HOW can I sculpt caricatures In zbrush?
Caricature is an imitation of a person in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or, in some cases, a grotesque effect. Fortunately, with Zbrush and Dynamesh, you are able to mess around with the mesh without worrying about polygon size or topology, and get the results you want.
It’s very important to get a lot of reference when making caricatures. You’ll need to choose which parts of your character you want to exaggerate and emphasise, so you’ll need to get images from every angle. For this example, I’m using the character from Breaking Bad, Walter White. I collected reference from Google, pictures and caricatures to give me an idea of which direction to go in, and started with a base mesh.
I used the Move brush to push and pull points until I got a basic shape I was happy with. I decided I would place more emphasis on his chin and ears. Bryan Cranston has a very distinctive forehead with wrinkles; he also has deep wrinkles around his eyes. I used the Dam_standard brush to draw these out, and using the Inflate brush on a low setting, inflated the areas around them.
It also helps that Walter has a very distinctive beard. To create this, I used Fibermesh to draw out a mask on his beard, adjusted the settings in the Fibermesh tab and pressed Accept. Using the Groomhairshort brush with a low setting, I easily controled the groom. The glasses were modelled in Maya along with his hat and added to the scene. I also added his shirt and jacket, using the IMM Zipperm brush to quickly add zips.
For me, the most important thing is to get the essence of the character. Patience is key – when you begin it might not look quite right, however by making sure you adjust the major forms first with the Move brush before going into details, you’ll be able to get your caricature looking right.