Polybook - Aaron "The Cabbage Detective" Rudderham

So this seems to be a pretty popular thing to do, and with it keeping me accountable to actually produce content and be able to get feedback easily, I thought it'd be a good idea to start one of these myself. Lets see how far we can go.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    Wow, I uhh... need to get better at updating this, huh?


    So, what's happened...? Oh yes!


    First of all is an announcement, and that's that I backed out of the ArtStation competition as I was never going to finish it in time, and that I was okay with that because it was mostly suppose to be a catalyst for me learning anatomy, and that I've been progressing in rather well. Though I believe the competition finished nearly a week ago so this seems a tad redundant now...


    Well, back to facial anatomy! And this was my first go at the sculpt, which uhh... could've been better...


     

    But after that I noticed many of the issues and after seeing to many of those issues I got real busy with the grab brush and after sculpting all the other facial pieces this is what I got:



    And here's a gif version for all you animation-lovers out there:



    Certainly not perfect, but for my first full head sculpt I think it's rather alright for what it is.


    So with this done the final body looks like this:



    There are parts that could be better, such as the feet, back and thighs for example, but again, for my first attempt I'm certainly pleased with this.


    I've begun blocking out accessories and I look forward to sharing it all with you. Have a good day and happy Blending!

  • malhomsi replied


    thecabbagedetective  for a 1st time it is really good , the problem is more about general proportions , u may try to get the primary volume right befor going deeper into shapes and structure. take a look at the head volume , it feel huge in comparesion to the body ,the arms r a little short , and the body feel to large on the side view . i have to say that there is a lot of interesting shapes and u have done great work , just take some step back and try to redo the proportions ( grab brush , lattices ..)  ! keep it up

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied


    mmalhomsi I KNEW the head was too big, it always bugged me but it was never pointed out so I just assumed I'd have to adjust my eye. Cheers for the insight, adjustments aho!

  • malhomsi replied


    thecabbagedetective take it easy ! u r doing good ! i m rarely able to eyeball proportions ! each time i have to mesure thing to be sure i didnt mess up things ! u can google general body proportions to get an idea ! 

  • silentheart00 replied

    thecabbagedetective Sorry, I meant to point out the head looks big to me, too, and the other things malhomsi pointed out, but I've been so wrapped up in my own work I didn't get a chance.  Have a quick cheat sheet of proportions in your mind, which will take practice to build up.  Legs are approximately twice as long as the torso, the elbow falls around the waist/hip area, lower arm is approximately the same length as the upper arm, etc.  Wear some tight fitting clothes or stand naked in front of a mirror and observe your proportions.  I usually base measurements off of heads to find the torso landmarks, then work out from there.  Similar idea with facial features starting with eye lengths and then basing the rest of the features off of other features.  Let me know if any of this makes sense or not lol.

    But hey, you did some great work in your first attempt.  Yeah, some things could be better with more practice, but you have accomplished more work over your time spent than not doing it.  Good effort, dude!  Now, focus on the areas you can improve.  You got this.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    silentheart00 Nah it's cool man, no need to apologize about it, you gotta put yourself first. That being said I very much appreciate your insight here, so thank you very much for that, it makes sense to me!

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    So long story short I'm getting a bit tired of being a slacker, and I'm just gonna go full force into this. Been dealing with some... shall we say, mental anguish (as well as a little bit of physical) as of late but I know I can't use that as an excuse and I need to work harder.


    So after feedback I adjusted some of the proportions some more and have blocked out the majority of the accessories and I'm liking the direction so far:


    Haven't mirrored a few of the clothes as it's being a bit funky atm, will be much easier to do once I start retopo-ing.


    I fully intend to get my ass back into gear and will be attempting daily updates again. I wish you all the best of luck in your Blender journeys and happy Blending.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    Hey there! Just pointing out that I'm still retopo-ing, but having to wrestle with Blender a bit so I'll share some screenshots tomorrow, TTFN!

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    So the retopology is coming along a lot nicer than I expected, it's a fair bit wonky in some places but it's certainly not finished yet (though doing those underarms are a massive pain).



    And here are some of the accessories I've managed to do so far (yes I accidentally applied some subsurf).



    Some are adjustments are to be made but considering I've never retopo-ed something this complex ever I don't think this is too bad. Also, I did this when I was making the face and I found it rather eerie, like a mask:



    That's it from me, hopefully I'll be able to update you again tomorrow but until then happy Blending!

  • silentheart00 replied

    thecabbagedetective What an interesting wireframe display.  If this will be a riggable character, you may want to think about modeling the eyelids closed, which is an easy mod.  Also gives you a little more texture space, as well.  Kent talks about it in his fantasy creature course.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    Retopology done! Little dense in areas I don't like and edge flow in certain areas could be better (ears can just go suck a lemon) but this has by far been my most ambitious retopo-project so far and I'm liking it!



    Now onto the micro details! I'm sure they're going to be excruciating... ly fun! See you then, and happy Blending! 


    EDIT: Fixed the tris in the abs, all quads once more!

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    silentheart00 Thanks! And I wish I had read that earlier lol. Not sure how to go about that but hopefully I can do it well.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    Also as a side note I was trying to mess around with eyes back when the model was unfinished and the results are... yeah...



    Either eyebrows are quintessential or something else is off. Hey @theluthier if you're not busy I don't suppose I could ask for some quick tips on making eyes look good? Right, back to work!

  • silentheart00 replied

    thecabbagedetective Good work, dude!  I feel you on this retopo thing; I'm struggling with the neck right now.  Gunna need a refresher.  I don't like the look of the 2 six poles on the back of the neck right on the line of symmetry, though, but I'm not sure if it's okay to be there or not.

    Those are some really nice shoes...

  • Kent Trammell replied

    thecabbagedetective Currently it looks like there's no iris, just eye-whites and a big pupil. Kinda like a shark eye. But I'm also curious what you're expecting the eyes to look like at this point. Because they look fine as WIP eyes

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    silentheart00 Yeah trust me man they're already gone, was the first thing I tweaked after I uploaded it, glad they're gone now. And thanks! Surprisingly well retopo-ed.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    @theluthier Fair enough, maybe I'm expecting too much of myself, but it's nice to know what direction I should be going in, so thank you! Also (and this goes to anyone really) but does anyone have advice on how to create your own eye textures? Because this was one I nabbed from the internet and I feel this wouldn't be legit if I tried to sell something or enter something in a competition with it in it. Thanks in advance.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    I'm not dead!


    Jeez, I'm really bad at this, huh? My health - both mental and physical - has been very rocky recently which really threw me off my modeling (and everything really) due to a lot of stuff going on with my chest (though apparently I've lost nearly 20 pounds in the past 3 months thanks to exercise and proper diet, so that's nice). Could be an infection, could be pleurisy, could be stress/anxiety, probably a combination of the above, but I need to focus at least somewhat, and what better way to do that than with a deadline?


    Decided to take a bit of a break from my current project (probably not the best idea admittedly) and decided I'd enter the recent CGC competition, and I can personally say that I'm rocking Team Cycles, and not just Team Cycles, but Team 2.79 because I have the body of a 20 year old man but the mind of a mule, so I'm sticking with it a little while longer.


    So I got the majority of the exterior of the centerpiece done. Not done yet (and also not related to Suzanne yet) but I think it's looking rather nice:




    This was originally based on the Lada Riva, but due to this being a somewhat cartoon-y exaggerated scene I decided to put my own spin on it. Hoping to get the rest of the exterior done tomorrow and make a start on the interior! Maybe modelling cars is my calling...?


    Well that's it for me, gonna try and get some sleep and then it's back to work for me. Have a good day and Happy Blending!

  • silentheart00 replied

    thecabbagedetective Hey, take care of yourself, dude.  It's kind of hard to model when you're dead, so listen to your body =]  Hopefully you can get all that sorted out and keep things going.

    That car is 😎👌 Can you finish mine for me? lol

  • Pavel Mazanik(nekronavt) replied

    thecabbagedetective ooooh, Жигули! :D  Nice start!