16th

Here i have a expretzione

Good, worked with this for maybe 4 or 6 hours, and my idea was to get some expression into the character. It worked. I'm happy with this guy, he was supposed to be scared, and he is. (saw himself in the mirror?)

Also did some work with the coloring and found out that the airbrush is pretty good tool. Teeth are are made with superspeed. I figured if I'd like to make them nice, I'd have to model them in maya. These fangy bones will do for now.

I have to figure out how to make separate eyeballs from more shiny material. Now I just painted the eyes, but I guess it'll be more lifelike if I get some moisture into the eyeballs.

Also need to do some more texturing work, maybe use some stencils for pores and stuff.

15th

grunt

Had a bit of a freetime and did this one. It's good, I like the shape of the head and the sour face. Eyes are too vague in this picture, but maybe it's ok. At first glance I don't get connection to him through his eyes. After a small second I start imagining his eyes from the small bulges in the position where his pupils should be. And it's interesting. It pulls me in a bit more into the characters world. I have to concentrate and that can't be bad.

Next up I'm trying to connect mudbox with maya. I have another blog where I updated my progress with maya, and now I want to see how I can connect these two. Can I learn something really useful, don't know yet. At the moment I'm more an animator than an modeller. So I'm trying some really preliminary things, like trying to make a slider in maya with what I control facial expressions created in mudbox.

14th and a right turn

Now this is really something.

I'm really impressed how I did with this piece. I started looking around autodesk mudbox online help and figured out that using a picture as a stencil is not that heavy stuff.

There is 3 different views in mudbox, 3d, uv and image browser view. From image browser, I checked my hard drive for a photo and set that as a stencil. Tried the paint tool for projecting the picture on the shape, but that didn't really work. Made it look like inverted. Then noticed the "projection tool", which worked. Suddenly.

Now this is really something else. I'm taking a new direction with this, but it also might start taking more time. I'll see and figure it out. This catfish with a small beard is anyway a good start.

I'll take a look for some tutorials and get inspired.

13

level 3, 25 mins

I made this longer than before. First sculpting was feeling nice and running, then I don't know what happened. I got pressurized? The feeling that I have to always better myself sneaked up on me. Or now I assume it did..

I felt that all is well, "yeh, I'm going to make this good.. no, the best!" And maybe it was here where I took the wrong turn. I stopped being relaxed and started to guide the progression to a fine, nice, watchable, adorable, praisable direction. So that somebody could come up to me and say: "nice, well done". Then I would feel really nice.

And is that for the good? Don't know..

I used the grab-tool to quickly sink in the ears and lower the eyes to a better position, but now I didn't mess around so the shape stayed together.

As I was thinking earlier, I feel this sketching has come to an end. I don't gain big leaps no more so I might move on to texturing. I could detail the models more and learn that, but I think the texturing might be more appropriate direction.

Now I'll have to start checking on some tutorials about texturing. I'll link all the tutorials, and the keywords how I found them here, for my guidance.

It feels like an important decision to change direction. I guess it needs some self-evaluative properties to notice when to change direction. Maybe also some planning and objectives might support that. I could keep on going to sketch these things up to 100 pieces and stop, but I feel no need.

I checked one nice tutorial about texturing with a photo. He painted the skin straight on the sculpture. It was actually looking really exciting. And I think it will feel like so as well..

12th

level 3, 15 mins

Pigboy. 

I estimated that this one took 15 mins, but it could've been 10. Its getting quicker all the time, and I feel I should add something to this workflow. Maybe level 4? More details and limit it still into 20 mins.

11th

level 3, 20 mins

I added some hairy action on the skull, it came effortlessly with wax out. Also took the symmetry off for the first time to gain some natural asymmetry.

Front ok, sideview has the jawbone too back. Maybe the jaw is also too low.

I'm really starting to get to a point where I feel the flow coming. The whole working system is getting more speed and I'm able to concentrate on the shape without getting distracted f.ex with trying to find a key. The speed stalls quite frequently, but I feel a learning curve that's telling me that I'm going on a good course.

10th

level 3, 15 mins

I had a beer and made this one. And I noticed I was more quick while not caring about smoothing. Also I  intentionally left working marks on the model. Just waxing it in with speed.