New to digital format, looking for quality learning materials ! ^_^

chiefraven

Hello everyone,

I've finally decided to join the rest of you and start exploring digital format for the first time.

I have studied traditional figure drawing and anatomy in the past, but when it comes to digital format, I'm completely clueless

The work that I will be focusing on will be primarily Character Concept Art /Design, and perhaps in the future, zBrush for some character sculpting.

The tablets I'm considering right now are either the Huion 1060 Pro, or the Ugee M708.. both are roughly around the $60-80 range.  Are these good alternative options to the more expensive Wacom Intuos Pro Medium? And if so, which one would you pick between the two listed above? Does anyone have experience with any of them?

And, in order to fasten the the learning curve, does anyone know of any high quality learning materials on Photoshop that are specifically for concept artists or made by respected industry experts? Ones that teaches you everything there is to know about Photoshop as a concept artist? I know there's plenty of tutorials on photoshop out there, but it's such a all encompassing program that you can literally learn for years and years and still not know enough, since it can be used in so many different ways for so many different purposes.

Lastly, are there any good tutorials out there that you particularly like ? Ones made by great artists from Gumroad, Gnomon, or other reputable places that takes you through his/her process; ones that you found invaluable or learned a lot from? What are some artists that you follow on Gumroad when it comes to character design?

slipsius

Are you looking to be a concept artist (photoshop drawings), or do actual 3d work?

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Tutorials will get you started.  If you`re looking for more concept art, learning photoshop, then http://www.ctrlpaint.com/ is most peoples go to.

Aabel

Get an Wacom, in my experience the Chinese knock-offs don't work as reliably, they are supported in fewer software and don't last long. My wife has an intous3 she has had since 2004, she still uses it every day.

chiefraven

slipsius said:

Are you looking to be a concept artist (photoshop drawings), or do actual 3d work?

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Tutorials will get you started.  If you`re looking for more concept art, learning photoshop, then http://www.ctrlpaint.com/ is most peoples go to.
======================================================
My end goal is 3d, so in the near future I would like to start working on zbrush to do some sculpting. Because both character making and animation are something I would like to become familiar with.

I know that when it comes to 3d, people at the highest level in the industry usually focus on one area, and one area alone; whether it's rigging, animation, concept art, or modeling.

But, is it possible for me to learn and be able to create the character myself, do the animation myself, and render/shoot the animated scene (cinematography) myself ? If I want to work as a freelance artist or work for a small indie company or with friends?

What sort of areas or expertise will I have to acquire to do a short animated reel on my own or one of those cool animated/vfx music video?

Is the workflow something like this:
sculpting/modeling -> rigging the model -> animating the character -> rendering/cinematography/camera/light work?
And that's without the complex enviornmental design, matte painting ?

*By the way, for zbrush, what would you recommend?

* and does anyone know a particular gumroad artist that's exceptionally good with fantasy creature/monster 3d modeling/sculpting or concept art?


thanks in advance

AtticusMars

There's basically no point getting a pro series Wacom tablet unless you need a large size tablet or additional buttons. The difference in pressure levels is completely meaningless and you'll rarely if ever use tilt.

If you're going to get a Wacom and only need a medium then buy something cheaper, like the Pen and Touch series. You can get a CTH680 for $160 or a CTL671 for $115 on Amazon. Probably even cheaper on ebay. If you're bothered by the surface of the tablet (CTH-680 has a pretty abrasive surface) then purchase a cover, they run about $10~ and will make your pen nibs last longer.

BagelHero

AtticusMars said:

There's basically no point getting a pro series Wacom tablet unless you need a large size tablet or additional buttons. The difference in pressure levels is completely meaningless and you'll rarely if ever use tilt.

You know what, that's you tho'. Tilt makes a pretty severe difference for me, and this goes triple when I'm inking or using specialty brushes. Even just going from my medium bamboo to my school's Intuos 4's before I got my own, I can tell you for sure that I felt the difference and preferred the Intuos. Still feel the difference when I go back to it now that I own an Intuos 4 (and I use them at the same size). Maybe it's merely a difference in build quality or something, but I doubt it. Your experience may be that pressure sensitivity is meaningless and no one uses tilt, but that sure isn't mine.

@OP, If you're going branded but don't go pro (which should come with a tester set of nibs iirc), I also recommend seeing if you've got a friend who has a set of the other nibs and to try them all out. I heavily prefer the spring nib, I've found. I press pretty hard and find that it prevents scratches and gives me the feedback I need before I start destroying the surface of the tablet, haha.

But that said, as a beginner, I would have gone with the Monoprice model that has the same specs as the Intuos Pro. Last I checked it was about $50. Most trouble people seem to have is with drivers, but once you get them working it's supposedly a peach. Plenty of reviews, seems like a good starting tablet if you're not sure about digital work yet.

pigart

BagelHero said:

I heavily prefer the spring nib, I've found. I press pretty hard and find that it prevents scratches and gives me the feedback I need before I start destroying the surface of the tablet, haha.

Wish I new that sooner. I always use the "default" black nibs and the center of my tablet is so glossy now that I can hold it up near my monitor and see all the letter clearly in the reflection

RN

I also use the default black nibs, but I've taped a sheet of plastic (one of those computer-printable sheets for projection) on the surface, and made a rustic glove out of a sock so that my hand slides comfortably (a home-made version of this). I prefer the smooth plastic rather than the original Bamboo surface texture.
It's not a pretty thing to see, but with that sheet and the glove I went from wearing down a black nib in a week to not wearing the nib at all, for the past months.

If you're getting a non-Pro Wacom tablet you should also download the unofficial pressure curve tool:
http://www.gamedev.net/topic/673114-a-tip-for-wacom-bamboo-users/

The Pro models have a curve editor in the configuration utility, but the Bamboo doesn't.
So that's a life saver. You don't have to press hard to get 100% opacity.

SpaceRogue

I'm gonna be the odd duck here and make myself unpopular, I have been using a huion 610pro for about a year now... I sold my Intuos 4 ,sold my Bamboo and I just gave away my Intuos (1) . Wacom lost this costumer after 14 or so years, I felt like I was being milked,the I1 was great and build to last, no complains there. but my I4 was a running bill. Wile after a year I have not even had to replace the Huions pen nib let alone the sheet witch is still in top condition. 

Currently using the Huion 610pro for school and stuff because its nice and portable, does just what my Wacom did, makes a bit of squicky noises but otherwise draws and sculps like my I4. The surface is still scratch free and remains to have that grainy feel my I4 woud lose after a month. Yes it feels a bit cheap, its lighter and less robust, jet I'v trown it around and its still fine. It preforms, that's what counts. I'v used it in CS6, Clip/ Manga studio, Quixel, Krita, Zbrush, Max, mudbox, Substance painter and 3Dcoat. When it comes to Huion I'd highly suggest going for the newest available as they are constantly improving, so if you go Huion ,go 610pro+ . 

At home I use the Ugee 1910B ,this isn't a traditional tablet so I have no idea how their usual tablets preform. As a Cintique rival it fully satisfies my needs, the pressure on this thing is awesome so I expect no less from their tablets. 

AtticusMars

BagelHero said:

AtticusMars said:

There's basically no point getting a pro series Wacom tablet unless you need a large size tablet or additional buttons. The difference in pressure levels is completely meaningless and you'll rarely if ever use tilt.

You know what, that's you tho'. Tilt makes a pretty severe difference for me, and this goes triple when I'm inking or using specialty brushes. Even just going from my medium bamboo to my school's Intuos 4's before I got my own, I can tell you for sure that I felt the difference and preferred the Intuos. Still feel the difference when I go back to it now that I own an Intuos 4 (and I use them at the same size). Maybe it's merely a difference in build quality or something, but I doubt it. Your experience may be that pressure sensitivity is meaningless and no one uses tilt, but that sure isn't mine.

It's almost certainly a difference in build quality or materials. For painting all you get with increased pressure levels is more precise rounding, it still has to somehow fit your input into whatever brush/canvas size you're working with and 8bit color to render it to the screen. 

Even if there is a difference and you can sense it, you'd need superhuman fine motor skills to actually take advantage of it. Get your tablet out and press down on it with your pen. How hard did you press? On a scale between 1 and 2048. Of course that's probably not a fair question, because odds are that you arrived at your conclusion by going by what feels better to paint with, not by estimating how precisely it measures how hard you were pressing.

And that gets to the heart of the issue, what people would typically define as a "good" drawing/painting experience has absolutely nothing to do with how precise the input is. What matters is how it feels (tablet pen/surface) and whether the output matches what they were trying to do, NOT that the tablet accurately reproduces what they actually did. It may well be that you have superhuman senses and fine motor control, but most of us have imprecise and unruly fingers and limbs, and will happily give up precision in order to achieve what we're trying to get. This is why LazyNezumi/Zbrush/Sai all offer tools that smooth out your strokes and opacity shifts to give you cleaner results than you'd get relying solely on muscle control and the pressure resolution of your tablet. It's also why people edit their pressure curve, even though it compresses/stretches the output steps so that they get more or less precise output depending on where they are on the curve and how it is shaped. Because what's important is not the precision but how it feels to work with it.

In regards to tilt, if you're actually using tilt more than "rarely" then you are in an incredibly small minority of artists. So I'll stand by my generalizations.

Edit: Final note, the Intuos 3 is widely regarded as the best tablet Wacom has ever made. It's over a decade old now and people still rave about it in every Wacom thread (including this one) and it "only" had 1024 pressure levels. Same as a modern bamboo/pen and touch tablet.