Abstract
This article focuses on organic sculptural forms and the artistic approach to creating sculptural solutions using the user interface and current industry standards of digital sculpting software, specifically ZBrush.
The work follows the methodology of sculpting through primary, secondary, and tertiary forms. Through various sculptural solutions, the article examines and reflects on form in an artistic way, considering shape characteristics, primary forms, and silhouette.
Student: Albert Gregl
Mentor: doc. dr. sc. Winton Afrić
1. The Role of Individual Segments in Digital Forms
For example, let's consider the sculptural solution of a human skull or head as described in the book [Portrait Sculpting: Anatomy & Expressions in Clay by Philippe Faraut].
We begin the creation of a digital sculpture in the same way—by starting with the creation of a sphere (Image 1), similar to how one would use a ball of clay to create a non-digital head.
This sphere contains a minimal number of polygons that will represent the primary forms and silhouette. As we start resolving the secondary forms of the head, the need for a higher resolution in the digital form arises. To increase the resolution, its geometry is divided into 'SubDivisionLevels'.
For instance, the initial sphere contains 2800 vertices, while the fourth level ('SDiv 4') can have 180000 vertices. The more vertices (or polygons) we have, the more details we can represent. The created sphere essentially represents one 'Subtool'.
Image 2 shows a head modeled from a sphere, along with additional 'Subtools', i.e., pieces of geometry representing the eyes, teeth, and jewelry in this example. The reason for dividing the sculpture into multiple 'Subtools' is to make it easier to shape individual pieces of geometry.
On the right side of Image 2, we see the details of the teeth, with each pair of teeth marked in a different color representing a separate 'Polygroup'. Both 'Polygroup' and 'Subtool' are used to organize pieces of geometry, and such division makes it easier to manipulate in 3D space, e.g., adding materials, colors, and basic transformations.
The difference between 'Polygroup' and 'Subtool': 'Subtools' create separate pieces of geometry, while 'Polygroups' create separate areas of geometry and/or individual pieces of geometry.
This is final look on first project that is demonstrating the roles of individual segments in digital form.