Question about sculpting

Question

Hi everyone, I just finish a course (Fundamentals of Digital Sculpting) and try to make a "pikachu" model but seems not good as i want.

Here is my model.

I find I hit a number of problems

1.) it is hard to scuplt the "tail" in a "thunder shape"

2.) I tried to use inflate and smooth brushes many time, but it is hard to make a beautiful curve. Is it because the mesh is too high poly?

3.) There is some pattern on pikachu's skin, but i don't know which brush should be used to add that in.

Can everyone give me some advices ? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1 · 2018-02-14T15:07:50Z

Kent Trammell replied February 14, 2018 3:07pm

First off ffelix-ho, you're doing pretty good if you're new to digital sculpting. As for the problems you mention:

Pika's tail is a rigid shape with sharp edges and corners, which is naturally more difficult to form with sculpting. It would be much simpler to model with polygon modeling. But because it's difficult, it means it's a good exercise to try.

In last month's class, I demo sculpting a cube from a sphere (starting at 67:39). I recommend checking that out as it's relevant info for sharp shapes like Pika's tail.
If you've tried hard to remove lumps in what's supposed to be a smooth surface, it's a good change your topology is too dense in that area. Dial up you detail size (for broader polygons) and use a very weak inflate brush to re-generate that area with fewer polygons. That should be much easier to smooth out the area. Don't make it too broad though. It'll be noticeable if it's too broad.
What kind of pattern do you mean? If you mean the stripes, cheek circles, etc, those would be better painted as textures vs sculpting them.