Reply To: Female character anatomy practice
Hello,
I think this is a good step in learning anatomy, but definitely some areas to improve. What I have can feel like there’s a lot to improve upon, so if it takes time to process it all, that is okay. It’s perfectly alright to focus on sections of anatomy as well, such as the arm, hand, etc. and then try to pull it all together. So, here’s me drawing over your images with notes:
So, something to explore is learning the muscle groups. You can go as deep as the deepest layer if you want, but the surface muscles will suffice. My personal favorite for referencing muscle groups is zygotebody.com, not sure if you’re familiar with it or not. It’s a 3D model of the body and you can isolate certain areas of the body, such as the muscles or nerves of a body. Pretty helpful.
Something to try would be to separate out the muscle groups into their own meshes. So, for example, you could have the bicep, branchialis, and tricep as separate meshes to help you see the volume of the muscle and how that fits into the others. Plus, it’s easy to adjust. You don’t have to go that granular if you don’t want to; you could also just have the upper arm and deltoid as separate meshes.
Having the person be 7 heads high is accurate to the average human, but you tend to see 7.5-8 heads favored more as it’s more pleasing to the eye. This can be a bit subjective, though.
If you’re angling the limbs out, it helps me to have a reference of the arm straight at the side and then rotate it out at the pivot point. Since things should be lined up when the arm is straight, just rotating it should keep the proper proportions. Similar idea with the legs.
The original sculpt feels like the person is leaning forward, so you can bring the knee and below forward. The center of mass on the person feels very forward.
On a more CG-focused note, if you’re planning on retopologizing this and fully rigging it, it’s a lot easier to rig if the legs are straight. They’re a bit angled in the sculpt. The arms and fingers are also easier to rig when straight, but it’s okay if the arms are more relaxed like an A, it’ll just be more challenging to rig.
Lastly, you are your best reference. If you want different references than yourself, the internet has plenty. Or, ask a friend if they’re willing to help you out. There are also plenty of anatomy books to pick up if you wish to go in that direction.
Other than that, I think you have the softness of female anatomy there, just need to work on developing your observational eye and anatomy understanding. You got this. Keep going!