I've been doing some studying on Zbrushworkshops.com - One of the free lessons explains the many ways in which you can start your sculpt. I wanted something which was similar to clay sculpting so tried the Armature/wire maquette style which utilises Zspheres. Rather than getting the main form from the spheres you instead keep them at minimum width and treat them as a wire base for the basic curves/shapes (much like a wire armature in clay). I used a basic dynamic pose here to see how it worked within the program.
From there you can then start adding spheres with dynamesh (and insert basic shapes) to block out the main form, as if you were sticking the clay on the wire. It allows you to sculpt in pose which I like personally (as I want to eventually work on maquettes/statues for personal work).
Above: The back roughed out, I feel it's easier to sculpt the back when in pose
Below: The front view. The torso is intended to be based on Hal Jordan/Green lantern but just added a quick face for testing.
A Couple of pros and cons for this technique:
Pros:
- You have the potential of getting extremely dynamic/organic sculpts from using this
- Traditional sculptors I see this as the most natural way to get in to digital sculpting
- The model will look more natural if sculpting in pose rather than doing that after, this technique forces you to not work symmetrical.
- This technique is no good for game characters or animation, riggers would have a nightmare!
- As I worked out (as I didn't really follow it exact) you have to get your proportions correct with this then keep to them (once the zspheres are moved to correct lengths use ctrl while moving to ensure they don't stretch. This is important for all sculpting but you can quickly mess up as in pose.
- Can be harder to fix errors. Due to the non symmetrical nature of the sculpt mirror and welding will not work.
- It can take longer than a regular static pose - working with no symmetry and likely using in dynamic poses, constantly checking shape can take longer. Also working out how anatomy moves at certain angles really takes a precedence!
Oops need to work on legs sometime!
