Looks like your a natural at zbrush keep it up, DP? im a little thick give me a clue.........LOL.......dave

I still feel the forms are a bit odd in your update. I didn't mean the muscle details when I was referring to your creature. I think just the basic proportions and the silhouette need refining. I understand this is just a test of the dynamesh feature. But if you decided to take this project further, I might invest some time and the lowest subdivision pulling out the forms.

A lot of the posed sculpts you see on ZBC are for still images, and detailing you model in posed form greatly helps you emphasize the action, muscle/skin stretching etc. And sometimes people will pose them once finished, just to make sure they look the part when in different poses. No character is ever going to be in a T-pose in an animation or still, so it's good practice.

You latest shark-woman sculpt is looking very interesting.

If you are interested, I can show you what I was referring to when talking about the proportions of your creature. If you uploaded a version of it for download, lowest subdivision only, in .obj format or similar... so no one has your ztl. I could throw it around a bit, and show you what I meant. Of course, I would upload a base mesh too in good faith... Just a thought... an exchange of ideas?

Anyway, looking forward to more.

@Dave - A DP is a director of photography. I pretty much run the set while the director runs the actors and shot list. I am very fluent with onset practices and consider it my most comfortable professional area. I had the luxury of being given money, control, and time over in the middle east which allowed me to boss the shit out of Labyk. Nah, just kidding. I wasn't that bad. Just treated the job as a research platform for my interest in 3D. Which I am very grateful to have had that time to learn what I know now. I truly can walk into a production house and know the entire pipeline or at the very least the lingo to go with practice.

@Mayaniac - Got lazy and haven't retopoed yet. Will gladly post it on here when I get around to it. I am up for anyone having these models. I am not making them but for practice and my portfolio. No reason to hoard all the fun...

Great sketch man, I think that in 2-3 months time you should be pretty damn good at this. I am really looking forward to seeing this thread develop, you certainly put in a lot of hours into learning all the different tools and methods in zbrush which will enable you to really fly with it over the next few months as you put them into practice.

Keep up the great work matey

Labyk I hope I will be halfway decent in a couple of months. If anything it will be something to show on sets when shooting commercials or TV shows. Been farting around today with some hard surface modeling and testing out some of the new upgrades on that end. I hope to be up to par with studio guys by Christmas. Given I have the time and setup right now I best use it to maximum potential. Didn't get too far today but learned some new techniques so the lack of major productivity isn't a big worry today.

So I chopped the shark head off, remeshed and made a new one. Just had the wrong orientation so I fixed that, smoothed some bits and added some spikes. Found a good way to do the hair in the back. Look forward to you guys commenting on that result. But guess it will have to wait until tomorrow or the next day....

Keep the comments coming. It really helps motivate me to keep updating...

looking good Bish. The only areas that are weak are the hands and feet, I would not concentrate on these so much though as it can take half the best part of a day to get these areas good and so it may be best to keep working on form and go for a more speed sculpt approach. As you said earlier these are not ideal for rigging and so it may not be worth investing to much time into getting them 100% as I know your main aim is to create characters that can be rigged and used for animation further down the line. Might be worth making a hand or foot sculpt at some point though and be good practice, they are damn tough to nail.

Keep up the great work and motivation matey is always good to see you pushing ahead.

Hmmm they look a lot like Evo's from Gen Rex man...interesting and bizarre to say the least. % MONTHS...holy cow thats pretty good dude.

cheers bullet

P.S steve...I went and sat in the corner....Im still crying LOL.

Progress 10.15.2011
 

So I dabbled with the hair and tried some techniques based on that example I posted earlier. Just doin my best and tryin to learn...

A little free sketch over 20 minutes. Amazing how easy things are when you have no ref. Just let the mind flow. Thinkin of tryin to do something with steampunk next. Just need to find the right inspiration. Also insects are racking my brain at the moment.

Any ideas???

btw I based this on the face I make when watching tutorials...

10.16.2011 Progress
 

Smoothed him out and made it a slight bit less jarring. Gonna throw some teeth in there and call him done. Just a relaxing sunday afternoon with sculpting here and there...

10.17.2011 Begin
 

So I moved on the scorpion for the day. Getting the form down with the good ole ZSpheres while chilling to some Franz Kalkbrenner and Deadmau5. Ahh the joys of freedom... Could go much farther with these models but for now I am just taking it easy and not burning myself out.

Not sure i understand this... you are a DoP and you want to switch to post production?

btw, i would check your scorpion there, looks like it has 4 legs on one side and 3 on the other. haha.

hmmm
 

Well Dom it really comes down to the notion that after 12 years of set and camera work I just don't love it anymore. I was raised on the sets from a early age given it is more of a family career. My father is a director and ad/marketing consultant and my uncle is sculptor who specializes in bronze. I once showed my uncle ZBrush and he proclaimed it wasn't real sculpting. Too which he has tons of knowledge and experience but art is art and the medium doesn't matter as long as it conveys emotion.

In some ways I get on set and have probably done what we are doing before. I am only 27 years old and am a workaholic. So learning this is just one more step in me conquering a learning curve and moving forward. The cameras never change even with the transition to digital. The workflow changes slightly but the skill required to focus and expose a proper image has downgraded quite a lot. Much like 3D in some ways which is why you must embrace the idea of being a generalist in the field of creativity and not pigeon-hole yourself to one specialty...

btw symmetry is on so it kind of makes the whole 3 leg thing a perspective issue more than a modeling deficiency...

Prior to going out to Dubai I dabbled in fashion photography and drifted toward avant garde mostly. I kind of love the feeling of creative things and if I don't I tend to get depressed so every day I push myself to create and breathe through it.:D

Oh, i see now...

Was just going to say, i wouldn't switch to 3D for the money! :P