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Day 1 in zbrush, advice? Confused? ^_^

fusebaum
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fusebaum
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Hey everybody here at polycount :D My name is Matt, and I'm 21 years old. (I feel like I'm on a dating website ^_^). I haven't done anything art related in a long time, but in the past few weeks have gotten into 2d drawing and recently found this website! I LOVE this website! I love seeing what everyone can do, it's so inspiring! Anyways, I'm a little nervous posting because of the tremendous amount of skill that I see on this website, its super intimidating. Nonetheless here we go :D

After a week or so of lurking I finally decided to learn Zbrush. Today is day 1 and man oh man am I having a ball. Zbrush is such a fun program and I am really enjoying learning what it can do :D Do I know what I'm actually doing? I'm not sure O_O

After watching a lot of tutorials, here is my first attempt at making something in zbrush. I wanted it to be somewhat cartoonish, focusing more on the face rather the torso. No prior concept or reference, just kind of winged it, hence the weird proportions.

So my concern. I feel like I don't know what I'm actually doing? This was originally a sphere, so I made forms, blocked it out, added basic structure, enabled dynamesh, and went to town. Now I hear when you use dynamesh you don't really care about the mesh or something? I'm confused on all these terms such as retopoligzing, polycount, low polycount, high polycount, topology, UV, normal maps, ALL DEM MAPS. Stuff like that. I'm also confused on if people add detail when sculpting or when painting? Does it matter? do you get detail from uving it? I don't even know what I'm saying now :D I'm just really confused. O_o

Basically, where would I go from here if I wanted to create a more in depth character with painting, and making a game friendly rigable character? Would someone be willing to point me in the right direction?

I was also wondering about sketchbooks. I saw some other people making a sketchbook type thread? Do I just make one and put anything I want in it?

Anyways, if you're up for it, I would just love advice in general? Give me pointers, critique me, hammer me down, give meh love? :D GO TO TOWN!

ONEEEE last thing. God this is a wall of text O_O I took screenshots with gyazo from different angels, put it into photoshop, combined them and added some filters, etc. Is there a better way to render or show off stuff rather then what I just described above?

(Sorry for all the questions, I'm just so new to zbrush and the forums, it's a lot to take in at the moment.)

Thank you for your time, and I hope I can become an active member in this great community :D

Are there any other communities that could be aid, or is polycount the only one? I want to gather as much knowledge as possible :D
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  • LMP
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    LMP polycounter lvl 13
    "I was also wondering about sketchbooks. I saw some other people making a sketchbook type thread? Do I just make one and put anything I want in it?"

    The key thing with a "sketchbook" is that you do the thing consistently, like, you do something everyday for an hour and you post what you got done. Sketchbooks can be a very powerful learning and motivational tool.
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  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    Serious question, and you're asking yourself this as much as I'm looking for an answer.

    Do you want to make art that can go into a video game production?
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  • fusebaum
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    fusebaum
    LMP wrote: »
    The key thing with a "sketchbook" is that you do the thing consistently, like, you do something everyday for an hour and you post what you got done. Sketchbooks can be a very powerful learning and motivational tool.

    So everyday you have to post? or can I post every few days? and thanks for the info :D

    Brian Panda Choi wrote: »
    Serious question, and you're asking yourself this as much as I'm looking for an answer.

    Do you want to make art that can go into a video game production?

    Yes, I would love to make art that would go into a video game production :D I would love to do many things with 3d modeling and sculpting. Game production, movies, cartoon, realistic, cgi. I feel like there is too much I want to do, and I'm very eager to improve and learn. :D
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  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    Since polycount focuses primarily, though not exclusively, on game art, why don't you first start trying to get a full game character into Unreal Engine 4 or Unity3D?
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  • Fingus
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    Fingus polycounter lvl 11
    Hey, welcome to Polycount!

    I think if you just wanna get the hang of zBrush don't be too concerned with the more technical aspects of art like baking maps, retopologizing, etc. zBrush is designed to be an artists tool that gives you a lot of freedom to work however you want. There is no "right way" really. You should focus on art fundamentals like anatomy, form, design, etc.

    HOWEVER! If your goal is to make a game ready character then yes you will have to learn this kinda stuff. In fact, I highly encourage it! Going through a project like that from start to end is a fantastic way of learning. There is so much stuff that goes into creating game art you'll never have a shortage of new things to learn. Just stick with it and don't give up! :)

    As for sketchbooks, don't worry there's no rules. They just there for you to post whatever. No real requirements on how often you post, or the quality, etc. Just have fun, work hard, and post a lot! :D
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  • fusebaum
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    fusebaum
    Brian Panda Choi wrote: »
    Since polycount focuses primarily, though not exclusively, on game art, why don't you first start trying to get a full game character into Unreal Engine 4 or Unity3D?

    I will most definitely have to try and do that. Thanks for the push :D P.S. I loved the character that you've been creating.


    Fingus wrote: »
    Hey, welcome to Polycount!

    I think if you just wanna get the hang of zBrush don't be too concerned with the more technical aspects of art like baking maps, retopologizing, etc. zBrush is designed to be an artists tool that gives you a lot of freedom to work however you want. There is no "right way" really. You should focus on art fundamentals like anatomy, form, design, etc.

    HOWEVER! If your goal is to make a game ready character then yes you will have to learn this kinda stuff. In fact, I highly encourage it! Going through a project like that from start to end is a fantastic way of learning. There is so much stuff that goes into creating game art you'll never have a shortage of new things to learn. Just stick with it and don't give up! :)

    As for sketchbooks, don't worry there's no rules. They just there for you to post whatever. No real requirements on how often you post, or the quality, etc. Just have fun, work hard, and post a lot! :D

    Thanks for all the info! It's just scary hearing all these terms :P I will most definitely be learning how to go from start to finish :d Thanks again for all the great info and advice ^_^ Do you know of any tutorials that could point me in the right direction?

    P.S. I love all those characters you recently posted :D Sorry about the project!
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