Hard Surface
Since my last post I noted that the next step I needed to take was hard surface sculpting in Maya. That was the first thing I worked on last week. I took an arm base and I sliced off the leg of my base mesh to use for proportion. This method ended up working very well for me, as things where easier to get into the shape that I wanted and they transferred from Maya to Zbrush easily. I do need to use the smooth function and reimport them though because currently in ZBrush I can still see the individual polys. There was also some weirdness where the mesh would import with holes in it but the close holes function seemed to fix that issue.
Going back to ZBrush
Things came together beautifully when they were imported into ZBrush. The arms looked exactly like I wanted them too, and her having the arms really made the sculpt start to look like the finished product in my head. I also went back into Maya to model the neck piece which will also need to be smoothed out. The other details I worked on where the hair and the cloth.
The hair and the cloth still need more refining. I also sculpted more parts on the base mesh to be more mechanical separations. They look fine for now, but I think I will need to go back over them with an alpha or something to make them look more sharp. The cloth is still way too lumpy, and it just needs to be worked on more. I think I will use some cloth simulation on it, though I want the drapery to have that distinct swoosh it has in the concept art, so that will likely have to be wrestled with mostly by hand.
I also have the leg piece in place, it just won't be able to be seen until the texturing is done. The reason the foot is still unrefined was I was still trying to figure out what to do with it.
I decided I will hard model the foot and just slice off the sculpted foot. I also have a better idea for how the foot will look because that part of my concept was a bit underdeveloped.
Here is the turnaround video of my sculpt so far:
Next Steps
What I will be focusing on this week is creating all modeled assets. That right now includes the beaded wires and feet for the sculpt, props, and the model stand. Optimistically, I'd like all of those assets to be finished and refined but most likely they will need more refinement next week. I will also be taking some time this week to work on the cloth on the sculpt. Overall, this week will be making the final bits for the sculpt and refining them as much as I can before next week.