Blender Timelapse - sculpting and texturing a realistic snake

[@joaquinmoran75]

Alternative title: Snake anatomy class whit a modeling video on the background.

[@JamieDunbar]

🤣

[@johntrueblue]

I love snakes. Great Vid mate. I learnt something about the breather hole :)

[@Soyo456schannel]

I have a snake pet, really nice work :)

[@JamieDunbar]

Sweet! What kind of snake?

[@LFDLittlefluffydino]

As a believer in God, I have a love/hate relationship with this video. It's very good! I'm hoping to sculpt like this one day

[@TalhaRiaz197]

this is one of the best videoon youtube

[@JamieDunbar]

Naw, thanks mate 😁

[@TalhaRiaz197]

@@JamieDunbar Make more tutorial like this

[@user-yz5bw4dm2d]

HI, can you please make a tutorial on snake crawling and curling up rigging and animation. Thanks.

[@JamieDunbar]

Haha, I knew I'd get at least one request for snake rigging tutorials. No promises that it it will come out soon, but I'll add it to my list ;)

[@mazzgie]

when talking about the scales... elf-er brushes? 42:38 i'm trying to find more information on how you made that brush, but I don't know what it's called. 😅

[@JamieDunbar]

Haha, "Alpha" is what you're looking for. The same kind of brushes you might find in Photoshop.

[@shoeb1459]

Please make on snake rigging !

[@vio3667]

Isn't fishing planet soundtrack copyrighted?

[@shoeb1459]

Please make on cobra snake head rigging !

[@BlueZiFX]

nice!

[@connersanimations6366]

For the next animal video could you make a bird and recreate the scene at the end of bugs life

[@JamieDunbar]

Haha, recreating anything from Pixar, even one of their old movies would likely be a ton of work. Although it would be tempting to see how easy it is with modern software (apparently the intro/outro to a Bugs Life was a nightmare because of that massive zoom). But I've definitely got intentions to make a bird at some point. I've never actually tackled feathers - it's something I want to try.

[@connersanimations6366]

@@JamieDunbar like when hooper gets eaten by the orange finch

[@JamieDunbar]

@@connersanimations6366 Oh man, now that would be a fair bit of work!

[@yeelengyang1301]

After you sculpted the scales in Blender, did you bake a normal map of that detail version to use in the low poly one and then texture the low poly in substance right

[@JamieDunbar]

I baked a displacement map rather than a normal map. But basically yes ☺️

[@yeelengyang1301]

@@JamieDunbar thank you!

[@ArtemGms]

Hey! Great video. I've got only one question. Although I don't consider myself as a beginner in Blender anymore, texturing animals is something I am really new to and after your retopology, I expected that you will add the details (scales) via normal/bump maps. But you sculpted them with a high detail.. On a fairly low poly retopologized mesh. And then continued texturing in Substance Painter. So my question is... how? 😅 Or rather how is the scales information stored? Thanks a lot for you answer!

[@JamieDunbar]

Hey Artem. Although my retopologised mesh is pretty low poly, by adding a multires modifier you're essentially making it high poly again. With the multires, this model ended up being around 7million polys! The plus side of the multires is you can then bake all that detail into a displacement map and remove the multires, which makes it low poly again until render time. My displacement maps tutorial can walk you through this process: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iGPUaKKQgdhjfac

[@ArtemGms]

@@JamieDunbar Thanks for your answer. I know about baking details into displacement / normal maps, the thing I missed was that you increased the resolution again. Not sure if it was visible in the video and I am just blind or not, but now I understand it. Oh and there is one more thing.. If you unwrap high res version that you texture paint, the lower res version you'd apply baked displacement map to needs to have the same UV map, right? Thanks a lot btw.

[@JamieDunbar]

@@ArtemGms Yeah, it can be difficult to pick up some of those things in a sped up video. If you're using a multires modifier it's all one object, so you'll be using the same UV set. If you're using two different objects, you don't actually have to have the same UVs - but if it's your first few times playing with this stuff, I'd recommend having the same UVs. Actually I'd recommend using the multires as it's a pretty easy workflow. Different objects with different UVs can get more complicated. I've done it in zBrush, but I haven't actually tested it in Blender yet...

[@ArtemGms]

@@JamieDunbar I see. Now it's all clear, thanks!

[@FaizKhan-ym7bw]

Please make a video on snake rigging please

[@JamieDunbar]

I'll add it to my list ;) The body is basically just an 'IK Spline rig'. There's a couple of tricks to it, like having the spline for the body but still keeping control over the head. But you should be able to figure out the vast majority by looking for Spline IK tutorials. Actually Polyfyord's recent Dr Octopus tutorial would probably teach you everything you need to know: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y2OrdKuvabCbaqc

[@connersanimations6366]

How did you rig the snake? Is there a video of it?

[@JamieDunbar]

At the moment this is the only video showing the rigging. I was considering doing a seperate step by step for the rigging if there was enough interest. The process is called “splineIK rigging” if you wanted to look it up in the mean time.

[@9words40]

i wouldnt say realistic but believeable

[@JamieDunbar]

Yeah it’s still not perfect. I made some mistakes early on which I’d need to go back and fix to really nail photorealism. Also just more experience in Substance Painter. But I reckon it could pass in a TV episode in a dark shot 😅

[@latentprophecy6736]

For some reason i find it impossible to sculpt the interior of the mouth, dna if its cause im usin a mouse or what

[@JamieDunbar]

A tablet definitely helps, but although a lot of people think they’re essential I’ve always said they just speed up the process - you can do everything with a mouse, it’s just slower. I always have trouble with mouth interiors as well. They’re just really hard to get into. I’d recommend hiding the top or bottom jaw so you can see inside easier.

[@latentprophecy6736]

@@JamieDunbar 🙏

[@latentprophecy6736]

@@JamieDunbar Hey brother hope all is well on your side Just wanted to say thx for the awesome tutorial! I found this to be one of the only helpful videos when doing the mouth interior I would really appreciate it if you could go take a look and give me some tips on how we can improve the approach I've taken, your feedback is of high value to me Gave you a shoutout at 17:15 - kzbin.info/www/bejne/g3OmY5KOeJibe8k Also gave you a shoutout somewhere in part 2 Cya later

[@kingofgerms8053]

How are you so good?!?!?!?!

[@JamieDunbar]

Haha, thanks mate. I wish there was some secret sauce I could tell you, but it’s mostly just years of study and practice😅

[@MrEmilable]

Any advice on sculpting Scales? I have come across an odd stretching problem when adding scales sometimes like say on Dinosaurs and Dragons.

[@JamieDunbar]

Hmm, what kind of stretching? Generally I'd say stretching shouldn't happen. There's two things that immediately come to mind. 1. Did you apply the scale/rotation of your object before starting to sculpt? If your scale is stretched, that also stretches the brushes. 2. What does your topology look like? Sculpting works best with relatively square polygons. So if you've got rectangular shaped polygons, it'll give the impression the brush is stretching.

[@MrEmilable]

@@JamieDunbar I think I might be a topological thing but it mostly around the Tail but, I don’t have a model yet I can show it off with.

[@JamieDunbar]

@@MrEmilable If it's only happening around one area of the body and not the whole model my best would be on the topology being stretched in that area. Fortunately if it's the tail you might be able to just add a bunch of edge loops in the right spots without breaking anything. Fingers crossed for you!

[@MrEmilable]

@@JamieDunbar thanks

[@bluedragon234]

love the vid bute can you make a masking vid ?

[@JamieDunbar]

I could probably be convinced. What would you be looking for in a 'masking' video?

[@guilhermeoliveira1673]

It's funny that you made this tutorial... Since Blender runs on Python. ... I'm sorry.

[@JamieDunbar]

*Facepalm* Well played sir.

[@Executive1234.....]

Bro can you sculpt my model pls I pled you 😔 😢 😭

[@JamieDunbar]

Haha, I am technically available for hire…but I don’t come cheap 😜

[@Justathereptile]

What kind of rig did you use?

[@JamieDunbar]

Hey mate. It's known as a "Spline IK" rig. It's generally used for things like tails, tentacles or in this case, snakes.

[@Justathereptile]

@@JamieDunbar Thank you

[@Justathereptile]

One more question. Lets say your snake has things like spikes, or horns. How do you maker it work without squishing or deforming the structure?

[@JamieDunbar]

If the spikes are seperate objects, you can try parenting them to the bones. If they’re all one object, you just have to be really careful and weight paint them to only one bone.

[@Justathereptile]

@@JamieDunbar one more question my brother's asking: With that rig what kind of spline do you use? and how do you make the curl around itself without the bone chain flipping over? seems to happen with his own snake