Sculpting tips and tricks

Support Modeling
1

Hi,
This is just a simple question:)
Dose any one know of a good sculpting tutorial which explains tricks and tips?
Because I am sculpting a squirrel right now and it some how dose not look good at all.
Here is a work in progress render:

untitled.png.jpg960×540 30 KB


As you might see it looks horrible:(
Thanks in advance

2

Woudn’t worry about your model not looking so good I’m in the same boat as well when it comes to sculpting I think its just going to be a case of 1000 bad sculpts before I start getting any thing half decent, ie practice practice and more practice.

  • 1 on any tips and tricks out there though :yes:
3

Here is a link that some of you might find interesting.It explains a trick how to sculp with x*millions polygons with out a total lag:)
And I tested it and it works.with out this trick I could only sculp with 0.3 million and now even 6 million is not to leggy.

P.S.I am still looking for tips on sculpting;)

4

I’m not very experimented with the Blender sculpt mode as it requires too much poly for my system when i want to make good details, i am more an user of Sculptris as when it comes to sculpting.
Sculptris allows me the possibility to make high level of detailing for much much overall less faces required than with Blender multires system due to the specific “create face only where you’re need them” method Sculptris is using.

But for both application, i always found more easier to sculpt when you have a base shape than to sculpt from a default sphere/cube/mesh, because you can then focus more on the details than trying to give it a shape.

By example, using Blender 2.57b, i use this squirrel picture took from a quick google search :
http://i.imgur.com/jZFho.jpg

And build a simple base shape roughly looking like this picture.
http://i.imgur.com/qyr59.jpg

After a few multires level i can get something a bit more looking like a squirrel :
http://i.imgur.com/IPKQS.jpg

I’m sure with a better base shape it must be easier (though i think it would be even easier with Sculptris).

5

Here are a couple tips that you might find useful:
-Base mesh:
You’ll want to keep the base mesh clean and simple.
Try to keep all the polys square and roughly the same size- avoid long stretched polys and triangles if you can (these don’t behave nicely while sculpting).

-Sculpting: After adding the multires modifier, only subdivide once. It’s best not to subdivide to an extremely high subdiv level and start from there. If you do that, I guarantee you’ll have a hard time avoiding unwanted lumpiness. You generally want to use the low resolutions for large scale changes and the high resolutions for small scale changes. Don’t forget you can go back down a few levels if you want to make large changes later on!
I generally follow these steps:

  1. Work on the current subdiv level until it’s as close to perfect as you can get. Sculpt everything you possibly can at this level. If you’re working with reference (which I highly recommend) try to copy it as close as possible.
  2. Subdivide once
  3. Repeat
    I tend to use the grab, draw, and smooth brushes for the lower resolutions, then the clay and smooth brushes for higher resolutions (and for the really high res levels, I use a textured anchored draw brush)
    I also prefer to sculpt with shade-flat enabled, as opposed to shade-smooth. Using shade-flat gives you a better idea of what kind of poly distribution you have to work with.

-Anatomy: This is pretty much the most important topic for organic sculpting. You don’t need to have it memorized, but it’s definitely worth looking into. Look up some skeletal and muscle diagrams for what you’re sculpting and try to incorporate what you see into your sculpt.

Hope that helps

6

Thanks for the tips guys

7

These are quality tips Jeepster. Thanks very much!

8

Hey thanks a lot!!!
I will later (when I have time) trie it out:)

9

Hey thanks a lot!!!
I will later (when I have time) trie it out:)

Edit:Sorry for double post:(