For this assignment, we were required to sculpt a muscular structure of the chosen animal in our group. My group went with bears which are part of the Ursidae family. For the sub-species of bear, we picked the Polar Bear, American Black Bear and Panda Bear which all have different features and body structures to help them survive in their habitat even though they are part of the same family.
Research
While doing research on the polar bear, I discovered that polar
bears have an elongated, narrow oval shaped skull and a long neck to aid them
in the water while warming the air that they breathe. Also, their large, flat,
oar-like front feet helps them swim in the water making them excellent
swimmers. Polar bear rib-cages are long and wide because they have a thick
layer of body fat which requires a bigger rib-cage. They also have a
water-repellent coat that protects them from the cold air and water.
American Black Bears are the smallest compared to the polar
bear and brown bear. They have a flat pointy skull as well as short,
non-retractable claws that help them climb trees. The rib-cage is smaller and
sharp-angled. Also, their spine is lower compared to the other bears due to the
second layer of protection between their skin and the fur. Even with that extra
layer, their body is designed to move extremely fast and climb trees.
Panda Bears or Giant Pandas are the smallest mammals in the
group. It has a similar skull shape contrast to the brown bear and American
black bear but the tip on the back of the skull is smaller and has a hook
instead of a round point. The giant pandas have an extra digit on their paw
that functions as a thumb to help them tear the bamboo off the ground. In
addition, they have strong broad jaws that help crush the bamboo easily and
their teeth are adapted to crush tough plants stems.
All in all, each bear all have different features and body
structures in order to help them survive in their environment. Polar Bears have
a narrow oval shaped skull and a long neck to help them swim in the water as
well as a thick water-repellent coat that protects them from the cold air and
water. American Black Bears have non-retractable claws that help them climb
trees and even though they have an extra layer of protection between their skin,
their body is built to move extremely fast. Finally, Giant Pandas have an extra
digit on their paw that functions as a thumb to help them tear bamboo and
strong jaws and teeth that helps them crush the bamboo easily.
Process
While doing research on the polar bear, I originally thought
of doing a stand up sculpt pose because it looks more dynamic and shows the
full length of the polar bear but when I trying to draw out my plan, I did not
know how to work with the bottom half of the reference; so, I ended up doing a
walking pose of my sculpt since it more simple and dynamic. For the drawing
process of my sculpt, I only wanted to draw shapes that are simple so I can
easily model them in Z-Brush. I also, used the reference image as a guide to
help me make a more accurate rough sculpt.
Once I had my finished drawing planned out, I started
getting a Z-Sphere in Z-brush and started making the skeleton of my sculpt. I
then used spheres and cylinders to add mass to the skeleton and define the bear
geometry more using simple shapes. For the shoulders and pelvis, I used a
sphere and the move tool to make it look more like a shoulder blade and pelvis
so, at the point where I need to Dyna-mesh the shapes, I don’t have to brush
the parts in. While doing this process, the goal for me was to use simple
shapes to define the animal and then once it is merged, I don’t have to create
lines that tell where body parts like the arms or legs are.
As I was about to create the muscles anatomy using the image
references as a guide, I got some feedback. One of them was that we are
modelling an animal with skin not the anatomy of the said animal which I did
not know about. The other feedback I got was that the animal my group has
selected does not show a lot of muscle due to the heavy coat bears have. The
suggestion was to make a separate layer; one for the animal to have the coat
and the other layer for the bear to have no coat, just the skin.
Once I’m happy with the sculpt, I now needed to make a separate
sculpt of the bear with the coat. I duplicated the model so I don’t have to
remodel the polar bear and rename the first model as ‘PolarBearNoCoat’ so I can
tell the difference and not get confused. I then used the same technique that I
used when making the mass of the bear which was using spheres and cylinders,
but since I only want to make the polar bear’s body to have a heavy coat, I
only used spheres. I then used the brush to add more mass to the arms, legs and
neck as well as, removing all the muscle detail I did on my previous sculpt. I
initially wanted to make fur on the model. So, I did an experiment to see how
it would looked and it did not look anything like fur. It looked more like bark
on a tree than fur so I scraped that idea and kept it simple.
The feedback I received was that my anatomy was very poor
especially for both the muscle as well as the legs which I agree with. I was
recommended to look at an anatomy book called ‘Science of Creature Design – Understanding
Animal Anatomy’ by Terryl Whitlatch and while going through this book, I found
a very good images of the muscle anatomy of a bear. So, instead of spending
hours changing the sculpt, I thought I should start over.
So with the anatomy book with me, I started making a new
skeleton for my sculpt. I also changed the scale of the image grid from 3 to 5
because, I work better on a bigger scale and also, I can add more detail to the
muscle if I wanted. I then started adding a head to the skeleton. Instead of
making a sphere head like I did on my previous attempt, I made an over shaped
head because on one of my reference images with the polar bear’s head close up,
its more wider and has an oval like shape. Furthermore, instead of sculpting
the ears, I made two cylinders with symmetry on and then started moving the
head to match my image reference. For the limbs, the goal was to make the
muscle structure using simple shapes like cylinder and then filling and
brushing over the shapes to create the actual muscle. This so I don’t have to
spend my time making indent from a certain part of the anatomy such as making
an indent from the arm to the shoulder.
At this point I DynaMesh the model to 80 so the resolution isn’t
too big and then used the clay build up brush to make the muscle creases. I
also added indents for the eyes that I am going to clean up later. I then
started following the anatomy book recommended for me so I can add muscle
detail and change how the front limbs look like. I had to change how I made my
front feet because before it looked too big and human like similar to my last
attempt model. I did the same thing for the back legs and then smooth the
muscles because the brief asked for a sculpt of a muscular animal structure but
with the skin. After a little more cleaning up as well as fixing up the legs so
the connecting tissue from the leg to the body is present and connected, I
started adding more detail such as showing the ribcage, adding detail to the
head and adding nails to the paws of the model.
Now was time to add the coat to the model. I first duplicated
the model and used the quadfill brush to fill in more mass to the sculpt
because the polar bear has a heavy coat. The problem with using this method is
that the model starts to become to rectangular and no longer has its round shape
so, I had to both smooth and round the model until it looks like my image
reference and also, looks in proportion in all sides of the sculpt.
The challenging thing about sculpting was that the only
reference I had on bear muscles were drawings. So, interpreting drawing into a
3D sculpted proved to be difficult especially the legs and head. But, with the
book recommended to me, this helped out a lot when sculpting the limbs.
Furthermore, the reference photo I’m using has the polar bear looking down, but
it is hard to determine if the head is either looking straight or angled
slightly. Throughout majority of the sculpting process was me looking at the
reference and visualising how to looks in a 3D space and seeing if it looks
right or not.
All in all, this has helped me improve on my understand of anatomy
as well as determine the right proportion on a model and using my knowledge of
anatomy to visualise and interpret a 2D image into a 3D object.