The best approach to ZBrush.. yes broad but hear me out

meshfx

Hey,

I have used ZBrush on and off for the last couple of versions, only here and there.. enough not to know enough but some to be able to do some basic stuff. Mainly importing objects from 3ds Max in, clay brush up some surfaces, something some edges off etc, decimate, export to vue and slap an ecosystem on to make some interesting landscape features... but I want to take it further.
I have a folder of 'ZBrush inspiration' that consists of all sorts of creatures, limbs, people, clothing and the like all amazingly done in ZBrush.. I want to head down that road.
Now the broad stroke question, how to learn this type of sculpting. I have looked on Youtube and found 10000 channels that teach a variety of things, looked at Digital Tutors, 3dmotive, Gnome and they all teach similar things but then they have something slightly different.
I know this sort of thing is personal opinion, swayed by a wide range of factors, but I would love to hear what anyone had to say about how they learnt ZBrush, was there a particular tutorial series that started you on the right course, do you revisit a site for tutorials etc etc.
Happy to pay some $$ do the long road in starting with the basics, just hoping to find the start of the right / most appropriate road.
Anyway, thanks for any advice.

Bal

Depending on your current level, the basics would be drawing classes, and/or anatomy study.
Online you could try doing something like one of these for instance :
http://www.scott-eaton.com/anatomy-for-artists-online-course
http://www.scott-eaton.com/digital-figure-sculpture

This isn't "learning Zbrush" by the way, learning Zbrush is easy (well, despite the quirky interface anyways) it's just another software, with plenty of technical resources online explaining how to do what you want. Learning to scult well is a whole other story, and that's where good fundamental art skills come into play.

blankslatejoe

I've always found that the best way to learn is to do...a lot. I've been trying to improve my sculpting recently as well, and I've found that doing a 1 hour speed-sculpt every single day has been incredibly useful ..and is also something most people can fit into busy schedules.

RogerP

Finding something to help you get started can be hard sometimes. Like you said, you know how to do basic stuff like import, export, etc. There are a lot of resources out now that can help you get more acquainted with the tools in zBrush as well as more advanced ones.

That being said, as you go along and find tutorials about specific things you want to learn like (anatomy, hard surface, etc) you will find that most people don't use a huge amount of special brushes or tools. Most still stick to the basic ones to get the job done.

My best advise will be to just jump in the program and start sculpting away. Is it going to be a masterpiece? Maybe not, but that process is what is going to get you to that level. Believe me, even when you are at a more advanced level where you start liking your own work and feel you're getting out of the "valley of the suck" you still sometimes look at your work when you're starting a new sculpt and say to yourself, "this shit sucks".

Power through it, get some good tutorials on what you are interested in (Gumroad has a ton of those at this point). But the best advice will be to get in front of zBrush and go at it!

gsokol

Your going to have a difficult time finding that perfect tutorial for you, because there are so many different ways to do things and so many techniques for zBrush.

Like others have suggested, you just need to try a bunch of things and apply the things that work best for you in your own workflow. Whatever gets the job done.

It can be daunting, but just try setting a goal for yourself. Make a character, or a tiling texture, or whatever you please....look up some of the techniques people use, and just try them.

Like everything else, it takes practice...just try to make something, learn from it, try again, maybe even go back to some of the tutorials you've seen before, as you might see them in a different way when you have your own techniques and experience.

Kevin Albers

You should learn anatomy, which is NOT the same as learning how to sculpt anatomy in Zbrush. Of course you could just find anatomy information online and try to sculpt small anatomical studies in Zbrush, but you should also consider taking real world drawing classes with actual models.

For clothing, look into learning Marvelous Designer. I think moving forwards a lot more clothing assets will use clothing simulations rather than be done in Zbrush. Once something is done in Marvelous Designer you can import it into Zbrush and continue work on it.

Tutorials don't matter so much, since you already know the basic pipeline of making something using Max and Zbrush. Thinking about anatomy and actually making some (ideally over and over, making lots of it) is how you will get better.

Focus on realistic anatomy to learn it properly. If you start by making monsters, super-buff space marines etc you will probably make lots of unrealistic anatomy that sort of looks cool. That should not be your goal. Build bits of humans who look real.

Don't overthink it. This is a case of 'practice makes perfect'. Work more on human anatomy, and less on terrain assets.

meshfx

Thanks for the comments / suggestions, I appreciate you all taking the time to offer up some thoughts.

Cheers

S

Ged

There are some basic principles that most people would follow like.

1. start with big brushes and forms at a low resolution of mesh and work your way down to small details and small brushes at the end. Dont get too excited and add small details right at the start.
2. avoid blobbyness in your mesh, pay attention to keeping your silhouette strong

etc

lunatorra

Greetings, meshfx

Since you seem aware of the endless Zbrush resources available to you, and are still unsure about how to get started, I get the feeling that you're in a bit of a rush, or you're afraid of learning inefficiently.

Makes sense. Time is money, but ultimately it doesnt matter which tutorials you use at first, because you sorta need them all.

At this stage you simply can't have enough voices, perspectives, and workflows. Then you'll gain experience and certain resources won't be as useful to you anymore.. standards will increase, naturally.

BUT that's not a very specific answer.

I recommend that you start here: http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/1119/Introduction-to-ZBrush-4R7#.ViDxpStBuPU

The instructor is really good (I've taken one of her online classes), has written a couple books on Zbrush and really cares about educating. It would give you a solid tour of the program (all that technical stuff) and expose you to a handful of tools and techniques commonly used to achieve the things you mentioned.

If you pursue this tutorial series, follow along with the instructor and take breaks to do your own experiments.

As others have mentioned before, it's important to gain personal experience so you definitely need to play around and see what you can do, but I don't believe in running in blind.

Zbrush is a very.... unintuitive program (at least in my eyes) and trying to sit there and figure it out all on your own will likely result in many wasted hours.

Absorb what the internet has to offer, put those techniques to use, and push the limits.
That is my advice