SearchThisVideo: Sculpting Basics Tutorial

Watch video at 00:00

in this lesson we'll cover some of the

basics of sculpting as we begin to work

on our t-rex project as we open up our

t-rex project file I just want to

emphasize a couple of points for some of

our newer users the first of which is

just the fact that I don't want you to

get too stressed out or caught up in

matching the sculpting or painting that

we do on this exactly we're going to be

using this as an example to go through

and look at some of these sculpting

tools that we have available and then

use this to look at some of the newer

tools in 2011 so I don't want you to get

caught up in trying to make it look

exactly like my t-rex which leads me

into the second point which is to have a

lot of fun so really make this your own

kind of use those techniques and tools

to create your own custom t-rex that you

can you know really add your own flair

to okay so have a lot of fun with this

so the first thing that we're going to

look at is the sculpt tool the basic

sculpt tool okay so we'll go ahead and

activate that and I've got the t-rex

subdivided up - I think I've got four

levels on him so the first thing we'll

look at are the properties that we have

over here and so looking at these we've

got value for size strength we've got a

mirror option here and then we've got

some options that go down here as we

scroll down so let's look at the main

functionality here as we hover over our

model you can see that we have a center

point and a large ring and this is our

brush size okay we can change the size

over here with the slider we can also

hold down B and drag to change the size

okay we can also see a line you see that

vertical line in the middle that's going

to be our strength so we can change that

using this okay so if I hit B you can

see that that strength I can also modify

that strength using the M key okay so

using M and dragging I can pull that

strength up and down so using B and M

can really quickly get the brush size

that will work for you okay another

aspect of our brush that we need to talk

about is the symmetry or the mirror so

right now if I were to sculpt on this

side nothing would happen on the other

side

and that would really make for a lot of

work if we were to go in and sculpt this

one side and then have to go in and

sculpt the other side as well so what we

can do is turn on mirror and this

happens to be in the X and so now

whatever we do on this side that stroke

is mirrored over to the other side so

that can make our lives a little bit

easier we can also choose a fall off

from the fall off tray so for instance

if I choose this fall off first fall off

and we can find that down here as well

located here and we can customize that

but it's ticking a look at this stroke

if I go ahead and stroke across the

model you can see it's kind of sharp in

the middle and kind of see that from

here I give this kind of a sharp effect

whereas if I select something like this

it gives us much more of a rounded shape

so we can adjust our fall offs as well

Watch video from 03:00 - 6:00

as we go through and modify our brush

strokes so let's look at how we can

start to sculpt up some of this so we

can pull out just by using our sculpt

tool so for instance if I want to sculpt

out kind of the area along the brow we

can start to sculpt that out and if you

start to see some faceting like this

that just means it's a little bit too

low res as we're starting to get some of

the some of the kind of detail sculpted

in there I want to kind of sculpt around

the eye a little bit now if I want to

smooth this out I can hold down shift

without changing tools and kind of

smooth that back in okay if I want to

push areas back into the head okay

so for instance if I will push this area

in let's go ahead and increase our brush

size decrease our strength I can hold

down control and that will reverse that

so I can actually push that area in for

instance around where I want the eye to

be okay then I can go back in and maybe

smooth it out push it in a little bit

more smooth that out okay if we want to

create an area up here on the nose we

can kind of push that in up here using

our Shift + ctrl kind of shift and then

go back and get our regular just

regular sculpt and kind of pull that out

okay so that we can we can begin

sculpting like that we can start to

bring in some of this detailer on the

eye and another workflow that a lot of

people use will be to sculpt at a lower

resolution create any of the shapes that

you can as much detail as you can at

that particular resolution before you

move up but people have different ways

of working so just find the best way to

work for you

okay I'm just going to start to block in

some kind of structure kind of maybe

skeletal structure around the head and

if you want to take a look at some

reference you can do that but I find

that it's a little bit more fun if you

just kind of have a little bit of fun

with it

it's your own thing can I come in okay

start to cut this this in and start to

define kind of where we want our eye to

be okay so something like that and just

start to continue that around and work

everything together just continually

going back and forth between our sculpt

and then smoothing and then also kind of

pushing that in instead of pulling it

out okay so I can come in here and kind

of pull that area out smooth it back in

okay we can start to push some of this

geometry in around the mouth if we want

to just dragging across here to start to

start to define that mouth a little bit

okay if we want to start to add some

musculature one option that may work

well for so would be the bulge tool okay

we take a look at this this is actually

going to kind of inflate the area out

okay along its own normal so if you have

pieces that are right next to each other

it's become apparent they can kind of

Watch video from 06:00 - 9:00

start to overlap but so be good for

adding our muscles in here along the

legs if you want to start to build in a

musculature maybe get a larger brush

size here okay and I'll just start to

drag this up okay and just maybe make

maybe a couple lines here for our

muscles along the legs let me going up

and showing this kind of bone up here

okay maybe this one kind of comes off to

the back here and just getting those

kind of large shapes built in here okay

I can do the same thing up here on the

front

arms okay if we want to add some

musculature up here just kind of using

that bulge to build that in okay same

thing on the neck we get that those

muscles built in we'll just kind of

sculpt those down from the base of the

head okay

so just start to use that to come in and

do that now if we want to modify the

shape as far as you know larger scale

shapes we can go ahead and use the grab

tool a grab will allow us to click on

part of a model and then actually pull

it up so we're not actually stroking

across the model we're actually clicking

and dragging so for instance if I want

to pull this brow out I can do that if I

want to take this part of the head and

kind of pull it out I can do that to do

any sort of shaping that I want to hear

and a lot of times this will work well

on lower resolutions with lower

subdivision levels but we can do it here

at a level that we're working at right

now as well okay so any kind of changes

to the shape that you want to make you

can do that there all right another

option that we can use is the knife and

that will be good for adding things like

wrinkles and this has a built in stamp

if we take a look over here it's

actually using a stamp image so if we

take a look at this let's go ahead and

dial our brush size down it's actually

cutting in this we may be able to view

this a little bit better if we go ahead

and subdivide one more time so we'll go

ahead and subdivide our geometry once

again okay and now you can see that were

actually creating these sort of wrinkles

and cuts into the surface and this is

good for defining some of these

different areas maybe we want to use it

to just define our musculature a little

bit more okay you can use it to define

wrinkles for instance along the tail if

we want to go ahead and start to build

in some wrinkles we can just kind of

drag those across okay if we want to get

a nice straight line if we don't want to

have it all curved like that we can also

use our steady stroke which will just

give us a nice straight stroke in this

case it may not be what we want but

there may be

instances where we want to have kind of

a little bit more control over the curve

that we use so we can use steady stroke

for that we also have the Stamp spacing

Watch video from 09:00 - 12:00

which we'll look at in a second just

kind of how far part of the how far

apart rather those stamps are spaced

let's go ahead and start to define some

of the areas up here we can do that with

our knife a little bit more I can also

use it here on our mouth to kind of cut

that area in a little bit just to give

us a little bit more definition on that

mouth okay so as we come in you can see

how it creates a little bit more of that

sharp look there okay now rather than

pulling detail up it can also add

material and we can do that using wax so

what this will do if we go in here for

instance along the mouth and we go ahead

and get brush size down change or fall

off a little bit and so you can see we

can start to add material to this so

it's a little bit of a different effect

than we would get with our sculpt we can

start to add material in here on top of

this and this is often a good way to

start to block in block in detail on top

of things so it's a little bit more akin

maybe to some traditional methods we're

going in and just layering material on

top of this sculpt so coming in here

maybe defining where we want this

structure to be coming down here we can

still go in and with shift kind of

smooth that out if we want to you can

see how we get a little bit of an edge

on our stroke when we do it this way we

can go in and just smooth that out okay

let's use our sculpt go back and forth

here we'll kind of pull that in a little

bit okay kind of sculpt a structure for

the eye here okay and if we want to kind

of move this down a little we can do

that

a little bit of a bigger area down

underneath the I custom of that add a

little okay we can use our bulge to go

in and bring our eye out a little bit so

I'll just bulge that eye up smooth it

out a little okay you can see how that's

starting to overlap a little bit so we

can always go back and just kind of

smooth that out and some overlap maybe

okay if we're working with something

like the eye okay and you can see how

that's a little bit misshapen so you can

go ahead and just kind of smooth that

back out a little bit okay

and then if you want to start to add a

little bit more detail down here go in

with your knife and define that a little

bit more you can do that as well okay

and now here up at this upper level we

Watch video from 12:00 - 15:00

can start to get a little bit more

detail in here now if we want to start

to add and you know skin detail on this

and not be something we would add after

we got all the structure added we could

also use stamps and stencils so we could

come in here for instance grab one of

these stamps so let's say this

particular stamp okay and so now when we

come in let's go ahead and and that up

if we drag across this you can see that

our stroke is now using this stamp just

like that now if we want to randomize

our stamp we can choose random and that

will randomize it using the different

values here rotation movement and you

can see how that gives us a more random

effect and if we want to actually space

it out a little bit more will change our

stamp spacing so you can see how that

spaces those out a bit more go ahead and

increase that so you can see how those

aren't even touching anymore so just

depend on depending on the effect that

you want to get we can grab maybe a

different stamp and just maybe start to

add a little bit of roughness

to the skin okay so we can do that as

well we can also go in and use a stencil

so to turn our stamp off we can use a

stencil to come in and let's go ahead

and grab maybe some of this skin here

and so just for instance here on along

the leg to move the stencil around we

just hold down s drag to rotate it

little mouse to go in and out and our

right Mouse actually a right Mouse to go

in and out middle Mouse to move it

around get it into position and then we

can actually paint through this so as we

sculpt it's actually sculpting through

that image and it disappears you can see

there but we can actually sculpt through

that to get a little bit of detail okay

to turn that stencil off just turn it

off you can also maybe sculpt through a

little bit of a division here dividing

line along the belly and then let's use

our fall-off to create some of these

wrinkles down here so as our skin comes

down along here we can kind of start to

add some of these some of these wrinkles

okay I get some of those dots we can

play with our stamp spacing a little bit

more making sure that it's not too far

apart there okay and you can alternate

between pushing in pulling out to get

that sort of wrinkle effect on the

bottom alright so there are a number of

different effects that you can get using

a number of different sculpt tools here

so just go through have a little fun

build out some of the musculature of

this use the knife to kind of bring in

some wrinkling and define some of these

areas a little bit more refined the head

a little bit you can also come in if you

use the pinch if you've got some areas

Watch video from 15:00 - 18:00

you want to tighten up you can pinch

those and then I'll kind of tighten

those areas up a little bit okay going

in and then maybe using wax to come in

and add some additional detail up here

and as I said it's not really important

that yours look just the same we'll go

ahead and sculpt up a finished t-rex

here with all of the lot of the detail

and

and then in the next lesson we'll look

at using sculpt layers to really

customize our workflow so we'll look at

that next