Issue adding muscle

[aggaton]

Hi, I felt I was able to follow along until the part of sculpting where you start adding muscles to the shoulders and arms. Part of the problem is likely I don’t have a tablet. Maybe you could explain a little more how to do this part with a mouse. It seems very hard to control the elevation of the inflation and make an even smooth surface along the muscle contour without it being lumpy and uneven. It also tend to become very “voxely”, i.e. like right when the mesh was joined around when the different sections meet. Maybe you could share the blender file after the 2nd video.

Reducing strength works wonders btw, thanks for that advice, however now I discovered another issue, when applying claystrips up top, there is a voxel “hole” created under the arms:

[FedPete]

lower the pressure of the brush, then slowly build up the shapes.
Important to have the vertex count low and also slightly increase it each time when re-mesh. You can do it absolutely without a tablet!!!

Don’t look exact at the properties used in Grant’s version. It’s a guideline.
Remember, learn what’s it used for, and then applied it so it feels comfortable with your mouse. Sculpting is a very hard thing to do. It looks easy if you are creating a fantasy creature like an Orc.

[NP5]

A tablet will make no real difference I always use a mouse.

If the action of a tool is too strong, turn down the strength.
This is a bonus and why a mouse can be better, as tablets use pen pressure all the time varying strength.

The ‘voxely’ issue is just the mesh density. Early main shapes stay a bit low poly. It sounds liek you are at a point where you want a re mesh at a higher density mesh.

No pictures, we cant tell anything.

General Q&A note
Help us all to help you.
Please give FULL screenshots with any questions. With the relevant panels open.
Also, include the lecture time and name/number that is relevant to the problem/issue.
The screenshot can be done by Blender itself, via the ‘Window’ menu bar top left hand side.
On that menu drop down is ‘save screenshot’.
Close ups additionally where they help.

[aggaton]

Thanks for your answer, I will try and reduce the weight.

[aggaton]

Thanks for your answer, I’ve added a screenshot, this is as good as I have been able to do, I can’t seem to get rid of that vertical valley line, so it seems like it is multiple separate lumps rather than one cohesive one, the ridge is likely due to the original shoulder “blob”, no matter what I try to do I cannot seem to straighten it out. Thanks in advance for any help. I have also discovered another issue as can be seen on the second screenshot, where when adding claystrips up top generate a voxel “hole” under the arms, if I lay claystrips there I get a hole up top…

[NP5]

Try using the smooth brush over the lump joins.

The hole, Sculpting does not like holes. Go to edit mode and clean up the area by hand. Sorry, it is not a simple fix, use this tool issue. It looks like some verts got pulled to the other side of the arm, it may be possible to find them and reposition them more in the right place. Or delete all those way out of position and rebuild some mesh in the right approximate places. That can then be sculpted to the shape you want. Using wireframe view may well help see where the verts are.