Question for 3d character modelers & sculptors
I'm currently practicing traditional figure drawing and studying human anatomy at the moment. One of the primarily reason is because it's always been something that I wanted to learn and had a fascination for.
Another reason is because I want to learn zbrush in the future for doing character modeling and sculpting, so naturally knowing human anatomy is of utmost importance.
However, is traditional sculpting (clay sculpting) also an important step prior to 3d sculpting/modeling? It's probably not absolutely REQUIRED, but most reputable schools often have classes regarding clay sculpting/modeling to help students apply their knowledge of anatomy and to gain a more concrete foundation and familiarize themselves with the human body from a 3 dimensional point of view right?
I still have a long way to go before I even touch zbrush, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend any good resources on traditional sculpting/modeling? If anyone has went to 3d design/animation type schools and have taken classes in traditional sculpting, what are some books/videos or artists you would recommend ?
In addition, are there any popular modeling/sculpting forums that you know of? ones that focus on the art of sculpting instead of the software.
Thanks in advance.
Another reason is because I want to learn zbrush in the future for doing character modeling and sculpting, so naturally knowing human anatomy is of utmost importance.
However, is traditional sculpting (clay sculpting) also an important step prior to 3d sculpting/modeling? It's probably not absolutely REQUIRED, but most reputable schools often have classes regarding clay sculpting/modeling to help students apply their knowledge of anatomy and to gain a more concrete foundation and familiarize themselves with the human body from a 3 dimensional point of view right?
I still have a long way to go before I even touch zbrush, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend any good resources on traditional sculpting/modeling? If anyone has went to 3d design/animation type schools and have taken classes in traditional sculpting, what are some books/videos or artists you would recommend ?
In addition, are there any popular modeling/sculpting forums that you know of? ones that focus on the art of sculpting instead of the software.
Thanks in advance.
Replies
Nah.
To be more informative, traditional sculpting is fun and cool, but it's also expensive and you still have to learn a ton of tools that aren't the unnecessarily user-unfriendly zbrush or 3D software tools that you would be dealing with daily at any character job.
Don't get me wrong, if you have the opportunity readily available, definitely definitely give it a go. As said it's a great experience and skill. Just don't delay learning digital modeling/sculpting techniques, and foundation application in digital tools, since your goals aren't related to being a traditional sculptor. There's not much you'd learn in traditional sculpting that would directly help you in the transfer to digital, compared to just jumping into zbrush right away instead or alongside it. Just my 2c as someone who comes from a more 2D/traditional background themself.Also worth noting there's plenty of discussion about the art and foundations of sculpting here, and I'm more than sure people here can recommend serious anatomy and digital sculpting courses (Scott Eaton comes to mind, immediately). Looking forward to seeing more of your work as you continue, however you decide to!
I would say if you're asking if it is important to study traditional sculpting then the answer is probably no.
If you're asking if it is useful? That's a different question entirely, personally I would say that if there are any benefits at all then they are probably marginal.. But... that is my opinion. I suspect if you surveyed the forum you'd find most of it leans in the direction of it being useful. I think even those people would agree though that if you chose to forego traditional sculpting entirely it wouldn't have a profound impact on your future as an artist, so again I don't think I would describe it as important.
IMO the most important thing you learn by working traditionally is planning. One of the benefits/drawbacks to sculpting digitally is that it's very flexible. It's very forgiving of mistakes because they're easier to fix, even 30+ hours into a sculpt. This is usually awesome, but I can see how it would impact someone who is learning. When you work traditionally you can't just scale a head up for example if you sculpted it too small, so planning and proper workflow become VERY important.
Still... fixing mistakes late into a sculpt can still be very challenging and time consuming, even digitally, and so I'm not sure this is really a lesson you need to learn traditionally. Plenty of artists don't and they sculpt just fine. Would they be even better if they had sculpted traditionally though? I don't know, maybe. Probably not noticeably so though.
I'm in difference from the advice already stated. You see, if you have a concrete skill in fine art and traditional background. Your capacity to learn the digital stuff (like zbrush) will be very adaptable. I've seen and known many who've gone through this route time and time again. Nothing beats the basics and traditional stuff. So if it's an opportunity you can start with. I would definitely take it!
Artists I see whom have started digitally, are talented. But the road to get there is generally a longer one. Reason being is due to having the largest distraction on how to overcome the software's technical limits, crashes, etc. When in comparison the "Traditional" methods are the limits of your eyes and hands, and supplies.
and here's part 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uhOEFNSMW8
Sure if you want to be a digital artist you should sculpt in a digital medium more. But dabbling in traditional sculpting will most definitely help.
I've only touched a tiny bit of sculpting traditionally, here's somethings I found I could learn from it if I ventured further.
The limitations of clay. When I was pencil sketching I gradually found myself automatically drawing construction lines, then taking the drawing to a half finished state. This was because unconsciously I was drawing in fear so I had to rely on construction lines. The pencil didn't have that permanent feel so I felt I could get away with it. (don't get me wrong though construction lines are important) So then I tried to draw with a pen. It was totally different experience. Everything was permanent and I had to think about what I was drawing. I had to control my lines more. In essence it trained confidence.
When you are sculpting with clay. There is no undo, building up forms and taking them away are quite hard to do (for me). There is no clay brush so you really have to commit. I think that training on the act of "committing" is important. Also if you watch traditional sculptors you notice how dramatic their form building is at the beginning. No clay brushes too noodle, its basically slapping on clay.
No symmetry. This was a crazy hard thing to understand haha. I basically had to do double sculpting. Sculpting 2 sides of the face and each side is mirrored. That unconsciously means you are learning twice.
Surface integrity. This was an "oh" moment for me. I don't think I would of learnt about this if I wasnt looking into traditional sculpting. However this experience is highly personal,
Pior had released a video of smoothing out a surface in clay.
Basically smoothing is a destructive process and it doesn't really smooth well (more understandable when you are trying to smooth higher subdiv levels.). so instead of smoothing you need to fill in the "holes" and to do that you need a brush that has a positive threshold so that you arent overfilling the holes. (this doesnt mean dont use the smooth brush. Time and place for each brush)
Renaud Galand has some cool brushes for this. Just download his ui.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?65365-Renaud-Galand-Sketchbook/page22
i believe you can get the same result by tweaking the brush in the stroke menu for zbrush.
All in all im still not that skilled so I would listen to more skilled artists on this subject. But these are just some experiences. Both mediums are good and i don't see why you should learn only one.