# My best sculpt so far



## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

I think I can finally say I nailed one. At least, I like it


----------



## BigRedOne (Dec 13, 2012)

That does look nice. I think now he needs a lady friend to accompany him on his wild misadventures ...


----------



## VictorSpear (Oct 19, 2011)

Awesome, simply awesome ! From the slight pot belly, the precise tilt of the head, the slight glare on the face, the fingers in perfect human contour, the trousers lightly touseled ...no detail spared...a masterpiece it is.


Cheers
Victor


----------



## tj-lee (Jan 2, 2008)

You are really amazingly talented! Incredible figure. 

Best, 
TJ


----------



## GaryR (Feb 6, 2010)

That's not just a figure, that's a work of art! 

GaryR


----------



## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks everyone. I do like what I've done here.


----------



## RP3 (Jan 5, 2008)

All you need now is to do a Captain Hastings! An outstanding job. 

Ross Schlabach


----------



## jimtyp (Jan 2, 2008)

Excellent! I hope your going to be making him in 1:20.3  You have real talent!


----------



## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

I have enjoyed seeing this guy come along Richard...he is excellent! Have you sculpted him from scratch or started with a figure like those in "Makehuman"?


----------



## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By Phippsburg Eric on 11 Apr 2013 06:16 PM 
I have enjoyed seeing this guy come along Richard...he is excellent! Have you sculpted him from scratch or started with a figure like those in "Makehuman"? Wow,,, what a coincidence. Today is the first time I heard of Makehuman. I don't see any enjoyment in sculpting something that is already sculpted, so I do it from scratch. Here is a short video of how I start the armature.



I start with this armature that I made. Then I sculpt the head like I do in this video of an upcoming xmas figure of Santa.



Hope that answers your question.


----------



## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

LOL I should have known ... that was a foolish question as I KNOW you are a fully professional sculptor! 

do you sculpt a head in scultris the add it to a body you made up with peices in the meshmaster or do you work out the whole figure in sculptris as a single unit?

I did this figure using "Makehuman" to see how it worked. It is definitely cheating but you do have some control over body type and facial features in a fairly easy to do way. I thought of it as a way to get a basic figure which could be worked on easily to person-alize and dress.
I then dressed her and added hair in "sculptris" which is an interesting program and very powerful but it is more like working clay than anything else...much more artistic skill is needed. 

I guess she would need to be rigged to be posed? is that how you work? Do you think this basic figure would transfer well?


----------



## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By Phippsburg Eric on 12 Apr 2013 09:11 AM 
LOL I should have known ... that was a foolish question as I KNOW you are a fully professional sculptor! 

do you sculpt a head in scultris the add it to a body you made up with peices in the meshmaster or do you work out the whole figure in sculptris as a single unit?

I did this figure using "Makehuman" to see how it worked. It is definitely cheating but you do have some control over body type and facial features in a fairly easy to do way. I thought of it as a way to get a basic figure which could be worked on easily to person-alize and dress.
I then dressed her and added hair in "sculptris" which is an interesting program and very powerful but it is more like working clay than anything else...much more artistic skill is needed. 

I guess she would need to be rigged to be posed? is that how you work? Do you think this basic figure would transfer well? 










Yes, pretty much Eric. If you look at the videos it shows my process from start to finish. The only thing left out is how I attach the head. I'll make another vid when I get time and demonstrate that. I do it that way as sometimes the arms and body get in the way escpecially for areas under the chin and ears. I also find that movement gets a little jerky if you want to get really close to the face and have a body attached. I think most 3d modeling tools change the way you incrementally translate the camera to view the object based on the object size. Sculptirs can add a whole butt load of detail. When I first got it I actuall did hair folicals, but the head was over 1 million polygons and impossible to work with after that. I dare say you could get down to the cellular level with this program, nothing you would ever be able to do with clay.


----------



## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

i did some more fiddling with my Gymnast freind and came upon your difficulty at getting to tight spaces. It was also hard to take the foot and change it into a shoe. even making the dress longer was difficult and took a long time. one weird thing that happened as I was working on the skirt and to some extent the shoes is that i sometimes (expecially along the mirror line) ended up with artifacts which seemed to be the surfaces overlapping each other...hard to deal with and clean up. 

I am just playing and learning, I still find Sculpy cheap and fun to use!


----------



## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

I've found that you can't make realistic shoes in Sculptris. You need to go to DAZ3D and see if DAZ3d studio comes free with Hexagon still. I start with the sole of one shoe (left) first by construction a set of planes that are shaped like the sole. I teselate each plane and then export to an wave front obj file. I open that file in Meshmixer and select all its surfaces and extrude it so that it is thick. Then I export the sole again to a wavefront object file and open it again with Hexagon. I use the edge tools to select the top edge and create a sharp radius on it. (you might need to practice this a few time to get the right values on the radius) and then export again to a waverfront object file. 

I open it again in Meshmixer. I select just the top of the sole as close to the edge as possible but leaving a few polygons around the edge to make a difference. To make sure you do that go to the go to the view tab at the top of the app and select toggle wire frame. This will show you the polys. After I have carefull selected the correct polygons I go to the modify tab that opens at the top of the app and select smooth boundries. To the right tool bar there is an option called ROI or somthing like that. It is the range of influence. I turn that down to 0. and hit accept. You should have a smooth even selected area that you extrude and transform step after step to make a good shoe. This takes time and patience. If you come up with a better way share it.
After I have made my shoe, I open my figure in meshmixer append then I import my shoe in with the figure, move it into place and then mirror it to the other side and move the other side into place. Once they are aligned properly I attach the shoes to the figure and get rid of the feet al together. You can't make shoes from the feet,,, unless you have feet with no toes. I made toes on my default mesh because its easier to have toes already than to make them everytime you need them.


----------



## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

That is some really cool looking stuff!! How do you get from there to an actual figure, do you use a 3D printer? I love your figures and wish I could afford them.


----------



## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By placitassteam on 17 Apr 2013 05:44 PM 
That is some really cool looking stuff!! How do you get from there to an actual figure, do you use a 3D printer? I love your figures and wish I could afford them. 
I have them printed at shapeways. They are the most affordable place I've found, but not the best. You have a lot of cleaning up to do after a shapeways print. Mostly wax and support material, but the support material is usually on the most detailed parts of figure and require hours of patient cleaning to get the material off without removing the detail.


----------



## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Very nice!


----------



## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Finally finished painting him and took this photo. I think my photographic skills are getting better than my painting skills.


----------



## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Doctor Jones, I presume?


----------



## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Beautiful work, as always! 
So you make the master using, what, SLA? And then a silicone mold from that?


----------



## chuckger (Jan 2, 2008)

Kind of reminds me of FDR if he had a pair of glasses. Very nice figure. 

Chuck


----------



## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

I will be doing an FDR in the future, but this is most definitely not him. Cliff, I'm not familiar with the acronym SLA except as it as it applies to vendor contracts (service level agreement).


----------



## Belg (Sep 17, 2013)

*Hercule Perot'* , I have nothing to compare to as this is your first work I've seen and you have NAILED it. Great job, what scale do you work in? Pat


----------



## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

I work in 1:1 scale and reduce it on a 3D printer to any scale I like I have this one in 1:20.32 scale castings and I had a 7/8th scale print made for myself.


----------



## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Posted By rkapuaala on 23 Sep 2013 08:57 AM 
I will be doing an FDR in the future, but this is most definitely not him. Cliff, I'm not familiar with the acronym SLA except as it as it applies to vendor contracts (service level agreement). Sorry, short for "stereolithography" I think. What I meant was, are you having masters made, and then making your own silicone molds? Are are you making the figures directly via some rapid-prototype process (e.g., SLA, your own 3D printer) or another?

Just curious, your detail is finer than what I'd expect from "personal" 3D printers and what I've gotten from the SLA provider I've used.
Cliff


----------



## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Hmmm, I always thought the acronym was STL; goes to show how much I know. I do the sculpts and send them off to Shapeways who does the printing. They send me back the prototype that I clean, and level and sometimes I add additional details to it with wax and then make the molds. There are some really good personal printers on the market now if you have the money, but they are 3k plus and the build size is too small for my needs and the print speed is too slow and the materials are to costly. Its more cost effective right now to go to shapeways and have them print at their highest resolution material which is called Frosted Ultra Detail.


----------



## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

I think SLA is the process, STL is the file type used. Anyway, it's nice to see such fine details in the results you're achieving 
Your process is truly a great blend of technology, art and craftsmanship -- and economy!


----------



## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks for the compliments. What does the A stand for in SLA?


----------



## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

According to this site, "Apparatus." 
http://www.xpress3d.com/sla.aspx 

Kinda lame, ha ha!


----------



## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Oh. Sounds like a more appropriate acronym for the machine rather than the process. Maybe SLP or SLR for stereo lithographic prototyping or stereo lithographic reproduction?


----------

