For this week it was tutorial week, so we were given few videos based around some techniques to create fur and hair along with a few other things. I choses to do the hair sculpting tutorials for the z brush as that was the software I will be using to finish this project. This process is very similar to the tutorial to make the armour by using masks, the idea is to use the mask and extract it from the area where you want the hair to be. Then you use dyna mesh along with the z sculpt which intern create genitive polygons and shape them into the main body of the hair. the next step was to use the clay build up tool on a low poly mesh so to create the bigger strains or locks of hair and gradually add subdivisions and adding smaller details. this is how we create the layers effect natural hair has to it. After that it’s more of game of moving it into place and using some recommended brushes from a site called 8olu where they recommended were move, smooth, inflate and pinch. These are the kinds of brushes that really work for realistic hair which is really going to help me when it comes to the detailing portion of my project.
In the meantime, I create some alphas for my brushes by uploading the black and white images to create the general shape of the brush stroke. I found some ripple shapes to create that effect I had on the stone skin of the creature and further connect it to the water works. i also want to either find imbi brushes for flowers or find a way to create a water Lillie one to tie in the Japanese side of the create and diversify the colour pallet of the creature and vary the shapes of the create in the process.
To continue with the retopology of the creature of which was coming along ok every now and again I do check the non-manifold select option just to make sure that I don’t do anything really bad but, I do realize it will not tell me everything but it does show me if I’ve missed anything. I was having some trouble with the ears so for the mean time I went and did the typology of the body and legs stopping at the feet as I don’t really know how close them off. For this I used a reference provided from the tutor for how to make typology loops for the limbs though, I do think I added too many loops at this stage which intern has created a dens patch of loops at the front of the model and less on the other end. I did try and select loops that weren’t important by referencing my first year’s character create feedback and look at that as an example of unnecessary loops. Then came to the ears where i found another article and guid on how to make ears mind you its more focused on human ears but, What they have to say is that ; (Instead of extruding the geometry from the head, which can create messy topology, it’s better to model the ear separately and merge it into the head later.) so instead of retypologing it I should try and create them separately to insure that it will have nice clean typology and reconnect them to the main body. This would be the best way to go as when i dyna meshed my creature it joined the ears together and making them separate from the body to get the right shape at the same time.
To reflect on my progress so far, I’m pleased with how my block and concepts have come out though I do think I could’ve created more rigged edges in the blocking stage. This would have helps the install sculpting stage and help from the main caverns in in the body of the creature. The other thing I would like to try, and fix would be the spacing between the ears to fix the dyna mesh problem I am dealing with now. Though i am pleased with the Shallotte of the creature with it matching the concept image I was working off even though the ears art in the best place but, the way they are now helps them work as a 3d model. Though despite all of these changes and critiques I’m plead as how it’s going though I do think I’m going to have to rethink all of the world deepening on how much detail I would like to include in the creature which may push it into a more stylized from but for that I would need to progress to that stage first.