if you are referring to sculpting; you are going at it the WRONG WAY AGAIN.
sculpting is also for people who already know how the finished product is suppose to look by experience.
stop cutting corners; stop skipping ahead.
Learn to draw shapes and their volumes, draw the geometry of each body part a million times, learn its shape and volume (mannequins)
afterward; you go to blender and you make all the shapes you have learned with the simplest topology possible; trying to nail in the basic shapes (The whole human body (WITHOUT THE HEAD / hair) with muscle definition should not exceed 10,000 vertices and that’s too much as well).
split everything into the smallest pieces possible.
ok, that’s what I need do, is spend time with the figure drawing. I have Micheal Hamptons book on figure drawing, I will study that book by doing figure drawing from it. It’s the best book I know of on the subject. For one, it uses modern teaching.
All “how you should be learning to make humans” aside, can’t you turn down the strength on the brush? I have a pretty decent laptop, and the smooth brush set on 1.0 will smash a model pretty quick, but the brush set much lower, say at .01 barely does anything.
You can’t translate figure drawing instructions into sculpting. You can get some nice generalizations, but Hampton’s methods don’t work in 3D and they’re not meant to. You’d be better off finding a sculpting book
I would recommend holding off the idea of 3D modeling or sculpting at the moment; as tempting as it is to dive into it; start with 2D sketches first.
Rationale : 3D got more information to consider and breakdown; to the untrained eye and the unskilled; to put it in simple words; its so complex, your eyes won’t understand what its seeing; let alone break it down or rebuild what you are trying to replicate.
Here is another model I am working on for practice. Started from scratch again, this time with better base mesh (my own). I put attention to anatomy in it, used a reference for doing some measurements. I made her head bigger, to try and give her the build of a certain reference I have in my mind.
She is modeled from imganition, there is no reference for it, which is a goal of mine, is make my own never been seen before models. I still know how important references are, but I want to try it.
I am hoping I can create many different characters this way, only having minimum references on hand. Then when working with references, even better.
random blobs everywhere mate; you are still at it; the same method as before in which i deemed to be wrong.
read my previous posts on starting with smaller scale; maybe even work on specific parts only; first in 2D then in 3D
practice first on how to draw the eye from different angles; again and again; when you are ready; just make an eye in blender; as low poly as possible; trying to nail in the volumes and shapes correctly.
what you are trying to do is impossible and will lead to a dead end; for a simple reason; there is endless amount of information to be taken into account in the human body; and you are trying to absorb ALL OF IT as a one big product instead of piece by piece.
You do whatever works for you, but this seems a bit backwards to me (unless I’m misinterpreting). Personally, I think it would be easier (and get better results in the long run) to learn how to make a generic human that’s pretty much totally referenced, until you’re fairly confident with that, and then branch out to never before seen characters, rather than the other way around so you don’t have to unlearn as many “bad” habits when you go back to using reference.
I am going to take this advice. I recently got the book of bridgman’s, constructive anatomy. I made some reference cards of it and plan on doing just as advised, working on each part, one by one. Building a foundation for the human form before working on my own designs.
The best advice I can give you is to work with low res geometry. Forget about all the details. Focus on the main forms, volumes, and silhouettes, and judging proportion. This is THE most important aspect of learning how to sculpt anything.
And the best way to study this is with low res geometry. So many beginners make the mistake of working at high res and just trying to copy the muscles that they see in refs or tutorials.
This stuff takes years - a lifetime - to study depending on how deep you want to go. Start with the skeleton. EVERYTHING is built on the skeleton. This is where all the important landmarks are found. Forget about the details. This will come much later.
And don’t be afraid to do ‘throwaway’ sculpts that you don’t save. Do them over and over and over again. These can be very simple and low poly sculpts with a focus on large forms/volumes and silhouette.
I would like to add on top of it that; even a skeleton is too much for him; he need to start with mastering different bones; their shapes and functionality (as bony landmarks will be shown on a character ; so its not just theoretical).
I have books that show the bones, plus 3d models of skeletons. If I model them out of the book I think it would be good. Then, build a skeleton. If I then follow bridgman’s construtive anatomy book on muscle placement, I think I might get this.
I have put hours of study into anatomy, so some of it I do know about. I just not proficient in it.
I remember I started that very same project years ago, but never finished it. I think it was because my health got bad. Well now my health is good, I should be able to do it this time. My vitamins where missing…
I will start with the hip bone.
I am having this idea, of, blocking in my knowledge of anatomy. Then later give more details to my anatomy knowledge, with more details even later.
Well I started the project but with the clavicle and scapula. I have even been studying the names of the parts of them. Although nothing told me so, I think at least knowing how many different parts are named on it will make it better. I am talking about the bones, but knowing how many muscle are attached to it also.
I plan on studying these bones and muscles with drawing them, then, when sculpting, sculpt without the reference on the different parts, then look at references on it and fix it.
I learned from my study already, that the clavicle does not connect where I thought it did. I had the scapula and clavicle all wrong.
I wanted to say also, that I read online that most artists quit after reaching anatomy studies.
This is one of the best strategies you can use. As the modern anatomy sculpting master Scott Eaton says ‘sculpt what you know, or what you think you know…’ This is how you build up your mental library of anatomy forms/volumes/silhouettes. Sculpt what you know without refs, consult refs and fix what’s off… rinse and repeat…over and over and over. You gradually accumulate the knowledge to a point where you can sculpt these things from memory. It does take years though, and many, many years of dedication and repetitive practice.
Another thing I forgot to mention is that I would advise against using a method like Bridgeman’s, at least in the beginning. Learn from reality first. Photo refs, and even better, scans. If you are learning anatomy with an aim to achieve realism - rather than to model stylised characters, for example - then study from real life refs.
Later on, when you have a solid understanding of forms/volumes and silhouettes/etc, and a good grasp of the anatomy, then you can adapt what you’ve learned to further explore methods like Bridgeman.
I looked back over the previous posts in this, and I can say the first model looks horrible. I have much better understanding of anatomy right now, I just need to apply it about 10 times.
‘Anatomy, A complete guide for artists’ by Joseph Sheppard.
This book is very good at showing the bones. Which is why it’s part of my kit.
‘Anatomy for Sculptors’ by Uldis Zarins.
This book is very good at showing the muscle and their connections. Plus many other parts of human anatomy. I plan on following the authors advice and studying the book many many times, so that I don’t need the book anymore. I will also take my study to the Joseph book the same way.
‘Anatomy for 3D artists, An Essential Guide for CG Professionals’ by 3D Total.
This book is needed, because it shows me how to use anatomy knowledge to make 3d models. Something I can’t find in any other book. I think the anatomy it self is lacking in this book. But it does very good job teaching how to use anatomy knowledge.
I don’t have them yet, but will gather some human references. What I want to buy is 3d scans of people from CGTrader and TurboSquid. CGTrader had some good scans. They are pricey tho.
I have a model of skeleton and muscles. It’s a 3d model I load into blender. Problem with it, is the artists said it’s little bit stylized. I did find a model of a skeleton on opengameart.org It looks like the proportions are perfect on it. Very good model.
