Books

Most of you know that I am writing a book with Miguel de la Flor called Digital Sculpting with Mudbox: Essential Tools and Techniques For Artists.

We hope to make it a bit different than most digital sculpting books. I am so tired of seeing monsters and aliens in all of theses books and as one person recently wrote to me and said, “I am very excited to hear about your book and I definitely fills a gap. Most of the digital books I have found are for gamers creating characters.” That is so great to hear. I am thrilled about bridging this gap between digital and traditional and the new technology that is coming out is incredible.

So I thought I would share with you a little sneak peek of what is in the book. This is Amy. In the book I will be sculpting her both traditionally and digitally and giving the instructions on how to do this. Though she is not quite complete here she is.

Oh yes, and with this process you will be able to take any loved one and do the same thing. this is after all- portrait sculpting digitally!

It is my personal quest to bridge the gap between digital and traditional sculpting. Technology is changing and new tools are available! Remember how photography used to be done? OK it is still done with film, but we all see the advantages to going digital. So it is with sculpting. That is why I am so excited about the book that we are writing.  Digital Sculpting with Mudbox: Essential Tools and Techniques For Artists. We hope it is not just another digital book showing a software, but that it is an art book as well. That people will buy it not just because of Mudbox, but because they want to have the resources that are in the book to learn from and refer back to no matter what program they are working in.

It is grueling work, and the publisher is breathing down our necks to get more in quicker, but there have been so many setbacks, as you may know by my previous posts. For example Mudbox was not available for the Mac until just a few months ago, and for me that was a huge setback. Then my graphics card did not work with Mudbox once I got it.

I can’t wait until it is complete but for now— back to writing.

I”m so glad that things are being solved. My graphics card should come fed ex today. I waited most of the day and missed it at 9:05 p.m. yesterday. How that happen when we work and live in the same place? What up with that fed ex? For those who don’t know. I’m trying to write a book about Mudbox. However my graphics card does not work with the new version of Mudbox for the mac. Making it extremely difficult to make my deadlines with the publisher.

I think I am resolving my retopologizing problems. For those of you who don’t know what that means it simply is this. When working in mudbox there is a mesh, that is under the clay that you see when you are sculpting. The mesh has to have an appropriate form. If you think of a window screen the mesh that underlies your piece should have quads and not triangles and be all of similar size. So in other words. If I want to scan a mock up lose clay piece. I will Use the Next Engine Scanner, which I am also reviewing and hope to show how to use in a variety of ways. This is a 3d scanner that can scan my artwork and make it into a digital image that I can then either send for output as shown in the latter part of this you tube video that I created or bring into mudbox. However. The mesh that will come out of this is too tight and may have triangles. I will need to change that mesh so that it can be sculpted upon. This is called retopologizing. My problem is that I have not been able to find a retopologizing tool that is a stand alone tool. I hate for artists to have to go and buy and learn an entire 3d program just to be able to retopologize. So I think I have this finally figured out. I’ll let you know. So I have graphics card, and retopologizing tool, more RAM and I’ll soon be ready to go. It is a good thing because many chapters are due to the publisher at the end of June, and until this point I have not been able to work on the program. Oh sure, I can open it and play around, but then it might flip upside down or backwards, when I am turning the sculpture and studying it, or worse yet. It disappears. All results of a graphics card problem. Never have I sculpted in the traditional studio when a sculpture has disappeared. It feels good to get things together to proceed.

My husband and I have been contracted by Focal Press to create a book titled Digital Sculpting with Mudbox: Essential Tools and Techniques For Artists.

I will be creating a portrait of this beautiful little girl digitally for the book.

I am also creating her traditionally in a water based clay and documenting the entire process. I will be making that video into an instructional video on sculpting a likeness that will be for sale on this website. My new intern Elizabeth is also creating the sculpture along with me, which is helpful because she is new to sculpting and I am taking note to my instructions to her as well as her many questions. I expect the video to be ready at the end of the year. The book Digital Sculpting with Mudbox: Essential Tools and Techniques For Artists is not expected out until next year.