HMC #22: Classic Self Portrait: Fernando Zamora

#1

so this is my first time in the hardcore challenge. i should probably look for a non hardcore challenge for starters but i feel that i need to hit the ground running.

i couldn’t find my original inspiration image, but these images are the theme i’ll be tackling and my references.

i’ll be playing the role of theseus of course - LOL - and the minotaur/centaur is kinda like a metaphor for this challenge.

i was also thinking i could make it relevant to modern times by replacing the centaur with a current “mythical monster” = political, pop or fictional icon. some of my current candidates in no particular order are; ronald mcdonald, kenye west, dick chenney, AIG, LOL WUT Owl, tyra banks, Barbie, etc. i might also just stick to greek mythology, i don’t wanna get bogged down trying to decide on who to slay.

i haven’t decided how serious my piece will remain, i want to keep it open so i can stay interested.

that’s it for now. my son misbehaved in school all this week so he is going to bed early so it gives me some time to get started tonight :stuck_out_tongue:

#2

both sculptures are very dynamic - looking forward to seeing what you come up with

#3

yeah, i hope i can really capture the dynamism because i know for sure i won’t be able to rely on hotness :stuck_out_tongue:

so tonight was very stressful. i ended up doing homework with my kid most of the night and it’s frustrating that school can’t stay in school so we can have a family life…

anyway i really wanted to get a feel for zbrush and gauge my capabilities so i just jumped into it nilly willy; i made a quick mesh in maya took it to zbrush and just started sculpting. let me just say zbrush did not come natural to me.

so here is my mesh EDIT: the manipulator ended up in an unfortunate location :stuck_out_tongue:

and here is my zbrushing.

i quickly noticed problems with my quad distributions… i took a first stab at retopologyzing (however you say it) and it was frustrating and i failed. i’m considering making a carful subdivision model in maya first instead - which i’ve never done either, but i think i stand a better chance.

#4

He looks to be too tall and too skinny right now. Other than that, it’s a decent start :slight_smile:

#5

…well that’s because it’s supposed to be me :sad:

in the end i might stick my head onto a perfect body or idealize mine a bit, but i thought it’d be a good challenge to work with what i got. i realize my weight is not realistic for a stone sculpture because it would crack at the limbs so i was already thinking of incorporating props like fabric to add girth to fragile areas. also posing in a way were fragile areas would rest or merge with bigger masses. or i could do more of a bronze sculpture.

my other problem is making me look formable to my opponent. i think it should be something closer to my mass to be believable, maybe a goat or something. i am slightly thicker than what i have so far so that’ll help.

the height is an issue. i’m not very tall. my head is probably too small, a bigger head would show more drama

is it worth reworking the topology on what i got (sounds tedious) or should i work on a pose first and then work the topology as needed? or maybe start over with pose in place? i really don’t know what the workflow is.

i think for now i’m gonna think more about my scene, sketch some poses and design an opponent.

#6

Ohhhh! That makes much more sense then. That’s a pretty cool idea, I hadn’t thought of making it into a full self-portrait.

#7

so i’m definitely not gonna meet this challenge, but i thought i’d just continue with as much as i can.

i did this today. i spent most of my time dealing with the damn zpheres. for some reason i can’t get a grasp of them. then i had technical issues with my file - it exploded. finally i spent some time doing actual modeling after midnight. i still can’t figure out how to pose it. i took the fist model i made into maya and i rigged it and posed it. it worked ok, but i lost a lot of detail. i might try transpose.

[ran]other than working full time and helping my kid with his halloween costume, my eyes simply hurt. i do computer work all day when i get home my eyes bleed when i look at a screen. it’s been like this for months now [/rant]

anyway, wonderful work everyone.

#8

so i finally finished my kids halloween costume and got to work on the challenge today.

i cleaned up the geometry a bit and worked on my proportions a bit more. enlarged the head just a tad to make me look more my height. i tired different ways of redoing the topography and i found them all very painful, but learn i did.

i also worked on getting the head to look like me. i don’t have any pictures atm, i was working off of the reflection on my monitor :stuck_out_tongue: - damn glossy screens are good for something after all!

i reduced a lot of the original geometry on the head and the hands and i didn’t leave enough for the ears.

#9

so today i cleaned up the centaurs geometry a bit. i reduced the geometry on the legs and hands and did some more sculpting on it.

#10

today i worked more on the head. i was trying to keep the eyes part of the same mesh. but i don’t have enough resolution and i don’t want to divide again. the ear also doesn’t have enough geometry but i think i did well with what i have. i’m thinking the final will have less detail, i wanna keep it realistic to what can be done on stone.

edit: i just realized the left eye is screwed up :stuck_out_tongue: i’ve been trusting in symmetry so much i haven’t checked the left side. at one point, i had the ear all don and when i took a snap shot, the left ear was just a nub.

#11

i just did some more work on the centaur head. changed the proportions a bit. redid the ears like 3 times - i kept deleting my levels by accident.

the head is based on a guy i say in the train. he had a long face which i thought would be perfect for my centaur.

#12

try being more courageous with your brush strokes, go deeper - right now the facial features feel very light, almost drawn on a mesh rather than sculpted, especially the mouth… Also I’d suggest putting spheres inside the head for the eyeballs, it’s almost impossible to do good eyes and eyelids without them… Keep going :wip:

#13

thanks for the advice. i certainly will after i attempt posing them. i’m thinking just on the centaur tho. i like how in the original sculpture theseus is very smooth very little muscle detail, mostly volumes and the centaur is flexing and tense. i was also gonna put the eyes in after posing - don’t know why but that’s what i’m doing.

edit: looking at it again, what you are saying is more evident than i thought. i don’t know if i can get to it now. i was hoping to pose it last night and do some final sculpting tonight - i might just have togo with what i got.

#14

i have a problem!

whenever i try to append one tool to another, they disappear and i can’t frame either tool back into view. i’m guessing it could be that they are very far form each other, maybe? if so i have no idea how to fix it. can anyone help me?

i’ve spent most of my day dealing with this and for sure i’m definitely not gonna finish - but i want to get as far as i can.

#15

After appending do both subtools still appear in your list? Chances are the scale is very different on both or one is somehow very far from 0,0,0 on the axis. Sometimes you just have to rotate and press F a few times. I have had a similar issue and eventually I would see one. I think it was usually a vast scale difference. Hard to say though. Good luck, that is very frustrating.

#16

thank you. i finally got it working. i think it was a distance thing. it would show up on my list and i couldn’t rotate. what i did was…i’m seriously not sure, but then i did and Undo and both tools popped into view.

thanks again. i love your entry btw.

#17

Ah, good, glad you got it settled. It would be a bummer to not be able to turn something in over a weird issue like that.

And thanks! Glad you like my entry. I appreciate it. :beer:

#18

so here is the final piece i submitted. i didn’t take screen shots of more in between stages because time was tight and i was just moving as quick as i could. all i manage to finish was pose(which too me forever) then i fixed a lot of the distortions and re-sculpted muscles according to their new position - i didn’t take time to check my anatomy against reference including the horse, that would of added hours of corrections :stuck_out_tongue: i know there were lots of areas were i said to my self WTF happens here, so i faked it.

i didn’t do anything to the hands except for inflate them because they collapsed plus they aren’t in their final… they are kinda doing jazz hands atm.

i also made a big miscalculation with the pose. i wanted to twist the centaur so he is pushing against my side with his elbow, but he wouldn’t quite reach so i ended up with a pose were all four arms are in a line which is not a very good composition imo.

i didn’t even get eyes in or hair. so i still have a long way to go on this one.

#19

That is the most hilarious leaf I ever seen in my entire life.

#20

i find the whole fig leaf thing obscene… i don’t approve art censoring by the church and that’s why i omitted it from mine. i’m not sure if the original had it or the church added it later on - but either way it’s there by order of the church.