Sculpting Process. Maya/ Zbrush.

For this project I have wanted to really boost my knowledge of human anatomy by sculpting a believable/ realistic male character as well as make suitable to be use in a game. The final thing should match industry standards. I've started with a base mesh in Maya, which is going to be exported to Zbrush for adding all anatomical details details.

This is going to be one huge post.

I have measure planes to help me model a proportional character.

I have started out with a simple box, added a couple of edge loops and started extruding into a shape that looks more or less human.

At this stage the model should remain as plain as possible. I've really tried to restrain myself from adding details to him.

Extruding arms

Adding hands and fingers

That is it for the first step.

Same process with his feet and the base mesh is resolved. Now all that is left to is to export to Zbrush.

After the character has been loaded I've started to mass in general bone and muscle structure.

Working on a torso.

View from the side. 

Adding mass to his back.

Checking characters silhouette to make that the gesture of his body is right.

This is where I got carried away and made an absolute nonsense.

Fixing mistakes.

Here I am using an inflate brush for his hands so that they wouldn't look like straws.

Here I am messing with his abdomen muscles, again.

Re positioning his hands.

I ended up kind of erasing his the muscles that have been sculpted and re-sculpting them again. After a few hours of work I have noticed that everything drifted down.

Nothing that a move brush couldn't fix.

Keeping on refining the sculpture.

Polishing (i.m. smoothing).

  I have noticed, that his hands are too small in comparison with his head, so I've scaled them.

The base sculpt has been finished, the majority of work has been done. Now all that's left is to add more detail.

At this stage I was quite lost and did not know where to start adding detail to the model. At the same time I wanted to experiment with exaggerating the sculpt. 

Sculpting Serratus muscles was extremely difficult.

Shaping the back.

That's where everything went wrong. 

Adding detail to the torso area.

Positioning character's legs.

This was more of a test, I have started everything over. (from the base sculpt point)

Moving on.

I didn't want to sculpt the face of my character since it is going to be completely covered with mask. But since the aim of my project is to focus on anatomy there's no other way. 

I've started  to sketch in the basic bones of a human skull.

Sculpting the temporal fossa, struggling with positioning the eyes, shaping the lower jawbone.

Shaping character's eye sockets, defining his cheekbone.

Going back in subdivision level to easily move things around.

Making sure that the proportions are in place.

 adjusting his fingers ( oh god they looked awful)

Smoothing the sculpt in order to prepare it for adding facial muscles and fat.

Front view.

Sculpting facial muscles: frontalis muscles, temporalis and master muscle.

Restoring the eyes and sculpting obicularis oculi muscle (the area around his eyes)

Extruding character's nose, sculpting nostrils and positioning his eyes properly.

Shaping his nose.

Filling the rest of the skull with clay as well as sculpting the lips.

Shaping, smoothing, sculpting and over again.

Mask out the shape of the ear and extruding.

Adding some fat to his face and detailing his ears.

Smoothing and that's it. Facial sculpting is now officially finished.

Going back and checking proportions.

Starting the work on his torso (again).

As you can see his fingers are in awful shape, so I had to go back in subdivision level and move them around and sculpt details

Sculpting fingers.

Torso AGAIN. The most problematic part of the body for me. 

I was really sick of not getting characters abdomen muscles right, that I skipped it on moved on sculpting the legs.

After hours I've spent working on his torso it became to look like one. 

Sculpting the back.

Back part 2.

I have received a feedback that my characters knees were weird- looking and resolved that problem. It's really helpful to ask for feedback's. Thank you, Brad. 

More work on the hands and polishing.

Final sculpt.