Introduction
This method is of great use for people more comfortable with digital sculpture who need to produce multiple character maquettes time-efficiently (at the professional end of things) or art students whose teachers have decided digital art ‘doesn’t count’ even if you make each model from scratch, unless you can bring in a ‘real’ one.
It also works if you want to plan a complex abstract piece- polygons are so much easier to work with than wood or stone, and there’s an undo. I will use Victoria for this, since she’s a common figure.
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Step 1 - Getting your source images.
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Scale the figure as you like, and apply any morphs you want to use. Don’t get too into fiddly little stuff- details in clay are easier to add after you’ve sorted out the bulk.
If you did not make the figure, check whether it’s legal to use it for this type of stuff.
Have your figure zero’d- it is important to have it in a neutral position.
Turn off the perspective, so your images will not be distorted. In poser, you can do this by selecting the camera, and turning the perspective to zero.
Get a picture of the front, back, and side of the body, you may also wish to get a top view, depending on the model. No need to render- screenshots will usually work just fine. Save the view/scaling you use for the front view, and make sure any side views are –exactly- from the side- switching to the left or right camera will ensure this. After you start this, don’t resize the window with the figure in until you have taken all the pose shots you will need for this figure, to avoid having to do more work than you need to, aligning things.
Get a picture of each limb from the front and side, or side and top, or front and top or whatever combination of angles gives you the most information about it’s shape- if these angles are the same as for the body, you needn’t take extras. If the arms are at an angle, try to get your camera perpendicular to them for the ‘top’ picture. |
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Step 2 - Readying the images for use
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Take the images into you image editor of choice, putting each on its own layer for convenience. Place your main view at the center of the image. Use the line tool on a new layer to run guide lines horizontally and vertically up from main features, to help you position the other views.
Scale the other views so the lines pass through the same point on both views you are working with. (make sure it is proportionally, rather than allowing it to get distorted and be too fat/thin!)
When you have everything done, you should have something similar to this, but without censor blobs. You may now delete the layer with the guide-lines on it, if you wish,and merge the layers to reduce file size.
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Step 3 - Dividing into body parts.
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On a new layer, add the ‘joint’ areas- this will be extra clay for you to trim to shape so you can get nice joints. Just continue the hip end of the leg and the shoulder end of the arm in a nice, smooth curve. Duplicate the underlying layer, and use the ‘find edge’ filter to make it mostly an outline, or make a new layer, and draw over the outline.
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Step 4 - Making your pose images
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Apply the pose you want to your model.
Use the saved camera to get the front image, then use the side cameras and back cameras to take the other views (no perspective, remember?)
Also take any ‘detail shots’ you’ll need, which may have perspective if you like.
Align the images to the front image in the same way as you did for the pictures of the un-posed figure, in other layers of the same file, to keep them together, and the right size. If the image area is too small, resize the –canvas- not the image, so you just get more space, not make the picture bigger.
You should now be ready to move on to the ‘real life’ part of this tutorial.
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Make sure all your images are on the same scale when you print- make it print to a percent of the ‘real’ image size, rather than resizing it to fit your paper.
Print 2 copies of your outline image, one of the non-outline image for reference of where the muscles go, and one each of the posed views. Cut out one copy of the main view for each body part from one of the outlines images. |
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Step 6 - Posed-image stands.
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Skip this if you have vertical easels, or something else equally useful.
Get a piece of reasonably sturdy cardboard, or a shoe box lid, or a folder.
Find something heavy enough that it will keep said cardboard upright, (tin cans filled with stuff work well) and tape the cardboard to it in an upright position, trying to make sure it is as vertical as possible. I f the object is rounded, you may wish to use two of them. Use weak tape or paperclips to attach your posed images to it at the same level as your work will be.
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Step 7 - Suggested work-area layout:
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1. big lump of wood (or a cheap ready-made canvas with the canvas replaced with a thin piece of plywood or masonite. Or a large cutting board) covered with coarse material that’s been stapled around the edges. Clay sticks to stuff if it isn’t porous, so that’s why the material is there. Hessian works, but try find something less inclined to leave fuzz in your clay. This is for kneading the clay, rolling out, and cutting it.
2. Lid of a quite big plastic storage box that has a lip around the edge. Water or little containers of water, or wet paper towels etc. can be put here when you are not working on your sculpture to keep things humid- you just use the base of the box like the lid. This is better than plastic bags and wet rags, trust me.
3. lazy-Suzan style rotating serving tray for making your sculpture on . They’re more available than the ones meant for clay. Make sure it has a fairly stable base. Failing that, glue the base to a lump of wood, or the plastic box-lid it sits on. This means you need less space, since you can just rotate this, rather than having to move around it. Attach a layer of less-coarse material over the bit the clay goes on. Mark the center of it, to make things easier.
If you’re not a fan of the big-box and lazy Suzan setup, you can always make a wire framework to drape wet rags, then plastic over. Just don’t let the rags get on your sculpture, they’ll make it too wet, and moosh it. If you can’t find a lazy Suzan, a cheap round cutting board with easy-to access handles works; you just rotate it manually, and make sure it’s not directly in water when you cover it up.
4. The posed- image stands.
You should also have a little ‘bits’ humidity box to keep separate bits you’re not using yet moist. This can just be a lidded plastic container with a wet rag on the bottom, and a stand to prevent the stuff in it from actually touching the water. |
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Step 8 - Making the cutter
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Cut a circle of stiff, clear plastic, around three inches across. Poke a slit through the middle. Poke the blade through the hole. Set up two objects of even height that you can stand the box-cutter between by extending the blade fully and slipping it between them, while letting the plastic rest levelly on them. Apply some superglue carefully, only on the bit the blade comes out of, and not the blade, so the blade may still be retracted. Use a piece of paper or other item with a 90 degree corner to ensure the blade is properly vertical. If the bit where the blade comes from the handle is at an angle, sticky tape can help secure the plastic at the correct angle.
This isn’t necessary if you are good at judging angles by eye, but I find it helps if I need to make many variants on the same thing.
Either way, you should scrape the tip of the box cutter on some cement for a while so it’s not at a sharp point- you want to cut the soft clay, not your board and the material on it. |
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Step 9 - Starting to work
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Bash out the clay as usual.
Use the secondary view (that which is less detailed/important) to see how thick your clay should be. Pile things up to that height on either side of where you will be rolling your clay- I use bits of wood since I have them lying about, but books and video cases work, too.
Use a wooden rolling pin (as it won’t stick too badly) resting on the guides to roll the clay out between them. (this ensures an even thickness). If you don’t have one, or don’t want mud on it, you can coat a spray-can or other cylindrical object with paper or fabric and use that. |
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Extend the blade of your cutter to a tiny bit more than the thickness of the clay. Cut around the ‘main view’ body part templates. The plastic thing on the cutter prevents you from being able to hold it too far from vertical.
Separate the excess clay from around them and put it away.
Let the body parts sit a little while to firm up enough that handling them with enough force to cut with the other, non-blunted box cutter won’t moosh them. This will vary a lot depending on your climate- if it’s cold and humid, it will take forever, if it’s hot and dry, the first bits will be dry by the time you’ve cut the last, and you’ll need to store things in your humidity box as soon as you’re done.
Use the secondary view and the non-modified box cutter to refine the shape of the pieces, then use the ‘shaded’ views to help you trim it into a non-blocky shape.
Use your fingers to get a nice, smooth finish. Now let it harden a little more, and ruin it all by slicing the larger pieces ( where the clay would be more than a half-inch from the outside) open and scooping out the clay in the center. After that, use a toothbrush and water to roughen up the edges, and carefully join the pieces back together. |
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Step 11 - Posing and detailing
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Position the posed-image stands so that they are at right angles to each other and lined up with your working spot (like the diagram earlier). Look at how the body parts join to the body. Slice off the extra clay that you will not need to get the limb to join at the right angle- the extra was added so you could do this- it works a lot better than making it in a neutral pose and trying to stretch it to shape.
If a limb needs to bend, cut a wedge from the joint, reverse it, then join it back in (toothbrush and water, again) to transfer the bulk.
Apply the limb to the body, with the tooth brush and water. Use the posing images as a guide to tweak the limbs until they are at the right spots- use extra blobs of clay, sticks, newspaper, or whatever to provide support for limbs that are sagging under their own weight, until they are dry enough to hold their own- in some cases, you will need to leave these struts in place, and just let them burn away in the kiln.
Leave the sculpture for a while to harden.
When the clay is getting fairly hard- hard enough that you carve it, instead of squishing it, add in all the fine details like fingers (assuming you’re working small enough that a finger-is- a fine detail…) use your reference images to guide you in complicated areas, and in getting the musculature accurate (if you have a good command of anatomy, this is irrelevant).
Play with it until you are happy, then poke a few holes in inconspicuous areas to let the air escape from the inner cavities, and allow it to dry, then you may take it to get fired- If you are unsure when it would be fully dry, you can ask at the place you get it fired, since they’re likely to know more about the vagaries of drying things in your climate than I am |
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This method is no more ‘cheating’ than drawing based off a reference photo you took yourself is –particularly if you were the one who made the model- however, many people who don’t do digital art think that computers have a magic ‘make art’ button you download off the internet . So, if you are talking to the type of person who thinks this, you may be better served to leave out the part where you tested the pose in 3d first.
About miniatures:
If you make miniatures in oven-bake or air-dry materials, don’t bother with the body parts, just the pose views, and use those to make your armature. There’s no easy way to make minis, the wire armature prevents you from pre-shaping body pieces. On the bright side, though, most of the equipment isn’t needed.
Apologies for the lack of photos, my camera has expired- I will add some when I get it fixed. |
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