Muscle Pattern Help!

[s0ulger]

So as the title suggests, I need help with one particular portion of making a muscle pattern. The reason I've started this thread up is because I always see muscle pattern threads and unlike almost everything else on the RPF, it's treated like a heavily guarded secret. They always show the same things, but neglect to explain the most important part, in my opinion, how to make the shaded muscle pattern itself. I'm trying to make a custom muscle pattern of my own design, and all I'm really missing to do this is this small bit of information. That's all I need to know. The picture and text below is from when NickFox showed, in minor detail, how he went about some of the process, but what I'm asking for isn't giving away any secrets, I just don't know the correct process that allows me to make the muscle details correctly. Here's what Nick put in his small how-to.



Explained with the following text:
"Make a new document, and starting with a 50% grey as your first layer, create a gradient/muscle map by selecting areas and heavily feathering the selection before adjusting the brightness to create the illusion of high and low spots."

That doesn't help me in the slightest, especially since I haven't found anyone explaining it any better if at all. I have tried replicating this by searching the internet and finding a way of replicating something similar, but it doesn't work right, and is in all honesty a pain. The way I've tried is by using the lasso tool and encompassing the shape of the desired muscle, feathering it, and then using a blur to make it look good. But this doesn't give me the desired effect, as it always blows out too big, and I'm trying to use a layer mask, and it just doesn't work. So, if anyone can link me something I missed, or explain how to do this correctly, I wouldn't be able to thank you enough.

 

[Looch]

Why don'tyou just find a local artist to airbrush them for you?

 

[s0ulger]

Because I not only can do it myself, but wish to do everything I can on this project. Especially since I could airbrush it myself, but I'd rather it be a part of the print for easiest cleaning.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

 

[FuzzyDrawings]

It sounds like you just need practice working in Photoshop. If the lasso tool is too unwieldy for you, try using the brush tool to block in your tones. Or a combination of the two; whichever you find the most comfortable. In any case, very rarely will it be a quick and simple process - you'll need to expect to correct and adjust things as you go on.

When you use the blur tool or blur effect, it will always get larger. Keep that in mind and make your initial brush strokes or lasso shapes smaller. Better yet, you can also have each tone on a different layer which will give you more control (ie: if your highlight is too large after being blurred, take the eraser tool with a low hardness and start erasing the highlight until you get the shape/size you want without erasing your shadow or mid tone). Pay attention to muscle diagrams and even look at male models to see where and how light works on muscles - not just the location of light and shadow, but the contrast as well. For the most part, you really don't want super dark and super light colors in your muscle shading because it will look super fake; subtly is the name of the game.

 

[s0ulger]

Okay, so I've been trying my hand at this for the past few days, and I think I'm really starting to get it. I've been drawing for almost all of my life, and have a Cintiq tablet that I use for animation, but I've never really done anything in Photoshop besides drawing and coloring stuff, so this is all new to me. As for the musculature, I'm okay with that as well, as I've been drawing masculine men for most my life, and then after doing it wrong for so long I started to study life drawing/ anatomy. That's what I'm going for with my design, as I'm purposefully drawing asymmetrical musculature that more closely resembles realistic muscle tones. I'm also making sure to have the lats and serratus anterior show more, as Spidey has super lean muscles (yes, I'm a Bruce Lee fan as well, and that's helped a lot with understanding how strong lean muscle looks). The two pics below are of my work on the left and Kenlandrums work, that he's so graciously making for FREE. Let me know what you guys think, and Please, please tell me what the colors look like on your monitors, as the colors look good on the tablet, but now that I'm seeing them on my TV, they look more purpley.




Forgot to link Kenlandrums thread in case anyone would like his pattern http://www.therpf.com/f78/amazing-spider-man-2-3d-print-files-pattern-free-208912/

 

[kenlandrum]

I used a lot of reference for the muscle shading/highlights.
Here is some of it. Hope it helps!

 

[TheNickFox]

Your shading looks great, a tablet will actually make the process much quicker than the short version I explained. My one note would be to add more highlights. The Raimi suit has dark lows and bright highlights. You can always dull them down later.

Basically, just like with drawing in pencil, somewhere on your work you should have pure black and somewhere else you should have pure white. The rest of the image is variable tones of grey.

The only reason it seems like it's treated like a "closely guarded secret" is because there's really no secret to it. Line up reference photos and trace away! The alternative is to do what the costume designers did initially:

Put a white spandex suit on someone muscular and airbrush over their highs and lows, then cut up that suit, scan it in, and replicate your work digitally.

Best of luck!

-Nick

 

[mau5]

The colors do looks purpley. I'd recommend looking into monitor calibration.