Improving the torso

Just a quick update today regarding the half cut top Raes wears. Using a few new techniques I have learnt making bandages (Wax and Pinch tools) I have flatten the shirt making it appear tighter and more realistic.

Sculpting the head

Head sculpting has always been a challenging task for me, particularly because my knowledge of the anatomy has been poor, along with using really bad reference material where the lighting fails to truly catch the shape of the head, or heavily made up celebrities with poor camera angles. I have decided to once again take my time sculpting the head as I had previously done, but this time do it over time, rather than complete it at one sitting. This means that as I continue to look at the head at different times, I will have different perceptions and hopefully be able to see my mistakes clearer.

This was the first sculpt I did. Mainly using my 3D SK reference material, trying to get it as close to her as possible. However there appears to be a few issues with it.

-Lack of detail on the ear (what if I wanted to have her without the good?)
- Dimple on the chin seems out of place
- A large bag under the eye makes her appeal old (supposed to be in her early 20's)
-Space above the lips appear to be too deep
- Too rounded head, although she is female it appears to be too oval, not having any depth

I then decided to try again at another time. This time using the best parts of different women, and my own creativity.

Cassie Ventura (http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/5522/Cassie.jpg)

Unknown model (dance.net)  : Head Shape

Sabrina Maree: Cheekbones (Modelmayhem.com) 

Erika:Lips and nose(3D.Sk)

In order for me to kind of focus on the eyes, and not the cheekbones and other parts of the face, I used the models of the mask and hood. This really helped me concentrate on just the eyes, or the whole face. (I find it hard looking at a bald model in Mudbox at times).

Create clothing Belt/Mudbox part 5

Today I have created the belt which goes around Raes' waist along with trying to get the bandages to look right. They were giving me so much trouble before because I was only really using 2 brushes Sculpt and Smooth. However after speaking to my supervisor, I started using the Wax brush with a high fall off, which created a nice thin sheet look, allowing the bandages to appear tight along the skin, this was further helped with the flatten brush. This is what it looked like before:

And this is what it looks like now.

As for the belt, this is what it currently looks like.

Create clothing Belt straps/Mudbox part 4

Today I worked more on the pants she will be wearing, after reviewing my drawings I didn't really make it clear what type of shorts she has. After much deliberation, neither jeans nor leather really fit so as she is a kind of desert warrior, I feel that cargo shorts are more fitting.  This will mean however that I will have to create additional pockets separately in Maya then bring them into Mudbox to sculpt.

Create clothing :Hood/Mudbox part 3

I've created the hood for the character along with the charm attachment. I've also imported this into Mudbox so I can see the new changes.

Today I also adjusted the abs slightly and began work on the cut top, which pretty much meant I got to search underboob and compare lol XD. e.g. below

spor-tstars.blogspot.com

As mentioned about the abs, before I think they didn't look very believable, so I made some adjustments ( the character looked to tense before) making it look natural. 

Mudbox part 2

Today I have returned to sculpting the head, I've mainly tweaked parts of the  head such as

-Bringing the ears slightly outward
- Adjusting the nose, make it rounder
- Make the lips thicker and pulling them together
- Adding in slight bags under the eyes
- Creating the eye area
-Improving the chin

I also found an excellent tutorial on creating realistic skin and lips which I will using later. This can be found

here.

Creating clothing:Mask

Whilst I'm sculpting her in Mudbox I've decided that in my spare time I will create a part of the additional clothing, to be later added and sculpted. Today I have created the mask. This is also a great opportunity for me to improve my drawing skills, so I am going to draw the piece of clothing from multiple angles before creating it in Maya. Today is the mask. I originally did not have it smoothed, but decided to add one in order to give it shape.

Polycount:336