Ollie's Sculpting Journey Sketchbook from beginner

thanks, i’ll check a topology reference and try again. Do you use any retopo plugins? I’m using polyquilt which is a bit awkward. I’d like to try softwrap but its $40…

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Nope. I played around with one for awhile a few years ago, but since I learned how to do it completely manually first, that’s still how I’m most comfortable doing it. I use a combination of shrinkwrap, snapping, and the slide relax tool in sculpt mode.

i tried slide relax but found it annoying to have to toggle wireframe off and on. is there a better way?

I usually just leave wire frame on while I’m retopologizing. It doesn’t bother me much until I get to the texturing phase.

Maybe you can assign it as a quick favorite, to make it easier/faster to toggle? Or see if you can judge how the polygons are flowing without it? I can’t, but that doesn’t mean it’s not learnable.

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I’ve got loops around the mouth and lower half of face but i’ve messed up the nostril. no detail there now.

also, should I use ‘mark sharp’ for characters or just use more subd levels?

I would use “mark sharp” only for a very low-poly character, one that has an intentional low-poly style. Usually, a character would be either subdivided or have a normal map baked for it. Both work best without sharps.

If you are going for the subdivision route, any sharp edge is better done by placing support loops around it to tighten the curvature. This means there should be edge loops around every sharp feature of the sculpt, followind every curve of it.

This can be easier to achieve if you start with all those important loops. I see you have a loop surrounding the eye and one around the mouth, so you probably started with those. But, you could go further and also make one surrounding the nose, one surrounding the nostril, one following the eyebrow’s curve/eye socket and one for the jaw. Then, you fill the space between those initial loops, adding or removing edges from them if needed so they match each other’s edge count.

If you start by surrounding every important feature that stands out, the flat areas in between those important loops will be easier to fill and more forgiving of bad topology.

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It doesn’t look like it would be too hard to split the edges and add in a support loop.


My last retopo for this sculpt. Multires and shrinkwrap make it look ok. Didn’t do the ears - they’re still my achillies’ heel.

Time to learn UV unwrapping, then i’ll paint this guy

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Sculpt 52 render.

I’m very happy with my underlying sculpt but the retopology process is tedious and i copped out of doing proper hair curves in favour of blobs.

I wish there was a repository of assetized hair caps that I could just shrinkwrap onto the skull.

Considering buying CGboost’s new character course but its £80. I need a walkthough of the entire process.

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Not familiar with the course, but if a complete walkthrough of character creation is what your after, there’s more than a few for free on youtube.

I know but I haven’t found any that actually inspire me or look high enough quality. i’m after that disney/pixar style

Sculpt 52. Trying to turn Rain’s head into an actual celebrity. I think i’ve got the individual features similar enough but the actual face shape is off…

Nothing like her right now. How to do features like lips? can i vertex paint it or will i need to do a texture?

It was the eyes that I messed up. a bit better now. ucupaint setup and I feel like i’m making progress again!

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Sculpt 53. using rain base mesh again.

ucupaint undoes my layer weights whenever i save the file which is annoying.

my eyes are looking bulgy when using rain as a base. why is that?




Sculpt 54. I think i’m getting a generic face…

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Sculpt 55. This one is fun!

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