How to design Fur

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dturk
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How to design Fur

Post by dturk »

With Becky's help at the last user meeting in Orlando, I'm able to design and model atomically correct models from vectors. As shown by the picture below, texturing the model. If you look carefully at Vectric 3d model 57178, the designer did an excellent job of laying the hair down correctly on the model. I have tried sculpting it with the narrow remove brush, but it looks childish and not correct.

So the question I have is how to put realism in sculptures. Thus moving them from a carton layout to a more realistic and natural layout.
shaded Image.gif

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Adrian
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Re: How to design Fur

Post by Adrian »

Have a look at this tutorial - http://support.vectric.com/tutorials/V8 ... 3DMOD.html

I'm guessing, as I'm no 3D expert, but it might be that the fur/hair is done using a similar technique to that although I do know a lot of the commercial 3D models are actually clay models that have been scanned rather than created from scratch in software.

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Re: How to design Fur

Post by mtylerfl »

It helps to use a pen tablet when doing hair and fur. It's easier to control. Here's some random tips...

1) Have several good reference photos of your subject to look at, as you go. This helps guide you for the "flow" of hair/fur over an animal's body

2) Sculpting hair usually involves several sculpting tools - remove, add, smooth, smudge and changing between high/low/normal modes

3) I change the cursor diameter and tool strength frequently during sculpting. I use the up/down and left/right arrow key shortcuts a LOT during sculpting. I also change the smoothness of the cursor when appropriate for sharp or smooth edges.

4) Your model looks a bit too flat to me. Try "rounding/puffing up" the model a little to get more natural-looking underlayment body shapes. This can be helpful before starting hair/fur sculpting.

5) You don't HAVE to sculpt every strand of hair/fur! A "suggestion" of fur is usually better. Look at some more of the animal models on the VA3D website. You'll see examples of "detailed fur" and "suggested fur". I struggle with the choice when I do animal models, and usually put in more detail than required. Don't know if I'll ever break that habit.
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dturk
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Re: How to design Fur

Post by dturk »

Thank you Adrian for your reply. I had forgot about Becky's tutorial. As shown below, the challenge that I'm facing is that I'm creating the model from hand drawn vectors and it is difficult to find bitmaps of what I'm building. As shown in the second picture, I want the drawing to be appear to be natural. The final solution will be a door panel.
BEAR002.gif
BEAR10001.gif

dturk
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Re: How to design Fur

Post by dturk »

Thanks Michael, second set of eyes are always good. I was planning to go back and put in the muscle layer with sculpturing the model. When I went back and tried it, you were correct the model was not deep enough.

I have never used the high/low/normal modes, do you have any suggestions?

I have been using mostly carving books and videos, do you know of any sculpturing tutorial's or books that may help or Vectric videos?

Thanks again

Daryl

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mtylerfl
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Re: How to design Fur

Post by mtylerfl »

dturk wrote:Thanks Michael, second set of eyes are always good. I was planning to go back and put in the muscle layer with sculpturing the model. When I went back and tried it, you were correct the model was not deep enough.

I have never used the high/low/normal modes, do you have any suggestions?

I have been using mostly carving books and videos, do you know of any sculpturing tutorial's or books that may help or Vectric videos?

Thanks again

Daryl
Hi Daryl,

The lioness video goes over some of the Sculpting procedures, and that may be helpful for you to watch. Here is the link:
http://support.vectric.com/tutorials/V8 ... 3DMOD.html

I don't recall whether any of the videos show the use of high/low/normal modes. Maybe somebody else can remember which (or if any) of them show that. In any case, you may want to just experiment with the high/low/normal modes settings (as well as the cursor smoothness settings) on a "scrap" model to get a feel for them. I use them so often that it's become an intuitive process more than a conscious one. (Prior to Aspire, I had previous experience with a brand-x CAM modeling software which may have contributed to this.)

One way to describe "serious sculpting" is it's a progression of personal experience...the more you use the sculpting tools, the more comfortable and skilled you become. I feel I'm still learning something new with each model. I know I can be better with the next, and the next...
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dturk
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Re: How to design Fur

Post by dturk »

Again struggling with the fur; As shown by the enclosed photo, in hand carving -- fur striations are added via cone shaped power tool. By using the sculpting tools or a bit-map is there any way to simulate using cone shaped power tool. I have tried the templates, but I have not been real happy with the results. Another thought has occurred to me is their to use the stl export function and carve the final model through another package.

Daryl.
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dturk
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Re: How to design Fur

Post by dturk »

I would like to update the post and close out the post. First of all, I want to thank everyone for sharing their ideas.

So I could get paid and deliver the project to the customer -- I took the following Steps:

1. I created an STL object which imported into Aspire.
2. The software I used to create the object was Pixologic's Zbrush product. The learning curve was very steep and the sizing was a challenge. With the software, it was very easy to add additional detail -- that was not achievable in the finished CNC solution. In some cases, I was down to a 0.05 mm router bit.

3. With time constraints and detail constraints, I decided to reduce the detail of the final delivered project and increase the size of the project.

4. The final solution was limited by the Size of the project.

Since my first custom project. I use this process a lot. I tend to follow a lot of the Russian sculptures and designers for my commisioned works. Over the past six months, I have been trying to recreate this project in wood for a customer -- http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread ... ight=jesus

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Re: How to design Fur

Post by Leo »

Also here with NO experience at all in this.

Just a thought ---

Some of the textures, included with aspire, like grasses, or graining of sorts? Possibly to lay over the base model, then distort to offer up the suggested look? May need to be done in patches to get the "lay" correct.
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