http://www.facebook.

com/dayyy111/

https://twitter.com/day133513636

http://www.kickstarter.com/profile/1222617343

[email protected]

2
Hello and welcome to the core modelling miniatures guide.
This is the first tutorial I have written and includes a comprehensive over view of the
Sculptris software as well as an introduction to my modelling method.

This guide takes everything step by step and by the end of it you will have created a
template figure which you can pose, change and use again and again

I am a novice, not an expert and I am hoping that this guide will help other novice model-
lers to learn their own methods and develop their own skills and their own style.

I would welcome any feedback and I would love to see some of the models people create.
If you know anyone who may be interested in this tutorial, please point them my way,
there is a free sample version on my Facebook page which contains the first four chap-
ters.
The best place to contact me or see what I’m up to is through my Day1 Facebook page.
Enjoy

http://www.facebook.com/dayyy111/

3
Lesson one : Sculptris Lesson two : Dwarves Lesson three :
9 Installing 46 Humans

10 Running 47 Size
the processs
11 Moving 48 Appearance 53 Body parts
12 Saving and Loading 49 Demeanor 54 Stance
14 Objects 50 Equipment 54 Pose
17 Global 51 Iconography 55 Other parts
20 Tools 55 Configure
34 Mesh 55 Next steps
42 Hide and Mask

4
 Lesson four : Lesson five : ruler Lesson six : heads
62 Maths 76 Create the main head shapes
creating parts 63 Saving 90 Refine face
57 Create 64 Make your own ruler 96 Refine jaw
58 Scale 98 Refine neck
59 Rough shape 99 Refine eye
60 Rough detail 100 Refine ear

104 Refine nose

105 Refine eyebrow

106 Refine moustache

107 Refine beard

111 Refine hair

112 Finally

5
Lesson seven : stance Lesson eight : pose Lesson nine : hands
115 Pelvis 145 Torso 171 Fingers

121 Upper leg 156 Upper arm 180 Configure hands

131 Lower leg 160 Fore arm

135 Make legs 162 Making arms

139 Configure stances 163 Configure poses

6
Lesson ten : objects Lesson eleven : figures Lesson twelve :
182 Ball 223 Base

183 Disc 225 Configure

final preparations
244 Create an STL File
188 Boot 234 Integrate parts
245 Check object
195 Shield 238 Integrate detail
246 File types
200 Helmet 239 Final detail
247 Where to print
208 Sword
248 Sketchfab
216 Scabbard
250 Shapeways

251 Next steps

7
Lesson one : sculptris
Installing
Running
Moving
Saving and Loading
Objects
Global
Tools
Mesh
Hide and Mask

8
Lesson one : sculptris
Installing
Go to http://pixologic.com/sculptris/
Here you will find info about the Sculptris software and a free download for Win-
dows or Mac.
I’m not connected to Pixologic in any way except that I like their free software
enough to write a tutorial for using it.

Any problems with the software should be addressed directly with them, but I cer-
tainly haven’t had any problems.

Meshmixer is another free software package, this time from Autodesk

Go to http://www.meshmixer.com/

Here you will find info about the Meshmixer software and a free download for
Windows or Mac.
We will use Meshmixer to help us do things that we can’t in Sculptris, such as
creating geometric shapes, combining objects, and fixing models.

Don’t worry, I’ll cover it all as we get to it, but for now you might want to install
the software ready.

9
Lesson one : sculptris
Running

My PC is about five years old and doesn’t even have a separate graphics card and is running on Windows 7.

I find the software runs fine but can crash when the model reaches a high level of detail.
Having said this, it doesn’t happen very often and when the software is restarted the model is restored to the
point directly before the crash so it doesn’t cause much of a problem.

My advice is to save frequently, I usually save every five minutes or so.

So let’s dive straight in, load sculptris and let’s run through the basics

10
Lesson one : sculptris
Moving
Hold down the right mouse button and
move the mouse, this will rotate us
around the object.

We pivot on the point where we click, so

we kind of grab an area of space and
move relative to that.

Now hold down the ALT key and move

again with the right mouse button held,
this time we pan around on a fixed
plane.

Roll the mouse wheel forward to zoom in, roll back to zoom out.

Between these three controls you can move yourself around the 3D model.

It might be confusing at first but your spatial awareness will improve the more you use the software.

Pressing the Z key will snap to the nearest view such as Front, Left or Top.

11
Lesson one : sculptris
Saving and Loading
In the tool pallet on the left you will see the two disc icons for Open and Save.
Because we will create a lot of files, it’s good to have a filename format for example DWARF
HEAD 01, DWARF LOWER ARM 01, then things will be easy to find.

In the tool pallet above the Open and Save icons you will see the Import and Export icons la-
belled OBJ.

These are the same as Open and Save but instead of a Sculptris SC1 file they will load or save as an Object OBJ file.

You get the same options as Open and Save.

An OBJ file can be loaded into other 3D software and uploaded to 3D websites, while the SC1 file can only be used in Sculptris.
I tend to use SC1 to create and work on objects and models and Export the final model to OBJ when it is complete.

Next to the Load and Import icons you will see New Sphere and New Plane.

These work just like Load and Import, but rather than loading a file they load either a sphere or a flat plane.
The flat plane is not much use to us for what we are doing, the only time I will use it is to create our ruler for getting our scale right.

When you load either you are given the same options as when you load from a file.

12
Lesson one : sculptris
Saving and Loading
When we Open a file we are given some choices,
New Scene will close the existing model and load the new file,

if we choose Add Object the new file will be added to the existing model,

it will appear as a sphere in wireframe a bit like the Death Star,

you can move it around and click to place it.

There are two other options to consider here.

Facing camera if checked will load the new model facing your current view,

unchecked it will load facing the front of the existing model.

We can rotate and reposition the object so this doesn’t really matter too much, but that’s what it does.
Don’t resize if checked means that the new file will be loaded at its original size,

unchecked it can load at a different size depending on whether you are zoomed in or out.

Make sure Don’t resize is checked so that each of our files can retain their scale.

13
Lesson one : sculptris
Objects
The sphere you have on screen is an object.

Select the Grab Icon from the tool pallet and

make sure Global is checked on the tool options.

If you click an object it will select it, this is hard to see when you only have one object, so press CTRL C on the keyboard and then
CTRL V.

You get the Death Star object, click the mouse where you want to place it. It’s just copy and paste.

You will no doubt notice the double Death Star, this is because we are in symmetry mode.

Notice the light grey line down the centre of the sphere we started with?

This is a line of symmetry, whatever we do to the right of the line will be mirrored on the left.

14
Lesson one : sculptris
Objects

Press CTRL V again to paste another Now click the Symmetry icon to
CTRL V and now you will just paste
sphere, move to the centre line and the turn symmetry mode off.
one Death Star.
two Death Stars will merge into one.

Just to show you what happens,

turn symmetry mode back on, it
copies the right side onto the
left.

15
Lesson one : sculptris
Objects

Now we have several spheres on screen Click on a sphere to select it, click another to select that.
press CTRL D on the keyboard.
By holding the SHIFT key we can select multiple spheres at once.
They all go darker, we have deselected.
When we are in symmetry mode selecting an object also selects it’s pair.

Deselect them all again with CTRL D.

Each sphere is a separate object, even if they overlap.

We can select multiple objects and copy and paste in the same way we did a single object.

We can also use CTRL X to cut the object or DEL to delete it.

16
Lesson one : sculptris
In the top section of the tool pallet we see the icons for
Global
Rotate, Scale and Grab.

These are all Global operations, this means they affect the entire object selected.

If you have multiple objects selected they will all be affected by the global operations.

Let’s start with Grab, this is used for moving objects around.

When the Grab tool is selected, clicking it again will toggle the Global setting so be
sure to check before you start grabbing.
We want to use the Global operation.
Hold the mouse button to Grab a selected object, release the mouse button to let go of it.

You can use this with the movement controls to move your object around in the 3d space.
Remember you can Grab several objects at once.

Clicking on an object which is not selected will first select it, hold down the SHIFT key to select multiple objects.

Now uncheck the Global setting.

Now the tool focus circle appears over our objects.

Click on the selected object and try to move it, it moves just the area in the tool focus, we’ll come back to this later in the Tools section.

17
Lesson one : sculptris
Next let’s look at Rotate. Global
Click the Rotate icon to select it, remember clicking the icon again will toggle
Global.

Make sure we are in Global mode and select an object.

Hold down the mouse button and a yellow circle appears on the object,
as we move around the circle a line appears and spins round like a compass point,

nothing happens until we move outside of the circle.

When we do the line and circle turn white,

the tool is now active and as we move around the circle the object will rotate with us,
the centre of the circle is the pivot point.

Use Rotate with the movement controls to orient an object correctly within the 3d space.

Again you can use the operation on multiple objects at once.

Note that moving further outside the circle allows you to have finer control over the rotation.
Now uncheck the Global setting and see what happens,

it kind of twists the area in the tool focus,

again we will cover this in the tool section.

18
Lesson one : sculptris
Global

Finally we have Scale which works in much the same way.

In Global mode, dragging the mouse will resize the object,

dragging up or right to increase, down or left to decrease.

We have another option here labelled XYZ, this locks the aspect ratio.

If XYZ is checked the object retains its proportions as we resize,

if unchecked we can use scale to stretch or compress the object.

There is no undo function in Sculptris, so if we mess something up,

it’s often best to just reload the model rather than trying to fix it,

this is why we should save our work frequently.

19
Lesson one : sculptris
Tools
Load a new plane into Sculptris,

this will help us to understand the tools better than the sphere,
also turn off the symmetry so we have a bigger area to work
with.

Select the Draw tool, when we move the cursor over the object
we can see the tool focus circle.

At the top of the screen we have the tool options.

There is a slider for size, changing this will change the size of the tool focus circle,

changing the slider for strength will change the colour of the tool focus circle,

it becomes darker the higher the strength.

20
Lesson one : sculptris
Tools
To use the tool simply click the mouse button and we get a dot.

Now hold the Alt key and click the mouse, it inverts the tool.
We can lock the Alt function by checking the Invert option at the top of the tool options.

If we use invert we can still use the Alt key to un-invert.

I generally ignore this and just use the Alt key.

Notice the Airbrush option at the top of the tool options,

this will highlight when selected and go dim when unselected.

Try holding the mouse with Airbrush turned off, try again with it turned on,
it simply means the tool continually activates

think of it like using a spray can compared with dabbing with a paintbrush.
I generally just keep Airbrush on all the time.
When we hold the mouse and move we draw continually along a line.

21
Lesson one : sculptris
Notice also the Lazy option next to Airbrush, this allows you to follow lines easier. Tools
This is kind of hard to demonstrate because it’s very subtle but we’ll try.

Slide the size to the smallest and draw a wiggly line,

with Lazy option turned off, try to draw over the wiggly line following it exactly.

Now draw a new wiggly line and try the same thing with the Lazy option turned
on,
you should find that you can follow the line a little easier because it compen-
sates when you deviate from the existing line.

Like I say, it’s quite subtle,

I generally keep Lazy option on all the time.

If your plane is getting a bit full, just load a new one up.
Now move your plane about so you are somewhat side on,

draw on the plane and notice that your tool focus tilts to the angle of the plane,

you draw from the angle of the object, not from the angle of your view,

as you move over a 3d object, your tool focus will tilt with the contours of the object.

22
Lesson one : sculptris
Tools
We have another option for the draw tool and that is Clay.

If we select the Clay option we also get the Soft option enabled.
Try drawing with clay deactivated,

then again with it activated both with and without the Soft option,

you may find the effects more noticeable with a larger tool size.
With clay turned off the tool has a greater effect in the centre of the tool focus.
With clay turned on the tool effect is even across the tool focus,

with Soft enabled it is sort of between the two.

To be honest, I can’t see much difference with the Soft option so I ignore it.
Clay also reduces the overall strength of the tool,

so it makes a lower lump than with Clay off.

You’ll find both options useful.

When you draw a line you’ll notice it’s higher at the start and end of the line than the
centre,

if you wish to stop this, try drawing with the Airbrush turned off,
you get a more even line.

23
Lesson one : sculptris
Let’s check out some of the other tools. Tools
Select the Crease tool,

this will score a line in our object,

using the Alt key to invert we can make a raised line.

So it’s like Draw?

Well not quite, try Creasing repeatedly over the same line, it doesn’t really get much deeper.
Now Draw a line with the Clay option,

switch to the Crease tool and invert it with Alt and go over the same line.
It kind of pinches the line together,
but we also have a Pinch tool!

Try drawing two lines with Clay and

two more without Clay.
Now use Pinch on one line,
Okay so the distinction between Crease and Pinch is similar use Alt Crease on the next,
to drawing with and without Clay in that Pinch has a stronger
try each on the without Clay lines.
effect in the centre of the tool focus,
Notice the different effect of each.
also of course Pinch is the inverse of Crease.

24
Lesson one : sculptris
Tools
Now select the Inflate tool, this is my favourite tool,

make sure Airbrush is turned off and click and we make a little hill,
click again and the hill gets bigger,

put the Airbrush back on and use the tool again,

as we expect it continues to get bigger.

Keep inflating and the area inflates to fill the tool focus circle,

if we continue to inflate it reaches full size and then becomes more spherical and actually reduc-
es the size at the lower area to make a tighter sphere.
Now let’s try moving our plane so that we are slightly side on again.

Try using the inflate tool here,

you’ll notice that this starts inflating angled to the plane, but then starts to inflate towards our
view,

this is because as we inflate and raise the surface we change the angle of the plane and the tool
follows this angle.

We can deflate just as we inflate by using the Alt key or the Invert option.

25
Lesson one : sculptris
Tools
Now let’s try breaking something.

Do an inflate big enough to start becoming a sphere and then deflate the same area,

you may find the area turns into a cosmic mess with lots of broken pieces,
this has broken the object so it is no longer manifold,

if we tried to print this object it would cause us problems.

I’ll tell you later how to fix this, but for now be aware that this kind of breakage can occur when we use inflate and deflate and also with
some of the other tools, so keep an eye out for it.

26
Lesson one : sculptris
Tools

Now load a new plane and use the inflate tool to create two lumps spaced
out on it.

Now select the Flatten tool and use it in the centre of one of the lumps.
Now move the plane so you can get a better view of the lump from the side,
you can see the effect of the flatten tool but chances are that it has flat-
tened at a slight angle.

Now move the plane back to face it straight on and then press the Z key to shift to front view,
try flattening again being careful to try and align the tool focus to the centre of the lump.

It may not be perfect, but you should find it easier to flatten parallel to the plane by using the Z key to make sure that your plane is
nice and flat.

27
Lesson one : sculptris
Tools
Now load a new plane and add a new lump.

Select the Flatten tool and make sure the two op-
tions, Angle Falloff and Lock Plane are turned off.
Use the Flatten tool moving around the lump,

as we move around the angle of the tool focus

changes and we flatten from different angles.

Now turn the Lock Plane option on and try again.

This time the angle of the tool focus is locked when we hold the mouse button.
We can move around the lump and flatten to the locked angle,

if we go over the edge of the lump, the area below will raise up to meet the angle we are flattening at.
If we move around too fast the angle may be lost so it’s best to move quite slowly.
If we do lose our angle we can go back to where we started and click again to relock it.

28
Lesson one : sculptris
Tools
Now turn on the Angle Falloff option.

We still have a locked angle, but when we go over the edge of the
lump, the area below will not be raised.
In actual fact it will a bit, but not as much, we can use this to flatten
raised areas without affecting the surrounding areas.

You can also use Angle Falloff without Lock Plane, the effect is similar,

as we move around our angle can change, but when a sharper edge is met,
the tool will not affect the area over the edge.
We can use the Invert option with Flatten, try it out,
it has a very peculiar effect of unflattening and generally causes the cosmic
mess I mentioned earlier.

Load up a new plane and use the Draw tool to draw a circle with a cross through it.

Now switch to the Flatten tool and use it to flatten out the symbol we have just drawn,

now use the Invert option to unflatten the area,

we kind of get the symbol back, but the area around it messes up.

Flatten is a tricky tool to use but with some practice you’ll get the hang of it.

29
Lesson one : sculptris
Tools
While you still have the messy plane loaded, select the Smooth tool.

This does exactly what you would expect, it smooths the Now try Smoothing around the corners of the plane, it smooths out
area under the tool focus. that edge,

You can invert the Smooth tool but it seems to do exactly Smooth can eat details very quickly so when smoothing it’s best to re-
the same thing whether inverted or not. duce the strength so you can smooth gently.

30
Lesson one : sculptris
Just three more tools to go, and we have already looked at them, the Global tools.
Tools
Load a new plane and use the draw tool to draw a line across the plane.

Now select the Scale tool and make

sure the Global option is turned off.

Use the Scale tool on a part of the line and notice the effect
as you move the mouse up, down, left and right.

Try with and without the XYZ option,

as with Global mode this locks the aspect ratio to allow us to

stretch and compress horizontally, vertically or both equally.

I generally only use scale as a global tool, but you may find
some use for it this way.

31
Lesson one : sculptris
Keep what you have on screen and now select the Rotate tool. Tools
Turn off the Global option, and move the tool focus over an
uneven area of the plane.
As with global mode we click to get the rotate circle and activate it by moving beyond
the bounds of the yellow circle so that it turns white.

When in global mode we rotated the whole object, now we rotate just the area within
the tool focus, creating a twist in the plane.

Note that we can change the size of the tool fo-

cus, but changing the strength has no effect at
all.
Also we can use Invert, but again it has no effect.

Notice also another option we have here, Mirror.

Click Mirror and see what happens,

it mirrors our object,

click again to mirror it back again.

This Mirror function will help us later to turn a

left arm into a right arm at the press of a button.

32
Lesson one : sculptris
Keep your twisted up mess on screen and now select the Grab Tools
tool, make sure the Global mode is off.

Now use the tool over one of your twists,

it relaxes out the twist.

Now click to grab an area of the plane and move it around,

it drags the area around.

Try turning the plane slightly side on and using the Grab
tool to pull out an area.
You can Grab and pull in any direction to make a complex
extrusion.

Note that the Size and Strength sliders have an effect on the tool. So that’s all the tools covered, but we still

The invert option is available but doesn’t seem to do anything, have a few more things to cover, I promise it
won’t take too long.
also we have an option called Limit which again seems to have no effect at all.

33
Lesson one : sculptris
Load a new plane and notice in the bottom Mesh
left corner you can see 2048 Triangles,
this is the triangle count for our model.
Click the Wireframe icon.
Copy and paste the plane with CTRL C,
Now we can see the triangles.
CTRL V.
This function is a toggle,

click again to hide the wireframe,

click again to show it.
Now we have two objects of 2048 trian-
gles, in the corner the triangle count now
says 4096 Triangles, the triangle count
includes all objects in the current model.

The objects we model are created from triangles,

sculpting the object causes the triangles to be stretched out and manipulated,
as our sculpture becomes more detailed our triangles are split into more triangles.

This is similar to the resolution we have on a two dimensional image,

more triangles is more detail.

34
Lesson one : sculptris
Now click the Subdivide All icon. Mesh

Our triangle count increases to 16384, each Note also that the mesh has not changed in
Click it again, 262144 triangles, and
triangle has been split into four smaller trian- any way, only the number of triangles.
again, 1048576 triangles.
gles.
Now click Subdivide All again and the trian-
Note that this subdivide function effects all gle count goes up to 65536.
objects in the model, not just the one selected.

35
Lesson one : sculptris
Mesh

Click again, this is where Sculptris crashes for me and a runtime error appears.
I think this is due to the abilities of your system, keep clicking until Sculptris crashes for you.

Sculptris will close down, restart it and notice that your model reopens, mine reopened with 65536 triangles.

By crashing Sculptris like this you can gauge how stable it will be on your system,

also you get to see how well Sculptris recovers after a crash.

My system seems to manage about one million triangles.

36
Lesson one : sculptris
Use CTRL D to deselect and now select just one of the planes. Mesh
Now click the Reduce Selected icon.

The number of triangles on the

selected plane is reduced.

Click the icon a few more times

and watch how the number of
triangles is reduced each time.
As the number of triangles re-
duces, the object is gradually de-
formed in a similar way you
would expect in reducing the res-
olution on a two dimensional im-
age.

37
Lesson one : sculptris
Now select the Reduce Brush tool and use it to draw a line Mesh
along the other plane,

you can use the familiar Size and Strength sliders to change
the tool focus.

Notice first that the area where you use the

tool reduces its triangle count,
notice also that if you go over the same area
the triangles do not reduce any further.
Release the mouse button and then click again,
the triangles reduce further each time you click.

Use the tool in the corners of the plane and no-

tice that like with our Smooth tool the corners
of the plane are deformed.

38
Lesson one : sculptris
Load a new plane and copy and paste to create a second plane. Mesh
With the mesh displayed we will work on the first plane.

Select the Draw tool.

Find the Detail slider in the tool options palette and slide it all the way to the left.

Now draw a mark on the plane and notice that the number of trian-
gles doesn’t change.

Change the size of the draw tool and notice that when the tool fo-
cus becomes too small for our level of detail it no longer draws.

39
Lesson one : sculptris
Mesh
Now move the Detail slider up just a little and draw some more.

If we use a larger tool focus we will draw without adding any further tri-
angles,
but if we reduce the tool focus size when we draw now the number of tri-
angles increases where we draw.
Increase the Detail slider further and draw some more,
you’ll notice the number of triangles increases still further producing a
stronger looking line.

40
Lesson one : sculptris
Mesh
Roll your mouse wheel to
zoom in on the detailed line,
now draw another line over
this one,

we go to an even greater
level of detail and an even
greater number of triangles.

The trick with the mesh is to try to keep the number of triangles as low as possible while still providing the level of detail we require.

We can do this by using the Reduce Brush tool and the Reduce Selected function to gradually reduce the number of triangles but taking
care to watch for any deformations appearing in our model.

When you select the Reduce Brush tool the mesh will be displayed by default if it is not already displayed,

you can click the Mesh icon to hide the mesh and still use the Reduce tools,

this may allow you to better see the effect the reduction is having on the model.

I recommend saving before you

reduce and if you go too far
you can just reload the model.

41
Lesson one : sculptris
Hide and mask
There are two more functions that will be useful to you.

Firstly the hide function.

Load a plane and copy and paste and paste again to make a second and
third plane.

Move the planes so they overlap a little.

When we are working with multiple objects like this they tend to get in the
way.

Hold the H key and select the foremost plane,

it disappears leaving a dot pattern behind.

CTRL H will unhide all objects.

You can hide multiple objects at once by holding the H key and clicking on
another object.

Hide the foremost plane and then use the Draw tool to draw on the plane be-
low it,

now unhide and notice that the hidden plane was unaffected by the draw.

42
Lesson one : sculptris
Hide and mask
Now click on the Mask tool,
you can use the Size and Strength sliders with Mask.
Instead of the usual orange tool focus, we get a green one.

Where we draw with the Mask tool will turn light grey,
you won’t notice on the selected plane which is already light grey, but
try on the unselected plane.

Now use the Mask tool Inverted or with the Alt key,
it draws dark grey which again you will only notice if you draw on a
light grey area.
If we now use any of our tools only the light grey areas will be affected.

We can use this either to protect areas we don’t want to change, or to

limit the areas we do want to change.
Use the deselect option CTRL D to clear the mask.

When using other tools you can hold down the CTRL key to quickly switch to mask mode,

you will revert to your previous tool as soon as you release the CTRL key.

You can also hold CTRL and ALT to invert the mask brush.

43
Lesson one : sculptris
That’s it, you can pretty much do anything you want in Sculptris now.
Done !

This is obviously a key section in the tutorial and

there is a lot to take in so you may wish to repeat
this lesson a couple of times. The more you work with Sculptris
the easier it will all become.

44
Lesson two : dwarves
Humans
Size
Appearance
Demeanor
Equipment
Iconography

45
Lesson two : dwarves
The reason I chose to make dwarves was because I felt they Humans
were a more iconic and interesting subject than humans.

If you wanted to make a different race the same premise will apply,

you start with a human form,

why? because we have a human form.

We can measure each moving body part and so obtain correct proportions.

It’s handy to have a full length mirror near where you’re working,

you can strike the pose you are trying to capture and see how everything is
positioned.

Non-human forms are generally a modified The modifications will vary because the
humanoid aspect, whole fantasy mythos is created from a
wide variety of sources.
they are made of the same basic parts with
some modifications to the size, position and A dwarf from Snow White may be very
movement of those parts. different to a Dwarf from Middle Earth.

A lot of it will be down to your own interpretation,

but here is what I am aiming for with my dwarves.

46
Lesson two : dwarves
Size
Now I think of dwarves as being smaller
than humans but bigger than halflings,

so I’m going to say about four foot, two

thirds the size of a human.

I am going to reduce the length of the limbs

by one third and the length of the body by
one third.

I am going to reduce the size of the head, hands and feet but only by a small
amount to balance the proportions a bit.

This should create a character of about four foot with a stouter build than a human.

Hands, feet and head of slightly disproportionately large size will add to that stoutness.

47
Lesson two : dwarves
Appearance
I tend to identify dwarves with northern tribes such as the Celts,
Vikings, Norse and such.
So we can look to these for inspiration.
A sort of pagan, fierce, rough and ready look.

Facial hair seems to be a prominent characteristic with bushy

beards, plaits and braids.
A general feel of function over form with an absence of colour and
adornment,
but never the less a sense of fine craftsmanship with some under-
stated fine metal work and some occasional iconography.

To create the King’s Guard I am looking to follow these principals but add
to that a sense of order and importance.

I will dress and equip the figures uniformly with some slight variance for
the special characters,

I will vary the facial hair to give some individuality to each figure.

48
Lesson two : dwarves
Demeanor
Dwarves are generally considered to be ill tempered and mistrusting of other races,

but also loyal, brave and long suffering.

They have a love of violence and consider death in battle as an honour.

They are tough characters forged in the cold stoney depths of the deepest mountains.

So whatever can be seen through the facial hair will be cold stares and deep frowns.

49
Lesson two : dwarves
Equipment

For the King’s Guard to get that nice regal look I will be equipping my dwarves
with a smart chainmail vest over a leather tunic,

simple leggings and boots,

leather gloves,

a hooded cape,

winged helmet,

short sword with scabbard and shield.

We can probably think of some other items of equipment.

Maybe a small kit bag,

money pouch,

perhaps a dagger,

even perhaps a lucky charm such as a rabbits foot or foxes tail.

For the special characters to make them stand out more we will add some other
weapons such as the battle axe and the warhammer.

50
Lesson two : dwarves
Iconography

As mentioned before, the adornments will be kept quite minimal,

but where we do find place for them we will find mine and metalwork motifs such as anvils, pickaxes, hammers.

Another popular line for dwarves are runic symbols, pagan motifs and celtic designs,

do a google search and you’ll find some inspiration.

For my dwarves I will be working on some sort of wings theme to tie in with
the winged helmets,

I’ll even think of a little backstory of the dwarf king and why the wings are
relevant,

if you can fire your imagination over the figures you are creating it may help
to inject some of that character into the figure itself in some subtle way.

51
Lesson three : the process
Body parts
Stance
Pose
Other parts
Configure
Next steps

52
Lesson three : the process
Body parts

The process will consist of designing individual body parts.

We can then assemble those body parts into the complete figure.

A complete body is a very complex shape which has to obey certain rules of motion.

By breaking the body into smaller parts we have much easier shapes to form.

By using copy and paste and mirroring we can reduce repetition of work.

By dividing the body at the principal joints we can assemble the same parts in a variety
of configurations.

By creating just a few variants of the same body parts we can build up a parts library
which can be combined in a huge number of combinations.

53
Lesson three : the process
Stance
The stance describes the lower body and limbs.

It will consist of the pelvis, upper leg and lower leg.

We will design a right upper and lower leg and by changing the angle of the parts we
will create a range of leg positions.

Each of these we will mirror to create the left leg.

Next we will create a variety of stances by combining a left and right leg with a pelvis
to create a selection of stances.

Pose

The pose is similar to the stance but describes the upper body and limbs.

It will consist of the torso, upper arm and lower arm.

As before we will configure arms and mirror the right to the left.

Again we will assemble the parts to create a variety of poses.

54
Lesson three : the process
Other parts

We will create the various other parts we need such as hands, heads and boots.

Other parts will need to be made such as weapons and equipment.

Again we will create variants of each part to build up a library of parts to select from.

Configure
Now we have a library of parts to configure a complete figure.

We can now very quickly assemble figures.

Once we have our configuration we can neaten up the joints

and add some fine details.

Next Steps
Finally we can look at making the model solid,

check to see if it is printable

and export to different file types.

55
Lesson four : creating parts
Create
Scale
Rough shape
Rough detail

56
Lesson four : creating parts
Create
Each parts that we create will start with a sphere,

we will use a variety of tools to turn that sphere into the part we want.

For body parts we can use our own as a guide or google some images to compare against.

At this stage we will aim for something human,

we will then scale the parts to our dwarf equivalent.

Once we have some parts we can use those as start points instead of the sphere if that’s easier.

For example we may use our forearm as a starting point for our lower leg.

At the early stages, these short cuts will save you a lot of time.

57
Lesson four : creating parts
Scale
Scale can be tricky in sculptris and it’s incredibly important to get this right.

All our parts need to be in the correct proportions or the figure won’t look right.

I will show you how to make a ruler to get the correct scale for the final model.

We can then use this as a reference for all our parts and be confident that things will
be proportioned correctly.

Models can be scaled to a different size before you print them,

but we want the model to be the correct scale when printed at 100% scale.

The ruler will let us do all that.

58
Lesson four : creating parts
Rough Shape
When we sculpt an object we want to start by forming a very rough shape.

We then gradually refine the shape until we are happy it looks roughly right.

Don’t be tempted to do any detailing until the rough shape is right.

While working on a part, regularly save your work with an index number on the filename.

So for example I may make a rough cylinder and save it as ARM01,

I then fatten up one end like a chicken leg and save it as ARM02,

thin out the other end and save it as ARM03 and so on.

This way, if you feel like it’s gone a bit wrong you can dump it and reload from an earlier stage.

One of these earlier stages may also be useful to come back to as the start point for another object.

59
Lesson four : creating parts
Rough detail

When we feel pretty happy with the shape we can then begin detailing.

Again work on rough shaping and then gradually build up the detail.

I use the draw tool to mark out shapes almost like making pencil lines which I then use to build up the shaping.

As before save your work with an index number so you can jump back to a previous stage if needs be.

Some things to bear in mind, we will need to do some work to integrate parts later on, so don’t go to fine detail yet, the positions we
place parts in may affect them, for example the way clothing hangs.

Also bear in mind the size of the finished piece, and the level of detail on the miniatures you buy.

There is no point going to too much detail which will be lost on the finished piece and remember that it is the work of the painter that
will bring out some of the finer detailing.

When creating the figure you can zoom right out and hold a miniature against the screen and compare the two at the same scale.

60
Lesson five : ruler
Maths
Saving
Make your own ruler

61
Lesson five : ruler
Maths
Okay so we will start by making that ruler that I mentioned earlier.

We will be making a 1 metre ruler to roughly 25mm scale and using the Shapeways
website to check the size.

So we need to do some maths here.

Okay so ‘man size’ is roughly 1800mm in real life,

that wants to be a miniature of 25mm.

So we do (25 / 1800) x 1000 = 13.88, I’m going to round up to 14.

So this means 1 metre in real life will be 14mm in miniature,

because I have rounded up we are actually at 25.2mm scale which is close enough.

If you want to work to a different scale you will need to do a similar equation,

(scale in mm / ‘man size’ in mm) x 1 metre in mm.

You could also do feet and inches if you prefer, whatever works for you.

Remember we can rescale the miniature when we print if we want a different scale.

Making the ruler is a bit of a chore but I wanted to show you how I went about it.

You can just skip it and use my model if you like.

62
Lesson five : ruler
Saving

In this lesson I will tell you when to save, obviously this is up to you,

but I wanted you to see how I work and decide if this method suits you.

As I mentioned earlier, we will create a lot of files as we work through these tuto-
rials and it’s good to stay organized.

The lack of an undo function in Sculptris means you may find yourself going
back to a previous model if you go wrong.

Anyways, see how you get on and make your own mind up.

63
Lesson five : ruler
Make your own ruler
Load a new plane into Sculptris,

turn off symmetry mode.

Save as Ruler00.sc1.
Copy and paste a second plane.

Turn Wireframe on.

Use Global Resize with Aspect Ratio un-

locked (XYZ unchecked).

Resize the second plane,

shrink its height until it corresponds to 10

squares on the wireframe of the first plane.

To do this you will need to move around using Right Mouse Button,
the Mouse Wheel and the ALT key.

Remember to use the Z key to lock onto a view. Resize the second plane,
You will also need to move the objects using the Global Grab shrink the width to what looks a good
and remember to make sure objects are lined up on all three axis, width for your ruler relative to its height.

if one object is further forward than the other it will look bigger. Save as Ruler01.sc1.

64
Lesson five : ruler
Make your own ruler
Select the draw tool,
set the size very small and the strength very high,
adjust the Detail slider high enough to allow you to draw
at this size,
in other words if you can’t draw with a small brush you
may need to increase the Detail slider.
Use the draw tool to mark a small line on second plane
aligned with the first square on the wireframe of the first
plane.
Use the Zoom and a small enough brush to get a nice
clean mark.

Repeat this to make nine marks on the second plane,

these will be our 10cm marks.

Save as Ruler02.sc1.

65
Lesson five : ruler
Make your own ruler

Delete the first plane by selecting it and pressing the DEL key.
Copy and Paste the ruler and move the second ruler to the opposite side of the
first.

Line them both up and use the second as a reference to add marks to the other
side of the first ruler.
Delete the second ruler so we are left with one ruler with 10cm marks on both
edges.

Save as Ruler03.sc1.

66
Lesson five : ruler
Make your own ruler

Open a new sphere as a new model

(Sculptris calls it New Scene).
Open Ruler03.sc1 using Add Object and make sure
that Don’t resize is checked.
Use the Global Scale with Aspect Ratio (XYZ) locked
to stretch the sphere to the length of the ruler at its
(the spheres) widest part.

You will also need to use Global Grab for positioning.

You can use the hide function with H key and Mouse
Click if you wish to see through the sphere.

Unhide with CTRL H.

When you are happy that the sphere is the correct

size, delete the ruler.

Export the model, save as Ruler1.obj.

67
Lesson five : ruler
Make your own ruler

Log in to Shapeways website and

upload Ruler.obj into your workshop.

When the file is uploaded and checked it will dis-

play details of the model including the size.
In my case it came out at 0.36cm.
More maths.

We want our ruler to be 14mm so we do 14mm /

3.6mm = 3.88.
I’m going to call it 4 as 4 x 3.6mm = 14.4mm
which is near enough for me.

Basically we need to make our ruler 4 times longer.

Thank you Shapeways, now back to Sculptris.

68
Lesson five : ruler
Make your own ruler

Open Ruler03.sc1, New Scene, Don’t Resize.

Copy and Paste the ruler 4 times.

Line up the 4 new rulers end to end.

Global Resize, Aspect Ratio unlocked,

the original ruler to 4 times its original size using the 4 rulers as a reference.
You can make it a little wider if you want to.

Select and Delete the 4 small rulers,

remember you can multi-select using the SHIFT key.

Save as Ruler04.sc1.

69
Lesson five : ruler
New Sphere, New Scene. Make your own ruler
Open Ruler04.sc1, Add Object, Don’t Resize.

As we did before, resize the sphere to the length of the new ruler. Remember to be careful to
measure at the widest part of the sphere.

When the sphere is the right size, select and delete the ruler, use the Hide if the sphere is in
the way.

Export the model, save as Ruler2.obj.

Back to Shapeways and upload Ruler2.obj.

Check the size of the model, we want 14mm.
Note that Shapeways may display the size in cm.

Mine came out at 1.414cm which is good

enough for me.

If you need to you can resize your ruler again and upload again until you get it close enough.

We cannot upload the ruler itself to Shapeways because it is a flat object and their checks will reject it,

this is why we use a sphere and resize it with the ruler.

Once you are happy with the size move on to the next step.

70
Lesson five : ruler
Make your own ruler
Open Ruler04.sc1, New Scene, Don’t Resize.
Copy and paste the ruler.
Resize the second ruler,

reduce the height until it’s full length is equal to the space
between two marks on the first ruler.

Using the draw tool and zooming in as necessary,

use the second ruler as a reference to mark the eight marks

between each of the 10cm marks.

These are our 1cm marks.

Move the second ruler up to the next two marks and repeat
to mark all the 1cm marks.

Once complete, delete the second ruler.

Save as Ruler05.sc1.

71
Lesson five : ruler
Make your own ruler

Copy and Paste the ruler.

Use the second ruler as a reference to mark the 1cm Use the Draw tool to label the 10cm marks and
marks on the first. extend the marks.
Delete the second ruler. Extend the 5cm marks from side to side.
Save as Ruler06.sc1. Save as Ruler07.sc1

72
Lesson five : ruler
Make your own ruler
The ruler is now ready to use, so let’s test it.
We’ll make a sphere of 60cm to our scale. 0.6m x 14mm = 8.4mm.
New sphere, new scene.

Open Ruler07.sc1, Add, Don’t Resize.

Resize the sphere to 60cm by the ruler.

Delete the ruler.

Export model, save as Ruler3.obj.

Upload to Shapeways, the size should be about 8.4mm,

mine was 8.48mm, near enough!

73
Lesson five : ruler
Make your own ruler
Back to Sculptris, Open Ruler07.sc1, New, Don’t Resize.
The ruler is ready but you may wish to neaten it up by going over the lines
again with the draw tool,

you may also wish to use the Crease or Pinch tools to tighten up the lines.
You may also wish to use the Reduce Selected tool to reduce the Triangle
Count. When you are happy you may wish to Save
as Ruler.sc1 and export as Ruler.obj as your
Save with a new filename whenever you are happy with your changes.
finished files.
If you mess it up, just reload.
You might also consider having a separate
folder to keep your finished files.

Well done, that was a pretty tricky piece of work but you will find
this ruler invaluable.
Remember whenever you load it, always make sure the Don’t
Resize option is checked so that the scale is retained.

I think you deserve a break, the next lesson we will actually start
making some parts!

74
Lesson six : heads Create the main head shapes
Refine face
Refine jaw
Refine neck
Refine eye
Refine ear
Refine nose
Refine eyebrow
Refine moustache
Refine beard
Refine hair
Finally

75
Lesson six : heads
Create the main head shapes
Open Ruler.sc1
New Sphere, Facing, Don’t Resize, Add Object.
Global Scale XYZ on, resize to 22cm measuring against the ruler.

Save As Head Main00.sc1

Global Rotate to spin the ruler around.

Use the Z key to lock cleanly on to an axis.

Global Scale, XYZ off,

squash the sphere to 18cm from side to side while retaining the 22cm height.
Save as Head Main01.sc1

76
Lesson six : heads
Create the main head shapes
Use Inflate with a large brush size
to expand the lower front quarter of the sphere.
Use Inflate and Deflate (with the Alt Key)

to roughly square off the lower front quarter of the sphere.

Save as Head Main02.sc1

Use Inflate/Deflate
to widen the head and square off the forehead and jawline.

Save as Head Main03.sc1

77
Lesson six : heads
Create the main head shapes
Don’t be tempted to form any features, they will be easier later.
Use Deflate to flatten the top of the head diagonally opposite the chin.
Save as Head Main04.sc1

Use Deflate to indent the base of the skull at the back of the head.
Save as Head Main05.sc1

78
Lesson six : heads
Create the main head shapes
Select the ruler object and delete it, we are done with this for now.
Copy and paste the head with CTRL C, CTRL V.
Use Deflate to decompose most of the second head so we keep the low-
er front quarter which we squared off.
Save as Head Main06.sc1

My mesh broke at this point, you can see where odd splits form in the mesh.

I used the smooth tool along the break and it soon fixed the problem.

Save as Head Main07.sc1

79
Lesson six : heads
Create the main head shapes
Use Inflate/Deflate and smooth to widen out the back,
keep some height at the back, this is the jaw.
Save as Head Main08.sc1

Use Global Grab to move the jaw into place against the bottom of the first head.
Use Inflate/Deflate to make the jaw more jaw shaped

and to better fit against the head.

You may wish to use the H key and click to hide the head,

use CTRL H to unhide again.

Save as Head Main09.sc1

80
Lesson six : heads
Create the main head shapes
Now hide the jaw and use Inflate/Deflate to shape the bottom of the head to fit
better with the jaw.
Save as Head Main10.sc1

Don’t worry about getting an accurate model,

we will get there gradually.

Global Rotate on the jaw,

use the tool around where the ear would be,

rotate the jaw to angle it away from the head just a little.

You will find it useful to use the Z key to lock onto the side view.

Now we have an open mouth.

Save as Head Main11.sc1

81
Lesson six : heads
Create the main head shapes
New sphere, Don’t Resize, Add.
Place the sphere in the middle of the face and Global Scale XYZ on
to make something roughly nose sized.

Save as Head Main12.sc1

Use Inflate/Deflate and smooth to form the new sphere into a basic nose shape.
Save as Head Main13.sc1

82
Lesson six : heads
Create the main head shapes

At this point my head has gone a bit askew when Use the Z lock to get the front view,
I use the Z key to lock onto the view. use SHIFT to select all three objects
I’ll reposition it. and then Global Grab and Global Rotate to set the head
nice and straight front on.

Save as Head Main14.sc1

83
Lesson six : heads
Create the main head shapes

Now we are going to quickly check the size of the head

to make sure that our scaling has worked correctly be-
fore we do too much work.

Export as ScaleObject.obj
Upload this file to Shapeways as we did with our ruler.
We want our head to be approximately 25cm

so the maths is

14mm/100cm x 25cm = 3.5mm.

Ruler size, divided by 100 to get 1cm size,

multiply by 25 to get size of 25cm.

So our head should come out at 3.5mm,

mine was 3.56mm which is near enough for me.

I’m going to make my head symmetrical at this point.

Use Z lock to get front on and click the symmetry icon.

Save as Head Main15.sc1

84
Lesson six : heads
New sphere, add. Create the main head shapes
Because we are in symmetry mode we get two spheres,
place them on the side of the head, these will be ears.
Global Scale XYZ on, resize the spheres to approximate ear size.

Global Grab, position the ears just slightly behind the top part of the jaw.
Global Scale XYZ off, squash and stretch the ears to make them a little more ear shaped.

Global Rotate the ears to make them angle out from the head slightly

and then again to make them stick out a little further at the top.
Save as Head Main16.sc1

New sphere, Add, place to the side so we get two, these will be the eyebrows.

Global Grab to place them just above the top of the nose and close to the
centre so they nearly meet but not quite.

Resize and shape like we did with the ears,

XYZ on to get approximate size,

XYZ off to squash and stretch to a better shape.

Save as Head Main17.sc1

85
Lesson six : heads
At this point Sculptris went a bit weird and I couldn’t select the eyebrows. Create the main head shapes
I reloaded the last file and still it wouldn’t let me.
I have no idea why but I just reloaded the previous file
and repeated the steps to re-add the eyebrows.

This time everything was okay so I resaved.

Now use the Grab tool but turn Global off,
hide the face with H so we don’t effect it.
Use the Grab tool to bend the eyebrows down a little at each end,

be quite subtle and grab and move a small bit at a time,

if you make larger movements the object will look distorted.

Use the Global Grab, Rotate and Scale to manipulate the eyebrow until it looks approximately right.

Save as Head Main18.sc1

Copy and Paste the jaw, paste into the centre so we get just one.

This will be our beard.

Global Scale, XYZ on to increase the beard size by just a small amount.

Position it to cover the jaw area.

Save as Head Main19.sc1

86
Lesson six : heads
Create the main head shapes
Copy and Paste the eyebrow, paste it as the moustache
but make sure it overlaps the centre line so that it merges into one object.
Reposition and resize to get something you are happy with.

Use Grab with Global off to stretch the sides of the moustache down into a han-
dlebar moustache.

Remember to do it in small stages.

Mine got a bit squashed up so I used Inflate to make it a little more bushier again.
Save as Head Main20.sc1

New sphere, add,

place it just below the jaw and in the centre so we get just one.
Position and resize it to make the neck.

Squash and squeeze with XYZ off.

Use Inflate/Deflate to shape it into something more neck like.

Save as Head Main21.sc1

87
Lesson six : heads
Create the main head shapes
Copy and paste the main head part, paste so we get just one object.
Global Scale, XYZ on to increase to size just a little larger than the head.
Reposition it up and back slightly so it sits on the head like hair,

that is what it will be.

Save as Head Main22.sc1

New sphere, add, as two objects.

Resize with XYZ on and place as the

eyes.

Use the width of the eye as a guide

but keep XYZ on so that we keep a
nice clean sphere.

Reposition them so they only just pro-

trude from the face.
Save as Head Main23.sc1

88
Lesson six : heads
Create the main head shapes

Phew, well done.

We have now created the ten basic

elements of the head.

Next we will tackle each element in

turn to refine them,

but for now

I think you have earned a quick break.

89
Lesson six : heads
Refine face
Open Head Main23.sc1 We will be refining just the face section,

Save as Head Face00.sc1 we will keep all the other elements in place to give us context for the face.

Hide anything that gets in the way.

Hide the eyebrows and eyeballs
Deflate the corners of the eye,
and use the Deflate tool to sink a hole for the eye socket, quite deep.
use the mouse wheel to zoom in and use a smallish tool fo-
Reduce the size of the tool focus a little
cus to get a better level of detail.
and re-inflate in the centre of the circle to it almost covers the eyeballs,
Using a fine tool focus trace round the contour of the eye-
this will form our eyelids.
lids using the eyeballs as a guide.
Save as Head Face01.sc1
Save as Head Face02.sc1

90
Lesson six : heads
Refine face
Inflate the cheekbones.
Deflate a hollow beneath them.
Inflate the top lip.

Deflate the filtrum,

this is the indented line between the nose and the top lip.

Use the inflate/deflate and smooth to shape the top lip.

Use inflate/deflate to extend the

face down to meet with the jaw
in this open mouth pose.

Save as Head Face03.sc1

91
Lesson six : heads
Refine face
Use Inverted Draw to score the following details on the face.
The top edge of the top lip.
The bottom or inner edge of the top lip.

The line from the side of the nostrils to the corner of the mouth.
The line from the top of the nose to the top of the cheek.

The line tracing round the top eyelid which extends down to the top of the cheek .

The line that traces across the top of the cheek and crosses the previous line at
Save as Head Face04.sc1
the end to form the crows feet by the corner of the eye.

92
Lesson six : heads
Refine face

Now use the draw tool with clay on,

use a small brush size and a low strength.
Shape the bottom eyelid to follow the
curve of the eyeball.
Draw in the bags under the eyes.

Use a fine brush and invert the draw tool to Use the Pinch tool on low strength, Save as Head Face05.sc1
draw the inner line of the eyelid. run this along the edge of the eyelid,
Use the same fine brush not inverted to draw this will tighten up the lines.
the outer edge of the eyelid.

93
Lesson six : heads
Refine face

Use a similar technique to draw the top eyelid.

Most of the top eyelid will be hidden by the brow, so this should be quite narrow.

Follow the curve of the eyeball.

Use fine lines to edge the eyelid and pinch to tighten up the edge. Save as Head Face06.sc1

94
Lesson six : heads
Refine face
Use Inflate to form the brow line and forehead.
Start with a lump in the centre a short way up from the top of the nose.
Leave a small gap and then form another lump to the side of the first lump.

Follow the brow line from this point,

as you approach the temples, the brow is more pronounced.

Use inflate to build up the forehead area,

use your own face or google images to check the shape you are forming.
Use a fine brush to invert draw some wrinkles on the forehead.

One over the brow, two more across the forehead, a line between the lump above the
nose and the brow.

Use the smooth tool with low strength to

blend in the wrinkles and make them
more subtle.

Save as Head Face07.sc1

95
Lesson six : heads
Refine jaw
Load Head Face07.sc1
Save as Head Jaw00.sc1
Remember to hide the beard and hair and anything else that is in the way.

Use the inflate tool to build up the lower lip,

remember that we are forming and open mouth.

Lower lips are somewhat shallower than the top lips but fuller,

so they should protrude more.

Select the face and jaw and switch to the mask tool.

Hide the jaw and use Alt mask to darken the area where the face meets the jaw.

Unhide the jaw again, hide the beard again.

The dark area we masked off will not be effected by our tools.

Use inflate/deflate to join the jaw to the face,

shape up the jaw and form the chin.

Save as Head Jaw01.sc1

96
Lesson six : heads
Refine jaw
Use inflate/deflate to build the join between the jaw and neck,
you will need to mask off the neck like you did with the face.
Note that when we deselect objects with CTRL D it clears our
mask.
Build up the throat area from the chin to join with the neck.

Smooth the jaw lightly when you are happy with the shape.

Save as Head Jaw02.sc1

97
Lesson six : heads
Refine neck
Open Head Jaw02.sc1 Select the jaw and neck, mask off the jaw.
Save as Head Neck00.sc1 You know the drill by now,
use inflate and deflate to shape the neck,

it protrudes with the throat at the front,

spine at the back,

and muscles at the sides.

We are just looking for rough shaping at this

point and a smooth interface with the jaw.

Use the smooth tool when you are done to

lightly relax the mesh.

Save as Head Neck01.sc1

98
Lesson six : heads
Refine eye
Load Head Neck01.sc1

Save as Head Eye00.sc1

Select the eyeball.

Use the mask tool with a small brush size to

mask the pupil.
Now use deflate with a bigger brush size

to make a donut around the pupil,

this is the iris.
Use global rotate on the eyeballs to position it in
the socket.

Save as Head Eye01.sc1

99
Lesson six : heads
Refine ear
Load Head Eye01.sc1
Save as Head Ear00.sc1
Use the deflate tool with a fairly large brush size

to deflate the general inside area of the ear,

do this parallel to the ear.

Turn your view parallel to the head

and make a deeper indent on the bottom half of the

indent you just made.

Turn in just slightly sharper

and make a smaller deeper indent at the front of our
last indent,

this will be the ear hole.

Save as Head Ear01.sc1

100
Lesson six : heads
Refine ear
Hide the hair and beard and select the ear, face and jaw.
Use the mask tool to dark out the area around the ear
so that we don’t effect the face and jaw.

You will need to hide the ear while you mask.

Unhide the ear again remembering to re-hide the hair
and beard.
Inflate an area around the ear where it joins to the head,

accentuate this at the back

and remember to come in tight at the bottom to leave an

earlobe.

Use a smaller deflate

to trace a line between the area you just inflated and the
edge of the ear.

Save as Head Ear02.sc1

101
Lesson six : heads
Refine ear
Now use the Crease tool,
Using the crease make the following changes
you will probably want a small to medium brush size.
Separate the lobe at the back of the inside of the ear.
Use a low strength while you get used to the tool,
Crease the front of the lobe up to the ear hole.
turn up the strength when you are more comfortable with it.
Crease the curve of the outer edge of the inside sur-
face of the ear,

follow the edge round from the back edge right the
way to the join with the head by the temples.

The top edge is much deeper than the back edge.

Crease the nobbly protrusion just in front of the ear

hole.

Crease a line from the top where the ear meets the
head,
straight down to where the earlobe connects to the
head.

Save as Head Ear03.sc1

102
Lesson six : heads
Refine ear
Use draw and undrawn with clay off

to make the details of the inside ear,

to build out the edge of the ear and to flatten the outer edge,

to form and flatten the lobe and generally tidy up the ear details.

Smooth round the whole ear once you are happy.

Remember to use low strength on the smooth

so you just relax the details and don’t remove them altogether.
Save as Head Ear04.sc1

103
Lesson six : heads
Refine nose
Load Head Ear04.sc1

Save as Head Nose00.sc1

Use the inflate and deflate,

draw and undrawn

and crease
to form the nose.

You will probably want to mask off the face.

Smooth it lightly when finished.
Save as Head Nose01.sc1

104
Lesson six : heads
Load Head Nose01.sc1 Refine eyebrow
Save as Head Brow00.sc1

Select the face and eyebrows

and use the mask to dark out around the brow line.
Hide anything in the way such as the hair and eyes.

Use the tools to refine the eyebrow.

Make it light but full to match the con-
tours of the brow.
Save as Head Brow01.sc1

105
Lesson six : heads
Refine moustache
Load Head Brow01.sc1
Save as Head Moustache00.sc1

I barely need to tell you what to do at this point.

Mask off the face and jaw.

Use your tools to shape the moustache area.

Why not try using some new tools.

I used the grab with global off to pull the moustache into shape.
I then used the flatten tool to smooth it out.

If anything goes wrong,

decide whether it’s easier to fix it or just reload the last file.

Form a full but light moustache following the upper lip.

Save as Head Moustache01.sc1

106
Lesson six : heads
Refine beard
Load Head Moustache01.sc1

Save as Head Beard00.sc1

You’ll probably want to mask off the face, jaw, neck and ears.
I started by inflating the whole beard area to extend beyond the face
and jaw,
and then deflate to make it full but light.
Essentially the beard runs in a straight line down

from in front of the ear

down over the jaw
to the neck.

It then follows the crease of the neck under the chin

and then follows the throat a short way.

Stay tight to the bottom lip

and trace up at the sides of the mouth

to meet where the moustache ends.

Save as Head Beard01.sc1

107
Lesson six : heads
Refine beard
Now deflate a V shape under the lip

to leave a tuft in the middle

with a bald area around it.

Try using the flatten tool

to smooth out the beard.

Save as Head Beard02.sc1

108
Lesson six : heads
Refine beard
I had a problem here! Turn on the wireframe,
Not sure what is wrong but the beard object seems to be a bit messed up, I can see the triangles disappearing into a dark cave.

there is a peculiar edge. Use the reduce brush to click around the kinked area.

Things like this can happen when you work close to the line in symmetry mode. It’s like breaking a spiders web,

Hide the parts around the problem area so we can get a good look at it. reducing the triangles causes the mesh to spring out.
Firstly try using the smooth tool. This has helped some more, but not fixed it.

This helped a bit but I can now see that there is a deep crease. A combination of smooth and reduce brush may
sort the problem.
If not, try using the inflate and deflate around
the kinked area.

I found the problem,

the beard has crossed over itself under the chin
and the mesh has become tangled in itself.

I worked on it for a short while but decided

that it’s not worth fixing

so I just reload the last good file.

109
Lesson six : heads
Refine beard
Load Head Beard01.sc1

Repeat the work,

this time I kept a close eye for anything going wrong especially near the
line of symmetry.

Use the smooth tool to prevent any unwanted creases from forming.
All was fine this time so I’ll save again.
Save as Head Beard03.sc1

110
Lesson six : heads
Refine hair
Load Head Beard03.sc1

Save as Head Hair00.sc1

Mask off areas as required.

Form a basic hairline

to frame round the forehead,

round the ears

and hanging down just a short way at the back.

Flatten a little and smooth over.
Save as Head Hair01.sc1

We’ll save the completed head as a separate file

but first turn symmetry off.

Save as Head Type01 00.sc1

111
Lesson six : heads
Finally
Okay so what we have created here is a ten piece head.

You can use these pieces as a template to create variants

and then use these to form individual heads.

As well as using variant parts,

we can change the position, scale

and rotation of the parts to get a different look.

Just a few variant parts can create a huge variety of different heads.

112
Lesson six : heads
Finally
We’ll end here with the heads for now
Before we finish let’s take a snapshot.
but let’s just take a look at the triangle count.
Click the Options icon on the tool options panel.
For me the whole head has 155,230 triangles,
In the top right corner we see a Save Image icon.
well below my one million limit.
Click this to get an image of your model,

we can save as PNG or JPG,

I tend to use JPG.

Click okay to close the Options popup.

113
Lesson seven : stance
Pelvis
Upper leg
Lower leg
Make legs
Configure stances

114
Lesson seven : stance
Pelvis

Open Ruler.sc1

Save As Stance Pelvis00.sc1

New Sphere, Facing, Don’t Resize, Add Object.
Move the ruler to the right hand side, Z lock and turn on sym-
metry mode. Place so we get just one sphere.

We now have two rulers! Global Scale XYZ on, resize to 40cm measuring against the ruler.

We don’t need two rulers, but we do want to be in symmetry mode. Select the rulers and delete them.

That’s why we have two rulers. Save as Stance Pelvis01.sc1

115
Lesson seven : stance
Pelvis

Use the inflate tool

to create a triangular lump

from the bottom of the sphere

up to about the centre,

this will be the pubic bone.
Inflate a curve above the pubic bone

and then another above this

extending right to the sides.
Save as Stance Pelvis02.sc1

116
Lesson seven : stance
Pelvis

Inflate another curve from side to side Follow the curves that we just made
above the last. to trace them round the back,
Turn to view from the top and Z lock. it should end about the centre

and where our curves meet at the back,

we should leave a little dip.

This is the small of the back.

Save as Stance Pelvis03.sc1

117
Lesson seven : stance
Pelvis

Move to the bottom view now, Z locking. Use the deflate to trace a line
Use deflate to trace a line from the small of the back,
from the bottom of the pubic bone, down and round to the side.
along the centre line Move back to the front view and deflate a line
all the way to the small of the back. from the hip
This will separate our buttocks. down to the crotch.
Save as Stance Pelvis04.sc1 Save as Stance Pelvis05.sc1

118
Lesson seven : stance
Pelvis

Deflate the general curve of the buttocks. Inflate slightly the top of the sides around the centre,

Move to the side view and deflate the centre area slightly. and then deflate on either side.

Save as Stance Pelvis06.sc1 This is to accentuate the hip bone.

Save as Stance Pelvis07.sc1

119
Lesson seven : stance
Pelvis

Turn to the bottom view Use the flatten tool Use the inflate, deflate and smooth
and inflate short stumps to flatten out the pubic bone tools

for the tops of the thighs. and the belly area to improve the general shape of the
pelvis.
Use the flatten tool until the width of the pelvis looks
about right Save as Stance Pelvis09.sc1
to flatten off the stumps.

Save as Stance Pelvis08.sc1 when viewed from the top.

120
Lesson seven : stance
Upper leg

New sphere, symmetry on.

Save as Stance Upper Leg00.sc1

Open Ruler.sc1, Add, facing, don’t resize.

Place to the side so we get two.
Uh oh, something went wrong, I just get one messed up ruler.
The problem here is that I placed it too close to the centre line,

sometimes the symmetry doesn’t do what we want.

Hit the DEL key to delete it,

let’s try again.

121
Lesson seven : stance
Upper leg

Roll the mouse wheel to zoom out

Spin to the bottom view, Z lock,
and try adding the ruler again,
add the ruler again,
this time make sure you place it further out to the side.
make sure that Facing Camera is checked.
Not sure if it’s the way I made the ruler, but when I add it, it
Place to the side again.
faces to the top view rather than the front.
Whoo, that’s pretty useful,

we now have two pairs of rulers at right angles.

Save as Stance Upper Leg01.sc1

122
Lesson seven : stance
Upper leg

Resize the sphere to 50cm (Global scale, XYZ on). Flip the view and Z lock on the top view.

Remember to position the sphere XYZ off and squash the height to about 22cm.
so that you measure at the widest point Remember to check the ruler and sphere are on the same plane

and on the same plane as the ruler, by viewing from the side.

not in front or behind. Move them around if you need to with global grab.
Save as Stance Upper Leg02.sc1

123
Lesson seven : stance
Upper leg
Keep on the top view

and try to squash the sphere

so that the width matches the height.

I found this impossible to do with symmetry on.

It kind of stretched out the depth or something.

Select the rulers and delete them,

remember we have two pairs to delete.

Now turn symmetry off.

Save as Stance Upper Leg03.sc1

124
Lesson seven : stance
Upper leg

Reload the ruler,

Z lock on top view. remember the little trick of moving to bottom view first

Scale, XYZ off and squash the width to match the height, and adding with Facing Camera checked.

you should have no problem doing this now. My ruler messed up here,

Move back to the front view and it should be almond shaped. it loaded as a cosmic schism of some sort.

Delete!

125
Lesson seven : stance
Turn symmetry on. Upper leg
Oh dear, my almond turned into a coffee bean!
As I mentioned, symmetry can have strange results.
The coffee bean shape actually works well for us so this is a happy accident.

We need to check that the height is still correct,

add the ruler again placing well to the side.

Now turn symmetry off again,

the rulers are now two separate objects,

select one (probably the one that is back-to-front) and delete.

Now we just have one ruler and a big coffee bean.

Save as Stance Upper Leg04.sc1

126
Lesson seven : stance
Upper leg
Now we can move the ruler to the bean

and check the height (on front view).

It should be 50cm, mine was 51cm which is

good enough for me.

Resize if you need to.

Delete the ruler and turn symmetry back on.

Save as Stance Upper Leg05.sc1

Use deflate to squash in the lower half

of the coffee bean.

Inflate the top half of the coffee bean

to uniformly match the greatest width.

Save as Stance Upper Leg06.sc1

127
Lesson seven : stance
Upper leg

Use the smooth tool with a large brush size

to blend in the fat and thin halves
Use inflate and deflate
and generally make the sides thinner
to match the depth to the width,
and more uniform.
in other words so it is as fat as it is wide.
Try using low strength on the smooth tool and work the shape slowly.
Do this for both halves.
Try following your instincts as to which areas to smooth.
Save as Stance Upper Leg07.sc1
Also try to leave the top and bottom as the smooth tool will reduce the height.

Save as Stance Upper Leg08.sc1

128
Lesson seven : stance
At this point I’ll turn symmetry off. Upper leg
Z lock on the front view
and use inflate to create a lump
in the centre of the bottom of the leg.

This will be the kneecap

and will help us to visualise the leg better as we shape it.

Save as Stance Upper Leg09.sc1

I will make a left leg and then mirror it to make a right leg.
If you have a leg and a mirror you can study it,
otherwise use google images,
Staying Z locked to the front view,
pictures of the muscle structure of the leg might help
gently inflate from top left to bottom right.
but try using my instructions first to get the rough shape.
Now gently inflate from top right to bottom right.

Save as Stance Upper Leg10.sc1

129
Lesson seven : stance
Upper leg
Move round to back view.
Now inflate top left to middle right.
Now top right to middle right.

Now just a lump bottom left.

Save as

Turn back to front view

and this should look very approximately

Turn to the left view. like an upper left leg.
Inflate top left to middle centre and back up to top right Save as Stance Upper Leg12.sc1

130
Lesson seven : stance
Lower leg

We are going to start from an ear- Use global rotate to spin the leg 180 degrees
lier stage of the upper leg. to make the top the bottom.
Open Stance Upper Leg09.sc1 Use deflate to squash in the lower half of the shape
as a new scene, Facing camera,
to make the fat end become the thin end.
don’t resize.
At this point I realize that I should’ve put symmetry on,
Save as Stance Lower Leg00.sc1
but I’m just approximating the leg shape so I’ll carry on without it.

Save as Stance Lower Leg01.sc1

131
Lesson seven : stance
Lower leg
Use the smooth tool to get a more even shape.
You’ll probably end up with a bit of a bulge in the middle,
that’s okay in fact it helps.

Save as Stance Lower Leg02.sc1

132
Lesson seven : stance
Lower leg
We’ll use the inflate tool to create the basic shape again.

Z lock front view, z lock right view, Z lock back view, Z lock left view,

top left to bottom right top right to middle right top left to middle left, Top left to middle left.
Top right to middle Centre Save as Stance Lower Leg03.sc1
Middle right to bottom centre
Top centre to middle centre

133
Lesson seven : stance
Lower leg

I’m not altogether happy with the shape

so I’ll use the smooth tool to neaten it up.

Use inflate to beef up that big muscle at the back

which is called the soleus or the calf muscle.

I also used the flatten tool to sharpen up the shin bone.

When you are happy,

save as Stance Lower Leg04.sc1

134
Lesson seven : stance
Open Stance Upper Leg12.sc1, new scene. Make legs
CTRL C to copy
Open Stance Lower Leg04.sc1, new scene
CTRL V to paste.

I used this method because

when I tried to add the lower leg

it loaded as a chaos miasma for some reason.

This copy and paste method is an easy enough work around

so I’m not going to let it bother me.

Position the lower and upper leg together.

Save as Stance Leg00.sc1

135
Lesson seven : stance
Make legs
Move to the left view to make sure
the leg is straight.
Save as Stance Leg00 180.sc1

Why the strange filename?

180 refers to the angle of the leg.

This allows us to create a variety of

pre-positioned legs

which might save us work when we

are configuring a stance later.

136
Lesson seven : stance
Make legs

Use global rotate

and click on the top of the lower leg,

just behind the kneecap.

If you still have placement lines from where you pasted the upper leg, Move the rotate tool focus to north
press CTRL D to deselect then select the lower leg. and leave the circle to activate the rotate,
The placement lines lock the pivot point of the rotation tool, now rotate to North North East and release.
which might be useful on some occasions but not for us right now. We have just rotated the leg 45 degrees.
You might want to hide the upper leg for this next bit. Save as Stance Leg00 135.sc1

137
Lesson seven : stance
Make legs

I am going to create four positions. Repeat again, north to north east.

Repeat the process of rotating the Save as Stance Leg00 45.sc1
lower leg north to north east.

Save as Stance Leg00 90.sc1

138
Lesson seven : stance
Configure stances
Open Stance Leg00 180.sc1, new scene, facing, don’t resize.
Select both parts using SHIFT.
Select the Rotate tool and click the Mirror icon from the tool options palette.

We have turned our left leg into a right leg!

Save as Stance Type01 00.sc1

Open Stance Leg00 135.sc1, add

It loaded messed up so delete it

and use the copy and paste technique from before

to get a right and left leg.

Save as Stance Type01 01.sc1

139
Lesson seven : stance
Configure stances

Open Stance Pelvis09.sc1, add, facing, don’t resize. Load the pelvis, CTRL C to copy,

Cosmic Miasma? Me too. open Stance Type01 01.sc1 as a new scene

Never mind, we can work around it. and then paste in the pelvis.

Save as Stance Type01 02.sc1

140
Lesson seven : stance
Configure stances

Turn to the back view Now use the rotation tool,

Select both parts of the left leg. from the front view

Position the leg so that rotate the whole leg outwards

the hip on the leg lines up with the hip on the pelvis. to line up the hips better.

The leg should jut out at the side a bit. Save as Stance Type01 03.sc1

141
Lesson seven : stance
Configure stances

I don’t know about yours, but Unhide the pelvis.

mine is looking really good! Try rotating it as you did with the legs
Try rotating the legs from the from top, front and side.
top view. I’m creating a running stance
Use the H key to hide the so I adjust the rotation until it looks right,
Same process with the right leg.
pelvis and get easier access.
Select the whole leg, again we can use google images to help if
Rotate from top, front or the we need a picture to reference.
move in and align the hip just jutting out a little, sides to position the legs just
Save as Stance Type01 05.sc1
front view, rotate outwards and line up the hip. right.
Save as Stance Type01 04,sc1

142
Lesson seven : stance
Configure stances

So you can see the basic process, and we can use this to build up a library of stances.

However, before we run off and create a whole variety of stances

we need to go back and create more detailed variants of the pelvis, upper and lower leg.

By adding rough details to the individual parts we can save ourselves work later on.

When we come to configure our stances the rough detailing will be in place.

143
Lesson eight : pose
Torso
Upper arm
Fore arm
Making arms
Configure poses

144
Lesson eight : pose
Torso

Open Stance Pelvis09.sc1,

we will use this as our start point for the torso.
Turn symmetry off

Z lock front view,

use global rotate south to north.
It will be useful to put symmetry back on.
Make sure you pivot from the centre.
For me this altered my object just very slightly which isn’t really
By rotating the object, a problem.
the top of our pelvis will match well with the bottom of our torso. Save as Pose Torso01.sc1
Save as Pose Torso00.sc1

145
Lesson eight : pose
Torso

Use inflate to fill out the top centre area.

What was the pubic bone on the pelvis Use inflate to create a ridge

will become our sternum, over the top from front to back

the centre bone of the ribcage. in what was the area between the thighs.

Save as Pose Torso02.sc1 Thicken out the general area of the ridge.

Use the smooth tool to make sure the area has no kinks.

If you find any unruly areas, put the wireframe on to view the mesh.

Use smooth and the reduce brush to get a nice clean mesh.

Save as Pose Torso03.sc1

146
Lesson eight : pose
Torso

Inflate a crest above the ridge,

so basically a ridge on the ridge.

It should slope in a little at the front and also at the back. Now use inflate to build the height of the sides,

This is to increase the height of the ridge somewhat what was the stump of our legs.

and will be about the full height of the torso. Build the height up to a similar height as the crest in the centre.

Save as Pose Torso04.sc1 Build up the area to make the width and depth similar to the rest of the torso,

but allow a small dip to remain before the line of the sternum and spine.
Save as Pose Torso05.sc1

147
Lesson eight : pose
Torso

Inflate the sides at the top Turn now to the back view.

to build the stump of the arm in place at the shoulders. Inflate the shoulder area,

Developing the stump of the arm onto the torso will help us to line we want to create a triangle in the top outer corner

up the arms later, to represent the shoulder blade.

but also the fuller shape will help us to visualize the torso better. It should extend almost to the spine,

We should now have something shaped more like a T-shirt. it should be quite flat

The shoulder should protrude upwards and forwards just slightly. and it should slope inwards towards the top just slightly.

Save as Pose Torso06.sc1 Save as Pose Torso07.sc1

148
Lesson eight : pose
Torso

On the front view now, At the bottom of the pectoral, At the side

inflate the area just to the side of the sternum, follow the line around the side inflate the line downwards
and to the back, to create a more even slope
upwards and also out to the sides.
stopping before the spine to between the underarm and the waist.
These are the pectoral muscles or the breast/
leave a dip.
chest. Save as Pose Torso08.sc1

149
Lesson eight : pose
Torso
Now use the draw tool with clay on to draw a small nipple.
I tried this three times before I got the correct position.
Use the smooth tool if you need to wipe it off and try again.

To get the correct position, imagine a line through the middle

of the breast and another from the hip.

The nipple should be placed slightly inward and downward

from where these two imaginary lines cross.

The nipple will provide a good reference point to help us visualize the torso,

but it will also be useful if at some point you want to create a topless character.

Save as Pose Torso09.sc1

150
Lesson eight : pose
Torso

Use inflate but use a smaller tool focus Use the inflate tool from the top view
to create the clavicle or collar bone. and inflate a large peg in the centre of the object

This should run from the top of the sternum, to form the stump of the neck.

diagonally to the top of the shoulder. Save as Pose Torso11.sc1

Save as Pose Torso10.sc1

151
Lesson eight : pose
Torso
Use inflate with a smallish brush

from the front view

to mark a ridge from the end of the collar bone

upwards to the side of the stump.

This should be quite straight but slope back a little.
I had a kink appear when I did this, so I smoothed it out.
Save as Pose Torso12.sc1

Now we’ll make the deltoid

which is the big round muscle at the top of the arm.

Use a larger inflate tool
Use a slightly bigger brush
to make the rounded mass of the deltoid.
to make a similar but thicker ridge
It should point slightly towards the front
from the stump diagonally down to the shoulder.
and not quite reach the shoulder blade at the back.
This is called the trapezoid.
Save as Pose Torso13.sc1

152
Lesson eight : pose
Torso
Flip to back view,
in the centre where the shoulder blades meet,
inflate a lump and extend it downwards.

It should diminish as it travels down the spine.

If you are interested, this is called the rhomboid.

It’s still called the rhomboid even if you’re not interested.

Save as Pose Torso14.sc1

Inflate a curve over the top of the lump.

Inflate a similar curve over the lower point of the lump

which should curve up to the arm pit at the sides.

Save as Pose Torso15.sc1

153
Lesson eight : pose
Torso
Stay in back view
and inflate a ridge
from the outer edge of the shoulder

to meet the curve we just created at the armpit.

Now flip to front view

and do a similar ridge

from the outer edge of the shoulder

to connect with the breast.

Save as Pose Torso16.sc1

Turn to the side view

and use inflate and deflate

to extend the arm muscles

and hollow out the arm pit.

Save as Pose Torso17.sc1

154
Lesson eight : pose
Torso
Use inflate/deflate to go around the whole torso,

inflate the hollow areas out a bit

and make the whole thing look more torso shaped.

Find some reference pictures to help you.

Save as Pose Torso18.sc1

Use the smooth tool

to smooth everything over a bit Now turn off the symmetry.

and make sure there aren’t any weird kinks. Save as Pose Torso19.sc1

155
Lesson eight : pose
Upper arm

Use global scale XYZ on

to reduce the leg to about two thirds the original size.

We can make this a little easier to judge
by zooming in on the leg until it fits the boundary of the screen.
We’ll use our upper leg as the basis for our upper arm. Now we can reduce the size
Open Stance Upper Leg12.sc1 as a new scene, don’t resize. and use the boundary of the screen to compare it against.
Save as Pose Upper Arm00.sc1 Save as Pose Upper Arm01.sc1

156
Lesson eight : pose
Upper arm

As this is a left leg, we’ll use it to make a left arm.

Deflate the kneecap and the side to the left of the kneecap.
Inflate to the right side of the kneecap and around to the back.

This will be our elbow

which points outwards and slightly to the back,

the hollow of the elbow being diagonally opposite the bony side.

Save as Pose Upper Arm02.sc1

Deflate the top right side of the arm to round it off,

this will be our deltoid,

the big round muscle at the top of the arm.

Save as Pose Upper Arm03.sc1

157
Lesson eight : pose
Upper arm
Flip to bottom view
and deflate a shallow pit at the hollow side of the elbow.
Face front now

and inflate bottom right to middle centre.

Inflate top left to middle centre.

Inflate top left to middle left then on to middle centre.

Save as Pose Upper Arm04.sc1

Use deflate

to reduce the mass of the deltoid

on the upper right side of the arm,

deflate all around to reduce the general mass.

Save as Pose Upper Arm05.sc1

158
Lesson eight : pose
Upper arm

Use the smooth tool to neaten up the arm Don’t worry about making it too accurate,

and use your reference pictures to make it roughly arm shaped. we just need something approximately right at this stage.

Save as Pose Upper Arm06.sc1

159
Lesson eight : pose
Fore arm

Inflate top right Deflate the kneecap

from the side of the kneecap and around to the left,

round to the back, around to the back

this will be the elbow. stopping just before where
we inflated the elbow.
Open Stance Lower Leg04.sc1, new scene, don’t resize.

Global scale XYZ on. Resize to about two thirds,

This is basically the same process as we used
remember the trick with zooming to help gauge it.
to create the elbow on the upper arm.
Save as Pose Fore Arm00.sc1
Save as Pose Fore Arm01.sc1

160
Lesson eight : pose
Fore arm

In front view, Arms will vary a lot depending on their position

it will be good enough for now.
deflate from middle centre to bottom centre. and the load placed on them
Save as Pose Fore Arm02.sc1
Now use smooth to blend in the arm shape. which will contract or expand the muscles,

so as long as the shape is about right

161
Lesson eight : pose
Making arms
Open Pose Upper Arm06.sc1

CTRL C to copy

Open Pose Fore Arm02.sc1, new scene, don’t resize

CTRL V to paste in the upper arm.

Save as Pose Arm00.sc1

As we have a good deal of rotation on the forearm

it doesn’t make quite as much sense to create dif-

ferently angled arms like we did with the legs.

We will probably want to configure the arms in

conjunction with the torso,

but having both arm parts in a single model will

make it easier to load a whole arm at once.

162
Lesson eight : pose
Configure poses
Open Pose Arm00.sc1

Select both parts of the arm and CTRL C

Open Pose Torso19.sc1, new scene, don’t resize.

Symmetry on

CTRL V to paste the arm,

position to the sides so you get both arms at once.

Save as Pose Type01 00.sc1

Symmetry off

CTRL D to deselect everything.

Select the left arm parts and move them roughly into place.

Remember the deltoid has been modelled onto the arm and the torso

so they should overlap.

Do the same with the right arm.

Save as Pose Type01 01.sc1

163
Lesson eight : pose
Configure poses

My alignment is out for the torso,

it should tilt slightly forward and the arms should hang by the sides.

I’ll turn side on and rotate the torso until it looks about right.

Save as Pose Type01 02.sc1

Position the arms so they sink into the deltoids on the torso.

My torso is quite beefy so it looks a bit like an American football player.

I’m not too worried about it at this stage but I can see my arms look a bit too small.

Select all four arm parts and use Global scale, XYZ on

to adjust the arms until they are scaled well against the torso.

Again, using reference pictures will help you to get it right.

Save as Pose Type01 03.sc1

164
Lesson eight : pose
Configure poses

I could create another torso object and make it less muscly and then use that object,

but I’m just going to sculpt it here in the pose model.

Select the upper arms and the torso,

hide the torso and use the mask tool to mask off the tops of the arms.

Remember inverting with Alt will darken the area to mask it. Use deflate to shrink down the oblique mus-
cles at the sides.
Use deflate to reduce the deltoids on the torso
Hide the arms to keep them out of your way.
to closely match the deltoids on the arms.
Save as Pose Type01 05.sc1
Save as Pose Type01 04.sc1

165
Lesson eight : pose
Configure poses

Use the deflate tool to go round Use the deflate to hollow out the underarm

and reduce the general musculature of the torso. and thin out the musculature around the armpit.

Save as Pose Type01 06.sc1 Use the smooth tool to generally neaten up the torso.

Save as Pose Type01 07.sc1

166
Lesson eight : pose
Configure poses

Now we can configure the pose in a similar way to the stance. When side on use the centre point of the lower arm

Rotate the arms to position them in the desired pose. where it overlaps the upper arm as the pivot point.

I am going the make a running pose to go with the running stance Rotating north to west should be about right for the right arm
I made.
and north to east for the left arm.
Start by rotating the lower arms to right angles to the upper arms.
Save as Pose Type01 08.sc1

167
Lesson eight : pose
Configure poses

Rotate the upper arm in the centre of the deltoid,

use hide if the torso gets in the way.

Remember to select both parts of the arm so that they rotate together.

I rotated north to east for the right arm

and north to north east for the left.

Reposition and rotate the arms until it all looks about right.

Remember to use reference pictures to help get a more realistic pose.

Save as Pose Type01 09.sc1

168
Lesson eight : pose
Configure poses

As with the stances we should go back to create our individual pieces

so that our rough detailing can carry through to our pose

and reduce our work later on.

169
Lesson nine : hands
Fingers
Configure hands

170
Lesson nine : hands
Fingers
We are going to use our arms as a short
cut to making fingers.
Open Pose Arm00.sc1

Use CTRL D to deselect

and then reselect both arm parts.

If you don’t follow this step you might

find you paste a cosmic hiccup.

CTRL C to copy, CTRL V to paste.

Use global resize Select all four parts and use rotate
to shrink both parts of the second arm to spin the whole thing round (north to south).
to about half the size of the first. Go to the bottom view
Reposition the small arm and rotate the whole thing north to south.
so it sits on the end of the big arm. Go back to the front view
Save as Hand 00.sc1 and rotate to get it roughly straight.

This is our finger.

Save as Hand 01.sc1

171
Lesson nine : hands
Fingers
Use the deflate tool to resize each section of the finger.
Use hide where you need to and watch for the mesh splitting when you deflate the ends,
just use smooth to repair and if you develop a kink turn on the wireframe and use the reduce brush.

Start with The next largest, The next part The final section

the biggest section. reduce away the thinner part is a similar thing, is just the same,

Leave the full length and then reduce the girth take off the thinner end remove the thin end

but reduce the girth to something similar and then reduce the girth. and reduce the girth.

so it is straighter. to the previous part. Save as Hand 02.sc1

172
Lesson nine : hands
Fingers
Now to resize the parts.
Place the second biggest next to the biggest,
resize it to about half the length of the biggest.

Place the third and fourth parts together next to the second part.
Resize until their combined length is the same as the second piece.

Now place these on the end of the second piece, Now place all three pieces on the end of the first

all three pieces should have a combined length to reconstruct our complete finger.
the same as the first piece. Save as Hand 03.sc1

173
Lesson nine : hands
Fingers

Adjust the positioning of the sections

so they each just meet the next overlapping just a tiny amount.
Use rotate if necessary to make sure it’s all fairly straight.

We’ll correct the scale now before we continue.

Select all four parts of the finger and copy.

Open Ruler.sc1 as a new scene, don’t resize.

Paste the finger in and rotate and reposition it next to the ruler.

Mine was a whopping 60cm, that’s a mighty big hand.

We want the length to measure about 20cm,

so use global resize XYZ to resize it.

Save as Hand 04.sc1

174
Lesson nine : hands
Fingers
Select the ruler and delete it.
I have messed up my positioning on the finger,
so I used rotate to reposition it

so the finger points straight upwards

with the knuckles (made by the bony elbow parts) facing forwards.

Now let’s fine tune the positioning.

Turn left side on Now rotate the smallest two sections

and rotate the smallest three sections in the same direction

north to north west but just a tiny amount

pivoting on the overlap with the largest section. so they remain almost straight.

Save as Hand 05.sc1

175
Lesson nine : hands
Fingers
Now select all four parts of the finger and copy.
Paste four times to add four more fingers.
Save as Hand 06.sc1

Place four of the fingers in a neat line next to each other.

The fifth place a little further down from the others

about half the length of the long section,

this will be the thumb.

Save as Hand 07.sc1

176
Lesson nine : hands
Fingers
Turn left side on

and rotate this fifth finger

north to north west Next turn to face the thumb

directly from the bottom
pivoting at the mid point of the long section.
and rotate north to north west.

Now turn to bottom view

and rotate north to north west

Finally turn to the back view
pivoting on about the same place.
and rotate north to north west,

again pivot on the same point.

By now the thumb position
should be about right.
Next turn to the front view
Save as Hand 08.sc1
and pivoting in about the same place,

rotate north to north west from this angle.

177
Lesson nine : hands
Fingers
Delete the large section of the thumb,
and increase the size of the remaining three sections.
Slide the three sections along

so they meet up with the wrist end of the index finger.

Fine tune the position, size and rotation of the thumb

until it looks about right.

Save as Hand 09.sc1

178
Lesson nine : hands
Fingers
Now to resize the fingers.

Select the smallest three sections of the index finger

and reduce by just a tiny amount.

Reposition back to meet the large section.

The middle finger is fine as it is.

Resize the end three sections of the ring finger

just like the index finger.

For the little finger select all four sections

and resize them all a bit smaller. We now have our basic hand,
Now reposition the little finger so the big end the four longer sections together make the palm of the hand.
lines up with the other fingers at the bottom. Save as Hand 10.sc1

179
Lesson nine : hands
Configure Hands
We can use this template to configure different hands,
just like we did with the stance and pose.
We could fuse the palm parts together

and flesh out the hand to make it more hand like,

But I’m just going to keep my template like this.

Try out some different configurations,

Remember you can rotate several fingers at once.

180
Lesson ten : objects
Ball
Disc
Boot
Shield
Helmet
Sword
Scabbard

181
Lesson ten : objects
Ball
Before we start making things I’m going to create a 10cm ball.
You can make objects in any scale and just reduce them in place relative to the figure.
If you wish to retain the scale across models for uniformity,

for example having a sword or shield that is exactly the same size,

you will want to rescale the object,

but it will be best to leave this until the end when the object is finished.
I’m creating this ball just so I have a rough idea of what scale I’m working with.

New sphere, new scene. Symmetry on.

Open Ruler.sc1, add, don’t resize.

Position sufficiently to the sides to load correctly.

Turn symmetry off and resize the sphere to 10cm,

remember to check the position so you measure at the widest point.

Delete the rulers.

Save as Element Ball 10cm.sc1

182
Lesson ten : objects
Disc

I’m now going to make a 10cm disc,

Click on the View Menu at the top
this will be another useful element for modelling parts.
and click on Show Objects Browser.
Making nice clean geometric shapes in Sculptris can be tricky,
Now click on Meshmix from the side menu,
so we’re going to cheat!
select the cylinder object
Load Meshmixer,
and drag it onto the work space.
click on import sphere.

183
Lesson ten : objects
Disc

On the Drop Solid Options popup,

On the Object Browser,
change the dimension to 25mm
select the sphere
then click Accept.
and then click on the Trash Can to delete it.

184
Lesson ten : objects
Disc

On the Object Browser make sure Dropped Part 1 is selected In the Transform options popup,
then select edit from the side menu and change the Size Y value to 2mm,
Transform from the submenu. click Accept and the cylinder should change into a disc.

185
Lesson ten : objects
Disc

Click File, export.

Export as Element Disc.obj

Now back to Sculptris to import it.

Open Element Ball 10cm.sc1, new, don’t resize.

Save as Element Disc 10cm00.sc1

186
Lesson ten : objects
Disc

Line up the diameter of the disc with the ball,

Import Element Disc.obj, add, uncheck don’t resize. use hide so the ball doesn’t get in the way.

Place to the side of the ball. Use global resize XYZ to resize the diameter to match the ball.

We now have a 10cm disc.

Delete the ball.

Save as Element Disc 10cm02.sc1

187
Lesson ten : objects
Boot
Okay we will start by making a boot because that’s quite easy and
also it’s the last part of our body.
We could make a foot in a similar way to how we made the hand,

but we don’t need the same level of pose-ability

so a simple boot will serve our needs.

Also we only need one because we can mirror to make it’s pair.

Open Element Ball 10cm.sc1, new scene, don’t resize

Copy and paste twice so you get three balls.

Now position them together
Use resize with XYZ off
so you have heel, toe and ankle.
to squash the height of the toe
The ankle should overlap the heel somewhat
and stretch the width
so you have a bit of a dip between the two.
to make the boot longer.
Overlap the toe piece with the heel piece
Save as Object Boot01.sc1
so the dip between the two is more pronounced.
Save as Object Boot00.sc1

188
Lesson ten : objects
Boot

Select all three pieces and switch to top view. While still on the top view,

Use the resize again use the flatten tool with a very large brush size
to squash the sides in a little to flatten the ankle piece,

and make the spheres a bit more elliptical. try to get the tool in the centre of the ankle piece

Save as Object Boot02.sc1 to get the level right,

but if it’s out slightly it will be fine.

Save as Object Boot03.sc1

189
Lesson ten : objects
Boot
Flip to bottom view now
and use the big flatten brush
to flatten off the heel

and toe pieces

to create the sole of the boot.

Use the tool gently

and check from the side to get the right level.

I’ll make this a left boot.
Save as Object Boot04.sc1
From front view

use the big flatten brush

to flatten the sides a very small amount.

Use the tool in the centre of the model Flip round to back view now

so that the outer parts of the heel use the big flat brush on the centre of this side

and toe still retain their curves. but only a tiny amount, less than on the front view.
Save as Object Boot05.sc1

190
Lesson ten : objects
Boot

Still with all three pieces selected, Now use the pinch tool
use the draw tool with clay on to go around the sole

to draw the thickness of the sole and the top of the ankle.

around the whole bottom edge of the boot. Use a low strength and make several passes

Now do the same to thicken the top edge of the ankle. to gradually tighten up the edges.

Save as Object Boot06.sc1 Save as Object Boot07.sc1

191
Lesson ten : objects
Boot
While making these objects it is worth keeping the scale in mind, there
is no point us sculpting details which are too fine for the final model.
So while I might be tempted to sculpt some boot laces and other fine
details, I know they will be lost on the final model so I won’t bother.

You can go to whatever level of detail you wish and of course you will
want more detail if you will be printing your models at a larger scale.

So I’m just going to use inflate, deflate and smooth

to finish off the rough shape of my boot.

Save as Object Boot08.sc1

Now that the boot is finished,

it’s a bit inconvenient to have it in three parts,

so let’s convert it into a single object.

Export as Object Boot08.obj

192
Lesson ten : objects
Boot
Load Mesh Mixer, okay on the popup

and then click the plus sign to import.

Select the file Object Boot08.obj

The boot will load,

now click Edit from the side menu

and select Make Solid,

click Accept on the popup

to accept the default settings.

Click File, export.

Export as Object Boot08solid.obj

193
Lesson ten : objects
Boot

Back to Sculptris now and Import Object Boot08solid.obj, add, Resize the new boot with XYZ on to match it back to the
original size.
this time uncheck the Don’t Resize option.
Place this next to the original boot.

Using Mesh Mixer has caused our boot to change size.

Now delete the original three part boot.

You may find some rough patches on the new boot,

use smooth to neaten it up if you need to.

Save as Object Boot09.sc1

194
Lesson ten : objects
Shield
We’ll load the 10cm disc as our start point for the shield.
Open Element Disc 10cm02.sc1, new scene, don’t resize.
Save as Object Shield00.sc1

The object we have created has a very low number of triangles, Turn the mesh on and click Subdivide All again so that you can see
meaning it has very little detail. the effect.

Click on Subdivide all to increase the triangle count. By increasing our level of detail globally like this we can make more
detailed amendments to the disc without distorting it.

195
Lesson ten : objects
Shield
Flip to the back view.
Use draw with clay, small brush, medium strength.
Mark two short lines one just right of centre,

and one towards the left edge.

Go over the lines a few times to build them up.

Use the crease tool

to score around the bottom edge of the lines,

use the pinch tool to tighten up the lines.

These will be the handles of the shield.

Save as Object Shield01.sc1

196
Lesson ten : objects
Shield
I’ll add a rim and a boss to the shield.
Flip round to front view.

Use Inflate to create a boss

in the centre of the shield.

Now use the pinch tool, Use the crease tool to circle around the boss, use the pinch tool at the end

make the tool focus big enough to cover the boss use a light strength to go around and tighten up the circle.

and pinch to make it a bit more pointy. and go around the circle a few times, Save as Object Shield02.sc1

197
Lesson ten : objects
Shield

Now use the crease tool Finally tighten up the line with the pinch tool

to mark a circle just a little in from the edge of the shield. but be careful not to go too near the edge as you may deform the edges.

As with the boss, use low strength Save as Object Shield03.sc1

and go around the circle several times

this should help to get a neater edge.

198
Lesson ten : objects
Shield

The shield we have created is about 10cm,

we want something nearer 50cm.

I’m not going to bother measuring for this one,

but I’ll use the resize to just guess about 50cm.

Save as Object Shield04.sc1

199
Lesson ten : objects
Helmet
We’ll load up our head to help us fit the helmet.

Open Head Hair01.sc1, new, don’t resize.

Turn off the symmetry

New sphere, add.

Position the sphere over the head and resize with XYZ on

to make it just a little too big for the head.

Now turn off the XYZ

and shrink the helmets width, depth and height

to make an egg shape that just covers the head

with the ears just sticking out a bit,

and also the hair at the bottom.

The top of the helmet should be opposite to the chin.

Save as Object Helmet 00.sc1

200
Lesson ten : objects
Helmet
Press CTRL A to select all objects,

now hide the helmet.

Use the mask tool to dark out all the area around the helmet.

Mask across the eyes

and down the nose

and the back of the neck.

Save as Object Helmet 01.sc1

201
Lesson ten : objects
Helmet

Hide anything that might get in the way Now use the smooth tool,
and use the inflate tool use a large brush size with low strength

to build out the helmet down the nose. to shrink in the helmet

We’ll make a basic nose guard on the helmet so that it more closely matches the rough shape of the head,

as it will be a useful reference point. don’t overdo it we want to keep much of that roundness.

Save as Object Helmet 02.sc1

202
Lesson ten : objects
Helmet
Now deflate around the ears,
use a brush big enough to just cover the whole of the ear.
Hide the ear, we have a mask on but we should still hide objects
we don’t want to effect in case the mask fails.
Save as Object Helmet 03.sc1

203
Lesson ten : objects
Helmet
Now use the draw with clay to outline the edges of the helmet,

around the ears, down the nose guard

and curve around to form a basic helmet shape.

I found it helpful to position the chin at the bottom of the screen. Now go around the same edges with an

You may also want to unhide anything you hid so it’s easier to use as a reference. inverted crease tool,

I hid the hair again because it would be squashed down by a helmet. this will square up our edges a bit.

Do your best to get a symmetrical shape but don’t worry too much about it. Save as Object Helmet 05.sc1

Save as Object Helmet 04.sc1

204
Lesson ten : objects
Now delete all the head parts
Helmet

so you are just left with the helmet.

Save as Object Helmet 06.sc1

Now let’s put symmetry back on,

before you do
you can flip with the mirror tool

found in rotate

to decide which side to copy.

The right will copy to the left.

Save as Object Helmet 07.sc1

205
Lesson ten : objects
Helmet
Use deflate and smooth

to remove all the material we don’t need.

Watch out for any kinks and smooth them out.

We should be left with a basic helmet shape,

with ear holes and a nose guard.

Save as Object Helmet 08.sc1

Use the pinch tool

to go around the edges of the helmet

and crisp up the edges.

Save as Object Helmet 09.sc1

206
Lesson ten : objects
Helmet

Do any other tweaks you might like

and turn off the symmetry.

Save as Object Helmet 10.sc1

I’m going to leave this as it is as a template piece.

Use this as the basis for the helmet variants you make.

If you are adorning the helmet with horns, wings or something

you might like to add these as separate objects,

you can use symmetry or copy and paste to replicate them.

By modelling adornments in this way

you also have freedom to adjust size, position and rotation.

Use google images to find some inspiration.

207
Lesson ten : objects
To make sword we are going to use a low poly model,
Sword
in other words a model with a low triangle count.

This will actually help us to achieve sharper angles in Sculptris.

New sphere, new scene.

We start with 2048 triangles.

Turn on the wireframe and click the Reduce Selected icon about 8 times.

Strangely enough this will give you a different number of triangles each time you do this,

but after 8 clicks you should be below 100.

I had 74 on this occasion which should serve my needs.
Save as Object Sword 00.sc1

Use the flatten tool with a big brush to squash the front flat,
flip to the back and flatten that side.

The reverse side won’t flatten as much,

Sculptris has a problem flattening two opposite sides,

this won’t really be a problem, it should flatten enough.

Save as Object Sword 01.sc1

208
Lesson ten : objects
Sword
Now use the resize with XYZ off,

use it to stretch the shape upwards while keeping it thin.

Zoom out so you can stretch it into the rough size and shape of a sword.

You should also notice that the top part has grown into a point.
Save as Object Sword 02.sc1

Now click the Subdivide All about five times.

I’m now on 75776 triangles,

this might slightly alter the shape

but it should still be pretty sword like.

Save as Object Sword 03.sc1

209
Lesson ten : objects
Sword
Zoom right in on the pointy end,

You’ll probably find the point is a little curved in like the nib of a fountain pen.
Use the smooth tool to gently relax the end,

it will probably still look like a tongue but the mesh will be more relaxed.
Save as Object Sword 04.sc1

Concentrate on the pointy end of the sword.

Use smooth and flatten tools to very gradually form the sword,

work on the front and back only to avoid damaging our clean blade shape.

I found the sword the hardest part to form because of the need for clean lines,

work slowly and carefully until you build confidence.

Save as Object Sword 05.sc1

210
Lesson ten : objects
Sword
Use the pinch tool on the tip of the sword,
you should be able to bring it to a cleaner point,

but be careful not to overwork it.

Now use the pinch tool to work down the sides of the blade.
You should be able to kind of pull the blade more into the centre line of the side.

Work slowly and try to keep the line straight.

Use pinch to tidy up the sword all the way down the blade.

Keep checking the sword from all angles to make sure you don’t
damage your clean lines.

Save frequently so that you can go back if you mess it up.

Save as Object Sword 06.sc1

211
Lesson ten : objects
Sword
Now you can form a handle on the sword,
I’m going to create mine as a separate object.

New sphere, new scene

Turn off symmetry and also the wireframe if you still have it on.
Let’s have some fun with a feature you may not have seen.

Click options in the tool options palette,

in the popup look for the setting Turntable Animation,

check to turn it on, okay to close the popup.

You probably can’t see much difference yet.

Select the draw tool with clay on,

use the Alt key to undrawn about the centre of the sphere.

Yes, we have a potters wheel!

212
Lesson ten : objects
Sword
Try again with the clay off, it makes a deeper mark.

Use draw to form a mushroom shape and then use smooth to blend it in.
You probably won’t get perfect results but it’s a useful tool to know about.

Go back to the options popup to turn off the turntable Animation.

Save as Element Handle00.sc1

Now flip to top view and use the flatten tool

to squash down the top part of the mushroom.

If you need to squash it down more than the flatten tool will go,

use deflate in the centre and then smooth out,

use flatten again to get a flatter surface.

Save as Element Handle01.sc1

213
Lesson ten : objects
Sword

Now turn to the side and use the pinch tool

to crisp up the edge of the hand guard,

I used the turntable mode on this again. Open Object Sword 06.sc1, new scene, don’t resize.

Tidy it all up and smooth out. Open Element Handle 02.sc1, add, don’t resize.

Save as Element Handle02.sc1 Save as Object Sword 07.sc1

214
Lesson ten : objects
Sword

Use global resize with XYZ Position it onto the sword being sure to align it from all angles,

to adjust the size of the handle to the desired width, use rotation if necessary to get the handle straight to the blade.

then turn XYZ off and stretch the handle to the desired length. Save as Object Sword 08.sc1

215
Lesson ten : objects
The scabbard should be pretty easy Scabbard
because we can use the sword as the start point.
Open Object Sword 08.sc1, new scene, don’t resize
Save as Object Scabbard 00.sc1

Hide the handle and use the draw with clay

to mark a fairly thick band where the blade meets the handle.
Now use smooth to remove the end of the blade up to the band,

using the reduce brush on this area will help you to smooth it
out quicker.

Now use the flatten tool to get a nice flat end to the scabbard.

Save as Object Scabbard 01.sc1

216
Lesson ten : objects
Scabbard

Now turn on the wireframe.

If your blade is anything like mine you may have a whole bunch of kinks and breaks in the mesh at the end.
Use the smooth tool on low strength to clear the kinks and neaten up the area without changing the shape of the piece.

Save as Object Scabbard 02.sc1

Keep the wireframe on to help you.

Go down the whole blade removing any kinks you find

with the smooth tool.

The reduce brush will help with any troublesome kinks.

Save as Object Scabbard 03.sc1

217
Lesson ten : objects
Scabbard
Now you should find the wireframe much tighter around the edges of the blade,
this is the effect of the pinch we did on the blade.
Use the reduce brush to go around the edges and relax out the mesh,

this should remove any other kinks which might not be so obvious.
Save as Object Scabbard 04.sc1

Now use the inflate with a big brush,

front view and inflate the full length of the blade

until it approximately matches the size of the band we added.

You’ll probably discover some more kinks

so straighten them out with a gentle smooth.

Save as Object Scabbard 05.sc1

218
Lesson ten : objects
Scabbard

Use the inflate brush again on the front view Use the flatten tool on the front and back and then on the edges.

to square up the scabbard at the edges and at the point. Keep the strength low and gradually flatten of the surface.
Save as Object Scabbard 06.sc1 Save as Object Scabbard 07.sc1

219
Lesson ten : objects
Scabbard

Use the pinch tool to sharpen up all the edges,

use inflate or deflate to make the shape fairly regular.

Save as Object Scabbard 08.sc1

Now add a new sphere and resize with XYZ

to about half the size of the scabbard,

then XYZ off and stretch the height

to about the size of the scabbard.

Use deflate on the sphere from left and right view,

then use the smooth

and finally the flatten to create an oval disc.

Now use pinch on the edges to make them crisper.

220
Lesson ten : objects
Scabbard

This piece will be a shoulder strap for the scabbard,

use the rotate to position it against the scabbard.

Don’t worry too much about the position,

this will need to be adjusted to the figure anyway

but it will give us a basic starting point.

Save as Object Scabbard 09.sc1

You can put some more detailing on the scabbard

but I’m going to leave mine here.

221
Lesson eleven : figures
Base
Configure
Integrate parts
Integrate detail
Final detail

222
Lesson eleven : figures
Base

We’re going to want some kind of base for our figure. Click on Subdivide a couple of times to increase the triangle count.
We can use our 10cm disc to start with but we’re going to Now use the flatten tool to very carefully flatten out the front and
want to make it a little bigger. back surfaces.

Open Element Disc 10cm02.sc1, new scene, don’t resize You will find this easiest if you zoom in, go close to the edges but

The disc we imported is a low poly object and it’s a little not too close as we don’t want to deform our nice clean edges.

bit wonky so we’ll try and clean it up a little. Save as Base 25mm 00.sc1

223
Lesson eleven : figures
Base

For a 25mm base we want about 180cm by our scale.

You could use the ruler method if you like

but I’m going to use another method.

Copy and paste the disc,

you may need to deselect and reselect the disc if it produces

an error.
Select the 18 small discs and delete them.
Keep one disc to the side and repeatedly copy and paste until
The big disc should now be 180cm by our scale
you have 18 more discs,
which should be about 25mm when printed at 100% scale.
you can copy and paste multiples to get there quicker.
I’m not too fussed about being exact so I will leave the base here
Line the discs up, now use global resize on the original disc
with XYZ on but you may wish to upload to shapeways

to increase the size to match the 18 discs. and check the size and adjust it to get exact.

Save as Base 25mm 01.sc1 Save as Base 25mm 02.sc1

224
Lesson eleven : figures
Configure parts

I’ll start by importing the stance I created,

Finally we are ready to create our first figure! as we know adding parts can be a bit weird,

I will go through the process of bringing all the parts together so I’m going to use copy and paste to import stuff.

using our template pieces that we created. Open Stance Type01 05.sc1, new scene, don’t resize.

So let’s start with the base. Deselect and reselect all the parts and copy.

Open Base 25mm 02.sc1, new scene, don’t resize Open Figure 01 00.sc1, new scene, don’t resize, and paste.

Rotate the base so that the flat part is facing the top view. Position the stance over the base

Save as Figure 01 00.sc1 Save as Figure 01 01.sc1

225
Lesson eleven : figures
Configure parts

I messed up my filenames and skipped Figure01 02.sc1 somehow,

it doesn’t really matter, but that’s what happened to Figure01
02.sc1

Now let’s add in the pose in the same way. Now let’s add the boots.

Open Pose Type01 09.sc1, new scene, don’t resize. Open Object Boot09.sc1, new scene, don’t resize

Deselect and reselect and copy. Use global grab to move the boot to the right hand side of the screen,

Open Figure 01 01.sc1, new scene, don’t resize, and paste. now turn on the symmetry,

Position over the stance we get a second mirrored boot.

Save as Figure 01 03.sc1 Deselect and then reselect the boots and copy.

226
Lesson eleven : figures
Configure parts

Open Hand Type01 00.sc1, new scene, don’t resize

Open Figure 01 03.sc1, new scene, don’t resize, CTRL A to select all, move to the right, put symmetry on.
and paste.
Turn symmetry off again, deselect and reselect all the parts, you must use
Use global grab and rotate to position the boots shift select, using the Select All will cause an error when you come to paste.
on the end of the legs,
Use CTRL C to copy.
just get it approximately right for now.
Sculptris has a few annoying little glitches like this but once we know what
Now I notice the boots are too small so select triggers the errors we can easily work around them so it’s not too much of a
them both problem.

and use resize until they look about right. Open Figure 01 04.sc1, new scene, don’t resize, and paste.

Save as Figure 01 04.sc1 Save as Figure 01 05.sc1

227
Lesson eleven : figures
Configure parts

Move the hands into place and rotate to align them.

Remember to select all the elements of the hand.

You don’t need to be too precise as we will refine everything Again, my hands look a little bit small
once the whole figure is constructed.
so select all the hand parts and global resize to fine tune them.
Save as Figure 01 06.sc1
Save as Figure 01 07.sc1

228
Lesson eleven : figures
Configure parts

Now let’s load the head.

Open Head Type01 00.sc1 Reposition the head, also resize if necessary.
Deselect and reselect all the parts and copy. My head was a little small so I increased the size a bit
Open Figure 01 07.sc1, new scene, don’t resize, and paste. remembering to first select all the head elements.
Save as Figure 01 08.sc1 Save as Figure 01 09.sc1

229
Lesson eleven : figures
Configure parts

Open Object Helmet 10.sc1 Open Object Scabbard 09.sc1

Deselect and reselect and copy. Deselect and reselect and copy.

Open Figure 01 09.sc1, new scene, don’t resize, and paste. Open Figure 01 10.sc1, new scene, don’t resize, and paste.

Save as Figure 01 10.sc1 Save as Figure 01 11.sc1

230
Lesson eleven : figures
Configure parts

Open Object Shield04.sc1 Open Object Sword 08.sc1

Deselect and reselect and copy. Deselect and reselect and copy.

Open Figure 01 11.sc1, new scene, don’t resize, and paste. Open Figure 01 12.sc1, new scene, don’t resize, and paste.

Save as Figure 01 12.sc1 Save as Figure 01 13.sc1

231
Lesson eleven : figures
Configure parts

Take a few moments to move everything roughly into place

and fine tune the sizes. We now have all our elements in place,
Save as Figure 01 14.sc1 a quick check of our triangle count shows 473976 for me.

232
Lesson eleven : figures
Configure parts
Now refine the positioning and size of everything

to make your figure strike the pose you require.

Taking your time over this will help you to get a realistic pose with realistic propor-
tions.

While you are doing this you will see how building the head, pose and stance in
stages can save you a lot of effort when you come to configure the figure.

I just want something basic to show you the process

so I will just do a quick job of this.

Save as Figure 01 15.sc1

233
Lesson eleven : figures
Integrate parts
Now let’s export this so that we can make it into a single object
Export as Figure 01 15.obj

We’ll combine the objects in Meshmixer like we did with the boot.

Load Mesh Mixer, okay on the popup

and then click the plus sign to import.

Select the file Figure 01 15.obj

We should change some settings this time.

Change Solid Type to Sharp Edge Preserve

Change Color Transfer Mode to No Colors

Change the Solid Accuracy and Mesh Density
sliders to the maximum level.
The figure will load, it might be on it’s
Click Update.
side but that doesn’t matter.
Your computer may chug away for a few
now click Edit from the side menu
minutes now while it works things out...
and select Make Solid,

234
Lesson eleven : figures
Integrate parts
...once it has finished, click the Accept button.

Select Export from the File Menu.

Export as Figure 01 16.obj

Then back to Sculptris

235
Lesson eleven : figures
Integrate parts
Import Figure 01 16.obj, new scene, don’t resize

Check out our massive triangle count.

We’re close to a million so I am going to reduce them

because I know my system can’t cope with it.

Click Reduce Selected.

My triangle count has gone down to 453,164.

Save as Figure 01 17.sc1

236
Lesson eleven : figures
Integrate parts

Click Reduce Selected.

Use CTRL D to de-select everything.
Now select the model, you’ll notice it’s now one single
object.

We don’t have to do a complete model, we could do the

base separately, the arms, the head. Whatever suits our
needs, just remove the parts you don’t need before you
export the file.
On this model I should have removed the hair which is
sticking out from the helmet.

Notice the level of detail, if we had done fine detailing

before this stage, we would have lost much of it.
Now that the model is a single object, it will be much
harder to change the pose, so take time to get the pose
right before you integrate the parts.

Now we are ready to get on to the fun part!

237
Lesson eleven : figures
Integrate detail
Before we get on with our fine detailing, we need to
integrate the detail.

By this I mean smoothing out where all our joins are.

Open Figure 01 17.sc1, new scene, don’t resize.

Use smooth, inflate and crease and whatever other

tools you find useful.

Clean up the rough shaping of the figure.

Keep an eye out for any kinks and sort them out now
before we get on to fine detailing.

When you’re happy, save.

Save as Figure 01 18.sc1

238
Lesson eleven : figures
Final detail

Use whatever tools you like to refine the detailing on the figure.

Use a gradual process to slowly build up the detail.

This should keep the detail quite uniform across the figure.

239
Lesson eleven : figures
Final detail

It can be a slow process, so if you get bored you may want to dump it for now and come back to it later.

Edges can be sharpened using draw on the outer edge, crease on the inner edge, and pinch to tighten the lines.

Keep an eye on your triangle count, if it gets too high use Reduce Selected or the Reduce Brush for specific areas.

240
Lesson eleven : figures
Final detail

Save your work frequently and keep an eye out for any mesh problems.

Any mesh problems should be fixed straight away with smooth and reduce.

241
Lesson eleven : figures
Final detail
Work on the figure until you are happy with I’ll leave my figure here with a very basic level of
it. detailing. My triangle count is 447096.

Keep in mind the level of detail you actually

require.

Detailing a figure like this will take many

hours, but the more practice you get, the
quicker you’ll become.

242
Lesson twelve : final preparations
Create an STL File
Check object
File types
Where to print
Sketchfab
Shapeways
Next steps

243
Lesson twelve : final preparations
Create an STL File

When you are all finished with your model you will need to export the
model to an OBJ file.

Export as Figure 01.obj

Load Mesh Mixer, okay on the popup

and then click the plus sign to import.
Select the file Figure 01.obj

You may be able to print directly from Meshmixer, check the drop down
menu in the top right corner to see if your printer is listed.

If you click on the Export Icon in the lefthand menu, you can export
the model in a variety of formats including STL.
STL files can be either Binary or ASCII, choosing binary will give a
smaller file size, but both should be readable by other software.

244
Lesson twelve : final preparations
Check object

The easiest way to check your model, is to upload it to Shapeways.

Here you can get information about the printability of the model, and advice on how to fix any problems that occur.

If you have problems, try uploading a previous version to see if you can find when and where the problem occurred.

Another trick is to use Meshmixer’s Make Solid function, often this will fix any problems with the model but be aware
of any detailing that may be lost during the process.

245
Lesson twelve : final preparations
File types
There are a mass of file types associated with 3D modelling and printing.

This is largely down to the sheer volume of design software and printers available.

3D modelling has two main functions, static models for 3d printing, and textured and animated models for CGI.

For the models we are making, we have no real interest in surface textures or animation features.

It seems the main file types of interest to us are STL and OBJ.

STL STL stands for Stereolithography but it’s also known as Standard Triangulation Language.

This seems to be the most common format for distributing finished 3D models for printing.

OBJ OBJ is short for Wavefront Object.

OBJ files seem to be the most common format for use with 3D software, for this reason it’s
a good option for passing a model between different software, like we did to pass from
Sculptris to Meshmixer.

Having an OBJ file can allow us to convert our file into an STL or something else, using
an online conversion tool or a 3D software package.

246
Lesson twelve : final preparations
Where to print
If you don’t yet have a 3d printer, there are plenty of places to get
things printed for you, either locally or online.

3D Hubs is a community of manufacturers that offer 3D printing as well as other services.

You can upload models and find manufacturers in your area that can print out or even mass pro-
duce your models.
The site can check your model and advise you of any potential problems, there is also a wealth of
resources to help you with all aspects of 3d printing.

https://www.3dhubs.com/

Try a google search for 3d printing services in your area.

Libraries, schools, community centres, enterprise / business centres, maker spaces are all places
that may have 3d printing services.
Local businesses such as photographic printers, promotional suppliers, even key cutters may have
3d printing facilities. Our local hardware shop has one.

There are a lot of online communities where you may find someone willing to do a print for you,
and when you are ready to get your own printer, these are a great place to get advice on finding
the best printer for your needs and budget.

247
Lesson twelve : final preparations
Shapeways

https://www.shapeways.com/

Shapeways is a great place to get your model printed.

Simply upload your model, the site will advise you of any
problems.

Once you have a printable model loaded you can see the
price to print it in a vast range of different materials.
You can add them into your basket and order straight
away.

Shapeways will print off your model and mail it out to you.

You can even set up your own shop and make your models
available for sale with Shapeways doing all the work.

248
Lesson twelve : final preparations
Shapeways
Shapeways is also a great place to check the printability of your model.
If there are problems you can often find some information about the problem and advice on how to fix it.
You also get other information such as the size and volume of the model.

Shapeways website has a great selection of tutorials and links to free and commercial 3D software.

249
Lesson twelve : final preparations
Sketchfab
Sketchfab started life as a place for 3D designers to
https://sketchfab.com/
share their work, and has grown to become one of the
largest 3D communities out there.

Recently they have added the option to host your own

store. For this you need to meet their standards and
they also take a 30% commission.

One great feature on Sketchfab is their embedded 3D

viewer. Once you have uploaded a model, you can copy
some code to paste it into Facebook or your website.

250
The end...
Is this the end?
Thanks for working through the core book.

I hope you enjoyed it and found it helpful.

To compliment this tutorial I will be producing a series of Source Books, which will take the les-
sons even further to build sets similar to those you would buy from your favourite miniature mak-
ers.

Currently planned are the Dwarves, Orcs & Goblins and Lizardmen source books.

The next three themes in the pipeline are Space Dwarves (squats), Cthulhu/Lovecraftian and
Zombie Apocalypse.

Each source book will cover the making of six sets with typically three regiment type sets, two
specialist sets (such as a war machine), and one big set (such as a large creature).

There is a plan in the pipeline to produce cast miniatures at

some point, either in Miniature Metal or Resin.
All books will be available through kickstarter projects,
In the meantime, all models created will be included with the
my kickstarter profile can be found here.
source books as a package.
http://www.kickstarter.com/profile/1222617343

251
This page is still not blank

252
REGIMENTS SPECIALIST SETS CENTRE-PIECE
Dwarf King’s Guard Dwarven King Dwarven hero with Loch Monster
Dwarf Rangers Dwarf Cannon & Crew

Dwarf Shield Maidens

Learn some new tricks and tips and take your skills further as I guide you through
making six sets of miniatures.
Source books are designed to follow on from the work we did in the Core book, so you
can choose just the ones that interest you and skip the ones that don’t.

All the models are included as a package in SC1, OBJ and STL formats. So you can
edit them, port them and print them.

253
REGIMENTS SPECIALIST SETS CENTRE-PIECE
Orc Warband Orc Ballista Orc War Wyvern
Goblin Horde Goblin Chariot
Gobbo Wagon

Learn some new tricks and tips and take your skills further as I guide you through
making six sets of miniatures.
Source books are designed to follow on from the work we did in the Core book, so you
can choose just the ones that interest you and skip the ones that don’t.

All the models are included as a package in SC1, OBJ and STL formats. So you can
edit them, port them and print them.

254
REGIMENTS SPECIALIST SETS CENTRE-PIECE
Lizardman Warriors Flying Lizards Lizardmen Apatosaurus
Reptilian Cavalvry Blessed Ones

Reptilian Silent Ones

Learn some new tricks and tips and take your skills further as I guide you through
making six sets of miniatures.
Source books are designed to follow on from the work we did in the Core book, so you
can choose just the ones that interest you and skip the ones that don’t.

All the models are included as a package in SC1, OBJ and STL formats. So you can
edit them, port them and print them.

255
REGIMENTS SPECIALIST SETS CENTRE-PIECE
Drop Squad Mobile HQ The Tank
Airborne Scouts Mini-Mechs

Trike Outriders

Learn some new tricks and tips and take your skills further as I guide you through
making six sets of miniatures.
Source books are designed to follow on from the work we did in the Core book, so you
can choose just the ones that interest you and skip the ones that don’t.

All the models are included as a package in SC1, OBJ and STL formats. So you can
edit them, port them and print them.

256
HUMANITY PROFANITY INSANITY
Investigators Dubious Characters Unspeakable Miasma
Townsfolk Lesser Blasphemies

Cultists

Learn some new tricks and tips and take your skills further as I guide you through
making six sets of miniatures.
Source books are designed to follow on from the work we did in the Core book, so you
can choose just the ones that interest you and skip the ones that don’t.

All the models are included as a package in SC1, OBJ and STL formats. So you can
edit them, port them and print them.

257
 SCENIC SETS CREWS
The Hospital The Mall Armed Forces
The Office The Food Court Vigilante Gang

Learn some new tricks and tips and take your skills further as I guide you through
making six sets of miniatures.
Source books are designed to follow on from the work we did in the Core book, so you
can choose just the ones that interest you and skip the ones that don’t.

All the models are included as a package in SC1, OBJ and STL formats. So you can
edit them, port them and print them.

258
Dwarf King’s Guard
Dwarf Rangers
Dwarf Shield Maidens

Dwarven King

Dwarf Cannon & Crew

Dwarven hero with Loch Monster

259