Why can't I find courses for Zbrush?

TropicalTommy

I have found tons online but can't find anything in or around my local area, which is Bristol for any of you who know of it.

I have only found a 4 day course for Maya and Zbrush but I am guessing that is for people who are not starting from the top as 4 days seems insanely small amount of time, plus it is like 950£ for those 4 days.

I am no doubt using the wrong keywords in google searches, but I keep finding CAD courses and not anything to do with zbrush or game related 3d modelling.

I wanted to just follow videos and such to learn but I sadly do struggle with learning in general and understanding stuff which sucks as the creative and eye for detailed side of things comes easy to me but the understanding Zbrush itself isn't so easy, I have had people link some text stuff and video stuff but I read it, I copy and write it out in hopes to understand it but I do struggle a lot with certain things, not a lot but a few of the basic and little things stump me.

I am currently watching https://gumroad.com/pavlovich 's free 46 videos which are great, but without being to stop the guy and say but why is this happening or what am I missing when I do this, I am struggling to pretty much copy, I am watching the videos and just try to copy exactly what the guy does stopping, alt tabbing then doing as he just did but then when I do stuff myself without literally copying, I somehow mess up.

Sorry for the story part of this thread, not really needed but just wanted to throw out there that I am trying and looking for stuff but just failing, really really desperate to actually start modelling, I spent hours and hours making this https://i.imgur.com/RCskfYD.png and only used a few brushes, spent a good deal of time trying to make ears then watch a few videos where some guy just brings up a brush or something that has ears, hands, feet, noses, eyes etc, so that was a shame.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any suggestions or help, the gumroad guy I linked is the best I have found so far for starting from literal scratch, but if anyone has anything comparable, please do link it.

Brian "Panda" Choi

I'll throw a bone out.  I'll say for me, if you personally have any questions about any tiny to big thing about Zbrush, feel free to message me and I'll help.

That being said, I would specifically recommend the following websites and their videos:

3Dmotive.com.  Daniel Ott founded (he's a PC veteran), and they're fairly straightforward, hand holding, and easy to follow.  Quality tutorials foran outrageously good price.

eat3D.com is also excellent.  I started out with those vids on Character  Production in Zbrush.  They might be slightly old, but to @metalliandy 's credit, they still hold up.

I'd say start with those before you toss money to someone like Digital Tutors. 

TropicalTommy

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

I'll throw a bone out.  I'll say for me, if you personally have any questions about any tiny to big thing about Zbrush, feel free to message me and I'll help.

That being said, I would specifically recommend the following websites and their videos:

3Dmotive.com.  Daniel Ott founded (he's a PC veteran), and they're fairly straightforward, hand holding, and easy to follow.  Quality tutorials foran outrageously good price.

eat3D.com is also excellent.  I started out with those vids on Character  Production in Zbrush.  They might be slightly old, but to @metalliandy 's credit, they still hold up.

I'd say start with those before you toss money to someone like Digital Tutors. 

Thank you very much, and thank you again for replying with a very helpful message in my other thread.

pior

The things you need now are : 

- Ability to load a sphere, convert it to polymesh, subdivide it (you know that already)
- Ability to dynamesh a subtool (dynamesh slider, and ctrl drag)
- Understanding masking (ctrl while brushing)
- A few basic brushes : Standard, Move, Claytubes, Smooth, TrimDynamic
- And maybe : duplicating subtools, and merging them down.

That's it. All the rest you'll learn later. With just the above you can do full sculpts already.

And for what it's worth, this old video is still excellent and covers all the basics one needs : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DtVncxG8yw
Not everything is explained/spelled out, but the scope is limited to the essential tools, which can then be researched individually.

Domslice

The discussion of training/education comes up every now and then between my colleagues and I. One thing that a supe. seems to think he'd have done differently (20/20 hindsight, of course) is that he'd have taken the money he spent on tuition, built a couple great rigs, and just hired out a local artist to come and tutor him at home. 

Now I don't know of your budget, time restrictions, commitment to learning, but full time school was invaluable imo. While the above suggestion that my supervisor cooked up sounds good, it is reliant on who you can call upon near you. I don't know Bristol at all so I'm stumped for suggestions on that front. Maybe a fellow Polycounter can be hired out? 

NikhilR

If you're looking for courses.
You could definitely find something here, https://www.uartsy.com/
And here, https://www.gameartinstitute.com/store
Good thing is its a bootcamp with an instructor/mentor, so you're ass is on the line and you can't go slack. Plus you get a portfolio piece at the end and some good contacts.

However understand that these courses aren't a guarantee to becoming a great artist, that's on you and if you don't want to take them everything you need is online for free too, youtube for starters, just have to ask the right questions.

Also most artists take time to get good at zbrush. Once you've learned the basics and got the hang of the interface, practice like hell. I recommend different organic/hard surface shapes. And since you're starting out references are a must! (of course feel free to go abstract in your down time and make weird stuff, who knows even that can become portfolio worthy at some point)
You may get a character to look right, but you also have to develop the speed and skill to do this consistently.

sacboi

...also check out ZbrushCentral for course and/or other detailed instructional material, as well.

zetheros

I used to use Digital Tutors (now called Pluralsight). The digital tutors videos are probably outdated, but still hold relevant information. Also, when I started up Zbrush I just went and looked through all the options, and pressed all the buttons.

TropicalTommy

pior said:

The things you need now are : 

- Ability to load a sphere, convert it to polymesh, subdivide it (you know that already)
- Ability to dynamesh a subtool (dynamesh slider, and ctrl drag)
- Understanding masking (ctrl while brushing)
- A few basic brushes : Standard, Move, Claytubes, Smooth, TrimDynamic
- And maybe : duplicating subtools, and merging them down.

That's it. All the rest you'll learn later. With just the above you can do full sculpts already.

And for what it's worth, this old video is still excellent and covers all the basics one needs : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DtVncxG8yw
Not everything is explained/spelled out, but the scope is limited to the essential tools, which can then be researched individually.

I am struggling to understand what is going on in the video, I got zsphere going and made like a basic cow sort of shame but can't work out how to keep the legs thin, I see in the video the guy is doing something to make the light/feeler thing on the fish stay a certain length but unsure how he did that and how you bring this into the sculpting part of the program and use normal brushes on it?

Brian "Panda" Choi

@TropicalTommy
 tends to help better to SHOW your problem instead of writing about it.

TropicalTommy

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

@TropicalTommy
 tends to help better to SHOW your problem instead of writing about it.

Funny thing, I worked out how to make them a thin and long length by chance when trying to make this basic shape but still have the issue that I don't know how to put this into this whole thing into the actual sculpting part of the program, like if I wanted to smooth this then add a face, how would you do that?
 
 A is for the part I couldn't work out, how to make something long but also thin, which I now think I understand, you just need to make more of the rings actual Zspheres?

 B is something I don't understand, I don't know what I did, I clicked something or dd something that make this appear really small or far away then what ever is goign on with B happened.

C is a part that I can't make thin and long but I am guessing it is because I make too many rings into Zspheres?

Also is this how people make wires and the like in this program?

Brian "Panda" Choi

Can you draw out what you're trying to specifically make A look like?  Do you mean that you want the midsection of that line to taper in concavely on the length of the leg?

Also, have you tried pressing "A" to see the preview of the Adaptive Mesh?

TropicalTommy

No real shape, just trying to show the issues I was having in a simple way, didn't know about pressing A to do that, thanks for that.