Chapter 2. Sculpting the Character's Base Mesh
In this chapter, we will cover the following recipes:
- Using the Skin modifier's Armature option
- Editing the mesh
- Preparing the base mesh for sculpting
- Using the Multiresolution modifier and the Dynamic topology feature
- Sculpting the character's base mesh
Introduction
In the previous chapter, we built the base mesh by using the Skin modifier and on the base of the reference templates; in this chapter, we are going to prepare this basic mesh for the sculpting, by editing it and cleaning up any mistakes the Skin modifier may have made (usually, overlapping and triangular faces, missing edge loops, and so on).
Using the Skin modifier's Armature option
The Skin modifier has an option to create an Armature on the fly to pose the generated mesh. This Armature can just be useful in cases where you want to modify the position of a part of the generated mesh.
Note that using the generated Armature to pose the base mesh, in our case, is not necessary, and therefore this recipe is treated here only as an example and it won't affect the following recipes in the chapter.
Getting ready
So, let's suppose that we want the arms to be posed more horizontally and widely spread:
- If this is the case, reopen the
Gidiosaurus_base_mesh.blend
file and save it with a different name (something likeGidiosaurus_Skin_Armature.blend
). - Select the Gidiosaurus mesh and press Tab to go into Edit Mode; then, select the central pelvis vertex.
- Go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel to the right-hand side of the screen and then to the Skin modifier subpanel; click on the Mark Root button:
- Press Tab again to exit Edit Mode.
How to do it…
Creating the rig (that is the skeleton Armature made by bones and used to deform, and therefore, animate a mesh) for our character's base mesh is really simple:
- Again, in the Skin modifier subpanel, click on the Create Armature button. The Armature is created instantly and an Armature modifier is automatically assigned to the mesh; in the modifier stack, move it to the top so that it is above the Mirror modifier and our posed half-mesh will be correctly mirrored:
- Press Ctrl + Tab to enter Pose Mode for the already selected Armature and then select the upper bone of the arm.
- In the toolbar of the 3D viewport, find the widget manipulators panel, click on the rotation Transformation manipulators (the third icon from the left), and set Transform Orientation to Normal.
- By using the rotate widget, rotate the selected bone and consequently the arm (be careful that, as already mentioned, the newly created Armature modifier is at the top of the modifier stack, otherwise the rotation will not correctly deform the mirrored mesh):
- Exit Pose Mode and reselect the Gidiosaurus mesh.
- Go to the Skin modifier subpanel under the Object Modifiers window; click on the Apply button to apply the modifier.
- Go to the Armature modifier and click on the Apply button to also apply the rig transformations.
- At this point, we can also select the Armature object and delete it (X key).
How it works…
By clicking on the Create Armature button, the Skin modifier creates a bone for each edge connecting the extruded vertices, it adds an Armature modifier to the generated base mesh, and automatically assigns vertex groups to the base mesh and skins them with the corresponding bones.
The bones of this Armature work in Forward Kinematics, which means they are chained following the child/parent relation, with the first (parent) bone created at the Root location we had set at step 3 of the Getting ready section.
There's more…
Note that the bones of the Armature can be used not only to rotate limbs, but also to scale bigger or smaller parts of the mesh, in order to further tweak the shape of the base mesh.
Getting ready
So, let's suppose that we want the arms to be posed more horizontally and widely spread:
- If this is the case, reopen the
Gidiosaurus_base_mesh.blend
file and save it with a different name (something likeGidiosaurus_Skin_Armature.blend
). - Select the Gidiosaurus mesh and press Tab to go into Edit Mode; then, select the central pelvis vertex.
- Go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel to the right-hand side of the screen and then to the Skin modifier subpanel; click on the Mark Root button:
- Press Tab again to exit Edit Mode.
How to do it…
Creating the rig (that is the skeleton Armature made by bones and used to deform, and therefore, animate a mesh) for our character's base mesh is really simple:
- Again, in the Skin modifier subpanel, click on the Create Armature button. The Armature is created instantly and an Armature modifier is automatically assigned to the mesh; in the modifier stack, move it to the top so that it is above the Mirror modifier and our posed half-mesh will be correctly mirrored:
- Press Ctrl + Tab to enter Pose Mode for the already selected Armature and then select the upper bone of the arm.
- In the toolbar of the 3D viewport, find the widget manipulators panel, click on the rotation Transformation manipulators (the third icon from the left), and set Transform Orientation to Normal.
- By using the rotate widget, rotate the selected bone and consequently the arm (be careful that, as already mentioned, the newly created Armature modifier is at the top of the modifier stack, otherwise the rotation will not correctly deform the mirrored mesh):
- Exit Pose Mode and reselect the Gidiosaurus mesh.
- Go to the Skin modifier subpanel under the Object Modifiers window; click on the Apply button to apply the modifier.
- Go to the Armature modifier and click on the Apply button to also apply the rig transformations.
- At this point, we can also select the Armature object and delete it (X key).
How it works…
By clicking on the Create Armature button, the Skin modifier creates a bone for each edge connecting the extruded vertices, it adds an Armature modifier to the generated base mesh, and automatically assigns vertex groups to the base mesh and skins them with the corresponding bones.
The bones of this Armature work in Forward Kinematics, which means they are chained following the child/parent relation, with the first (parent) bone created at the Root location we had set at step 3 of the Getting ready section.
There's more…
Note that the bones of the Armature can be used not only to rotate limbs, but also to scale bigger or smaller parts of the mesh, in order to further tweak the shape of the base mesh.
How to do it…
Creating the rig (that is the skeleton Armature made by bones and used to deform, and therefore, animate a mesh) for our character's base mesh is really simple:
- Again, in the Skin modifier subpanel, click on the Create Armature button. The Armature is created instantly and an Armature modifier is automatically assigned to the mesh; in the modifier stack, move it to the top so that it is above the Mirror modifier and our posed half-mesh will be correctly mirrored:
- Press Ctrl + Tab to enter Pose Mode for the already selected Armature and then select the upper bone of the arm.
- In the toolbar of the 3D viewport, find the widget manipulators panel, click on the rotation Transformation manipulators (the third icon from the left), and set Transform Orientation to Normal.
- By using the rotate widget, rotate the selected bone and consequently the arm (be careful that, as already mentioned, the newly created Armature modifier is at the top of the modifier stack, otherwise the rotation will not correctly deform the mirrored mesh):
- Exit Pose Mode and reselect the Gidiosaurus mesh.
- Go to the Skin modifier subpanel under the Object Modifiers window; click on the Apply button to apply the modifier.
- Go to the Armature modifier and click on the Apply button to also apply the rig transformations.
- At this point, we can also select the Armature object and delete it (X key).
How it works…
By clicking on the Create Armature button, the Skin modifier creates a bone for each edge connecting the extruded vertices, it adds an Armature modifier to the generated base mesh, and automatically assigns vertex groups to the base mesh and skins them with the corresponding bones.
The bones of this Armature work in Forward Kinematics, which means they are chained following the child/parent relation, with the first (parent) bone created at the Root location we had set at step 3 of the Getting ready section.
There's more…
Note that the bones of the Armature can be used not only to rotate limbs, but also to scale bigger or smaller parts of the mesh, in order to further tweak the shape of the base mesh.
How it works…
By clicking on the Create Armature button, the Skin modifier creates a bone for each edge connecting the extruded vertices, it adds an Armature modifier to the generated base mesh, and automatically assigns vertex groups to the base mesh and skins them with the corresponding bones.
The bones of this Armature work in Forward Kinematics, which means they are chained following the child/parent relation, with the first (parent) bone created at the Root location we had set at step 3 of the Getting ready section.
There's more…
Note that the bones of the Armature can be used not only to rotate limbs, but also to scale bigger or smaller parts of the mesh, in order to further tweak the shape of the base mesh.
There's more…
Note that the bones of the Armature can be used not only to rotate limbs, but also to scale bigger or smaller parts of the mesh, in order to further tweak the shape of the base mesh.
Editing the mesh
Once we have applied the Skin and Armature modifiers, we are left with an almost ready-to-use base mesh; what we need to do now is clean the possibly overlapping faces and whatever other mistakes were made by the Skin modifier.
Be careful not to be confused by the previous recipe, which was meant only as a possible example; we didn't actually use the Skin modifier's Armature to change the pose of the base mesh.
Getting ready
Let's prepare the mesh and the view:
- Go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel and then to the Mirror modifier subpanel and click on the little X icon to the right in order to delete the modifier; you are left with half of the mesh (actually the half that is really generated by the Skin modifier; the other side was simulated by the Mirror modifier):
- Press Tab to go into Edit Mode, 7 on the numpad to go into Top view, and Z to go into the Wireframe viewport shading mode.
How to do it…
- Press Ctrl + R to add an edge-loop to the middle of the mesh; don't move the mouse, and left-click a second time to confirm that you want it at 0.0000 location:
Sometimes, depending on the topology created by the Skin modifier, you may not be able to make a single clean loop cut by the Ctrl + R key shortcut. In this case, still in Edit Mode, you can press the K key to call the Knife Tool, left-click on the mesh to place the cuts, and press Enter to confirm (press Shift + K if you want only the newly created edge-loops selected after pressing Enter). This way, you can create several loop cuts, connect them together and, if necessary, move and/or scale them to the middle along the x axis.
In fact, you can do the following:
- Go out of Edit Mode and press Shift + S; in the Snap pop-up menu, select Cursor to Selected (to center the cursor at the middle of the mesh).
- Press the period (.) key to switch Pivot Point to 3D Cursor and then press Tab to go again into Edit Mode.
- With the middle edge-loop already selected, press S | X | 0 | Enter to scale all its vertices to the 3D Cursor position along the x axis and align them at the perfect center:
- Press A to deselect all the vertices and then press B and box-select the vertices on the left-hand side of the screen (actually the mesh's right-side vertices):
- Press X and, in the Delete pop-up menu, select the Vertices item to delete them:
- Go out of Edit Mode and, in the Object Modifiers window, assign a new Mirror modifier (check Clipping) to the mesh; move it before the Subdivision Surface modifier in the stack.
- If needed, this is the point where you can manually edit the mesh by converting triangle faces to quads (select two consecutive triangular faces and press Alt + J), creating, closing, or moving edge-loops (by using the Knife Tool, for example, around the arms and legs attachments to the body), and so on.
- Save the file as
Gidiosaurus_base_mesh.blend
.
Well, in our case, everything went right with the Skin modifier, so there is no need for any big editing of the mesh! In effect, it was enough to delete the first Mirror modifier (that we actually used mostly for visual feedback) to get rid of all the overlapping faces and obtain a clean base mesh:
In the preceding screenshot, the base mesh geometry is showing with a level 1 of subdivision; in Edit Mode, it is still possible to see the low-level cage (that is, the real geometry of the mesh) as wireframe.
There are a couple of triangular faces (that, if possible, we should always try to avoid; quads faces work better for the sculpting) near the shoulders and on the feet, but we'll fix these automatically later, because before we start with the sculpting process, we will also apply the Subdivision Surface modifier.
How it works…
To obtain a clean half-body mesh, we had to delete the first Mirror modifier and the vertices of the right half of the mesh; to do this, we had also added a middle edge loop. So, we obtained a perfect left-half mesh and therefore we assigned again a Mirror modifier to restore the missing half of the body.
Getting ready
Let's prepare the mesh and the view:
- Go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel and then to the Mirror modifier subpanel and click on the little X icon to the right in order to delete the modifier; you are left with half of the mesh (actually the half that is really generated by the Skin modifier; the other side was simulated by the Mirror modifier):
- Press Tab to go into Edit Mode, 7 on the numpad to go into Top view, and Z to go into the Wireframe viewport shading mode.
How to do it…
- Press Ctrl + R to add an edge-loop to the middle of the mesh; don't move the mouse, and left-click a second time to confirm that you want it at 0.0000 location:
Sometimes, depending on the topology created by the Skin modifier, you may not be able to make a single clean loop cut by the Ctrl + R key shortcut. In this case, still in Edit Mode, you can press the K key to call the Knife Tool, left-click on the mesh to place the cuts, and press Enter to confirm (press Shift + K if you want only the newly created edge-loops selected after pressing Enter). This way, you can create several loop cuts, connect them together and, if necessary, move and/or scale them to the middle along the x axis.
In fact, you can do the following:
- Go out of Edit Mode and press Shift + S; in the Snap pop-up menu, select Cursor to Selected (to center the cursor at the middle of the mesh).
- Press the period (.) key to switch Pivot Point to 3D Cursor and then press Tab to go again into Edit Mode.
- With the middle edge-loop already selected, press S | X | 0 | Enter to scale all its vertices to the 3D Cursor position along the x axis and align them at the perfect center:
- Press A to deselect all the vertices and then press B and box-select the vertices on the left-hand side of the screen (actually the mesh's right-side vertices):
- Press X and, in the Delete pop-up menu, select the Vertices item to delete them:
- Go out of Edit Mode and, in the Object Modifiers window, assign a new Mirror modifier (check Clipping) to the mesh; move it before the Subdivision Surface modifier in the stack.
- If needed, this is the point where you can manually edit the mesh by converting triangle faces to quads (select two consecutive triangular faces and press Alt + J), creating, closing, or moving edge-loops (by using the Knife Tool, for example, around the arms and legs attachments to the body), and so on.
- Save the file as
Gidiosaurus_base_mesh.blend
.
Well, in our case, everything went right with the Skin modifier, so there is no need for any big editing of the mesh! In effect, it was enough to delete the first Mirror modifier (that we actually used mostly for visual feedback) to get rid of all the overlapping faces and obtain a clean base mesh:
In the preceding screenshot, the base mesh geometry is showing with a level 1 of subdivision; in Edit Mode, it is still possible to see the low-level cage (that is, the real geometry of the mesh) as wireframe.
There are a couple of triangular faces (that, if possible, we should always try to avoid; quads faces work better for the sculpting) near the shoulders and on the feet, but we'll fix these automatically later, because before we start with the sculpting process, we will also apply the Subdivision Surface modifier.
How it works…
To obtain a clean half-body mesh, we had to delete the first Mirror modifier and the vertices of the right half of the mesh; to do this, we had also added a middle edge loop. So, we obtained a perfect left-half mesh and therefore we assigned again a Mirror modifier to restore the missing half of the body.
How to do it…
- Press Ctrl + R to add an edge-loop to the middle of the mesh; don't move the mouse, and left-click a second time to confirm that you want it at 0.0000 location:
Sometimes, depending on the topology created by the Skin modifier, you may not be able to make a single clean loop cut by the Ctrl + R key shortcut. In this case, still in Edit Mode, you can press the K key to call the Knife Tool, left-click on the mesh to place the cuts, and press Enter to confirm (press Shift + K if you want only the newly created edge-loops selected after pressing Enter). This way, you can create several loop cuts, connect them together and, if necessary, move and/or scale them to the middle along the x axis.
In fact, you can do the following:
- Go out of Edit Mode and press Shift + S; in the Snap pop-up menu, select Cursor to Selected (to center the cursor at the middle of the mesh).
- Press the period (.) key to switch Pivot Point to 3D Cursor and then press Tab to go again into Edit Mode.
- With the middle edge-loop already selected, press S | X | 0 | Enter to scale all its vertices to the 3D Cursor position along the x axis and align them at the perfect center:
- Press A to deselect all the vertices and then press B and box-select the vertices on the left-hand side of the screen (actually the mesh's right-side vertices):
- Press X and, in the Delete pop-up menu, select the Vertices item to delete them:
- Go out of Edit Mode and, in the Object Modifiers window, assign a new Mirror modifier (check Clipping) to the mesh; move it before the Subdivision Surface modifier in the stack.
- If needed, this is the point where you can manually edit the mesh by converting triangle faces to quads (select two consecutive triangular faces and press Alt + J), creating, closing, or moving edge-loops (by using the Knife Tool, for example, around the arms and legs attachments to the body), and so on.
- Save the file as
Gidiosaurus_base_mesh.blend
.
Well, in our case, everything went right with the Skin modifier, so there is no need for any big editing of the mesh! In effect, it was enough to delete the first Mirror modifier (that we actually used mostly for visual feedback) to get rid of all the overlapping faces and obtain a clean base mesh:
In the preceding screenshot, the base mesh geometry is showing with a level 1 of subdivision; in Edit Mode, it is still possible to see the low-level cage (that is, the real geometry of the mesh) as wireframe.
There are a couple of triangular faces (that, if possible, we should always try to avoid; quads faces work better for the sculpting) near the shoulders and on the feet, but we'll fix these automatically later, because before we start with the sculpting process, we will also apply the Subdivision Surface modifier.
How it works…
To obtain a clean half-body mesh, we had to delete the first Mirror modifier and the vertices of the right half of the mesh; to do this, we had also added a middle edge loop. So, we obtained a perfect left-half mesh and therefore we assigned again a Mirror modifier to restore the missing half of the body.
How it works…
To obtain a clean half-body mesh, we had to delete the first Mirror modifier and the vertices of the right half of the mesh; to do this, we had also added a middle edge loop. So, we obtained a perfect left-half mesh and therefore we assigned again a Mirror modifier to restore the missing half of the body.
Preparing the base mesh for sculpting
Once we have our base mesh completed, it's time to prepare it for the sculpting.
Getting ready
Open the Gidiosaurus_base_mesh.blend
file and be sure to be out of Edit Mode, and therefore in Object Mode.
How to do it…
- Select the character's mesh and go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel to the right.
- Go to the Mirror modifier panel and click on the Apply button.
- If this is the case, expand the Subdivision Surface modifier panel, be sure that the View level is at 1, and click on the Apply button.
- Press Tab to go into Edit Mode and, if necessary, select all the vertices by pressing A; then, press Ctrl + N to recalculate the normals and exit Edit Mode.
- Go to the Properties sidepanel on the right-hand side of the 3D view (or press the N key to make it appear) and under the View subpanel, change the Lens angle to 60.000 (more natural looking than 35.000, which is set by default).
- Under the Display subpanel, check the Only Render item:
- Go to the Shading subpanel on the sidepanel on the right-hand side of the 3D viewport and check the Matcap item.
- Left-click on the preview window that just appeared and, from the pop-up panel, select the red colored brick material, the one that looks like ZBrush material; obviously, you can choose a different one if you prefer, but in my experience, this is the one that gives the best visual feedback in the 3D view:
- Put the mouse cursor inside the active 3D window and press Ctrl + Spacebar to disable the widget:
- Press N to get rid of the Properties 3D window sidepanel.
- Save the file as
Gidiosaurus_Sculpt_base.blend
.
How it works…
By checking the Only Render item in the Display subpanel under the Properties 3D window sidepanel, all the possible disturbing elements that cannot be rendered (such as the Grid Floor, Empties, Lamps, and so on) are hidden, in order to give a clean 3D viewport ready for sculpting.
Note that with this option enabled, sadly, the Image Empties we set in the previous chapter to work as templates for references are not visible—instead, the templates we had set as Background Images are perfectly visible in the 3 orthographic views.
Matcaps can in some cases slow the performance of your computer, depending on the hardware; in any case, Matcaps is a very useful feature, especially for sculpting, as you can see the mesh shape easily.
Changing the Lens angle from 35.000 to 60.000 makes the perspective view look more similar to the natural human field of view.
Getting ready
Open the Gidiosaurus_base_mesh.blend
file and be sure to be out of Edit Mode, and therefore in Object Mode.
How to do it…
- Select the character's mesh and go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel to the right.
- Go to the Mirror modifier panel and click on the Apply button.
- If this is the case, expand the Subdivision Surface modifier panel, be sure that the View level is at 1, and click on the Apply button.
- Press Tab to go into Edit Mode and, if necessary, select all the vertices by pressing A; then, press Ctrl + N to recalculate the normals and exit Edit Mode.
- Go to the Properties sidepanel on the right-hand side of the 3D view (or press the N key to make it appear) and under the View subpanel, change the Lens angle to 60.000 (more natural looking than 35.000, which is set by default).
- Under the Display subpanel, check the Only Render item:
- Go to the Shading subpanel on the sidepanel on the right-hand side of the 3D viewport and check the Matcap item.
- Left-click on the preview window that just appeared and, from the pop-up panel, select the red colored brick material, the one that looks like ZBrush material; obviously, you can choose a different one if you prefer, but in my experience, this is the one that gives the best visual feedback in the 3D view:
- Put the mouse cursor inside the active 3D window and press Ctrl + Spacebar to disable the widget:
- Press N to get rid of the Properties 3D window sidepanel.
- Save the file as
Gidiosaurus_Sculpt_base.blend
.
How it works…
By checking the Only Render item in the Display subpanel under the Properties 3D window sidepanel, all the possible disturbing elements that cannot be rendered (such as the Grid Floor, Empties, Lamps, and so on) are hidden, in order to give a clean 3D viewport ready for sculpting.
Note that with this option enabled, sadly, the Image Empties we set in the previous chapter to work as templates for references are not visible—instead, the templates we had set as Background Images are perfectly visible in the 3 orthographic views.
Matcaps can in some cases slow the performance of your computer, depending on the hardware; in any case, Matcaps is a very useful feature, especially for sculpting, as you can see the mesh shape easily.
Changing the Lens angle from 35.000 to 60.000 makes the perspective view look more similar to the natural human field of view.
How to do it…
- Select the character's mesh and go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel to the right.
- Go to the Mirror modifier panel and click on the Apply button.
- If this is the case, expand the Subdivision Surface modifier panel, be sure that the View level is at 1, and click on the Apply button.
- Press Tab to go into Edit Mode and, if necessary, select all the vertices by pressing A; then, press Ctrl + N to recalculate the normals and exit Edit Mode.
- Go to the Properties sidepanel on the right-hand side of the 3D view (or press the N key to make it appear) and under the View subpanel, change the Lens angle to 60.000 (more natural looking than 35.000, which is set by default).
- Under the Display subpanel, check the Only Render item:
- Go to the Shading subpanel on the sidepanel on the right-hand side of the 3D viewport and check the Matcap item.
- Left-click on the preview window that just appeared and, from the pop-up panel, select the red colored brick material, the one that looks like ZBrush material; obviously, you can choose a different one if you prefer, but in my experience, this is the one that gives the best visual feedback in the 3D view:
- Put the mouse cursor inside the active 3D window and press Ctrl + Spacebar to disable the widget:
- Press N to get rid of the Properties 3D window sidepanel.
- Save the file as
Gidiosaurus_Sculpt_base.blend
.
How it works…
By checking the Only Render item in the Display subpanel under the Properties 3D window sidepanel, all the possible disturbing elements that cannot be rendered (such as the Grid Floor, Empties, Lamps, and so on) are hidden, in order to give a clean 3D viewport ready for sculpting.
Note that with this option enabled, sadly, the Image Empties we set in the previous chapter to work as templates for references are not visible—instead, the templates we had set as Background Images are perfectly visible in the 3 orthographic views.
Matcaps can in some cases slow the performance of your computer, depending on the hardware; in any case, Matcaps is a very useful feature, especially for sculpting, as you can see the mesh shape easily.
Changing the Lens angle from 35.000 to 60.000 makes the perspective view look more similar to the natural human field of view.
How it works…
By checking the Only Render item in the Display subpanel under the Properties 3D window sidepanel, all the possible disturbing elements that cannot be rendered (such as the Grid Floor, Empties, Lamps, and so on) are hidden, in order to give a clean 3D viewport ready for sculpting.
Note that with this option enabled, sadly, the Image Empties we set in the previous chapter to work as templates for references are not visible—instead, the templates we had set as Background Images are perfectly visible in the 3 orthographic views.
Matcaps can in some cases slow the performance of your computer, depending on the hardware; in any case, Matcaps is a very useful feature, especially for sculpting, as you can see the mesh shape easily.
Changing the Lens angle from 35.000 to 60.000 makes the perspective view look more similar to the natural human field of view.
Using the Multiresolution modifier and the Dynamic topology feature
To be sculpted, a mesh needs a big enough amount of vertices to allow the adding of details; in short, we now need a way to add (a lot of!) geometry to our simple base mesh.
Besides the usual subdividing operation in Edit Mode (press Tab, then A to select all the vertices, then press W to call the Specials menu, click on Subdivide, and then set the Number of Cuts value in the last operation subpanel at the bottom of the Tool Shelf) and the Subdivision Surface modifier, in Blender, there are two other ways to increase the amount of vertices: one is by assigning a Multiresolution modifier to the mesh (a nondestructive way) and the other is by using the Dynamic topology feature. We are going to see both of them.
Getting ready
As usual, let's start from the last .blend
file we saved: in this case, Gidiosaurus_Sculpt_base.blend
.
How to do it…
Let's start with the Multiresolution modifier method:
- First of all, save the file as
Gidiosaurus_Multires.blend
. - Select the base mesh and go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel on the right-hand side of the screen; assign a Multiresolution modifier.
- Click on the Subdivide (Add a new level of subdivision) button 3 times; the mesh has now reached 143,234 vertices and 143,232 faces.
- Check the Optimal Display item in the modifier panel:
- On the toolbar of the 3D window, click on the mode button to go into Sculpt Mode.
- On the Tools tab on the left-hand side of the screen (if necessary, press the T key to make the Tool Shelf containing the tabs appear), go to the Symmetry\Lock subpanel and click on the X button under the Mirror item.
- Click on the Options tab and, under the Options subpanel, uncheck the Size item under Unified Settings.
- Start to sculpt.
At this point, to proceed with the sculpting, you should jump to the next recipe, Sculpting the character's base mesh; instead, let's suppose that we have already sculpted our base mesh, so let's move ahead:
- Exit Sculpt Mode.
- Save the file.
Now, let's see the quick and easy preparation necessary to use the Dynamic topology feature for sculpting:
- Reload the
Gidiosaurus_Sculpt_base.blend
blend file. - Then, save it as
Gidiosaurus_Dynatopo.blend
. - On the toolbar of the 3D window, select Sculpt Mode.
- On the Tools tab on the left-hand side of the screen (press the T key to make the Tool Shelf containing the tabs appear), go to the Topology subpanel and click on the Enable Dyntopo button; a popup appears to inform you that the Dynamic topology feature doesn't preserve any already existing Vertex Color, UV layer, or other custom data (only if the mesh has them). Then click on the popup to confirm and go on.
- Change the Detail Size value to 15/20 pixels.
- Go to the Symmetry\Lock subpanel and click on the X option under the Mirror item:
- Start to sculpt.
Again, here you can jump to the next recipe, Sculpting the character's base mesh; in any case, remember to save the file.
How it works…
The Multiresolution modifier increasingly subdivides the mesh at each level by adding vertices; we have seen that from 2,240 starting vertices of the base mesh, we have reached 143,234 vertices at level 3, and clearly this allows for the sculpting of details and different shapes. The vertices added by the modifier are virtual, exactly as the vertices added by the Subdivision Surface modifier are; the difference is that the vertices added by the latter are not editable (unless you apply the modifier, but this would be counterproductive), while it's possible to edit (normally through the sculpting) the vertices at each level of subdivision of a Multiresolution modifier. Moreover, it's always possible to go back by lowering the levels of subdivision, and the sculpted details will be stored and shown only in the higher levels; this means that the Multiresolution method is a nondestructive one and we can, for example, rig the mesh at level 0 and render it at the highest/sculpted level.
The Dynamic topology setting is different from the Multiresolution modifier because it allows you to sculpt the mesh without the need to heavily subdivide it first, that is, the mesh gets subdivided on the fly only where needed, according to the workflow of the brushes and settings, resulting in a much lower vertex count for the final mesh in the end.
As you can see in the screenshots (and in the .blend
files provided with this cookbook), starting to sculpt the character with the Multiresolution modifier or the Dynamic topology is quite different. In the end, the process of sculpting is basically the same, but in the first case, you have an already smoothed-looking mesh where you must add or carve features; in the second case, the low resolution base mesh doesn't change its raw look at all until a part gets sculpted and therefore subdivided and modified, that is, all the corners and edges must first be softened, in order to round an otherwise harsh shape.
Getting ready
As usual, let's start from the last .blend
file we saved: in this case, Gidiosaurus_Sculpt_base.blend
.
How to do it…
Let's start with the Multiresolution modifier method:
- First of all, save the file as
Gidiosaurus_Multires.blend
. - Select the base mesh and go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel on the right-hand side of the screen; assign a Multiresolution modifier.
- Click on the Subdivide (Add a new level of subdivision) button 3 times; the mesh has now reached 143,234 vertices and 143,232 faces.
- Check the Optimal Display item in the modifier panel:
- On the toolbar of the 3D window, click on the mode button to go into Sculpt Mode.
- On the Tools tab on the left-hand side of the screen (if necessary, press the T key to make the Tool Shelf containing the tabs appear), go to the Symmetry\Lock subpanel and click on the X button under the Mirror item.
- Click on the Options tab and, under the Options subpanel, uncheck the Size item under Unified Settings.
- Start to sculpt.
At this point, to proceed with the sculpting, you should jump to the next recipe, Sculpting the character's base mesh; instead, let's suppose that we have already sculpted our base mesh, so let's move ahead:
- Exit Sculpt Mode.
- Save the file.
Now, let's see the quick and easy preparation necessary to use the Dynamic topology feature for sculpting:
- Reload the
Gidiosaurus_Sculpt_base.blend
blend file. - Then, save it as
Gidiosaurus_Dynatopo.blend
. - On the toolbar of the 3D window, select Sculpt Mode.
- On the Tools tab on the left-hand side of the screen (press the T key to make the Tool Shelf containing the tabs appear), go to the Topology subpanel and click on the Enable Dyntopo button; a popup appears to inform you that the Dynamic topology feature doesn't preserve any already existing Vertex Color, UV layer, or other custom data (only if the mesh has them). Then click on the popup to confirm and go on.
- Change the Detail Size value to 15/20 pixels.
- Go to the Symmetry\Lock subpanel and click on the X option under the Mirror item:
- Start to sculpt.
Again, here you can jump to the next recipe, Sculpting the character's base mesh; in any case, remember to save the file.
How it works…
The Multiresolution modifier increasingly subdivides the mesh at each level by adding vertices; we have seen that from 2,240 starting vertices of the base mesh, we have reached 143,234 vertices at level 3, and clearly this allows for the sculpting of details and different shapes. The vertices added by the modifier are virtual, exactly as the vertices added by the Subdivision Surface modifier are; the difference is that the vertices added by the latter are not editable (unless you apply the modifier, but this would be counterproductive), while it's possible to edit (normally through the sculpting) the vertices at each level of subdivision of a Multiresolution modifier. Moreover, it's always possible to go back by lowering the levels of subdivision, and the sculpted details will be stored and shown only in the higher levels; this means that the Multiresolution method is a nondestructive one and we can, for example, rig the mesh at level 0 and render it at the highest/sculpted level.
The Dynamic topology setting is different from the Multiresolution modifier because it allows you to sculpt the mesh without the need to heavily subdivide it first, that is, the mesh gets subdivided on the fly only where needed, according to the workflow of the brushes and settings, resulting in a much lower vertex count for the final mesh in the end.
As you can see in the screenshots (and in the .blend
files provided with this cookbook), starting to sculpt the character with the Multiresolution modifier or the Dynamic topology is quite different. In the end, the process of sculpting is basically the same, but in the first case, you have an already smoothed-looking mesh where you must add or carve features; in the second case, the low resolution base mesh doesn't change its raw look at all until a part gets sculpted and therefore subdivided and modified, that is, all the corners and edges must first be softened, in order to round an otherwise harsh shape.
How to do it…
Let's start with the Multiresolution modifier method:
- First of all, save the file as
Gidiosaurus_Multires.blend
. - Select the base mesh and go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel on the right-hand side of the screen; assign a Multiresolution modifier.
- Click on the Subdivide (Add a new level of subdivision) button 3 times; the mesh has now reached 143,234 vertices and 143,232 faces.
- Check the Optimal Display item in the modifier panel:
- On the toolbar of the 3D window, click on the mode button to go into Sculpt Mode.
- On the Tools tab on the left-hand side of the screen (if necessary, press the T key to make the Tool Shelf containing the tabs appear), go to the Symmetry\Lock subpanel and click on the X button under the Mirror item.
- Click on the Options tab and, under the Options subpanel, uncheck the Size item under Unified Settings.
- Start to sculpt.
At this point, to proceed with the sculpting, you should jump to the next recipe, Sculpting the character's base mesh; instead, let's suppose that we have already sculpted our base mesh, so let's move ahead:
- Exit Sculpt Mode.
- Save the file.
Now, let's see the quick and easy preparation necessary to use the Dynamic topology feature for sculpting:
- Reload the
Gidiosaurus_Sculpt_base.blend
blend file. - Then, save it as
Gidiosaurus_Dynatopo.blend
. - On the toolbar of the 3D window, select Sculpt Mode.
- On the Tools tab on the left-hand side of the screen (press the T key to make the Tool Shelf containing the tabs appear), go to the Topology subpanel and click on the Enable Dyntopo button; a popup appears to inform you that the Dynamic topology feature doesn't preserve any already existing Vertex Color, UV layer, or other custom data (only if the mesh has them). Then click on the popup to confirm and go on.
- Change the Detail Size value to 15/20 pixels.
- Go to the Symmetry\Lock subpanel and click on the X option under the Mirror item:
- Start to sculpt.
Again, here you can jump to the next recipe, Sculpting the character's base mesh; in any case, remember to save the file.
How it works…
The Multiresolution modifier increasingly subdivides the mesh at each level by adding vertices; we have seen that from 2,240 starting vertices of the base mesh, we have reached 143,234 vertices at level 3, and clearly this allows for the sculpting of details and different shapes. The vertices added by the modifier are virtual, exactly as the vertices added by the Subdivision Surface modifier are; the difference is that the vertices added by the latter are not editable (unless you apply the modifier, but this would be counterproductive), while it's possible to edit (normally through the sculpting) the vertices at each level of subdivision of a Multiresolution modifier. Moreover, it's always possible to go back by lowering the levels of subdivision, and the sculpted details will be stored and shown only in the higher levels; this means that the Multiresolution method is a nondestructive one and we can, for example, rig the mesh at level 0 and render it at the highest/sculpted level.
The Dynamic topology setting is different from the Multiresolution modifier because it allows you to sculpt the mesh without the need to heavily subdivide it first, that is, the mesh gets subdivided on the fly only where needed, according to the workflow of the brushes and settings, resulting in a much lower vertex count for the final mesh in the end.
As you can see in the screenshots (and in the .blend
files provided with this cookbook), starting to sculpt the character with the Multiresolution modifier or the Dynamic topology is quite different. In the end, the process of sculpting is basically the same, but in the first case, you have an already smoothed-looking mesh where you must add or carve features; in the second case, the low resolution base mesh doesn't change its raw look at all until a part gets sculpted and therefore subdivided and modified, that is, all the corners and edges must first be softened, in order to round an otherwise harsh shape.
How it works…
The Multiresolution modifier increasingly subdivides the mesh at each level by adding vertices; we have seen that from 2,240 starting vertices of the base mesh, we have reached 143,234 vertices at level 3, and clearly this allows for the sculpting of details and different shapes. The vertices added by the modifier are virtual, exactly as the vertices added by the Subdivision Surface modifier are; the difference is that the vertices added by the latter are not editable (unless you apply the modifier, but this would be counterproductive), while it's possible to edit (normally through the sculpting) the vertices at each level of subdivision of a Multiresolution modifier. Moreover, it's always possible to go back by lowering the levels of subdivision, and the sculpted details will be stored and shown only in the higher levels; this means that the Multiresolution method is a nondestructive one and we can, for example, rig the mesh at level 0 and render it at the highest/sculpted level.
The Dynamic topology setting is different from the Multiresolution modifier because it allows you to sculpt the mesh without the need to heavily subdivide it first, that is, the mesh gets subdivided on the fly only where needed, according to the workflow of the brushes and settings, resulting in a much lower vertex count for the final mesh in the end.
As you can see in the screenshots (and in the .blend
files provided with this cookbook), starting to sculpt the character with the Multiresolution modifier or the Dynamic topology is quite different. In the end, the process of sculpting is basically the same, but in the first case, you have an already smoothed-looking mesh where you must add or carve features; in the second case, the low resolution base mesh doesn't change its raw look at all until a part gets sculpted and therefore subdivided and modified, that is, all the corners and edges must first be softened, in order to round an otherwise harsh shape.
Sculpting the character's base mesh
Whatever the method you are going to use, it's now time to start with the effective sculpting process.
However, first, a disclaimer: in this recipe, I'm not going to teach you how to sculpt, nor is this an anatomy lesson of any kind. For these things, a book itself wouldn't be enough. I'm just going to demonstrate the use of the Blender sculpting tools, showing what brush I used for the different tasks, the sculpting workflow following the reference templates, and some of the more frequently used shortcut keys.
Getting ready
In this recipe, we'll use the Dynamic topology method. If you haven't followed the instructions of the previous recipe, just follow the steps from 12 to 17; otherwise, just open the Gidiosaurus_Dynatopo.blend
file that is provided.
How to do it…
As usual, it's a good habit to save the file with the proper name as the first thing; in this case, save it as Gidiosaurus_Dynatopo_Sculpt.blend
.
If you are going to use a graphic tablet to sculpt, remember to enable the tablet pressure sensitivity for both size and strength; in any case, it is better to set the respective sliders to values lower than 100 percent; I usually set the size slider around 30/35 and the strength slider to 0.500, but this is subjective:
- If you haven't already, go into Sculpt Mode and enable the Dynamic topology feature by clicking on the Enable Dyntopo button in the subpanel with the same name under the Tool Shelf panel or by directly pressing Ctrl + D.
- Set the Detail Size value to 15, either by using the slider under the Enable Dyntopo button or by pressing Shift + D and then moving the mouse to scale it bigger or smaller:
- Click on the Brush selection image (Brush datablock for storing brush settings for painting and sculpting) at the top of the Tools tab under the Tool Shelf panel, and, from the pop-up menu, select the Scrape/Peaks brush (otherwise press the Shift + 3 key shortcut):
- Start to scrape all the edges and soften the corners to obtain a smooth rounded surface:
- Change the brush; select the Grab brush (G key) and press 3 in the numpad to go into Side view; press the F key and move the mouse cursor to scale the brush, in this case, to scale it much bigger, around 120 pixels (Shift + F is to change the strength of a brush, instead).
- Using the Background Image showing in the orthographic view (the 5 key in the numpad), grab the spine and chest areas of the mesh and move them to fit the shape of the template:
- Do the same for the other parts of the mesh that don't fit yet, and do it also in Front view (1 key in the numpad) and Back view (Shift + 1 in the numpad).
- Select the Scrape/Peaks brush again (Shift + 3 keys) and keep on softening the mesh until almost every part gets rounded and more organic-looking; you can also use the Smooth (S key) brush to further soften the mesh:
- Open a new window, switch Editor Type to UV/Image Editor and click on the Open button in the toolbar; browse to the
templates
folder and select thegidiosaurus_trequarters.png
image. Then, click on the little pin icon on the right-hand side of the image name on the window toolbar (Display current image regardless of object selection). - Select the Crease brush (4 key); using it as a chisel and following the loaded image as a reference, start to outline the character's more important features on the mesh, drawing the character's anatomy:
- By pressing Ctrl while sculpting, we can temporarily reverse the effect of the brush; so, for example, the Crease brush, which usually carves lines in the mesh, can sculpt ridges and spike protrusions. We can use this to add details to the elbow bones and knees on the fly.
- By pressing the Shift key while sculpting instead, we can temporarily switch whatever brush we are using with the Smooth brush, in order to instantly soften any newly added detail or feature.
- When finished with the body, exchange the brush for the Clay Strips brush (3 key), start to add stuff (the nose, eyebrows, and so on), and outline the features of the head. Again, press Ctrl to subtract clay (for the eye sockets, for instance) and Shift to soften.
- Always use the templates to check for the proportions and positions of the character's features. Also, use Wireframe mode if necessary, by going into Ortho view and comparing the sculpted mesh outline with the background template image; use the Grab brush to quickly move and shape proportionate features in the right places:
- Using the Clay Strips (3 key), Smooth (S key), SculptDraw (Shift + 4 key), Crease (4 key), and Pinch (Shift + 2 key) brushes, build the head of the creature and define as many details as possible such as the eyebrows, mouth rim, nostrils, and eye sockets; experiment with all the different brushes:
- Go out of Sculpt Mode and press N to make the Properties 3D window sidepanel appear; uncheck the Only Render item under the Display subpanel.
- Press Shift + A and add a UV Sphere to the scene. Go into Edit Mode, if you haven't done so already, select all the vertices and rotate them 90 degrees on the x axis; then, scale them to 0.1000. Finally, scale them again to 0.3600.
- Exit Edit Mode and move the UV Sphere to fit inside the left eye socket location.
- Select the character's mesh and press Shift + S; then, in the Snap pop-up menu, choose Cursor to Selected. Select the UV Sphere and go to the Tools tab under the Tool Shelf; click on the Set Origin button and choose Origin to 3D Cursor. This way we have set the origin of the UV Sphere object at the same place as the character's mesh, while the UV Sphere mesh itself is located inside the left eye socket.
- Go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel and assign a Mirror modifier to it.
- Go to the Outliner, press Ctrl + left-click on the UV Sphere item, and rename it Eyes:
- Press Shift + A and add a Cube primitive. Go into Edit Mode and scale it a lot smaller; use the side template as a reference to modify by scaling, extruding, and tweaking the scaled Cube's vertices in order to build a low resolution fang. Go out of Edit Mode and go to the Object Modifiers window to assign a Subdivision Surface modifier.
- Duplicate the fang and, as always, following the side and front templates as a guide, build all the necessary teeth for the Gidiosaurus.
- Select all of them and press Ctrl + J to join them into one single object; press Ctrl + A to apply Rotation & Scale; then, do the same as in steps 19 and 20.
- Go to the Outliner and rename the new object Fangs.
- Add a new Cube and repeat the process to model the talons of the hands and feet:
Note that the Eyes, Fangs, and Talons objects are not going to be sculpted, and therefore they are kept as separate objects. Later, we'll start to retopologize the sculpted body of the creature, while the eyes will be modeled and detailed in the traditional polygonal way; fangs and talons are good enough as they are.
- Reselect the Gidiosaurus object and go back into Sculpt Mode to keep on refining the creature's shape more and more; don't be afraid to exaggerate the features, we can always smooth them later.
- Adjust the shape of the eyebrows to perfectly fit the Eyes object; then, work more on the mouth rim to accommodate the fangs.
- When you think you have arrived at a good enough point, just go out of Sculpt Mode and remember to save the file!
Just a quick note: we don't actually need to go out of Sculpt Mode to save the file, it's possible to save it periodically (press Ctrl + S or Ctrl + W to save the file over itself, and Ctrl + Shift + S to save as) without needing to exit the sculpting session each time.
So, here we are; the character's sculpting is basically done. We can work on it a lot more, tweaking the shapes further and adding details such as scales, wrinkles, and veins, but for this exercise's sake (and for this recipe), this is enough.
There's more…
A nice aspect of the Dynamic topology feature is the possibility to actually join different objects into a single mesh; for example, with our Gidiosaurus, we can join the teeth and the talons to the sculpted base mesh and then keep on sculpting the resulting object as a whole.
Actually, there are two ways to do this: simply by joining the objects and by the Boolean modifier.
To join the objects in the usual way, we can do the following:
- Go out of Sculpt Mode.
- Select the first object (that is, the teeth), press Shift + select the second object (the talons), and lastly press Shift + select the sculpted base mesh so that it's the active object (the final composited object will retain the active object's characteristics).
- Press Ctrl + J and it is done!
This is the way you join objects in Blender in general, and it can actually work quite well. There is only one problem: there will always be a visible seam between the different objects, and although in the case of teeth or talons this will not be a problem, in other cases it should be avoided. Let's say you are working on a separated head and later you want to join it to a body; in this case, you don't want a visible seam between the head and neck, obviously!
So, the option is to use the Boolean modifier:
- Go out of Sculpt Mode.
- Select the character's base mesh and go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel; assign a Boolean modifier.
- Click on the Object field of the modifier to select the object you want to join (let's say, the Talons object) and then click on the Operation button to the left to select Union.
- Click on the Apply button to apply the modifier.
- Hide, move onto a different layer, or delete the original object you joined (the talons).
Unlike the previous method, with Booleans, it will be possible to sculpt and smooth the joining of the different objects without leaving visible seams.
Getting ready
In this recipe, we'll use the Dynamic topology method. If you haven't followed the instructions of the previous recipe, just follow the steps from 12 to 17; otherwise, just open the Gidiosaurus_Dynatopo.blend
file that is provided.
How to do it…
As usual, it's a good habit to save the file with the proper name as the first thing; in this case, save it as Gidiosaurus_Dynatopo_Sculpt.blend
.
If you are going to use a graphic tablet to sculpt, remember to enable the tablet pressure sensitivity for both size and strength; in any case, it is better to set the respective sliders to values lower than 100 percent; I usually set the size slider around 30/35 and the strength slider to 0.500, but this is subjective:
- If you haven't already, go into Sculpt Mode and enable the Dynamic topology feature by clicking on the Enable Dyntopo button in the subpanel with the same name under the Tool Shelf panel or by directly pressing Ctrl + D.
- Set the Detail Size value to 15, either by using the slider under the Enable Dyntopo button or by pressing Shift + D and then moving the mouse to scale it bigger or smaller:
- Click on the Brush selection image (Brush datablock for storing brush settings for painting and sculpting) at the top of the Tools tab under the Tool Shelf panel, and, from the pop-up menu, select the Scrape/Peaks brush (otherwise press the Shift + 3 key shortcut):
- Start to scrape all the edges and soften the corners to obtain a smooth rounded surface:
- Change the brush; select the Grab brush (G key) and press 3 in the numpad to go into Side view; press the F key and move the mouse cursor to scale the brush, in this case, to scale it much bigger, around 120 pixels (Shift + F is to change the strength of a brush, instead).
- Using the Background Image showing in the orthographic view (the 5 key in the numpad), grab the spine and chest areas of the mesh and move them to fit the shape of the template:
- Do the same for the other parts of the mesh that don't fit yet, and do it also in Front view (1 key in the numpad) and Back view (Shift + 1 in the numpad).
- Select the Scrape/Peaks brush again (Shift + 3 keys) and keep on softening the mesh until almost every part gets rounded and more organic-looking; you can also use the Smooth (S key) brush to further soften the mesh:
- Open a new window, switch Editor Type to UV/Image Editor and click on the Open button in the toolbar; browse to the
templates
folder and select thegidiosaurus_trequarters.png
image. Then, click on the little pin icon on the right-hand side of the image name on the window toolbar (Display current image regardless of object selection). - Select the Crease brush (4 key); using it as a chisel and following the loaded image as a reference, start to outline the character's more important features on the mesh, drawing the character's anatomy:
- By pressing Ctrl while sculpting, we can temporarily reverse the effect of the brush; so, for example, the Crease brush, which usually carves lines in the mesh, can sculpt ridges and spike protrusions. We can use this to add details to the elbow bones and knees on the fly.
- By pressing the Shift key while sculpting instead, we can temporarily switch whatever brush we are using with the Smooth brush, in order to instantly soften any newly added detail or feature.
- When finished with the body, exchange the brush for the Clay Strips brush (3 key), start to add stuff (the nose, eyebrows, and so on), and outline the features of the head. Again, press Ctrl to subtract clay (for the eye sockets, for instance) and Shift to soften.
- Always use the templates to check for the proportions and positions of the character's features. Also, use Wireframe mode if necessary, by going into Ortho view and comparing the sculpted mesh outline with the background template image; use the Grab brush to quickly move and shape proportionate features in the right places:
- Using the Clay Strips (3 key), Smooth (S key), SculptDraw (Shift + 4 key), Crease (4 key), and Pinch (Shift + 2 key) brushes, build the head of the creature and define as many details as possible such as the eyebrows, mouth rim, nostrils, and eye sockets; experiment with all the different brushes:
- Go out of Sculpt Mode and press N to make the Properties 3D window sidepanel appear; uncheck the Only Render item under the Display subpanel.
- Press Shift + A and add a UV Sphere to the scene. Go into Edit Mode, if you haven't done so already, select all the vertices and rotate them 90 degrees on the x axis; then, scale them to 0.1000. Finally, scale them again to 0.3600.
- Exit Edit Mode and move the UV Sphere to fit inside the left eye socket location.
- Select the character's mesh and press Shift + S; then, in the Snap pop-up menu, choose Cursor to Selected. Select the UV Sphere and go to the Tools tab under the Tool Shelf; click on the Set Origin button and choose Origin to 3D Cursor. This way we have set the origin of the UV Sphere object at the same place as the character's mesh, while the UV Sphere mesh itself is located inside the left eye socket.
- Go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel and assign a Mirror modifier to it.
- Go to the Outliner, press Ctrl + left-click on the UV Sphere item, and rename it Eyes:
- Press Shift + A and add a Cube primitive. Go into Edit Mode and scale it a lot smaller; use the side template as a reference to modify by scaling, extruding, and tweaking the scaled Cube's vertices in order to build a low resolution fang. Go out of Edit Mode and go to the Object Modifiers window to assign a Subdivision Surface modifier.
- Duplicate the fang and, as always, following the side and front templates as a guide, build all the necessary teeth for the Gidiosaurus.
- Select all of them and press Ctrl + J to join them into one single object; press Ctrl + A to apply Rotation & Scale; then, do the same as in steps 19 and 20.
- Go to the Outliner and rename the new object Fangs.
- Add a new Cube and repeat the process to model the talons of the hands and feet:
Note that the Eyes, Fangs, and Talons objects are not going to be sculpted, and therefore they are kept as separate objects. Later, we'll start to retopologize the sculpted body of the creature, while the eyes will be modeled and detailed in the traditional polygonal way; fangs and talons are good enough as they are.
- Reselect the Gidiosaurus object and go back into Sculpt Mode to keep on refining the creature's shape more and more; don't be afraid to exaggerate the features, we can always smooth them later.
- Adjust the shape of the eyebrows to perfectly fit the Eyes object; then, work more on the mouth rim to accommodate the fangs.
- When you think you have arrived at a good enough point, just go out of Sculpt Mode and remember to save the file!
Just a quick note: we don't actually need to go out of Sculpt Mode to save the file, it's possible to save it periodically (press Ctrl + S or Ctrl + W to save the file over itself, and Ctrl + Shift + S to save as) without needing to exit the sculpting session each time.
So, here we are; the character's sculpting is basically done. We can work on it a lot more, tweaking the shapes further and adding details such as scales, wrinkles, and veins, but for this exercise's sake (and for this recipe), this is enough.
There's more…
A nice aspect of the Dynamic topology feature is the possibility to actually join different objects into a single mesh; for example, with our Gidiosaurus, we can join the teeth and the talons to the sculpted base mesh and then keep on sculpting the resulting object as a whole.
Actually, there are two ways to do this: simply by joining the objects and by the Boolean modifier.
To join the objects in the usual way, we can do the following:
- Go out of Sculpt Mode.
- Select the first object (that is, the teeth), press Shift + select the second object (the talons), and lastly press Shift + select the sculpted base mesh so that it's the active object (the final composited object will retain the active object's characteristics).
- Press Ctrl + J and it is done!
This is the way you join objects in Blender in general, and it can actually work quite well. There is only one problem: there will always be a visible seam between the different objects, and although in the case of teeth or talons this will not be a problem, in other cases it should be avoided. Let's say you are working on a separated head and later you want to join it to a body; in this case, you don't want a visible seam between the head and neck, obviously!
So, the option is to use the Boolean modifier:
- Go out of Sculpt Mode.
- Select the character's base mesh and go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel; assign a Boolean modifier.
- Click on the Object field of the modifier to select the object you want to join (let's say, the Talons object) and then click on the Operation button to the left to select Union.
- Click on the Apply button to apply the modifier.
- Hide, move onto a different layer, or delete the original object you joined (the talons).
Unlike the previous method, with Booleans, it will be possible to sculpt and smooth the joining of the different objects without leaving visible seams.
How to do it…
As usual, it's a good habit to save the file with the proper name as the first thing; in this case, save it as Gidiosaurus_Dynatopo_Sculpt.blend
.
If you are going to use a graphic tablet to sculpt, remember to enable the tablet pressure sensitivity for both size and strength; in any case, it is better to set the respective sliders to values lower than 100 percent; I usually set the size slider around 30/35 and the strength slider to 0.500, but this is subjective:
- If you haven't already, go into Sculpt Mode and enable the Dynamic topology feature by clicking on the Enable Dyntopo button in the subpanel with the same name under the Tool Shelf panel or by directly pressing Ctrl + D.
- Set the Detail Size value to 15, either by using the slider under the Enable Dyntopo button or by pressing Shift + D and then moving the mouse to scale it bigger or smaller:
- Click on the Brush selection image (Brush datablock for storing brush settings for painting and sculpting) at the top of the Tools tab under the Tool Shelf panel, and, from the pop-up menu, select the Scrape/Peaks brush (otherwise press the Shift + 3 key shortcut):
- Start to scrape all the edges and soften the corners to obtain a smooth rounded surface:
- Change the brush; select the Grab brush (G key) and press 3 in the numpad to go into Side view; press the F key and move the mouse cursor to scale the brush, in this case, to scale it much bigger, around 120 pixels (Shift + F is to change the strength of a brush, instead).
- Using the Background Image showing in the orthographic view (the 5 key in the numpad), grab the spine and chest areas of the mesh and move them to fit the shape of the template:
- Do the same for the other parts of the mesh that don't fit yet, and do it also in Front view (1 key in the numpad) and Back view (Shift + 1 in the numpad).
- Select the Scrape/Peaks brush again (Shift + 3 keys) and keep on softening the mesh until almost every part gets rounded and more organic-looking; you can also use the Smooth (S key) brush to further soften the mesh:
- Open a new window, switch Editor Type to UV/Image Editor and click on the Open button in the toolbar; browse to the
templates
folder and select thegidiosaurus_trequarters.png
image. Then, click on the little pin icon on the right-hand side of the image name on the window toolbar (Display current image regardless of object selection). - Select the Crease brush (4 key); using it as a chisel and following the loaded image as a reference, start to outline the character's more important features on the mesh, drawing the character's anatomy:
- By pressing Ctrl while sculpting, we can temporarily reverse the effect of the brush; so, for example, the Crease brush, which usually carves lines in the mesh, can sculpt ridges and spike protrusions. We can use this to add details to the elbow bones and knees on the fly.
- By pressing the Shift key while sculpting instead, we can temporarily switch whatever brush we are using with the Smooth brush, in order to instantly soften any newly added detail or feature.
- When finished with the body, exchange the brush for the Clay Strips brush (3 key), start to add stuff (the nose, eyebrows, and so on), and outline the features of the head. Again, press Ctrl to subtract clay (for the eye sockets, for instance) and Shift to soften.
- Always use the templates to check for the proportions and positions of the character's features. Also, use Wireframe mode if necessary, by going into Ortho view and comparing the sculpted mesh outline with the background template image; use the Grab brush to quickly move and shape proportionate features in the right places:
- Using the Clay Strips (3 key), Smooth (S key), SculptDraw (Shift + 4 key), Crease (4 key), and Pinch (Shift + 2 key) brushes, build the head of the creature and define as many details as possible such as the eyebrows, mouth rim, nostrils, and eye sockets; experiment with all the different brushes:
- Go out of Sculpt Mode and press N to make the Properties 3D window sidepanel appear; uncheck the Only Render item under the Display subpanel.
- Press Shift + A and add a UV Sphere to the scene. Go into Edit Mode, if you haven't done so already, select all the vertices and rotate them 90 degrees on the x axis; then, scale them to 0.1000. Finally, scale them again to 0.3600.
- Exit Edit Mode and move the UV Sphere to fit inside the left eye socket location.
- Select the character's mesh and press Shift + S; then, in the Snap pop-up menu, choose Cursor to Selected. Select the UV Sphere and go to the Tools tab under the Tool Shelf; click on the Set Origin button and choose Origin to 3D Cursor. This way we have set the origin of the UV Sphere object at the same place as the character's mesh, while the UV Sphere mesh itself is located inside the left eye socket.
- Go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel and assign a Mirror modifier to it.
- Go to the Outliner, press Ctrl + left-click on the UV Sphere item, and rename it Eyes:
- Press Shift + A and add a Cube primitive. Go into Edit Mode and scale it a lot smaller; use the side template as a reference to modify by scaling, extruding, and tweaking the scaled Cube's vertices in order to build a low resolution fang. Go out of Edit Mode and go to the Object Modifiers window to assign a Subdivision Surface modifier.
- Duplicate the fang and, as always, following the side and front templates as a guide, build all the necessary teeth for the Gidiosaurus.
- Select all of them and press Ctrl + J to join them into one single object; press Ctrl + A to apply Rotation & Scale; then, do the same as in steps 19 and 20.
- Go to the Outliner and rename the new object Fangs.
- Add a new Cube and repeat the process to model the talons of the hands and feet:
Note that the Eyes, Fangs, and Talons objects are not going to be sculpted, and therefore they are kept as separate objects. Later, we'll start to retopologize the sculpted body of the creature, while the eyes will be modeled and detailed in the traditional polygonal way; fangs and talons are good enough as they are.
- Reselect the Gidiosaurus object and go back into Sculpt Mode to keep on refining the creature's shape more and more; don't be afraid to exaggerate the features, we can always smooth them later.
- Adjust the shape of the eyebrows to perfectly fit the Eyes object; then, work more on the mouth rim to accommodate the fangs.
- When you think you have arrived at a good enough point, just go out of Sculpt Mode and remember to save the file!
Just a quick note: we don't actually need to go out of Sculpt Mode to save the file, it's possible to save it periodically (press Ctrl + S or Ctrl + W to save the file over itself, and Ctrl + Shift + S to save as) without needing to exit the sculpting session each time.
So, here we are; the character's sculpting is basically done. We can work on it a lot more, tweaking the shapes further and adding details such as scales, wrinkles, and veins, but for this exercise's sake (and for this recipe), this is enough.
There's more…
A nice aspect of the Dynamic topology feature is the possibility to actually join different objects into a single mesh; for example, with our Gidiosaurus, we can join the teeth and the talons to the sculpted base mesh and then keep on sculpting the resulting object as a whole.
Actually, there are two ways to do this: simply by joining the objects and by the Boolean modifier.
To join the objects in the usual way, we can do the following:
- Go out of Sculpt Mode.
- Select the first object (that is, the teeth), press Shift + select the second object (the talons), and lastly press Shift + select the sculpted base mesh so that it's the active object (the final composited object will retain the active object's characteristics).
- Press Ctrl + J and it is done!
This is the way you join objects in Blender in general, and it can actually work quite well. There is only one problem: there will always be a visible seam between the different objects, and although in the case of teeth or talons this will not be a problem, in other cases it should be avoided. Let's say you are working on a separated head and later you want to join it to a body; in this case, you don't want a visible seam between the head and neck, obviously!
So, the option is to use the Boolean modifier:
- Go out of Sculpt Mode.
- Select the character's base mesh and go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel; assign a Boolean modifier.
- Click on the Object field of the modifier to select the object you want to join (let's say, the Talons object) and then click on the Operation button to the left to select Union.
- Click on the Apply button to apply the modifier.
- Hide, move onto a different layer, or delete the original object you joined (the talons).
Unlike the previous method, with Booleans, it will be possible to sculpt and smooth the joining of the different objects without leaving visible seams.
There's more…
A nice aspect of the Dynamic topology feature is the possibility to actually join different objects into a single mesh; for example, with our Gidiosaurus, we can join the teeth and the talons to the sculpted base mesh and then keep on sculpting the resulting object as a whole.
Actually, there are two ways to do this: simply by joining the objects and by the Boolean modifier.
To join the objects in the usual way, we can do the following:
- Go out of Sculpt Mode.
- Select the first object (that is, the teeth), press Shift + select the second object (the talons), and lastly press Shift + select the sculpted base mesh so that it's the active object (the final composited object will retain the active object's characteristics).
- Press Ctrl + J and it is done!
This is the way you join objects in Blender in general, and it can actually work quite well. There is only one problem: there will always be a visible seam between the different objects, and although in the case of teeth or talons this will not be a problem, in other cases it should be avoided. Let's say you are working on a separated head and later you want to join it to a body; in this case, you don't want a visible seam between the head and neck, obviously!
So, the option is to use the Boolean modifier:
- Go out of Sculpt Mode.
- Select the character's base mesh and go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel; assign a Boolean modifier.
- Click on the Object field of the modifier to select the object you want to join (let's say, the Talons object) and then click on the Operation button to the left to select Union.
- Click on the Apply button to apply the modifier.
- Hide, move onto a different layer, or delete the original object you joined (the talons).
Unlike the previous method, with Booleans, it will be possible to sculpt and smooth the joining of the different objects without leaving visible seams.