The Hawks Nest 2.0

[nufftalon]

Thanks for the feedback I appreciate it and agree with some of things you pointed out. 

I need to learn zmodeler better for hardsurface. I can do hardsurface in 3ds max though I just try to stay in zbrush as much as I can.
I spent a good amount of time refining the hand on the final Wolverine pose where its just a bust. The earlier shots where test shots where it has his legs. I can make some solid hands in 3d though takes some time but worth it in the end.

I have base meshes I can use that have UVs already to get a quick start if I work on a big project. However the Wolverine I actually did from scratch in Zbrush. I haven't rigged before but I will do a project this year just to get a general feel for that workflow. I use Character Creator as well which can rig your zbrush model for posing. 

On the Wolverine project I used Blender for the nodes and Final Render shots. I tried doing Uvs failed tried doing retopo failed. I ended up doing my retopo work in topogun instead and uvs in max and 3d coat.

Yes I have worked this way by separating each muscle into its own layer and merging later. I would save that extremity if I was working on someone really buff like Bison from Street Fighter. I do break up arms and head and legs usually though. Just makes it easer to sculpt on really. I have to get back to doing daily practices same way we do sketches by sculpting one piece of the body each day to get more muscle memory. It can be very overwhelming trying to design composite and do anatomy all at once.

The problem i see is you don't differentiate between organic modelling and hard surface modelling so your men made object look they are made out of clay sometime.

I would certainly encourage you to spend more time on the hand if you want to have ''final 3d model''.

It really depend what you are doing with those you seem to be using those for composition in that case i would recommend you get an understanding of rigging which can help you pose the character in the scene i know there package online that can be purchase where it basically a manninquin with all the necessary moving part which can than be model over (that if you do human) still think they would be useful starting point to get the necessary understanding to create your own rig model later on .

Personally with the advance of ai i would switch to blender just because you can use python to write script which could help you develop your own addon which can be useful for workflow.

I am not really knowledgeable with zbrush and blender is free so you have alot more resource online for it if you have any problem and i you can always as me about it(personally i don't have rigging experience(it for me more of an composition and animation skill))

One thing if your not already thinking that way is to think of body part as unit and than fuse them later when you got every part to a similar level of finish this i feel give a better level of control around the model because you don't have the rest of the model block your vision(it not necessary i seen pro model from one sphere to a finish it just depend how much experience you have with the camera and moving around virtual 3d space)