A new Technical Start (Blender, Details, Animation... and Motivation)

Hello everyone,

I usually don't talk to much about technicity and softwares but I have to because this will bring a big change for me. Since I've started this Patreon page, I've always done my images by sulpting my men in Zbrush, a digital sculpting software and then, move the model into blender to do the lighting, the hair, the shader, the sets, the props, etc...

But lately, I've been experiencing some issues with Zbrush. And it's slowling terribly my workflow. And he got really worst since I came back from Iceland. (Zbrush refuses to start, saying that I didn't have a licence to use it). That's why my He-man image was so long to arrive and the next image was stop in the middle because I couldn't access Zbrush.

So, I've decided to try to do everything in Blender from now.

But it's a big change because even though Blender sculpting part has really evolve the past few years, it's not Zbrush. And I'm not an expert in Blender sculpt. SO there's a lot of things that I have to learn.

But there are several benefits to do everything inside Blender:

1 - I'll have a better control from the start on the pose of my character and no back and forth between Zbrush and Blender. I'll just have to modify the pose in Blender. No need to go back in Zbrush, modify the sculpt, Export. Import in Blender, switch the models... Now, I'll just have to change the pose in Blender depending on my camera angle for instance. It will be way easier.

2 - The models will be more precise. As the sculpt will be made in Blender, I can bring more details on the models. Today, the veins for instance are made by what we call normal maps, texture that trick the light in Blender to get the details that were sculpted in Zbrush. This might look a bit technical but it will bring more volumes to the bodies.

3 - With this technique, I'll be also able to do some animations... It would be a big step. I won't make Pixar movies yet, :-) but I think I can try some fun test.

But all this will need a bit of time. So this month, I will finish my next image on Zbrush (it's working today).

But what I have to do most importantly is to take all the various sculpts and models saved in Zbrush in order to be able to use them in Blender. (I've learned to do that last week)

Indeed, all my characters exist in one single base model created in Zbrush. Every layer of this base model in Zbrush (like photoshop layer) is a character face or a body modification (more muscular, hand as a fist, etc). And in Blender, I can recreate this base model with all the layers (name shape keys in Blender). This means that I'll have all the faces of my main models ready to be used in Blender.

So I'm quite confident that the time spent on this wil be very usefull for a very near future.

First, I'm saving all the layers I can from Zbrush while it' still working. Then I finish the Viking image. Meanwhile, I'll work on my new workflow entirely in Blender.

Oh and the motivation!! that's the 4th point so:

4 - I think this will bring a novelty in my work and maybe I needed that as well. This year is the tenth year of my Patreon. I've create this workflow 10 years ago. I think I need some changes. :-D So maybe this situation with Zbrush is a blessing in disguise... :-)

If you read this message to the end, congrats and thank you for your interest in every aspect of my work. ;-)

Thank you for your support.

Alex

The different images posted here :

1 The base model without any layer activated

2 The layer New Body is activated

3 The layer Definition is activated with the layer New body

4 The layer More realistic is activated with the other.

5 The layer leg (jambe in french) is activated

6 The face of the male model without any layer activated

7 The Mayer Florian is activated

8 The layer Gary is activated instead of Florian

All this is how Zbrush works with the layer system. And I have to export all the most important layers to have them in Blender. So now, I'm learning to do the same thing in Blender. It's a different system but as powerful... and I can animate them. But there's a lot of thing to learn on top of that. The first will be to sculpt with Blender.