ZBrushCentral

Is not easy sculpting in Zbrush

Hey guys, i am trying to learn anatomy, so i choose to watch reference and try to sculpt that in Zbrush. I started first with the human skull,. It’s freaking hard, i am using tablet, bamboo, but i have no idea what to do. I watched what the brushes does, but to be honest, it’s damn hard.

I have no background art, don’t know how to draw or paint or to sculpt in traditional way.

I really need some advice.

Maybe this thread will help you:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?169968-Help-me-to-learn-better-human-anatomy

Sculpting is hard. Sculpting humans is even harder.

I think jumping straight into a new program and trying to make humans all with no art background is a little bit of a lofty goal. Baby steps my friend. One thing at a time. Try making simpler objects first. Once you get a good grasp of the program start increasing the challenge of the objects.

Well you are right mate, i made very huge step forward. So what shall i do? To have art background, that’s mean i need to know drawing and anatomy? Where i live, we don’t have schools like that.

So i need to learn myself, but i don’t know what to do first. How much drawing will help me with sculpting in Zbrush. I know drawing on paper/Photoshop and sculpting in Zbrush in 3D, is not the same, so how much going to help me that?

Like someone mentioned start out small. Sculpt an apple, orange, banana, or any simple fruit you have laying around or is easy to get. Use reference pictures and try to get as close as possible. Work on the overall shape before trying to get all the small details. If your general outline of your model matches your subject then it’s time to work on the smaller details. The problem is you’re trying to tackle learning two things at once, Zbrush and Anatomy. These are not simple. Start out small and basic mostly to get the hang of working in Zbrush. As you progress then increase the models you use. Go from a simple apple to sculpting just a nose or set of eyes then to a full face and then a head. Try a finger then a hand and then an arm. As you go from the simple models to the more complex and detailed ones working in Zbrush will start to feel natural.

Don’t worry too much about trying to figure out what everything in Zbrush does. Ignore the 100’s of brushes and only focus on using 2-3 of them at first. Most Zbrush users only use a handful of brushes for the majority of their work. Zbrush is a deep and confusing program, at first, start simple and go from there.

There are tons of videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/ZBRUSHatPIXOLOGIC?feature=watch

Watch a video all the way through without following along in Zbrush at the same time. This let’s you relax and watch the video and see what their doing without rushing you. You’ll start to get an idea of what to use for different models and looks you’re going for. You’ll start to understand how it flows and how to model. Once you go through the video the first time without following along then watch it again but try to follow along in Zbrush to get similar results. Pause and rewind and take as much time. You’ll start to pick things up bit by bit.

3D is very technical but very beautiful and fun once you start to get the hang of it. Most of all stick with it. There will be times it can be very frustrating so take breaks but don’t give up.

Is there any good workshop as much detail as possible, real time, about learning human anatomy and sculpting in Zbrush.
I barely find those kind of tutorials, always they are timelapse, short and not so good tutorials.

It would be great a course for learning anatomy inside of Zbrush, but to be as much as possible in detail.

I heard this book as good. Haven’t read it myself.
http://www.amazon.com/ZBrush-Digital-Sculpting-Human-Anatomy/dp/0470450266

Yea it’s hard to find those kinds of tutorials because there isn’t really a step-by-step guide. It’s somewhat of an abstract concept. Everyone’s anatomy is different and everyone goes about sculpting it differently. It’s just something you “do.” It’s not something technical where you can tell someone which buttons to push. It’s your own observations and experiences and how you interpret them.

Thanks man, i got this book long ago, but is way to much for me, he goes pretty fast and speak about anatomy names, i have no idea which are they:D

I want to learn Anatomy, i could do this, for few years, then i’ll go for production characters. But first my main thing is to learn sculpting in Zbrush, learn Zbrush and learn anatomy:D

But i can’t find the best way, the hard thing i have now is, how to see things, how to see form reference, and sculpt that in Zbrush, and on the way to learn anatomy and names.

I lie to sculpt like your characters, especially creatures like that Tyranid ripper.

http://www.zbrushworkshops.com/introduction-to-zbrush.html

I would like to ask one more question, because i am really stuck in this.

Can someone make good character sin Zbrush, by knowing anatomy and Zbrush, but not drawing?

I want to just do stuff in Zbrush, than with pen and paper. It;s more fun.

I am going to attend Scott Eaton courses for anatomy and sculpting.

So, without drawing, is it possible to do kick ass characters?

Study visually all which is around you. Observe form, texture, light conditions and shadows. Go with your gut as to what ‘looks’ right. Use primitives which best define your rough shape. Create a new mesh from sub tools. Model more from there.
It’s quite easy to get basic forms to refine further with all the ZBrush tools and functions of them. ZBrush is a very complex program.

well,

what I would do first is take a few sheets of plain white paper, a pencil and an eraser.
Then I would ask myself things like (the issue is model people, right?): “… ok, I have seen ears, lots of them, even own a pair of them myself - but >> do I KNOW the forms of an ear?”.
You can do that with every part of anything that is around you, all of this is free and ready.

What I mean (short version): learn to really look at things. Imagine you are off to learn a poem - you will read this thing until you know it by heart. Follow the analogy and apply this to seeing/understanding forms.

You will find that modeling using any medium (even ZBrush :slight_smile: ) is a lot easier then drawing, so if you have a bit of drawing knowledge under your belt - BINGO!

For the anatomy studies: it is all nice and dandy, but even if you have learned the latin names of every muscle this is not like having a tool set to draw from - you still will need to know how all these parts fit together.
And again - you’ll get this by training the eye in observing, seeing and then trying to recapture this in a minimal form.
You will want to model in a unique way (everybody does), and the only rules that do count here (only my opinion) is combining all that you have memorized by seeing with the things and concepts that still are in your head.

Sorry for rambling :slight_smile: - good luck!

There is no such thing as a shortcut to this. You will be frustrated and give up quickly if you start out with that idea.

Organic modeling is not something you can do without basic skills and talent.

Can you pick up a pencil and draw what you see? If not you may be heading a bad direction here. Organic modeling is not like CAD work, it requires the basic talent exists to begin with. Nobody can teach you that. Find some clay perhaps and see if you can model a simple object realistically. That would be a good way to see if you’re moving the right direction.

1 - Learn to draw and basics of perspective and form. The internet is full of help with that, use your search engine.
2 - Photoshop. (If you can’t handle Photoshop or similar, this will be impossible for you)
3 - Start out learning basic modeling skills and learn the vocabulary.
4 - Then you can do as you wish.

Thanks man, so is true then, that someone need to be talented to do this kind of job? Well, as you can see i don’t have talent f

There are two kinds of talents, one that comes naturally and one that has to be worked for. For some people certain things just come naturally (music, drawing, math, etc.). That doesn’t mean you can’t do something that doesn’t come naturally. It just means you need to work more for it.

If you want to do something stick with it. Doesn’t matter if it comes naturally if you enjoy it and work hard you’ll get there.