The best Sculpture books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Some clays are not compatible with certain molding materials. I have used Sculpey and monster clay with tin-cure and platinum-cure silicones. Avoid anything with any sulfur. This is a good book about sculpting toys and figurines https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0823095223?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

When you get good, and want to be bad...

https://www.amazon.com/Pornogami-Guide-Ancient-Paper-Folding-Adults/dp/1931160287

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The style is nice. As to the anatomy is OK at best. The stylization hides most of the errors but someone who knows anatomy knows it's off. And not due to style. We can tell you don't know it.

If you're serious about learning anatomy, YouTube videos are not going to be that good past the rough basics. To really learn anatomy I highly recommend "Anatomy for 3D Artists: The Essential Guide for CG Professionals". If you decide you want to know more, I'd consider buying Frank Netter's "Atlas of Human Anatomy". It's an illustrated medical text full of paintings and is awesome for really learning the underpinings of anatomy. There's nothing like it. You can get away with an older edition of Netter.

Nice man, reminds me of a particular artists work, you should check him out, he goes by Slinkachu. I will link one of his books that I have: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-People-City-Slinkachu-foreword/dp/0752226649

u/murdasep has great ideas on freelancing. As with ALL professional art, you need a portfolio and/or a reel. You can post it on your website. Show breakdowns and step-by-step progressions. It shows them how you think and your skills. You need contacts. You can send emails to the decision makers of the companies you want to work with. I don't know where you live, but make appointments to personally meet the ones you can. Nothing beats in-person meets. I got my first job in the VFX industry by constantly showing up at a facility and basicly haunting it. Freelance is a business of contacts so you need to actively cultivate them.

To do characters, you need to know anatomy. Be careful of online tutorials. There's a LOT of bad anatomy out there. He's a great resource: "Anatomy for 3D Artists: The Essential Guide for CG Professionals". There are plenty of tutorials online on sculpting, retopology, rigging and weight painting.

As far as courses go, there are a ton online. Some pay, some free. Search them out and do the ones that fit your requirements. Also don't disregard books. The more advanced you get, you don't need to wade through videos that are 50% or more stuff you already know, or waste your time wading through videos, to get to the 2 seconds you actually need.

For animation learn classic animation techniques. A great resource is "The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation".

I recommend this book.

This was written a few years ago by a friend of a friend. I've found it useful as it's broken out by metal then color. The link is to the US version.

It's good. My only comment is that you really need to use an anatomical reference. It's close and probably great for a cartoon. But it's not realistic. Actually it's important to get in the habit of modeling most things with referances. If you really want to get good at realistic anatomy this might help: "Anatomy for 3D Artists: The Essential Guide for CG Professionals"

Very good. There are some inaccuracies. The SCM should be thicker and ti attaches to the clavicle as well as the sternum. The biceps doesn't attach to the ulna. The gastrocs continue below the patella attaching to the tibial tuberosity.

The following book may help:

Anatomy for 3D Artists: The Essential Guide for CG Professionals Paperback

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1909414247/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I highly recommend the book Pop Sculpture: How to Create Action Figures and Collectible Statues, it covers a lot of what you are asking. It's over ten years old, so some of the products they recommend are not available anymore, but it's a great guide.

https://www.amazon.com/Pop-Sculpture-Figures-Collectible-Statues/dp/0823095223

It's not about 3D modeling, but it's a good resource to understand how action figures are sculpted and prototyped.

As for adding joints, I think you're going to need to sculpt everything separately, or at least sculpt the legs separately from the torso, in order to get the clearance you need. Maybe make a basic 5 points "skeleton" with all the joints worked out that you can use for different sculpts? That way you could keep your peg sizes consistent.

*edit* Sorry, just saw that you're wanting to use 3d scans. That will definitely make it tougher, but having a skeleton should still work if you can slice through the 3d sculpt in places and insert the skeleton, while carving away areas to create space for joint movement.

A friend taught me this one in person and I couldn't find the instructions anywhere online. He got it from this book:

[https://www.amazon.com/Modular-Origami-Polyhedra-Revised-Enlarged/dp/0486404765/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0486404765&pd_rd_r=WPGRRY91QAVPKH4PH5Q7&pd_rd_w=b3G8C&pd_rd_wg=39Bl7&psc=1&refRID=WPGRRY91QAVPKH4PH5Q7]

This is geared towards action figures and statues but it also has good info on mounding and casting: Pop Sculpture: How to Create Action Figures and Collectible Statues https://www.amazon.com/dp/0823095223/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_u6q9xbR8706EH

there's also a wonderful octopus and squid in Peter Engel's amazing "Origami: From Angelfish to Zen".

I used to fold the squid all the time, as I found it not only impressive, but also really fun to fold.

http://www.amazon.com/Origami-Angelfish-Zen-Dover-Papercraft/dp/0486281388

Actually, the units aren't sonobe. They are from this book. Here is a video of the in instructions if you are interested. No glue required as it is quite sturdy!

Thanks! The units are actually from this book, but here is a video of the instructions.

'Yes' My studio is a converted car port on the side of my house, just a big room with a concrete floor and an added bathroom.

A good primer, though it doesnt cover production molds extensively, is the book POP SCULPTURE. Full of sculpting stuff and tips that really help if your sculpt will eventually be molded. It covers molds and engineering for articulation as well, but more or less concentrates on waste molds used to get your prototype done and doe not get heavy into making molds to do your own finished product, but there are plenty of tutorials on that online. http://www.amazon.com/Pop-Sculpture-Figures-Collectible-Statues/dp/0823095223

Well I did not come up with them, I got them from Paper Universe. I do have the NCC-1701-D, DS9 and the USS Defiant memorized though and I am working on the others.

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