This weeks sculptures

Here are a few sculptures for this week.  I wanted to do some sort of monkey creature with lots of eyes and no ears.  So I did, I drew a few variations first then went in and sculpted the creatures head.  As I was sculpting it I found I didnt know much about how a monkey looks so, I decided to sculpt a chimp.  Using reference images, I created a chimpanzee study which I will, later on, create a body for.
Another day, I did a few drawings of a goblin which I was to sculpt in Zbrush.  I figured I would work it out in clay too as a preliminary.  So, the hooded head you see below is a goblin sculpture which took about 30-45mins to complete.
I also did a little quadruped creature who has some sort of large moth like insect on its bum.

An Odd Limbed Creature

I have begun to explore odd limb creature designs.  I want to make them somewhat believable and functional too.  so not just a ball with nine legs and three arms, although I would like to get that stage where I can see the functionality of all those limbs.  Maybe it would be centipede like or something.
Anyway here is a design, this one is a hanging creature which hangs by its colon. It whips its feces at predators and leaves its waste everywhere it goes.

Not a good pet.

7 Cyclops over 7 days!

Cyclops #1... I have found that I am not comfortable with the idea of a cyclops.  Something about the idea just doesnt make sense so, I am going to do 7 cyclops over the next 7 days.  With the hopes that I can shake the need to make sense of the cyclops. 

This first posted cyclops is done in Zbrush.  I kind of like him.  I liked the ears and his big mouth full of crooked teeth.  I dont really want to follow the usual style of cyclops which was just a giant man with one eye.  That just never made sense to me.  The whole one eye thing just seems silly.  How could it see depth?  It would have a terrible time navigating about the place. 
Anyway, we shall see what comes next in the cyclops future.

A few Zbrushins

Hope you enjoy these few Zbrush creations.

A fresh thingy

Hi, I threw together this thingy today.  I dont know what it is, maybe aquatic...with chicken wings.

Click on the image to see it larger.

Making clean edges in Zbrush

This video shows my technique for creating clean edges. There are two techniques I use, both similar. One is to simply mask, in low subdiv, and pull the geometry over other geometry and then pinch to make the edges close so that after subdiv up they remain close.
The other is to turn off "subdiv smooth modifier" so when subdiv up levels the corners remain.
You will see both techniques in this video.




Making clean edges in Zbrush from Nick McGavern on Vimeo.

Edit existing topology in Zbrush

This is a short demo showing how to take existing geometry and to edit the geometry/topology to better suit your mesh needs.
Load a Zsphere.
Scroll to the "Topology" dropdown.
Click "Select Topo" and choose your geometry to be edited.
Go to the "Rigging" dropdown above and choose "Select Mesh" and choose the mesh your editing (to be used as a surface that you can lay your verts onto).
Click the "Edit Topology" button and begin editing the topo.

Tips.
Hovering over the verts will turn your brush green, you can then click on that vert to use as a starting point.
To reset the beginning point of your vert placement, double click in space, otherwise it will start at the center of your zsphere.
Make your draw size about 1-3 so you are only effecting one vert at a time.
This method can also be used to merge two tools, once they have been merged down to one.
Also great way to add geometry to a sculpture without having to venture out to another program.

Edit topology in Zbrush from Nick McGavern on Vimeo.

Zbrush layers tutorial

I have a tutorial for you all to have a gawk at.
Basically I had created a sculpture in zbrush and posed it before saving it in a neutral pose.  I would usually pose a sculpture on a layer but this time forgot.  So, this is a work around to get the creation back to the neutral pose.   Using layers and importing an early saved version of an exported .obj into a layer at the lowest subdiv on the latest posed sculpture...the video will explain it better.

MutAnteater on top of the mountain

Here I placed the creature on top of a mountain.  Also updated its skin.

MutAnteater

Another creature for the post, this one has a little hair on its back.

 

Just in case you you were wondering, it is female and has 4 eyes.  I like trying to throw in an extra set of eyes, but more so having them so they kind of make sense...unlike spiders.  What do they need so many eyes for??

 

If you click on this one, it will get bigger...just one click, dont get too excited.

30 Creatures in 30 Days - Day 15

This little guy would be a Zbrush sculpture.  I was thinking of a frogman when I put this together.  I didnt want it to be a frog walking upright, just to have some characteristics of a frog.  Not much deep thoughts went alog with this creation accept that I need to be doing more.  More anatomy, more animal studies, more sketching from life.  I think I might take this guy further with color and scene so stay tuned I should get better...

30 Creatures in 30 Days - Day 7

Greatings!
I love it when I just dont try.  Everything is wonderful.  This creature I said, in the begining of its creation, "I will do the least amount of manipulation from human structure for this."  I found that it to be liberating.  I had no pressure for new design, just something simple.  Maybe I should learn from that, keep the design somewhat simple.   (Sometimes...maybe just as a break)  But anyway, here it is...I have done him in an angry expression too.

30 Creatures in 30 Days - Day 2

For todays creature additions, I have whipped up a drawing and a Zbrush sculpture.
Oh, what will tomorrow bring!?
Ill just add this though...The Zbrush sculpture was depressing for about 80% of its creation and underwent many changes to his profile before I settled on this one.