Sculpturing with Maya and ZBrush

Take a quick look at how Julio Cesar Benavides Macias works on his beautifully detailed sculptures in Maya and Zbrush.

Introduction

My name is Julio Cesar Benavides Macias, I’m 26 years old, I’m from Monterrey, México. I’ve worked in the 3D industry for 1 year and 4 months during which 56 projects were created. I am a self-taught artist and learned practically everything studying on my own.

I have no sculpting education, and before dedicating myself to this field I worked on other things that had nothing to do with art. However, I’ve always liked to draw by hand. I have never tried to sculpt by hand, and I would like to learn it in the future.

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Working Scheme

First of all, I thoroughly check the character as far as anatomy is concerned, so that everything was correct. Then I check the details of clothes, robotic pieces if you have them, etc. After that, I move on to the details like shoes, closures, brooches and so on. Once these parts are finished, I proceed and unite everything with DynaMesh, then I work with ZRemesher respecting each polygroup of each part of the body, and start to add some details as clothing accessories on the character. In the end, I make the hair, and the piece ready for printing.

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Peculiarities

The points to consider are actually quite simple but specific. For example, when you add seam textures on the sculptures, they must have a wide margin of exportation. Otherwise, during printing, they may get lost. The same texture of the skin has to be emphasized in a much more remarkable way than for a video game model since the details can also be lost throughout the process if they are not marked correctly. The cuts should be paid attention to more than anything. They are usually left without attention, but they serve as support for the whole sculpture.

Creating Hair

I work on hair in ZBrush, however, I haven’t tested its latest release yet. I start with DynaMesh base, then I use an IMM brush and create one hair by one, – and after that, I work on the details. Normally, it takes me from 4 to 6 days depending on the character’s hair.

Detalization

I am crazy about the details because I love realism. I always try to add as many details as possible to every part of the character to make the final piece great. For it, I normally use Maya and Fusion 360. At first, I make the base mesh – of the cloth, for example, – then I add the details to the cloth using SubTools. I try to make the most realistic look I can and always check that the pieces are not lost during printing.

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Challenges

The most difficult part is all the little details that I add to the character to make a realistic piece – it takes quite a lot of time. For example, Rogue (the most recent piece) took me a month working day and night, because there were a lot of hard surface parts. I made 40% of the things in Maya and Fusion 360, the rest was all in ZBrush. Though it took much time and effort, I’m happy with the result and people love it.

Sculpturing with Maya and ZBrush

Take a quick look at how Julio Cesar Benavides Macias works on his beautifully detailed sculptures in Maya and Zbrush.

Introduction

Working Scheme

Peculiarities

Creating Hair

Detalization

Challenges

Julio Cesar Benavides Macias, 3D Sculptor

Interview conducted by Kirill Tokarev

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