Ima total noob, need workflow suggestions

#1

Hi Gang.

Please bare with me; I’m a traditional illustrator, not a 3d artist. I need a way to create a 3d character, like a weasel for example and then pose it in different positions, like shooting a bow and arrow or drinking a beer. My plan is to generate the character and than pose it in these positions, print out the rendering and then hand draw and color. These will be used as traditional illustrations in a book.

Can anyone suggest Some simple methods and workflow to get started on this journey? For example, I’ve played with downloading some rigged characters and them sending them to Mixamo which I guess animates them but I only need static poses.

I’ve used Poser and SketchUp, but like I said, I’m a traditional “hand drawer” and would ideally like a way to generate my critter character, pose him into a static pose and print out. Can you suggest some software with a short learning curve. I tried Blender but the learning curve there seems pretty steep. With Poser, it’s pretty easy to load a 3d human and move parts around but I don’t see anything like it for animals.

What software might be good for this, perhaps where I can import a library of dynamic characters, and pose them. The ability to change facial features, shapes of limbs, head etc. would be great. What software might you suggest and what would the workflow entail.

In advance, thanks so much,

Greg

#2

Anyone? Am I in the right place with this question? Again, It’s a question of:

  • Need some software suggestions thats easy to learn for making animal characters.
  • Maybe load a “pre-made” animal (like a squirrel) with predefined poses.

Need some workflow like,:

"You can build him in (X program1-1), export a x filetype to (X program-2) and save as…

Thanks

#3

Hi Greg,

For posing, I would suggest Zbrush with its posing abilities. I would simply use its rotate and masking methods for this. Surely, you could also rig it with Zbrush rigging abilities, but for me personally it never worked properly.

Other ways would be much more complicated. Rigging is a time-consuming process. I must confess I’ve spent about a year of learning just rigging and skinning, and it’s a very complex subject, even involving basic math.

For remodeling, you can also use Zbrush. Maybe you could purchase or find some similar models, and then sculpt them in zbrush, and then pose them.

#4

Great. Thanks mister3d. I will give Zbrush a look. Thanks so much.
Greg