Character sculpt 2 - Gangster

To start off my sculpt I used the base female model that comes with Zbrush. my main goal with this is to speed up my process I will eventually change the face to better match my character model but this acts as a good jumping off point. 

The first part of the sculpt I created were the trousers the following method applies to all of the main sections of the sculpt. I start with a mask and then extract at zero thickness without a double sided surface. Next I then use the polish by features operation and then Zremesh the extracted object with it set to 1 to get it as close to 1000 polys as possible once that is done I'll do some minor tweaks and remesh it again. After that I'll apply the dynamic subdivision setting adding thickness without actually confirming it this way I have some more freedom while keeping the original low poly mesh.

Each of these components aside from the base mesh were created using the method I wrote in my last paragraph. 

To make these three components I brought in new objects it was simpler that way and it made it easier when masking since it wouldn't interfere with any of the geometry underneath it. The collar was the trickier part that went through multiple iterations before what you see here; I began by using the topology brush to create a simple mesh but that tool only works 50% of  the time and only when I need it to only 50% of that so I abandoned that route. I chose to bring in a plane mesh, mask and cut out the shape and then manipulate it to fit my design. The cuffs for the blazer and trousers were just IMM cylinders I brought in using the symmetry setting and scale tool to place them accordingly.

This is how it looks so far

The next step for me is to start creating the coat once again using the mask extract and dynamic subdiv method.

This is what I currently have for the fur collar I used the append feature to bring in a sphere mesh and I just pushed and pulled material until I got the shape I was looking for, once I had that I duplicated it and started adding in the fur texture.

Next is the hat/hair and shoes.

The hat consists of three sections the brim the trim and the actual cap although I originally started with just one object.

I started off by appending in a sphere, masking off half of it and splitting it into two different polygroups, I then took the bottom section and flattened it using the flatten deformation tool set to flatten in one axis. I also cut a hole in the centre and made the mesh double sided.

This is what I was left with. Next came the cap portion. 

Using the move brush I quickly altered the shape of the cap to better match the shape of the skull I also cut off another layer of polygons to reduce the overall curvature of the cap.

The trim around the cap was just a cylinder that I changed the profile of. 

The shoes were simple but they were a little finicky, I think it took me three tries to get something close to my design. To make them I masked off a selection of the feet and separated them from the full body by duplicating it. I then dynameshed the geometry enabling me to simplify the toes and eliminated them creating the upper part of the shoe. Next came the sole, that created by duplicating the mesh and flattening it using a deformation tool I then altered the shape to look more like an actual outsole lastly came the heel which was created in a similar manner but only the back portion. all of the shaping came from using the masking tool with a faded edge to create a soft transition when using the move tool.