ALRIGHT THEN! let´s start to block them out today
starting off with Doily here, then to Nat then we prepare thier eyes and Dallas and Kitube done tomorrow then thier eyes and then we can sculpt them
also here are the Steps as a good breakdown, doing this so i don´t forget thee quality im going for
Blockout
Blockout is the first half of my 3D modeling process where i set up a basic shape for my models for later sculpting, tho i do get the Teeth and claws done here too so i can save sometime doing the Retopo with those been retopo´d during the next part, i always prefer to get these done in one day and i like to do more then one
Sculpt
the Sculpting is the well 3D organic sculpting of the models of my models and will often be used as a base for the next half of the 3D process so i gotta do a damn fucking good job. this is also the most fun part of the 3D modeling process
Tho it depends on the character or creature Basic sculpting workflow for a Human(Like say Doily) is as fellow
Head And Neck:
- basic Head/SkullShape
- Eyes
- Nose
- Mouth
- Ears
- Eyes (Details)
- Nose (Details)
- Mouth (Details)
- Ears (Deatils)
- Neck
- Hair base ref(for later grooming)
Body and Limbs:
- basic muscles for the Body and Tail(if they do have a Tail)
- Basic Body sculpt
- Detailed Body Sculpt
- more detailed Body sculpt with Head and Neck attached
- Basic muscles for front limbs
- Basic front limb Sculpt
- Detailed front limb sculpt
- Basic muscles for Back limbs
- Basic Back limb Sculpt
- Detailed Back limb sculpt
Hands:
Starts out maybe with doing some Retopo on the Nails before I get to work, same story on the feet OF the character got feet for that
- Finger(it kinda depends really but mostly this is a copy and paste)
- Thumbs
- whole Hand
- Whole hand details
- Whole arm
And then I will attach the arm to the body
Feet
Same as for the hands, nails get a Retopo then I sculpt them
- basic Sculpt for the foot
- Big Toe
- Other toes
- Big Toe (Details and attaching to the foot)
- other Toes (Details and attaching to the foot)
- Foot Details
- Foot to the legs
And then I attach the leg to the body and refine the body
Retopo/UVs
Retopo is short for retopology and is basicly getting my models into a place where i can use them for Animation and textureing later on, gotta make sure the models are not too high or too low poly as i do use a subdivision modifier to smooth them out and mainly at level 1 for everything, i use UVPacker for the UV maps tho i might wanna also do a few fix´s myself too, it´s also here i get the Textures ready,
these are the numbers i use for texture size´s
1024x1024 - for teeth, nails and tounges 2048X2048 - for clothing, claws and other things 4096X4096 - mainly for skin
for anything with wings i might use a UDIM for a 2048X2048 + 2048X2048 texture size
Multires/Textureing
another fun part tho i would like to improve alot more here especially after someone told my T-Rex looked a bit too smooth, what i will oftn do here is to first get a multires sculpt done then fellowed by a good texture pianting and shader editing, getting the blender materials to look as real as i can while also keep it looking good, on the Subject of textureing pianting i found it´s easier to use a Mask and 2nd layer for the mouth and other things like head crests
i did try out a few things to make the textureing better and i hope to use these not just for these upcomming models but also in the future after haveing made this whole thread
Bakeing/Shadeing
i wasn´t always a big fan of bakeing but by setting it to 8 in the viewport and 10 in the rendering in cycles i think things have been made a whole lot easier for me when it comes to the subject of bakeing, trying my best to avoid useing a cage in blender lately as im not the biggest fan of it tho i do feel like useing a cage for the clothing might help a bit
getting the shaders to look right in eevee is always a fun challange tho with the eyes been fixed aroundthe time time before i do the textureing or after
Grooming
Grooming is the part where i add in the fur, hair and feathers to my fuzzy or fluffy critters or people, still trying to improve here i think tho im getting kinda better, the hair shaders are the hardest part to get right in eevee but i might get them to work
Basic Rigging/Weight painting
after all of that work the 3 final steps are to make the models useable for animation like giveing them an amature inside of them first step is pretty straight forwards, a basic deformation rig and wheight pianting, once all that´s done it´s over to adding in weight pianting for the corrective smooth as well as getting the clothing weight pianted useing a data tranfer, once it´s all ready i´ll get the TGT bones ready and then we do the next half
Complex Rigging/bone custom shapes
the Complex rigging stage is also where i add in custom bone shapes, it´s mainly about here adding in controls for animation and make them easy as butter to animate, things like FK/IK switchs and better controls for the mouth and arm fellow and so on,
Shape keys/animation constraints
finally i´ll add in shape keys to the arms and legs tho it´s not 100% needed eveyrwhere as i think i have gotten better with the weight pianting over this last few years
End reslut
a great model i can use for animation and poseing so i don´t have to draw my OC´s all the time whice is always nice
to keep track of my models i always have a google doc to keep everything in check
and to make sure i do a damn good job i always watch some videos on the topics of the areas, YouTube or bought ccourses
alright with that said, i´ll get to watch a video on the topic of blockout and then we can begin on Nat and Doily´s blockouts today.
