Preparing the base mesh for sculpting

Once we have our base mesh completed, it's time to prepare it for the sculpting.

Getting ready

Open the Gidiosaurus_base_mesh.blend file and be sure to be out of Edit Mode, and therefore in Object Mode.

How to do it…

1. Select the character's mesh and go to the Object Modifiers window under the main Properties panel to the right.
2. Go to the Mirror modifier panel and click on the Apply button.
3. If this is the case, expand the Subpision Surface modifier panel, be sure that the View level is at 1, and click on the Apply button.
4. Press Tab to go into Edit Mode and, if necessary, select all the vertices by pressing A; then, press Ctrl + N to recalculate the normals and exit Edit Mode.
5. Go to the Properties sidepanel on the right-hand side of the 3D view (or press the N key to make it appear) and under the View subpanel, change the Lens angle to 60.000 (more natural looking than 35.000, which is set by default).
6. Under the Display subpanel, check the Only Render item:
   

   Setting the view through the 3D window N sidepanel

7. Go to the Shading subpanel on the sidepanel on the right-hand side of the 3D viewport and check the Matcap item.
8. Left-click on the preview window that just appeared and, from the pop-up panel, select the red colored brick material, the one that looks like ZBrush material; obviously, you can choose a different one if you prefer, but in my experience, this is the one that gives the best visual feedback in the 3D view:
   

   The available matcaps menu and the selected Zbrush-like matcap

9. Put the mouse cursor inside the active 3D window and press Ctrl + Spacebar to disable the widget:
   

   The matcap assigned to the mesh and the widget button in the 3D window toolbar

10. Press N to get rid of the Properties 3D window sidepanel.
11. Save the file as Gidiosaurus_Sculpt_base.blend.

How it works…

By checking the Only Render item in the Display subpanel under the Properties 3D window sidepanel, all the possible disturbing elements that cannot be rendered (such as the Grid Floor, Empties, Lamps, and so on) are hidden, in order to give a clean 3D viewport ready for sculpting.

Note that with this option enabled, sadly, the Image Empties we set in the previous chapter to work as templates for references are not visible—instead, the templates we had set as Background Images are perfectly visible in the 3 orthographic views.

Matcaps can in some cases slow the performance of your computer, depending on the hardware; in any case, Matcaps is a very useful feature, especially for sculpting, as you can see the mesh shape easily.

Changing the Lens angle from 35.000 to 60.000 makes the perspective view look more similar to the natural human field of view.