Digital Figure Sculpting

Started by Brian Mennenoh · 202 · 4 weeks ago · 3d modeling, 3D printing, 3d sculpting, digital, figure, sculpting
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    Brian Mennenoh said 5 months ago:

    WIP digital figure work of all kinds

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    Brian Mennenoh said 5 months ago:

    I've recently started sculpting a custom version of Frank Frazetta's "Conan the Destroyer". The original painting by Frank shows Conan fighting numerous enemies. I'll be limiting my sculpture to just the 2 main enemies directly in front of Conan. One of whom will have a broken jaw thanks to Conan's shield be rammed into his face. You can't see any of that in the painting, so I get to take some creative liberties with those details.

    14 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    George R Blair Jr said 5 months ago:

    Wow, Brian (@brithebuilder), this will be a very cool project. How much sculpting do you have to do with your software, or does it do some of initial work for you?

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    John vd Biggelaar said 5 months ago:

    Great project, Brian @brithebuilder
    This is some serious 3D design work.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 5 months ago:

    Excellent job, my friend @brithebuilder!

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    Brian Mennenoh said 5 months ago:

    @gblair - It's all me George. I created the base muscle guy in 3ds Max back in the 08-09 school year as a class demo. The base mesh, without the muscle detail, was rigged in 3ds Max as well. I was able to use the old file as a starting point to get a good basic pose for this sculpt. It definitely saved a lot of time to not have to start a full character from scratch. ZBrush does have a male and female base mesh but I generally don't like using anything premade if I don't have to.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    Brian Mennenoh said 5 months ago:

    @johnb - Thanks John, it is definitely some serious 3D work... I can't say it's not fun though.
    @fiveten - Much appreciated Spiros!

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    George R Blair Jr said 5 months ago:

    Wow, Brian (@brithebuilder). Even more impressive to realize that you basically had to sculpt the figure from scratch in the software. You have to be an artist/sculptor as well as knowing how to use the software to make your creation. I thought the software would do more of the work for you. Really cool.

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    Brian Mennenoh said 5 months ago:

    For reference, here is what my initial model actually looked like in 3ds Max and then in ZBrush after importing it and before doing any sculpting.

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Brian Mennenoh said 5 months ago:

    @gblair - Thanks George, yep, I'm getting back to my fine art roots. Digitally, obviously... but I went to school for Fine Art and Graphic Design and taught myself 3D when it was still new. I was fortunate to be starting this when it was new and no one had any actual expectations of what could be done.

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    George R Blair Jr said 5 months ago:

    Hi Brian (@brithebuilder): It really helps to have gotten into digital art on the ground floor, as well as already having a background as an artist. The climb is really steep trying to jump into this now, so I depend on digital artists like you to create the cool figures for printing. Now, if I could just figure out how to paint them. :o)

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    Brian Mennenoh said 5 months ago:

    @gblair - The fine art background and all that definitely helps. As far as the painting goes... it's the same as every other model you've painted, and you've done some fantastic paint jobs. It's just a collection of parts. If you don't like something, you paint over it...

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    Brian Mennenoh said 5 months ago:

    Making more progress. Hands are definitely a challenge. I spent a lot of time refining the hands and they are by far the best hands I've ever created. I added the secondary, longer chain to the sword. It didn't make sense hanging from a single point. I also added the dagger and made sure it was decently far down the side of his thigh as you can't see anything there in the painting but why else would there be leather straps on his leg? Time to work on the battle axe, and then for the enemies. I think the piece is actually going to need a third enemy for Conan to be planting his right foot on.

    5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 5 months ago:

    Those hands look really awesome, my friend @brithebuilder!
    Excellent progress!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 5 months ago:

    They look perfect, Brian @brithebuilder
    Those tiny damages on the nails are impressive.