Mirn’s Book of Renders

[Keith]

😃 It’s finished already, congratulations! 

Seriously though, it looks like a decent block out! Just keep polishing and it will look great in no time 👍

[Michael Mirn]

It was way easier than expected!

[Michael Mirn]

Step 2. Sculpting. The most peaceful, soothing and pleasant process.

[Keith]

Looks like you’re having a whale of a time Michael……   😅

This is starting to look really nice! The skin on these creatures is really interesting with all the bumps and cracks. 

[Michael Mirn]

Yes, the skin of these creatures is truly amazing. It’s like a print of whale’s life: all these scars, shells, wounds, harpoons, bites, squid marks.

Actually, I am trying to choose which one to do: the realistic one or the “shelly” one. I really like all these tiny details but it seems that I’ll simply lost the actual whale under all that seaweed and such. And eventually that model will become a fairytale like creature, too generic and full of generalizations, not an actual whale.

[Michael Mirn]

Sculpting is done.

Still thinking about these shells and seaweed. Maybe I’ll add them to the finished/textured model.
But firstly I gotta complete that retopology thing.
And retopology is the main reason I always try to avoid sculpting)

[Shawn Blanch]

It’s looking great. The nice thing about retopology on sea creatures is that you are working mostly with cylinder cross sections. I would probably recommend to keep the number of verts within a division of 4 around a cross section, that should help if you need to join perpendicular cylinder sections like the fins to the body.

[Michael Mirn]

Thanks, @blanchsb I’ll keep that in mind.

Right between “just keep on retopologyzin, it’s gonna end eventually” and “should I use particals for these shells or arrange them by hand”)

[Keith]

Ah yes, the joys of retopology – definitely not one of my favourite tasks either. 

That’s a great tip @blanchsb I’m also going to keep that one in my mind! 

Depending on how clean retopology you want Michael, have you considered Quad remesher? Admittedly, t’s not that cheap for an indie license but I do find myself using this add-on quite often if I just want a quick all quad remesh. I think they do a 1 month trial version if you wanted to give it a blast.

[Michael Mirn]

thanks @beefkeef for the tip)

I’ve heard about the Quad, yes, and consider that tool as a great opportunity to save a lot of time, but – in my opinion – you should first master the skill and only then stop using it. It’s a tedious path, I know, but it’s fair. This way you can really say that you are the modeler / sculptor / 3D artist / know what you are doing and do not depend on anything.
But again, this is my approach, perhaps it only suits such boring persons like me)

Generally speaking, I want to make as many as eight characters after that whale. Four archetypes (slim/fit/bulky/obese) for male/female  bodies. And I’m going to start with the same old routine: sculpting / retopo / textures, etc. As soon as the retopology reaches full automatism and I stop thinking where and what is better to do/joint/merge — I’ll probably buy that Quad right away.
And I can’t wait for it tbh cause retopo makes me wanna puke.

[Michael Mirn]

Step 3: Retopo

Thanks to the audiobooks its done. Maybe I’ve even cut off a few verts here and there. Can you tell the difference between the sculpted versus the modeled?
Now to the sweetest part — texturing!

[odunov]

Forms are looking sweet in that last one!

[Michael Mirn]

@drgnclw thanks a lot!

But I think I messed it up a little. That tail feels really curly. Way too curly actually for the initial shape.
I will definitely regret it when rig time comes)

[odunov]

Oh, I actually didn’t see that last one. Yeah, that curve might cause some headache. Good luck with it 😀

[Michael Mirn]

Step 4: Texturing. Still lots of tweaking/coloring ahead.

[Author]

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