This is my second foray into digital sculpting: here is the first one. This is the second digital sculpture I've ever made in my life. Many thanks to Kent for the amazing course which I just finished: Fundamentals of Digital Sculpting. I was supposed to sculpt a stylised shark at the end, but:
So, how's that for an exercise? 😎
God knows, I've been trying to improve my relationship with sculpting (I mean, sculpting from scratch, not as a tool to create shape keys, or fix the dodgy deformation of my characters in static scenes, or give them cool normal maps) – but despite my best efforts, this is how it makes me feel.
And here's why: what am I to do with it now? How can I give it colourful fur, whiskers, proper nose and eyes, etc., for a cool render? Is it even possible to texture a sculpt? UV-unwrap that?! Yuk! 😲
Sculpting takes a lot – and I mean, a lot – of effort, time, and skill, and in return – 🙁
Well, maybe I can make it 3D-printable – if I sculpt the eyes as part of the same mesh, the way Kent didn't recommend to do the shark's teeth in the course. 😉
UPDATE: Man, this was an epic effort at retopo-ing this thing! Probably merits a separate project – except that CGCookie already have a beautiful training course on RetopoFlow 3, and the RetopoFlow 4 is already avaliable on Blender Superhive. All right, now let's see if I can turn it into something truly special.😉
This is absolutely fantastic! And not just because one of my first sculpt attempts in Blender was a Boston Terrier so kinda similar. ;D And isn't Retopoflow so nice to work with?
If you are open to feedback, well, the sculpt is pretty much perfect. As far as retopology goes, I would suggest starting off using WAY less geometry. Don't worry about the retopo geometry clipping through the model at first. Really! Lay in the major edges and loops - I usually run edges along high points and creases and make it almost a game to keep the polycount as low as possible. Imagine you are just creating a framework for additional geometry (well, because that's pretty much what you are doing with this method).
Once you've got things blocked out add a sub-division and shrinkwrap modifier. This will add in all the geo you need and the shrinkwrap will bring back all the detail. If you want to continue sculpting on the retopologized mesh you can (backup a copy) apply those modifiers and use the multiresolution workflow!
Less geometry early on means less to have to tweak to get things flowing nicely...and generally less frustration overall. Let Blender itself do most of the work when you can!
Thank you for the helpful feedback. I believe the video mentions the possibility that the retopologised mesh would need to be tweaked in the edit mode, though, when a copy of it is used to grow fur in such a way as to preserve most of the wrinkles — which has already proven true (spoiler alert! 😆) So, these details, at least, must be part of the geometry. If not for that, then yes, what you say is totally correct, and Blender can do most of the work with normal maps and modifiers like the shrinkwrap.
Oh yeah, I imagine a fur system would definitely need the geo. In Kent's HUMAN course he does a video in which he discusses and demonstrates recovering detail on a mesh with subdiv applied. If you want to skip ahead and see his workflow for that it's the "Up-rez Retopology" video in Chapter 2 of HUMAN. It shows him defining creases and wrinkles using geometry (spoiler: clever use of beveling).
How are you thinking of doing the fur? Old school particle system or new geonodes system?
Cool ++ ! Monsieur!!
What a cute doggie! But he could also work for MIB ?
Great Job!
Sculpting is like where ideas are born, it's the genesis, the kinda concert art stage for 3D. I don't know if you follow this person, he makes all his stuff in sculpting. He made Kratos for the latest God of War games:
https://www.artstation.com/grassetti
Normally, I don’t create characters just for the characters’ sake: if I make something (or someone), I try to tell a story (probably bored everyone here and on Blenderartists to death with my stories by now: even put a link to my self-published novel on Amazon in one😉😁). So, I am impatient: I want to put them into action, and the ‘traditional’ sculpting workflow feels as slow as farming to me. Being from a software development background, I am too much a product of the instant gratification culture: I want it all, and I want it now.🤣
This is a wonderful sculpt
anarchymedes! The proportions feel good, wrinkles are believable, totally reads like a pug...I'd say your struggle is bearing fruit.
It seems like you don't know what to do with a sculpt once it's done; assuming a good 3D sculpt by itself isn't satisfactory. You've already pointed out that you could 3D print your sculpt, which is certainly a valid output. If I owned a printer my office shelves would be FULL of my sculptures and models.
I'm rarely satisfied leaving a raw sculpture alone. I typically sculpt a creature or character to be textured and prepped for animation. The next step being retopology to capture the forms with an efficient model. From there it's a standard model + UV + texture operation. This pug would be super cut fully textured and groomed with fur! Recently a stellar dog groom was posted on artstation that made me want to create a furry friend: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mAgWm1
Is the pug something you're passionate about creating and you want to invest more time into?
Thanks, Kent: as it happens, I have been thinking about retopo-ing this sculpt, as a practice at using the Retopoflow 3 - Retopology Toolkit For Blender, which I had purchased on Blender Market (now Blender Superhive) a few years back but never had a chance to use (I understand you purchase those add-ons with the updates: Blender has changed a lot since then). If I manage that, well, we’ll see what happens.😉😁
I try to make my dog, i would like just a little aid, merci Kent.
You can totally do the pup for the exercise and submit it, it doesn't have to be the shark. The doggy is looking really good, seems you are mastering sculpting.
Hi, you're right—do what makes you happy. In my opinion, classes are a springboard to help you do what you truly want to do. Your pug is very close to the model. For me, it's cats (I have two), but I also really love dogs. Keep going :) Translation with Chatgpt