Wednesday, May 23, 2007

MEASURE- AND FIND THE CENTER

In addition to measuring, we gotta’ find the center of things!
The head and face are a good place to find center with this sculpt.
Eye position, the nose, and the way his hairline comes to a peak.
Not only are these good landmarks to keep all of the features in proportion, but also if these things are off center, the asymmetry will be glaring!

Sometimes in the excitement of sculpting a character, the alignments can get out of whack. Getting to focused in one area and not seeing the big picture.


Adding lines can show how off a sketch can be. But also help to figure out how to re-align and straighten things out.



Using a tool just to get a centerline view for lining up the ear positions. The head was further along in this picture. But imagine you still have that rough form with the horizontal & vertical centerlines.





Now after all this talk of keeping things sooooo symmetrical, I believe that features not being always exactly perfect are what give a sculpture character. That is what separates the human sculptors from robots. There are many great sculpts created in the digital medium. And In the vinyl toy world some designs lend themselves to 3D Modeling, much more then others. Perfectly smooth, round, geometric shapes work well. When it comes to complex character, with attitude and feeling, you need the human touch. People who sculpt well with their hands can translate it well to a computer program. In the future we will put on our creativity helmets that are directly wired into the rapid prototyping machine, and just think of the figure as it rises up out of the liquid resin!

6 comments:

Klim said...

Nice work dave

great to see the process
if you have not done 3D yourself you should try it
the best work is doen by people that really understand sculpting and dynamics....


Great stuff

Klim

Dave Pressler said...

I agree the 3D work I've seen is by good phsical sculptors. I want to try it but time is always a factor.

I've taken on quite a few jobs fixing
sculpts that were from 3D and not quite right. Z Brush is the only program I've checked out and thought was the most tactile.

Dave Pressler said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Klim said...

Zbrush is awesome..
I have not sculpted anything in years most of my "sculpting is done with a pen and paper /phone calls and althoug i miss the feel of clay on my hands and dust in my lungs
I am able to manage 10 projects at the same time it takes to do one...

you comin to SDCC?

Dave Pressler said...

I will be at SDCC!
Probably have new things at the
Munky King booth.

Klim said...

like this monkey sculpt????

I will have to come over and break you knuckles
cause you make everyone else look sooooooo bad...
see you there!!!

K