jpaluck
04-08-2010, 09:38 AM
I have been at this on and off for a while. I gave up a while back thinking thinking and searching for an easy and fast way to get a good carveable portrait straight from a photograph. Pixels dont contain depth information. They make awsome lithographs but a lot of times the carvings I tried look terrible.
The picture is one of my father...I am trying to make a plauque for my uncle. MAN is the human anatomy hard to get right. My technique is first I block out the model in a solid modeller..ie silo moi3d 3dmax..using the photo to get a rough shape. Then I export the model into zbrush as an obj. This is truly the hard part CARVING/SCULPTING. In zbrush I use the photo in projection master to "layover" the blocked out model and help get details. Projection master in zbrush will let you "paint the details on your model with a lot of control. It will need cleaning up from there with sculpting. This is very similiar to what LG is showing with the dragon with coat3d...just a little more work lining the photo up to the model.
The hardest part for me is I have ZERO experience in hands on sculpting and ZERO knowledge of the human anatomy. The works of art on the zbrush site are incredible but from reading alot over there a lot of the artists are classicly hands on trained. I have some SERIOUS respect for anyone that can get the portraits to come out perfect. The hardest part is sculpting the details..like all the different contours of the face chin nose lips forehead etc. Blocking out the model is fairly quick. The majority of work is sculpting. I know why they say portraits take some time.
Anyways this is the closest I have come to date...to me it sucks...there are a lot of things that need adjusting..LOL But I am getting closer...practice practice practice...LOL Like anything else I guess.
BTW meant to put this up a while ago. On the zbrush site they have a download center for Alphas which are depth maps...you can go thru them there are some ones that might make good patterns. http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/downloadcenter/alpha/
The picture is one of my father...I am trying to make a plauque for my uncle. MAN is the human anatomy hard to get right. My technique is first I block out the model in a solid modeller..ie silo moi3d 3dmax..using the photo to get a rough shape. Then I export the model into zbrush as an obj. This is truly the hard part CARVING/SCULPTING. In zbrush I use the photo in projection master to "layover" the blocked out model and help get details. Projection master in zbrush will let you "paint the details on your model with a lot of control. It will need cleaning up from there with sculpting. This is very similiar to what LG is showing with the dragon with coat3d...just a little more work lining the photo up to the model.
The hardest part for me is I have ZERO experience in hands on sculpting and ZERO knowledge of the human anatomy. The works of art on the zbrush site are incredible but from reading alot over there a lot of the artists are classicly hands on trained. I have some SERIOUS respect for anyone that can get the portraits to come out perfect. The hardest part is sculpting the details..like all the different contours of the face chin nose lips forehead etc. Blocking out the model is fairly quick. The majority of work is sculpting. I know why they say portraits take some time.
Anyways this is the closest I have come to date...to me it sucks...there are a lot of things that need adjusting..LOL But I am getting closer...practice practice practice...LOL Like anything else I guess.
BTW meant to put this up a while ago. On the zbrush site they have a download center for Alphas which are depth maps...you can go thru them there are some ones that might make good patterns. http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/downloadcenter/alpha/