first new character

This is my first finished character since my new laptop. I'm generally happy with it but since I'm settling into the new method and the process I'm sure I'l look back in a few weeks and find massive fault with it but in my eyes that's a good thing. If I went along thinking my work was great and being unable to see faults i would never improve.

The new improved method!

This head was created in 2 and a half hours the old fashioned strip modelling method would have taken alot longer and probably would have been less physically accurate this is proof that this method is better than the previous.

Whilst my laptop was down....

during the time between laptops I had to do something. So draw and sculpt and make things was on the the agenda:

This was drawn after i watched the video by feng zhu on drawing.

This is a speed sketch I was experimenting with fast rendering techniques.

This is a sculpey model of the 3d dreaded women  i made the chair is currently unfinished but the model is something i am proud of.

Since playing this game http://www.slenderarrival.com/ I have become obsessed with slender man so heres a drawing:

Slender man

Speed paint over the space of 3 days at 15 minutes a go

New work process try it..

Well recently my good friend Arron was singing the praises of starting the modelling process in z-brush as opposed to the long drawn out task of starting from complete scratch in max. Now naturally i was a bit dubious as this has been a tried and tested method and has worked well for me. However I thought id give it a go (not least because z brush was the only programme on my new laptop at the time), and he was right this was the recent flow i used:

1)use z spheres for basic shape
2) sculpt in all the details at high poly (this would include all the detail of normal map creation)
3)Decimate model
4)Export to 3d coat (excellent programme) and create a low poly mesh using the decimated mesh as reference  then export the low poly model for unwrapping in max. you can also bake a diffuse map in 3d coat at this point if you've painted your decimated z brush model.
5)I at this point went back to z brush and exported the un-decimated model for normal map baking in max, and because it was just a head max took it well, but other wise id think again.

This is where i am now:

This is obviously unfinished but i am liking this process its faster and the benefits of taking the low poly from the high instead of the other way round has clear benefits. I've also found that instead of worrying about sculpting too heavily on a mesh in z brush that's taken from max, I am free to sculpt as heavily or lightly as is needed.
However I will say that for all people who want to create characters that starting from scratch with nothing in max is the best way to learn topology nd to understand how the face is shaped so that sculpting then becomes easier. In this instance im glad I started in max as sculpting in z brush and then retopologising in 3d coat came easilly to me.

Huge setbacks and the discovery of Feng Zhu

Well i have just had the largest setback I think il ever have. My computer almost literally died after i, quote "spent 3 years running it to death" Im currently trying to retrieve my programmes and although I backup all of my work on a monthly basis a back up was actually due when it broke. So I am also having someone try to retrieve my work as well, because anyone who has had max crash on them will tell you alot can happen in three minutes alot more can happen in a month.
There are upsides to this incident however, its become obvious I have been neglecting drawing which is a bad move so I have been sketching anything and everything.

Recently I was told about an amazing designer Feng Zhu  by a good friend of mine. In this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDNhFLcsgh8 Feng Zhu explains the usual types of drawing techniques (drawing from eye, grid etc) and a fourth thinking of objects in 3d space. This video has been revolutionary to me and even in such a short space of time i have seen a vast improvement in my work, instead of just mindlessly drawing without a second thought I can now visualize the shapes and forms of the objects i draw.
This technique i suspect will help with perspective, posing of characters and the weight behind a characters clothing and movement.

Biker- 2nd feb

This is a current render of the model as is:

In the interest of trying to create an as acurate as I can skin texture usig the ss skin shader I have also plugged in an epidermal and subdermal skin texture. Im happy with the texture in an ideal world Id like it to be clearer however because I have the entire body on the the same texture this will generally be the outcome.
There also seems to be an odd lighting problem with the teeth and around the eye which I will go back and fix.