Character Facial Sculpting

Master sculpting organic forms, developing a level of awareness

Artistic & Structural Concepts
Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Forms
Landmarks Of The Face
Presentation

What You’ll Learn

The course will go through the full process of modeling and sculpting the human face, starting with collecting references, block out, establishing core features, adding proper forms. Moving into lighting and presenting to highlight all the sculpted forms. The emphasis throughout the course will be on addressing the nuances of forms, structures, micro details, workflow and presentation.

By the end of the course, students will have understood a deep level of facial anatomy. They should also have gained knowledge on how to troubleshoot new problems or tasks.

This workshop on Face Sculpting will consist of six modules of live sessions. You’ll learn core character design skills and workflows and be part of a community of artists working to achieve next level quality in their work.

By the end of the workshop you'll:

Have developed an understanding of the facial anatomical structure.
Understanding and analyzing organic forms.
Have mastered the pipeline for facial details.
Have created your own unique facial sculpt.

COURSE FORMAT: Standard Live

LECTURE TYPE: Live

FEEDBACK: Live Interactive Open Group

DURATION: 6 weeks

ASSIGNMENTS: Due each week. Expect to spend 10-20 hrs/wk viewing lectures, q&a, and time on assignments

MATERIALS: Photoshop, ZBrush and 3D packages such as Maya, 3Dsmax, Modo, or else should be known to follow along

SKILLS LEVEL: Beginner to Intermediate

PREREQUISITES: Preliminary knowledge of 3D Software Packages

Curriculum

Week 1

Artistic Concepts & Best practices

We will go through some basic artistic/sculptural concepts and then quickly apply them into a human skull study. Reduce decision making; Spell out the concept.

Week 2

Facial Development

Establishing Planes of the face. The primary silhouette and structure for the face alongside of determining the core features, includes; shape of nose, eyes, ear, mouth, etc based on concept.

Week 3

Sculpting Secondary Forms

Using various methods to capture the likeness of the concept, such as capturing highlights and shadows from different angles and lighting scenarios.

Week 4

Advanced Secondary Forms

The focus will be going over adding asymmetry to the model by implementing a fat layer, big scale imperfection, facial feature asymmetry, and head posing.

Week 5

Detailing

Wrinkles & Pores details; Micro details; Imperfections. Finalize it according to concept.

Week 6

Presentation

Basic Lighting Theory. Designing Lighting Styles Specific To Your Project to highlight all the sculpted forms. Bring all of your Elements to life.

Fabio Paiva

A brazilian artist currently working at Weta Workshop as a senior digital sculptor. Previous experiences include Weta Digital as a modeller and many other game companies as a freelance 3D modeller.