Creating a Super Girl Character: Part 3

Final product image — What You'll Be Creating

1. Sculpting Hands

Step 1

Start Z Brush and open the file which was saved in the last part of the tutorial. Insert acube from Subtool > Insert, and place and scale to the palm’s position as shown in the following image.

Step 2

Hold Shiftkey to smooth the edges.

Step 3

Go to Geometry and click on DynaMesh with Resolution as 64 to fix the uneven topology.

Step 4

Insertanother cube as the index finger as shown in the following image.

Step 5

Repeat Step4 for middle, ring and pinky finger.

Step 6

Backto index finger and press Ctrl-D to subdivide. Then hold Ctrl button, draw a box tomask the distal phalanx (fingertip segment) as shown in the following image.

Step 7

HoldCtrl and click on the canvas out of the model to reverse the mask.

Step 8

Press E forrotate tool. Hold Alt button and move the pivot to finger’s joint position,then rotate a little downward at Z axis. This step is to help you to determine thefinger’s segments more clearly.

Step 9

RepeatStep 6-8 for middle phalanx.

Step 10

Deletelower subdivision from Geometry > Del Lower. Go to Geometry and click on DynaMesh at Resolution as 128.

Step 11

Use Move brush (B-M-V) and Pinch brush (B-P-i) to shape the finger.

Step 12

Duplicatethe index finger, then place and scale to middle, ring and pinky finger.

Step 13

Inserta cube, place and scale to thumb’s position.

Step 14

Go to Geometry and click on DynaMesh at Resolution as 128, then hold Shift button tosmooth the edges.

Step 15

Use Move brush (B-M-V) and Pinch brush (B-P-i) to shape the thumb.

Step 16

Mergeall hand meshes into one.

Step 17

Go to Geometry and click on DynaMesh at Resolution as 176.

Step 18

Go to PolyGroups > AutoGroups.

Step 19

HoldShift button to smooth the surface.

Step 20

Continueshaping the hand with Move brush (B-M-V) and ClayBuildUp brush (B-C-B).

Step 21

Use DamStandard brush (B-D-S) to sculpt out the joint line, ClayBuildUp brush(B-C-B) to sculpt the structure of palm.

Step 22

Duplicate and mirror the hand to the opposite side then merge them together. That completes the sculpting.

2. Setting Up in Maya

Step 1

Beforemoving to Maya, you need to export the meshes for re-topology. You should have four meshes which are body, ears,eyeballs and hands. You may rename the meshes by clicking Rename.

Step 2

Checkall the meshes, if they have subdivision level, reduce to the lowestsubdivision by pressing Shift-D. This is to prevent laggy when you import themeshes to Maya.

Step 3

Fromthe right hand side, export your model one by one in Obj file format by clicking the Export.

Step 4

Beforegetting start, you'll need to set a project. Open Maya > File > ProjectWindow.

Step 5

Create a New_Project file as shown in the following image.

Step 6

Go to Windows menu and click on Outliner to open it. Alternatively, you can click on its icon as shown in the following image.

Step 7

Go to Display > Heads Up Display >Poly Count. This is toshow the poly count of your objects, by default, it will appear on left in yourscene.

Step 8

Go to File> Import to import all the obj files which you exported from Z Brush justnow. (You can only import one by one in Maya).

Step 9

Ifyou found the model is not one object, select the body parts and go to Mesh >Combine. Repeat this step for the head as well.

Step 10

Double-click the object in Outliner to rename it.

Step 11

With all meshes selected, go to Edit > Group to group them together. Alternatively, press Ctrl-G.

Step 12

Whenyou move closer, you'll see that the model is not smooth but jagged.

Step 13

With the model selected, go to Mesh Display > Soften Edge. Do the same for other meshes too.

Step 14

For moreconvenient, create a shortcut by clicking the small icon fromShelf Tabs > New Shelf.

Step 15

Enterthe shelf’s name, then press OK.

Step 16

Nowyou'll have an empty shelf tab.

Step 17

Byholding Shift-Ctrl, click on the tool that you want to add as shortcut. (E.g.:soften edge, combine, smooth…)

Step 18

Turnon anti-aliasing for smoother view.

Step 19

Sincethe model is not on top of the grid, press W for move tool, select the group andmove upward at Y-axis. Ensure the feet are on the grid.

Step 20

Selectthe perspective camera from Outliner (named persp), set the focal length to 88,this number is the closest focal length to human eyes.

Step 21

Whatyou imported from Z Brush are very small. You need to scale the model to 1:1 ratiocompare to the real life ratio. Let say, this character is 165cm, create a cube as aguide from Create > Polygon Primitives > Cube.