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having a really hard time focusing (zbrush)

MujtabaYousuf
polycounter lvl 3
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MujtabaYousuf polycounter lvl 3
helo guys!
My problem is that i cant focus on one thing.sometimes i try to learn zbrush tools. Sometimes i try to learn anatomy first. I mean i always get disracted.
I know some excerises but idkwhat to do first
1-) should i learn anatomy first?
And if yes then where do i start from? Skull???
2-) should i create basic things first like rocks, pen etc?
Please answer my above two questions. 
Thankyou

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  • Geezus
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    Geezus mod
    As with any tool, start basic (whatever that means to you), learn the toolset, build your skills, then move on to more advanced assets.
  • Biomag
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    Biomag sublime tool
    Maybe starting with Modelling first before moving on to sculpting would be a good idea. People tend to see the cool stuff in ZBrush and comepletely ignore the necessary foundamentals to get there. Also dynamesh and subdivisions tend to be heavily misused by beginners. If you can't get some decent proportions with a block out of 3-8k polys, how should those millions of polygons help you achieve that?


    My suggestion for beginners learn either Maya or Max or whatever 3D modelling tool you prefer. Once you know how basic modelling works, try to build a simple low poly character without any fancy baking/high poly pipeline. After doing 1-2 of those you should probably be able to create a base mesh that has solid porportions that you can get into ZBrush and from there on you can start learning ZBrush proper.

    Or you go the hard way and force yourself through ZBrush and learn all its capabilities, but there are reasons most people use modelling AND sculpting programs.



    On a final note - if I remember you correctly - you just started this month with anything digital art related. It will take you months to make the first baby steps and years to learn it properly. Don't expect anything else or you will be heavily disappointed. No one started on a high level, while all cursed their tools and anatomy and whatever else until they found out its all about practice ;)
  • MujtabaYousuf
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    MujtabaYousuf polycounter lvl 3
    Biomag said:
    Maybe starting with Modelling first before moving on to sculpting would be a good idea. People tend to see the cool stuff in ZBrush and comepletely ignore the necessary foundamentals to get there. Also dynamesh and subdivisions tend to be heavily misused by beginners. If you can't get some decent proportions with a block out of 3-8k polys, how should those millions of polygons help you achieve that?


    My suggestion for beginners learn either Maya or Max or whatever 3D modelling tool you prefer. Once you know how basic modelling works, try to build a simple low poly character without any fancy baking/high poly pipeline. After doing 1-2 of those you should probably be able to create a base mesh that has solid porportions that you can get into ZBrush and from there on you can start learning ZBrush proper.

    Or you go the hard way and force yourself through ZBrush and learn all its capabilities, but there are reasons most people use modelling AND sculpting programs.



    On a final note - if I remember you correctly - you just started this month with anything digital art related. It will take you months to make the first baby steps and years to learn it properly. Don't expect anything else or you will be heavily disappointed. No one started on a high level, while all cursed their tools and anatomy and whatever else until they found out its all about practice ;)
    you are right. But i know how to create a basemesh in zbrush because i am already familiar with zspheres. :)
  • Mark Dygert
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    Short answer: In the end, you'll need both.

    Long answer:
    I don't think you should learn one first and then the other, but learn enough of each to do what you set out to do. With that said I think it's important to start small and tackle something that you have a really good shot at completing, because success snowballs. That first step will seem cheap and insignificant to most people and probably won't be worth posting online anywhere but it will be the seed for everything else.

    No one hands a preschooler 200 sheets of paper and a crayon and says write your college thesis, imagine if we did... 
    "oh you don't know your ABC's? Well, it looks like you're never going to go anywhere in life, you might as well give up. No, no! Stop trying to rub the crayon on the paper it's just worthless scribbles. Can you at least dig a hole? Because that's all you'll have in life, just you and your dirt hole. GAAhh... do I have to do everything."

    You're kind of treating yourself that way. 

    When I read your post, I see a person who hasn't succeeded yet and that's probably because they're biting off more than they can chew, OR they define success in really big terms that will take years to achieve. If that is your definition of success you'll fail to find the breadcrumbs that lead to success. That doesn't mean you should delude yourself into thinking that whatever pile of garbage you manage to crap out next, is amazing and wonderful. It's a bread crumb, it's only important because it leads to the next thing, which will lead to something you can finally show, at some point way down the road.

    If you learn the tools first you end up with a lot of button knowledge that can't really do anything because you don't have the anatomy knowledge to actually make anything. This is one of the biggest problems with a lot of schools, they teach button clicks and how, but they never teach why.

    Most of the tools have a very specific purpose and you only really need to learn it when you need to pull off that one particular thing. It's like telling a painting master that they can't paint until they memorize all of the names for all of the colors and then count all of the hairs on their brushes. So learn what you need to do what you want to do and don't worry about not knowing how to do something. What you're learning to build is a framework that will help you learn new things and solve new challenges. 
  • Kevin Albers
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    Kevin Albers polycounter lvl 18
    I agree with Biomag. You would probably be better off learning basic modeling using Maya Indie edition. Once you can make simple stuff  (like the rock and pen you mentioned), then it might be an ok time to start learning ZBrush.

    Nothing will quickly turn you into a badass Zbrush character artist. Nothing.

    Don't bother with anatomy. You don't have the skills to do advanced sculpting yet, so there is no huge need yet.

    It seems like if you keep you current approach, you will be continually frustrated for no good reason, and soon you might decide that you hate 3D entirely, which would be a bit silly. Be realistic, start small, be patient. Be happy with small progress you make during your long journey toward Badassness.
  • Melazee
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    Melazee polycounter lvl 11
    If you want to be a character artist out of all this,  I'd heavily recommend drawing for a while to learn anatomy before touching any program. It'll help :) Else you will be having to worry about learning the tools AND learning/getting the anatomy correct at the same time, and that's a a lot of stress right there. I use Loomis a lot, check it out!

    It basically all boils down to what do you want out of this? Where do you want this to lead you out exactly? Characters or environment? 
  • DavidCruz
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    DavidCruz interpolator
    Hi
    I made this section of my artstation just for people like you who are new:
    https://www.artstation.com/artwork/BVKNl
    It GOES from the bottom to the top in progress, it is not exact but it is decent enough to get a good understanding on what you might learn along the way, i came at 0 understanding, my 1st design was raped by the popular paul steed(rip) and he encouraged me via a public shaming for entering his contest which at 1st i was excited about even being noticed but then felt pretty bad but turned it into encouragement.
    (Any old PCer wanting to know it was the Bad Girl big weapon one - mine was the horrid EVE protomecha entry.) That is my years track record estimate as you wish.

    There are holes from projects started and never finished which some of these are but those are really like heads, eyes, arms, hands, playing round and trying to get a good understanding.

    But what everyone above says is spot on, it took me this long to get to where i am and that is with zero help, videos tutorials sure but no 1:1 convo stuff (BESIDES posting on polycount) so you might want to get a friend or learn with someone as enthusiastic as you, preferably you being character artist and them being weapons or environment (I am leaning more towards environment) perhaps even an animator buddy would go along with for BOTH of you.

    Best of luck.
    P.s. i fall into the generalist category and not specifically character.
    It happen that way because of paid projects needing to fill positions and i was fine with it, the level i am at is because it gets harder trying to get more realistic, for me anyway - realistic being movie quality.  I am on 10 -15 years in for whatever that is worth started as a very lowpoly modeler so getting an understanding of the higher poly stuff was an other ball of wax.

    Learning anatomy and drawing is a good starting point or at least along side your learning.
    Been doing it on and off myself, i stopped pushing myself to get better and took a lot of time off here and there but always come back, your progress would be your enthusiasm and sacrifice to learn and get better quicker.  If your young your already on a good standing since learning would come quicker for you as i find the opposite getting older.
  • MujtabaYousuf
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    MujtabaYousuf polycounter lvl 3
    DavidCruz said:
    Hi
    I made this section of my artstation just for people like you who are new:
    https://www.artstation.com/artwork/BVKNl
    It GOES from the bottom to the top in progress, it is not exact but it is decent enough to get a good understanding on what you might learn along the way, i came at 0 understanding, my 1st design was raped by the popular paul steed(rip) and he encouraged me via a public shaming for entering his contest which at 1st i was excited about even being noticed but then felt pretty bad but turned it into encouragement.
    (Any old PCer wanting to know it was the Bad Girl big weapon one - mine was the horrid EVE protomecha entry.) That is my years track record estimate as you wish.

    There are holes from projects started and never finished which some of these are but those are really like heads, eyes, arms, hands, playing round and trying to get a good understanding.

    But what everyone above says is spot on, it took me this long to get to where i am and that is with zero help, videos tutorials sure but no 1:1 convo stuff (BESIDES posting on polycount) so you might want to get a friend or learn with someone as enthusiastic as you, preferably you being character artist and them being weapons or environment (I am leaning more towards environment) perhaps even an animator buddy would go along with for BOTH of you.

    Best of luck.
    P.s. i fall into the generalist category and not specifically character.
    It happen that way because of paid projects needing to fill positions and i was fine with it, the level i am at is because it gets harder trying to get more realistic, for me anyway - realistic being movie quality.  I am on 10 -15 years in for whatever that is worth started as a very lowpoly modeler so getting an understanding of the higher poly stuff was an other ball of wax.

    Learning anatomy and drawing is a good starting point or at least along side your learning.
    Been doing it on and off myself, i stopped pushing myself to get better and took a lot of time off here and there but always come back, your progress would be your enthusiasm and sacrifice to learn and get better quicker.  If your young your already on a good standing since learning would come quicker for you as i find the opposite getting older.
    thanks for the info. I think i should learn maya first. See....?? I again changed my descision. This happen with me all the time and i lose focus. 
  • Biomag
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    Biomag sublime tool
    If you have a hard time organizing yourself when it comes to learning, a school might be the right way to go. There a lot of pros and cons to it and in the end you can get as far without as with, but sometimes people need guidance and structure. You should search the forum regarding people's experience. There have been a couple of threads this summer about it.
  • kanga
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    kanga quad damage
    So you have trouble focusing? Concentration is like a muscle you can develop. Everybody has a different capacity for focusing, but it seems to me that people who are enthusiastic about creating 3D objects teach themselves how to fixate on that activity by practice. As far as what to practice first,..... I don't know. Being busy with 3D will show you where your interests lie. You could be a specualist, or a generalist, or something in between. Who knows? One thing to avoid would be to attempt at making a masterpiece right off the bat. You would be better served by making 3D versions of sketches and force yourself not spend too much time on any one piece. Then occasionally spend more time on an object as a breather :)

    As to starting off in ZBrush or a more standard app: that would depend on what you want to do later. There are some artists that do everything in ZBrush, others that use multiple pieces of software. A good guide is usually to start with the end of a story as that will give you an idea about how to start it.

    Cheerio
  • MujtabaYousuf
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    MujtabaYousuf polycounter lvl 3
    DavidCruz said:
    Hi
    I made this section of my artstation just for people like you who are new:
    https://www.artstation.com/artwork/BVKNl
    It GOES from the bottom to the top in progress, it is not exact but it is decent enough to get a good understanding on what you might learn along the way, i came at 0 understanding, my 1st design was raped by the popular paul steed(rip) and he encouraged me via a public shaming for entering his contest which at 1st i was excited about even being noticed but then felt pretty bad but turned it into encouragement.
    (Any old PCer wanting to know it was the Bad Girl big weapon one - mine was the horrid EVE protomecha entry.) That is my years track record estimate as you wish.

    There are holes from projects started and never finished which some of these are but those are really like heads, eyes, arms, hands, playing round and trying to get a good understanding.

    But what everyone above says is spot on, it took me this long to get to where i am and that is with zero help, videos tutorials sure but no 1:1 convo stuff (BESIDES posting on polycount) so you might want to get a friend or learn with someone as enthusiastic as you, preferably you being character artist and them being weapons or environment (I am leaning more towards environment) perhaps even an animator buddy would go along with for BOTH of you.

    Best of luck.
    P.s. i fall into the generalist category and not specifically character.
    It happen that way because of paid projects needing to fill positions and i was fine with it, the level i am at is because it gets harder trying to get more realistic, for me anyway - realistic being movie quality.  I am on 10 -15 years in for whatever that is worth started as a very lowpoly modeler so getting an understanding of the higher poly stuff was an other ball of wax.

    Learning anatomy and drawing is a good starting point or at least along side your learning.
    Been doing it on and off myself, i stopped pushing myself to get better and took a lot of time off here and there but always come back, your progress would be your enthusiasm and sacrifice to learn and get better quicker.  If your young your already on a good standing since learning would come quicker for you as i find the opposite getting older.
    thanks for the info. I think i should learn maya first. See....?? I again changed my descision. This happen with me all the time and i lose focus. 
  • PyrZern
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    PyrZern polycounter lvl 12
    If you're lost, it's ok to look around the surrounding, you know ?
    You can even do.... 1 week in Maya, then 1 week in ZB. And switch back and forth. Nothing major. Just getting used to using the tools.

  • Travis C
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