Approaching Realism: Under the Skin - Part 1
Everything so far. I think that the eyes might be too far apart but I won't get deeper into that until I have made the superficial (surface) muscles.
I still need to keep in mind that even loose measurements are necessary to avoid the uncanny valley. I roughly measured the distance between one of my cat's eyes and ears and did a quick mockup so that I can address problem areas before I continue.
As you can see, without the recognizable features (nose, ears, jowls) it looks frightening and not very much like a cat. It's for that reason that I felt they were an important thing to make before finishing the rest of the musculature.
Every anatomical chart I have found is completely different in shape, scale, and placement of the deep muscles. I went with what I thought seemed best based on the charts available. Of course this meant that I did need to take some liberties.
The mandible is incomplete, both in its bone sculpt and the musculature that will be placed around it.
I am currently working on the deep musculature of the cat's face. I have yet to finish the mandible or add details to the skull. It's going well, Zbrush is definitely a bit different than Blender but it's getting easier with each muscle.
You may ask "why are you making all of these muscles that won't be seen?" and to that I will say I don't know. It's fun and challenging, mostly due to the lack of consistency between anatomical charts. Scientific, historic, veterinarian; it doesn't matter. They are all different when it comes to deep muscles. Right now it is like completing an annoying puzzle where the picture on the box is different from that of the pieces. On the bright side, this is giving me more time to work in Zbrush and should lead to me having a better foundation on which to build the superficial/surface muscles that will greatly impact the finished shape. I'm also learning a lot about muscles and anatomy that I didn't know before.
