Making Sculpt Brushes

I have recently felt frustration with the default brushes in blender due to the lack of gradient in the brushes. Because of this, I have been looking for smoother brushes on blendswap which have ended up turning up dry. Instead, I will be using this blog post to discuss a method for me to make my own brushes that will help me sculpt better, and hopefully later on more details into my models like cracks, scales, and cloth textures without having to add a material.

The edges are too rounded off to my liking

If you want to make a brush with a various model/ sculpt, you first must take the camera and line it up so you get the view you want. Then, you need to resize the camera so it is square shaped. Then, go into world settings and turn on mist. Next, in the camera settings, use the distance in the depth of field settings and plug in the numbers accordingly in the mist settings in the world(the smallest number in start, the larger number in depth). Then render the image and composite the image accordingly. Toggle with the RGB Curve until you get the result desired. This will also work if you draw your own brushes as long as you follow the same black and white scheme(black does nothing to the mesh, white deforms the mesh).




To add these brushes, you would add a new sculpt brush, rename it, and customize the strength and radius to your liking. Then, in the texture tab to the right, you will add your image and then add it again in the texture tab in the sculpt tab.

Test #1:




With this brush specifically, I wanted to check if the grays would make a lighter shade, but with this brush, that is not the case and it is only detected as a white.

Test #2:



In this case, the various shades have changed the amount of the mesh is deformed. However, I think if I blended in the colors more the deformity will be smoother than it is in this picture.

Work Log:
Monday:Fixing up details in project(colors and looks)
Tuesday:Fixing up details in project(lighting)
Wednesday:Rendering Shots
Thursday:First attempt at sculpting skull
Friday:Second attempt at sculpting Skull

Retopology

In previous blog posts, I have mentioned that I began to sculpt my models rather than box modeling. One problem that has occurred as a result is messy topology and a lot of verts. Because of this, if I ever want to animate these models, I would deal a lot of rigging problems. So, after some scrolling on Instagram, I have found that artists that do sculpt go over the sculpted model to create a neater lower poly model. I am mainly going to use humans as the center of my pieces and, luckily, there are various references that I can use to help me retopologize my models. Overall, when retopologizing it is usually done in circles, or on various muscle areas that should be highlighted on the model

However, the idea of just modeling over the sculpt I already made sounds time-consuming since I would have to get the vertices and faces to line up with the model and would have to get the same effect without using as many verts. Luckily, Blender has an add-on called BSurface that helps makes this process quicker and efficient.
 


How to use BSurface for Retopology: a Step by Step
1.Add the BSurface Add-on

2. Create a new mesh for the retopology

3. Set up the Grease Pen accordingly

4. In Edit Mode turn on snap(to faces), and turn off the following buttons beside it

5. Draw lines in the desired locations(make sure they are facing the same direction and on the model to prevent problems)

6. Go to the BSurface tab in Tools and press “Add Surface”

7. Next, you can modify the number of verts by playing around with “Cross” and “Follow”


When practicing this on a model, I found really easy to do and I was able to get a good part done fairly quickly. However, at some points, I did run into problems where the faces did not turn out nicely so when doing this I am going to have to err on the side of caution and not be too risky, just to keep things working.

Work Log:
Monday:Modeled cityscape
Tuesday:Textured cityscape
Wednesday:Textured cityscape
Thursday:Textured cityscape
Friday:Field Trip

The Human Skeleton

I am almost done with my current project, so for this blog post, I will be focusing on creating a realistic skeleton for my next project. My next project will basically be focusing on taking care of yourself even if you feel dead inside(hence the skeleton because I am not fond of zombies). I’m planning on making this a series of gifs inspired by beauty guru intros. For this blog post specifically, I will focus on the skeleton and making it look like an actual skeleton.

 The Types of Bones:
In the human skeleton, there are four general bone shapes that they fall under: long bones, short bones, irregular bones, and flat bone. Long bones are long and thin and are mainly found in the limbs. Along with this, they are also curved and have the classic bumps on the ends for joints. Short Bones are generally shaped like cubes and are the bones that can be found in the wrist and ankles. Flat bones are the bones that are thin and are used for protection(skull, ribs, shoulder blades). Any bone that does not fit into any of these categories is classified as the irregular bones. With this in mind, I will hopefully be able to create a general bone shape of each category and modify it according to the body which will make constructing this skeleton easier and quicker.

 The Skull:
The skull is apparently made of multiple bones fused together. Because of this, there are little ridges on the skull that indicates these specific areas. This should be fairly easy to do. Along with this, there is clearly the separation between the top part of the skull and the jaw. Overall, the bottom of the skull is thinner than the top and has a sharper look to it. On the side view, it is apparent that at the end of the jaw is a U shaped and dented inwards at the end. Lastly, the cheekbone is placed in front of the jaw and is located under the eye socket.



Appendages:
For the hand, there are three long bones in each finger that control movement and then there is a bone below that connected to short bones. This is similar to the foot, but a heel bone is also present that juts outward under the leg bone.

 Work Log:
Monday: Texturing skin
Tuesday: Texturing skin
Wednesday: Texturing clothes
Thursday: Texturing clothes
Friday: Texturing Hair