zbrush learning

Had a chance to get back to this. I've gone through and mostly refined the secondary level of detail, crisping up edges and looking at how the forms turn while digging in some of the grooves. I also created new hands and put some of these similar details into them.

zbrush learning: Critter Building

I've been following along with the creature sculpting workshop with Jesse Sandifer on zbrushworkshops.com. I'm doing something very different from what he's doing, but still paying very close attention to his process.

I started with a zsphere model, converted it to a dynamesh and then sculpted from there.  It has a way to go. I'll be adding on accessories and other equipment as a way of learning these tools well.  What's great about using these methods for the base mesh is that it allows you to adjust the proportions very easily and quickly without stretching out the polys too much.  I adjusted his proportions quite a bit after I started sculpting him, when I realized he was too squat for the design I had in mind.

Bottom of the Ninth

This is a trailer for a project I worked on over the last winter doing environmental, architectural, and equipment design stuff for.  I also did some vector designs in Illustrator for the texture maps for the 3D models. It's a personal project developed by Ryan Woodward as a prelude for a full animated graphic novel that he has in the works for mobile devices.

Check it out, he did an amazing job.

Now featured on ESPN.

website

Speed Paint

Today's speed paint pshop copy.  Source

zBrush Learning: polypainting

Zbrush has a special texturing mode that allows you to use every pixel on a texture map. This method, however, leaves the texture essentially uneditable in any other normal image editing program, i.e. photoshop.  This isn't all the pretty and I could probably do a much better job if I took some serious time to do this and...if it weren't my first time. The plan now is to complete this set of basic tutorials and then do them again, but instead of building a zombie...I'll build something I can use.  Based on the list, there are only a couple sections left that deal specifically with developing the zombie. Then there are a handful of tutorials that cover, in more detail some of the newer features of the several releases of Zbrush 4.

What's been nice about these tutorials is that as I see how the process works, I see how I could set things up a bit better in the beginning to make the finish more efficient and stronger.

zBrush Learning: Inventing a Bug

A few days ago I thought I'd venture away from the learning program and test out some of the things I've learned on an independent critter.  So I made a bug.  I used zspheres to quickly lay out the general masses and structure. Then I switched to dyanmesh to pull out some details and push and pull the masses. Then I subdivided it and added some details. There's a lot more to learn (...hard surface modeling, for example).

zBrush Learning

I've been taking the tutorials on zbrushworkshops.com over the last week. To walk you through the program they have you build a zombie.  I actually bought the program for my BFA project when it was at version 1.5 back in 2004, but back then they were still very concerned about being a 2.5D program, which is cool, but is a very niche market. I think the interests of their customers and the appearance of programs like mudbox really kicked them into gear and over the last 5+ years the program has become a lot more user friendly. They've also been kind enough to update it for free.

Over the last few years I've thought of dozens if not hundreds of instances when I would love to use it for a project, but my ignorance kept getting in the way. I've always pulled it out and occasionally played with the program, but never developed any proficiency. The menus and options are quite daunting. There were also a limited number of easy to access and cheap learning resources, that has changed. There are tons of great ones now.

I decided to give Kingslien's zbrushworkshops a try after going through the free ones he provides as an initial sampler.  So far it has cleared up a lot of things that have always confused me about the program. The process he walks you through to demonstrate the important features and applications of the program is to build a zombie from scratch.  The free tutorials get you through sculpting the head. The remainder have you build the body, clothing, and other accessories. There are additional tutorials on other subjects, such as lightcaps, dynamesh, zspheres, and many others.