I had thought maybe I shouldn't post any more 3d stuff til I got to render stage, but then I optimistically decided that some people might like seeing the build in progress, and those that don't can just ignore them til there's something pretty.
So here's a shot of the mostly completed face with the wireframe turned on so show off how well Sculptris retopos the mesh and the dynamic topography (the dense spots on the arms are accidental touches).
It'll be pretty awful for rigging and animating but it's awesome for what I'm using it for, especially when I finally learned to mostly ignore the mesh and got comfortable with the process.
My sister commented that the anatomy looked a lot more natural when I was sculpting than when I was poly modelling in Lightwave. Makes me wish Lightwave had a sculpt mode but Modeler in its current incarnation wouldn't cope with the number of polygons. Finally got the hang of male proportions, still finding very well toned characters hard as the muscles are hard to get right. However I tend to think anything looks weird after I've been staring at it long enough. I think I need shirts that say things like "I'm rigging you in my head", "Your textures are interesting" and "Sorry if I seem to be staring, I'm actually looking at something inside my head".
I felt compelled to do nipples and navels because I never have, which is a carryover from when I had more of a manga influence. It felt really bizarre to do initially (the placement was a bit of a challenge) but I think it's growing on me. No I am still not doing genitals because they are still fiddly and annoying and I've gotten good at creative framing and find it much more entertaining.
I was actually pretty chuffed to get to the "forearms and hands" chapter of my anatomy book. There were only a couple of pages on forearms, had no idea they contained that many muscles. I hope I got them some level of all right.
Haven't done any work on the hands yet so it looks to me like he's now wearing a bodysuit like the comic book superheroes wear. I had exactly as much trouble on the two pairs of shoulders as I've always had. Making up muscle structure on the fly is entertaining.
Haven't done any work on the wings yet and still need to finish off the lower back.
I think I've taken the equivalent of a week or so from mostly finishing the face to now. Model as is comprises of 254 702 triangles.