Anatomy and Character Sculpture | Project 1 : Stylized Character Blockout

30.9.2024 - 27.11.2024 || Week 2 - Week 9
Yong Zhen Xing || 0359473
Anatomy and Character Sculpture || Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Project 1 : Stylized Character Blockout

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Contents

1. Instructions

2. Project 1 : Stylized Character Blockout
    Final Outcome

3. Reflection

Lectures can be found here

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Instructions

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Project 1 : Stylized Character Blockout

In project 1, we needed to design a stylized character blockout to demonstrate our understanding on anatomy in our digital sculpting using the software, ZBrush. The character could be a human, some form of biped creatures or even a hybrid between the two.

First, I needed a character to sculpt, so I took my character from my character design module and simplified it so that it wouldn't be something too complicated to sculpt. At this point, I didn't have a finalized character for my character design module yet either but just decided to choose/add what made sense. Below is the sketch of the character that I will be sculpting!

fig 1.1, Character Concept (23/10/2024)

We needed to show progressed every week to get feedback so each orthographic blockout will be divided in different versions. 

Version 1 : 

This blockout was taken from my exercise and since it had a foundation already, I decided to work on this version.

fig 2.1, Rough Blockout V1 (23/10/2024)

Feedback : The thigh could be bigger and the proportion could be improved on.

Reflection : With that feedback, I worked on the thigh, the proportion and also the overall shape of the sculpt since I was making a female character.

Version 2 :

In this version, I fixed the thighs and proportion. I also sculpted the face which I spent way too long on.

fig 3.1, Rough Blockout V2 (6/11/2024)

fig 3.2, Face Closeup (6/11/2024)

Feedback : The head looks too like a male character but the shape is there. The neck should also have slight taper. If can considering doing a male character too.

Reflection : For this I definitely was not satisfied with the look of the head so I needed to try to improve on it. I could work on a male character as suggested by Mr. Kannan, but I decided to go for the female still as I wanted to better understand the facial features of female anatomy.

Version 3 :

In this version, I worked on the hands and legs details. I also decided to recreate the head again with the help of a tutorial. I also shaped the body better.

fig 4.1, Rough Blockout V3 (20/11/2024)

fig 4.2, Face, Hand, Leg Closeup (20/11/2024)

fig 4.3, Feedback 1 (20/11/2024)

fig 4.4, Feedback 2 (20/11/2024)

Feedback : Still looks a bit manly but the shape is definitely there. For females, the forehead bone is not that noticeable compared to the male one. The head should be bigger and the pelvis is a bit too low. The upper thigh is too big. In terms of the side view, the head should expand back a bit more. There should also be a C-curve on the hand to make it seem more natural. I should also mark the belly button position.

Reflection : It was definitely a lot to take in, but this was extremely helpful in helping me sculpting the character. I then went to fix it according to all the feedbacks mentioned.

Version 4 (Final) :

In this version, I fix all the problems from the feedback. I also added the hair using a mixture of CurveTube and a sphere. And honestly, it didn't look too great. I have also sculpted the arms, refined the body, as well as merged most of the objects together.

fig 5.1, Face Closeup (24/11/2024)

fig 5.2, Details Closeup (24/11/2024)

fig 5.3, Final Character Blockout (24/11/2024)

Unfortunately I ran out of time to fix the head part which to me looked off still. Going into project 2, I would like to recreate the hair and refine the face more.

Final Outcome :

fig 6.1, Project 1 Final (24/11/2024)

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Reflection

This was certainly a very interesting project for a class that I thought would focus more on drawings, but I still had a blast creating and sculpting using a 3D software. What wasn't fun was ZBrush sometimes being buggy. At one point I lost an hour worth of progress because zbrush crashed as I tried to save. Quicksave and recovery did not save me there. The software is also kinda confusing at first but I think I did start to get the hand of it. I learned a lot on the project especially anatomy and will definitely try to perfect my sculpt going into project 2 and final!

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My Other Anatomy and Character Sculpture Work :
 

Exercises

Project 1 : Stylized Character Blockout (Current)

Project 2 : Character Detailing and Texturing

Final Project : Character Creation with Props