Sculpting Follow-Along
As someone who has no prior experience using sculpting 3D modeling programs, I decided to follow a tutorial for creating this fun little gnome first. I've included the link to the tutorial I followed below.
At first, I was quite frustrated when the object I was sculpting didn't look nearly as good as what the tutorial had. However, I decided to stick with it, and the more I used each of the tools, the closer I was able to follow the tutorial. I had a lot of trouble with figuring out the proper "Dyntypo" resolution needed, but I was able to properly smooth out all parts of my model.
Although I followed all the steps in the tutorial, my gnome ended up looking fairly different. This is because of stylistic choices I made along the way. I decided to give the gnome some semblance of having arms, and I appropriately sculpted the robe to appear as if the gnome had his hands tucked into his pockets underneath the robe. The curly moustache and the nose combo I am particularly proud of as well. When I was finished, I gave my model some simple colors, and the added "Specular" tint on the materials gives the gnome a porcelain shine that is very fitting for the design.
Hair in Strange New Places
I decided that I wanted to redo the moustache for my gnome, because it just didn't quite feel like it was fitting with the rest of the gnome. Instead, I replaced the moustache with two separate "Hair Particle Systems" and "Vertex Groups," one for each half of the moustache. The hair was combed loosely into the shape of a moustache, this time with the points facing downwards, which I think is more fitting with the rest of my gnome.
I also recolored the rest of the gnome with "Vertex Painting" and although the variation in colors is subtle, I am quite happy with the effect I achieved for the splash of red on the nose. The shading for the materials had high "Metallic" and "Specular" values to once again give the gnome that almost porcelain look that now contrasts the texture of the hair. With the shaders added, it became more apparent where the hair was poking out of the porcelain directly, which did not feel very realistic. I opted to fix this problem by adding more hair coming from the nostrils, almost as if the gnome's nose hair had grown long and became part of the moustache as well. This covers up the seams of where the hair comes from the body, while also giving the moustache a more naturally flowing shape.
