Thanks guys. I’ll take care of the arms right away. As for the body, well, I mainly added it so that I can use the shoulders/arms to help with expression. Tbh I like the way it looks, even though it isn’t very zombie like. Essentially, I’m more concerned with the final look of the head. Zombie’s aren’t real, after all, so whose to say there are no “Super Zombies”, eh? Regardless, I’m close to the point where I feel I can start the expressions.

-Rage

#47

Hey rage. Not sure if you know. But gnomon has a free zbrush tut on zombie sculpting by ryan kingslein. http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/category/168/Free-ZBrush-Tutorials
Maybe it’ll help you a bit:)

#48

Before I start my WIP post, I’ve got a few words for everyone.

REC: Watch it :thumbsup:

@Brett: Thanks for that link. I actually watched those a few months back, and they were a large part of the inspiration for this character. I didn’t want to revisit them while working on this because I wanted to stay away from tuts for this project, But I reconsidered after your post and took a peek. IMO, Ryan Kingslien is one of, if not THE, most talented artist at gnomon right now, and his fantastic ability to instruct makes me LOVE watching his tuts.

Onto the WIP.

I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I’m really eager to proceed to the expressions, and almost did, but I simply wasn’t happy with my model at this point. Mostly due to lack of motivation. I have found some, though, tucked away deep. I fed it, and gave it life, and was able to get quite a bit more done. I’ve taken everyone’s advice and went more deeply into the zombification. As a result, I have lost the original form (me) but was able to rediscover the direction I wanted. As of now, because of time constraints, I’m unsure if I will attempt to bring back my own bone structure into the model, But we’ll see.

I’ve sunken in a lot of the flesh for this update. Isolated some key bone structures (Zygomatic bone and arch, mandible, nose-bone + cartiledge, forehead, orbital ridge) with masks, then started emanciating the flesh. I’ve done away completely with the abs, and also started to emanciate the arms and chest area, but they still need more passes at this point. It’s not complete by any means, but I’m getting a much better result than before-A result that fed my inspiration anew, which in it’s own right fed my motivation.

Here are the grabs and renders:


more to come.

-Rage

#49

Ah! Now his looking much better. I see you fixed the eyelids too. Nice. Keep going:wip:

#50

Great job, Joel! Much improved!
Keep 'em updates coming!

Cheers!

#51

@ Brett and Felix: Thanks guys.

I haven’t “WIP” 'd in a while, but I have done some work on the Zombie. I’ve emanciated the arms a LOT, for starters, went over the entire mesh with the clay brush and clay tubes brush to even out some of the forms. Previously, the gums were part of the model. I have smoothed them down and created gums+teeth from a new mesh, and sculpted each respectively. Ears still have hardly been touched. That is work for tonight, among other thigns. I will be starting expressions within the next couple days.

The character still needs a final pass before I do this, however. I’d like to get the fine wrinkles in his skin before I start manipulating the geometry drastically, in order to give me a guide on what will fold where and how. more updates tomorrow, hopefully.

-Rage

PS: Artifacts in the nose region are from the multiplied AO layer, and not on the model. Hopefully I’ll figure out what happened by the next update, cuz it’s just WEIRD!

#52

the artifacts could be rogue polys inside the nostrils, their normals might be flipped, or the mesh there could be too thin or intersecting.

I like what you have done with the mouth, nice details there

keep going!

#53

I think you could smooth some of the sculpting down on a lower subd level and go over it with a second pass. that would eliminate the lumpy feeling, especially visible in the hands… but yeah good going - now for those expressions :scream:

#54

Hehe. Thanks Mag. I actually spent a little time with the clay brush going over the surface to even out the Lumps. I understand the deadline is June 15th, but My brain won’t let me proceed until I`m happy with the Neutral mesh, even if 3/4 of it isn’t really important for this challenge. Regardless, I am having a really good time becoming more intimate with Zbrush. I don’t fully understand it’s limitations yet, so it’s nice to just sculpt away and see what kinds of cool results I can get with different brush / alpha combinations, playing with settings etc.

-Rage

#55

very nice!

#56

Thank you Banks.

Neutral Pose: The model will remain like so until all expressions are complete.
As for now, I’ve got one word for all of you:

BRAAAAIIIINNNSSSSSS!!



-Rage

#57

Looking better and better everytime you update. Keep going.

I thought the deadline was june 12th?

#58

Looking good, it seems to be a lot of challenge to make expressions with the subject. One thing you could consider is to use more the tongue(an ugly one:D ), maybe it help you for the expressions but without loosing the zombie look. And, i know its a zombie, but it would be nice to see some accentuated expressions, like a normal human…even in that case you could change things to maintain the zombie style.

Cheers and keep going.

#59

@Brett: Thanks man. And yes, I was mistaken, the deadline is June 12th.

@Jmart: Thanks. I`ll keep your suggestions in mind.

Ok, expressions. Here’s a start. I thought I’d start with my screen name and sculpt Rage, both as zbrush screengrab and Modo Render. Here it is:

-Rage

#60

Very cool expression, the versions with the red zbrush shader are looking far better(imo) than the white one, compare the forehead from one render to the other and in the white version you can see all the nice detail your missing.

Cheers.