Adding detail to the hair

After my experiments with fibermesh, I decided to go back to sculpted hair. The initial hair I had created needed refinement so I spend some time doing that. I used the clay brush, along with alpha 01. I changed the settings of the alpha in the alpha pallet under modifiers and increased the H tiles to 3 giving me the desired results of having 3 soft lines every time I sculpted. I tried not to use them in straight lines as this would look unnatural and she was supposed to have curly hair so I waved them in the direction they were going. After I had finished sculpting I started to create separate strands that would come off the model and make the hair seem more realistic. I did this by masking out lines on the model that I wanted to lift away, and then I used the extract option under the sub tool pallet to separate them. It took me hours to separate the lines using the trim options once they had been extracted, moving them away from the sculpted hair using the move brush, smoothing them out into a rounded strand with the smooth brush.

 

 

After around 7 hours of trying to do this I accepted that unfortunately I didn't have the time to finish it. In heinsight I feel that it was too much to expect to be able to do this with plaited hair as that was what was causing most of the problems. If the hair had been straight or wavy I would have been able to achieve this a lot quicker and easier. Below on the left you can see the results of what I had done. This has been a heavy learning curve for me, and in future I must analyze if something is achievable before embarking upon it, but also after two hours attempting to do it I should have given up and moved on. On the right you can see my final hair. I'm not 100% happy with it, but as I have never sculpted hair before it was a challenge and I'm glad I attempted it.

 

Adding Teeth in Zbrush

Today I have been working on adding teeth and a tongue to my model so that I can create facial expressions. After my mistake of sculpting the hair on the head I had learnt my lesson to never work on the same subtool, therefore I created separate ones for both my teeth and my tongue. I recently discovered what the IMM brushes do and to save myself time I used the toon teeth from within them. Each IMM brush contains a range of different meshes already created by other users and some of the pre loaded ones include features from a dragon, human and a toon. I added the toon teeth to give me a basis to work on as I was running out of time to create my model. I then sculpted onto them and manipulated them to give me what I wanted for Cadi's teeth. I went on to add a tongue on a separate subtool. To do this I clicked insert, subtool and then added a sphere. I dynameshed the sphere and then warped in into the shape I wanted using the move tool, smoothing it off afterwards.

 

Hair Experiments

Today I experimented with different ways of creating hair. Firstly I tried using fibermesh to create the hair. I've never used fibermesh before so I took some time to watch tutorials to get a grasp of how to work with it. Initially I masked out the area that I wanted the fibermesh on and then added the fibermesh through the lightbox. I tried several different fibers and experimented with the modifiers tab under the fibermesh pallet. I increased the gravity, the colour, the length among other things to create the effect I wanted.

  

           

Finally when I got the style of hair I wanted I used the groom brushes to pull and push the hair to where I wanted. I had a lot of trouble with this at first until I began using the groom strong brush. This helped me manage the hair a lot better and I brushed it into a fairly straight position. It was impossible without practice to get the hair to do what I wanted and I found that I was either brushing the hair into the scalp, missing strands that were still floating in the air or when I was brushing one area it was effecting another, possibly because of the way I was using the brush.

 


From here I tried to emulate the hair style I had in my original design but to get the hair to curl in ringlets seemed almost impossible. I tried all the different brushes, but none of them seemed to have the desired effect. GroomTwister, GroomSpinKnott and GroomHairToss all seemed to be working to some extent but without practice and a lot of time that I didn't have I realized that this tool was never going to give me the desired effect. In the end this is as close as I got to what I wanted using fibermesh and it would take a lot more practice to do the tedious task of plaiting the hair.

Zbrush Model Progress

I've been working on my Zbrush model again today. I managed to get my graphics tablet back working and finished off the other eyebrow, making some other minor changes to the face, which I'm pretty happy with now. Last week I separated the hair from my original sculpt giving me three sub tools, the face, the hair and the eyes. I should have done this in the first place as it would have saved me a lot of time and thats definitely something to consider for next time, but as it is my first human sculpt with hair I didn't think about it at the time. To separate the mesh I duplicated the subtool and then used trim rectangle, move and other tools to push and chop out the areas which I didn't want on that subtool. This has allowed me today to do some messing around with the hair to see what I like. I definitely want the hair to be in pigtails, as that is what I originally decided from my early development sketches where I tried out lots of different hair. My main problem has been that on my initial paint up of Cadi I gave her a large quiff, and this doesn't work in profile view. This has meant I've had to change the hair slightly. I originally sculpted it fairly flat but I decided it needed more volume and life, I therefore wanted to quickly try out different hair styles for her quiff area in particular that I could then sculpt into the final hair. To do this I created several subtools by duplicating the original and using brushes such as inflate and snake hook created rough ideas for what Cadi's hair could look like. I made sure to rename each of my subtools so that I didn't get confused between which one I was working on at any given time.

 

I didn't like the middle idea as it made her head look too rounded which I felt took away from the initial design and original silhouette of the character. I quite like the first design, reincorporating the quiff but also changing the back of her hair to suit it so it looks as if her head is slanted. I brought the entirety of one side of the hair up otherwise in profile the huge quiff looked really out of place. I feel like the design of this hair has a lot more personality and really gives Cadi an edge making her silhouette really stand out from other characters with plaits such as Anna from 'Frozen'.

I also looked at the neck to make it more delicate and bring it forward slightly. I joined it onto the chin more and I definitely think this change makes her look less manly. I now need to work on  smoothing out the neck and adding the final touches to the face, perhaps adding more volume to the forehead and working on the chin and lips a bit more.

 

Zbrush Brush Experiments

Today I tried experimenting with all the different brushes in Zbrush. I've never taken the time out to really try every brush and see what they do, there are so many different ones it becomes quite overwhelming. I just dragged out a basic sphere, clicked make polymesh 3D, increased the resolution and started sculpting in patches all over. I discovered there were definitely a few brushes that I didn't know about that would improve my work flow such as when I'm trying to create texture or create

hard surfaces. I think the brushes I have in my customised interface are definitely my favourites as I use them all the time, but knowing about the others incase I ever need them is valuable.

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Shaun the Sheep Movie!

I've just been to watch the new 'Shaun the Sheep Movie' that was amazing, but what more do you expect form Aardman. The use of cinematography and lighting was sublime, I was especially impressed by the lighting in the nighttime scenes which where clear yet still conveyed the time of day through the blue hues in the mise en scene. The film was definitely made for a younger audience rather than a 22 year old (I was one of the only adults in the audience that wasn't a parent), but the incorporation of adult jokes and they way they paid homage to films such as 'Silence of the Lambs' really made the film great for all ages. I love the way Aardman have such an easily recognisable style, especially in the faces of their puppets. This style travels all the way through their films, whether it be 'Wallace and Gromit' or 'Pirates', the way Aardman creates their characters with their classic round eyes, sculpted faces and lovingly crafted outfits stems all the way through their portfolio. I have always been a massive fan of Aardman as I grew up watching 'Wallace and Gromit' and I'm glad that the Bristol based studio still continues to produce top quality stop motion animation today, especially considering it's one of the last stop motion studios left in the UK.

What I found the most inspirational was the way the sets had been produced. Currently I'm working on creating the concept art for my own stop motion animated feature as part of my Masters course and I want to emulate the textures used in the backgrounds for 'Shaun the Sheep' in my own movie. The way the grass and bushes was created looked authentic and made me feel as though I was in the countryside. This was juxtaposed by the harsh environment of the city, with it's hard edges and the dark dank colours in the  animal containment cells of A. Trumper. I think the finishing touches of mud on the bus, dirt in the caravan and graffiti in the city made it really stand out as it looked like a world you could go out and explore with a history and a "lived in" feeling. Overall it was definitely one of my favourite Aardman films to date and I would definitely recommend seeing it. I hope that I am able to convey the same sense of realism mixed with stylization in my own work. My only complain is I can't find an art of book!

Cadi Zbrush Model Progress

I've been doing some more work on my Zbrush model of my main character Cadi, up until my graphics tablet pen broke. So this is where I'm at today until technology failing my stopped play. I've been working on trying to make the face seem more sculptural, almost like its moulded from clay. To do this I've been using a brush called trim dynamic that a few of my friends suggested. It helps you cut into the model as though you were using traditional sculpting methods and it's great for hard surface modelling which is something I've always struggled with. Using a combination of trim dynamic with slash, standard brush and pinch I've been able to create a lot more defined edges in my model. It took a lot of practice at first to get used to a new brush, and since using it I think it would be great if I could find the time to try every brush in brush to see which ones I like. I've customised my work space so that all the brushes I use a lot are easily accessible on the right hand side, that way I don't have to put my hand across my model when I'm picking what brush I want.

I've also used the MatCap Grey material today which was suggested to me as it helps you see the light and shadow on the model a lot better than the MatCap Red Wax. I've definitely found it a lot easier with this material as its a lot easier, but it can hide a lot of the lumps and bumps with this material as opposed to others. Below is the turnaround for my character as it is today and I'll have to wait to finish her off until my tablet pen is fixed.

 

Griffin Character Design

This is my initial Griffin paint up. I like doing these as it helps me get a grasp of the colours and the final look of the character, allowing me to work out details by lassoing and moving elements if needed to and adding more depth to the face. I did this fairly quickly so all the details aren't fully worked out and I definitely need to work on the way I paint hair. I think the design is heading in the right direction. I like the clothes but they aren't exactly right yet. The character is loosely based on Alan Rickman as I often find it easier to design a character with an actor in mind. Alan Rickman has a mysterious presence and over the years he has played both good and bad characters, and I wanted my character to be a good person essentially but by doing what he feels is best becomes drunk with power and looses himself to greed. The character I created I feel could be either good or bad and I wanted there to be that ambiguity, rather than going for the traditional Disney-esq villain design who is obviously evil.

Cadi Zbrush Character

Over the last few days I have been modelling my character Cadi in Zbrush. If I was to make my movie that I am currently working on as part of my Masters, "The Cheese Moon of Hillsville", I would use 3D printing techniques for the faces. I would make all the characters faces, along with some of the props and sets in Zbrush and then print them out, meaning I could create a level of detail and emotion that is often missed using traditional stop motion modelling techniques. If any further texture or moving parts needed to be added later, such as clothes, armatures and texture in the general land scape they could then be added afterward using traditional stop motion techniques.

I've never done a human character in Zbrush before so this has been a challenge for me. I started off with a sphere and spent some time blocking out the initial shape of the face and hair. I then went on to add the detail and refine the features using symmetry at first, but as I knew from my designs I didn't want the face to be even and I wanted pieces of hair in different places I freely sculpted after a while. This was also the first time I have created eyes using a different sub tool. I tried to be more methodical with my sculpting this time so that I could easily make changes as everything was being kept separate.

I spent a lot of time on the hair as I have never modelled it before and I didn't want to use the built in hair brush in Zbrush. The hair needed to have a traditional feel to it, as did the rest of the face, because I wanted to give it as much of a traditionally sculpted feel as possible. This was another reason I chose to use Zbrush. It is one of the most comprehensive software packages that allow you to create 3D models in a more organic way compared to programs such as Maya. Being a traditional artist originally with a background in fine art I found the transition from physical to digital sculpting a lot easier using ZBrush. I have however encountered quite a few problems getting used to the program, but now I know the basic functions of the software fairly well, through tutorials, teachings/advice and practice I can use the software much more comprehensively. For this project I not only want to sculpt the face but I also want to create several different facial expressions for Cadi inside Zbrush. This means I will have to retopologize my model and create different levels in Zbrush, all of which I have never done before. Therefore I am trying to finish my model as quickly as possible to give me ample time to experiment with this and allow time for things to go wrong (as they always do). Below is my model as it is so far, but it is still a work in progress that I hope to finish by the end of this week or beginning of the next. If I was to make the model deepening on the printer I was using I probably wouldn't print the hair, but I found it important to include it in the model, otherwise it would not look like my character, and it would be hard to tell if the character would work once printed out. It also gave me chance to practice my hair sculpting techniques, which I was grateful for.

Zbrush Expressions Research

Since I want to create facial expressions for my character in Zbrush I have been researching how to do them and also looking at a range of existing expressions by other artists. Below is my favourite range of expressions based of the Studio Ghibli character Mei. A lot of the expressions I found were symmetrical and had no interest or appeal to them. They didn't make the character seem believable or real as the expressions were too stiff. I feel these really conveyed the character and the movement in the head and over exaggerated expressions made these stand out from a sea of average expressions. I unfortunately couldn't find out the name of the artist but you can have a look at more and how it was made on Zbrush central at http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?72270-Mei-HMC-15-expressions

The Art of The Book of Life

The art of The Book of Life is definitely one of my favourite books. It's jam packed full of character designs, layouts and paintings which are full of intricate detail and explosive colour. The main thing that caught my eye was art director Paul Sullivan's use of light within his paintings. Picking cool blues to contrast against burning reds and yellows brings the images to life adding vibrance and atmosphere. The whole book is alive from every pencil line to every brush of colour the mood of the Mexican celebration, the day of the dead, reverberates throughout its pages. I definitely feel inspired and I would love to capture the same texture and life in my work.