Anatomy of The Mouth

Fig 3.1 Anatomy of The Mouth – Annotated

Unlike the nose, the mouth has a lot of different muscles that affect the shape and perceived age of the lips. As we grow older the lips thin out and the skin around them becomes very wrinkly. It is important to remember the round shape of the mouth and it is often smaller than we make it out to be.

Fig 3.2 Cephalography X-Ray

In this image (Fig 3.2) you can very clearly see the difference between the skull and the muscles that shape the mouth. It is helpful to have this view as it helps us better visualize the way the mouth is shaped and how far it actually comes from the skull. It is also useful to look at images like these as you can see the skull and certain areas can reveal whether the person being X-rayed was female or male. The Superciliary arches are very flat, the gonial angle is very wide, and the chin protrudes a lot and is very sharp. These clues help us see that this is actually a woman who is being X-Rayed and in some instances seeing these differences in images can help us sculpt more accurately.

Fig 3.3 First Mouth – Side

On this angle you can see how far certain areas of the mouth are which makes it easier to see if it was properly modelled. I like how the node turned out as it does have a bit of detail yet the mouth, especially the chin, seems to have a very strong cartoonish feel.

Fig 3.4 First Mouth – Front

On this angle you can better see the node and the marionette lines which help depicture the face. Looking back at this I would say that I have to go through the lips with the Dam Standard brush once again to make the details pop out more and try to make the chin look less like a ball.

Fig 3.5 Second Mouth – Side

I am way more happy with this result as the proportions seem to be more correct, the mental crease in this model seems more realistic which makes the model as a whole look less cartoonish. I am also happy with the chin as this time it doesn’t have such a round silhouette.

Fig 3.6 Second Mouth – Front

In this model you can better see the lips, these also improved when comparing them to the first model as I believe the different areas of the lips are still noticeable yet they aren’t so inflated as in the first model. I also went over the lips with the clay brush which helped add texture.

Alpha Texture

Something I also made use of in this sculpt was the alpha textures, you can add extreme levels of detail with these brushes on Zbrush and they are very useful to add that next level of realism.

Anatomy of The Ear

Fig 4.1 Anatomy of the Ear – Annotated

The ear is made of cartilage, similar to some areas of the nose, this means that the shape will be sharper and have more distinct shapes. It is useful to use the Dan Standard Brush to add creases on certain sections and by inverting the brush it can be used to sharpen the edges.

Fig 4.2 Ear Version 5 – Front

Fig 4.3 Ear Version 5 – Side

The ear has to come out more than expected, it is important to get this right as if they are modelled too small they will look disproportionate but also at the time of modelling the mesh might end up getting too thin and go through itself which can mess the topology up.

Anatomy of The Eyes

Fig 5.1 Anatomy of the Eye – Annotated

There are two different ways of sculpting, Fig 5.2 and 5.4 show both results of each of these modelling techniques. It is important to have these anatomical areas in mind as if we don’t we might forget of certain details that add realism to the sculpture. One of the typical mistakes people do is that they don’t protect the eye enough which is very important as everything surrounds the eye to stop it from getting damaged.

Fig 5.2 Eye 1 – Front

Fig 5.3 Eye 1 – Side

The first way is started with 3 spheres, 2 of them are cut in half and rotated to be used as eyelids and then the 3rd is scaled down to act like the eye. We then add a cube or a 4th sphere that is scaled to be somewhat flat and we start using the clay brush to add details like the side of the nose the bones around the eye and a bit of the fat that is stored under the eyelid.

Fig 5.4 Eye 2 – Front

Fig 5.5 Eye 2 – Side

In this sculpt we use one of the presets that ZBrush gives us and we use the head to add details. In this model, you can see how I added the zygomatic arch and enhanced the superciliary arches. In this method, we sculpt the eyelids out and carve a hole where the eye is supposed to be located before moving the eyelids into place with the move brush.

Something I would attempt to fix in the future is that the eyelids from the side look very flat, next time I would try to add slightly more roundness. This should make the silhouette of the eye more interesting and help add that realness as the eye isn’t flat so the eyelids shouldn’t be as flat. Either way, even though I only modelled the eye on this second model since I highlighted some other areas of the anatomy I feel more confident on making a model of a head with all of the sections we have done combined.

WEEK 7: VILLAIN START

Viking + Orc – Mood board

Attempt – 1

Attempt – 2

Attempt – 3

Attempt – 4

Attempt – 4

Attempt – 5

Attempt – 5

Attempt – 6

Attempt – 6

This was one of my first attempts that started to look like something which I enjoyed but it felt more like the sculpt itself was controlling the final thing rather than being able to make exactly what I was imagining. I also started to experiment with facial expressions and adding slightly more details.

Base Head – Front

Base Head – Side

At this point, I started to move into the anatomy of the neck and learned how to sculpt each section properly and what bones were visible, how to manipulate each section to make it look like a stronger neck or a weaker one and differences between feminine and masculine necks.

Elf Ear – Reference 1

Elf Ear – Reference 2

At this point I have moved into the final sculpt, I invested in a course that allowed me to learn even more about what I was attempting to achieve. Additionally, I started to look at references to ears as this seems to be one of the areas where I am struggling the most and I also wanted to add some Ork features into the sculpt and the ears would be a very good place to start.

Elf Ear Sculpt Final Version

Viking Sculpt – Base

Viking Sculpt – Side

Ork Sculpt – Lowpoly

Ork Sculpt – Highpoly Front

Ork Sculpt – Highpoly Side

This is the final sculpt after I have added all of the veins, pores, scars, and surface imperfections. It was very useful to buy an alpha texture pack which gave me many different alphas to play around and experiment. I believe this was helpful as skin tends to have a lot of variation and this ensured that the alphas were high quality and good for what I was trying to use them for.

At this point, I have also moved further into the Ork side of the sculpt and moved away from the Vikings, I am moving also into a somewhat undead look similar to the Orks from Lord of the Rings but I am still planning on using the Nordic tattoos for either the back or the forehead.

Base Layer

Reds

Greys

Blacks & Saturated Reds

Scars

Tattoo

Final Texture with Grunge Layer

UV maps

Final Render – 1

Final Render – Right

Final Render – No expression

The pipeline I used for this project was sculpting in Zbrush, UVs in Maya, Texturing in Substance Painter, and rendering with Arnold. For the final render I decided to add the tattoo, and make it look like a scar as if in his tribe they use iron to create permanent scars on the skin rather than tattoos. This also made the tattoo less visible which I found would draw too much attention, This way I find that the attention is drawn up towards the eyes and away from the neck but isn’t drawn too far up so that you are constantly staring at the tattoo which was what was happening earlier.

Having the skin be so pale and adding the darkness around the eyes helps build a high contrast zone which helps draw more attention towards the eyes.