Learning Zbrush
Ok, so I just got zbrush last night, and its amazing, I absolutely love it. However, I sorta suck :P. I am modeling a face to start my learning process. So far I got the basic shape pretty nice I think, but its not quite the style I would like, so I was wondering if any one could help. This is what I have so far.
And this is the style I want to try to make it more like, by felipefrango
Basically I would like to learn the technique of making those nice creases.
And this is the style I want to try to make it more like, by felipefrango
Basically I would like to learn the technique of making those nice creases.
Replies
Here's some more work on it. I think im addicted to this program hahaha.
Maybe I should model in some eyes, that could be one reason it looks odd.
Cleaned up some messy strokes and changed to a skin shader.
I suggest you look at study on proper anatomy and try not to add all that unnecessary detail until after you've got the main shape down.
@anatomy, I meant for him to be slightly cartoony, so I am still not sure if that is valid, but I am open to suggestions.
Keep practicing, I suggest getting proper face reference, front and side, for scultping a face, before beginning to put your own twist on it. It is boring if you love that comical style, but worth doing the boring stuff first.
Just keep at it, as Moosey said, you want to get the general structure down before adding detail - applies to everything!
I am always obsessive about the things I want to learn or I am learning so I search for many variations on Google. Browse through the official help files and anything else I can get my hands on (including people I know that know what I need to know).
@Snow, I just looks through that pdf real quick and it looks great, when I get time ill need to read it.
You could try working with Super Average Man, or another basemesh. There are a few hosted on Polycount's wiki:
http://wiki.polycount.com/Digital%20Sculpting#Base_Meshes
and
paper
I mean seriously. At this point its not about 'sucking at Zbrush', its about you forming a precise idea of the sculpture you want to achieve, and then realizing that idea in sculpt form. There is no such thing as doodling at random and BAM it magically looks good (to do that one needs an established visual library in mind, which does not seem to be the case here. Its okay to not have that, it comes with time.)
So yeah there's no trick to all this. Just draw your concept or pick references, then work on it. Fail. Do it again. Fail. Do it again. And then one day itll work, because along the path you pick up on past failures and start learning what works.
(I dont want to sound harsh, but whats with those threads lately? It's great to be starting out... but I think its important to really involve oneself into a discipline for at least a few weeks and find what works and what doesnt before posting stuff and asking for advice ... dunno ...)
Technically, you dont need anything else than what you have right now, in order to do kickass sculpts. You just need to work on your form knowledge, the structural anatomy of faces, all that. It has nothing to do with Zbrush, its just all about traditional art skills.
Good luck!
Especially when you're dealing with the super tricky, detailed ways that a face is put together, you're only going to get there with study and practice. That doesn't mean you need to stop on ZBrush now, but it's not about learning the program, it's about learning art. And doing art is building, refining your perception.
Once you see, you can replicate, you can have great control over what now seems extremely difficult. You look at your head and look at the head you want it to look like and you say "why can't I get my head to look like that?" You know enough to say it doesn't look the same, but your perception hasn't honed to the point where you can just go on for hours talking about all the little minute surface changes and form and scale and proportions that are different.
You'll get there, promise, if you work at it. Build your abilities, hone your perception. Work from reference, do master studies. Take figure drawing classes. Being an artist is about a fundamentally altered mode of perception--you see things in ways other people do not.
is very a very different from
I would guess that these classes were not correctly taught. (I have been to a few like those, where the teacher just lets everybody do whatever they want. Good for personal research, but so not good for foundation building). You dont need to 'know how to draw' in order to learn, say, the structure of the face. As a matter of fact, being a programmer should give you a great edge compared to say, artsy fartsy types never getting better because their moms tell them they re so good :P You are trained to deconstruct things into simple problems - thats exactly what successful art is about...
Pick up a sketchpad and practice simple volumes. Cubes, cylinders, cones, spheres in perspective.
Do yourself a favor and buy : Constructive Anatomy by Bridgman (structural drawings of the human body), and Anatomy for the Artist by Sarah Simblet (nicely lit pictures of lean, fit bodies). Compare how the same thing is portrayed in both. Then make your own sauce out of it (dont bother with smudgy shadow shading shit. Just lines, and strong black/white contrast for shadows, nothing inbetween)
As for portraying concept art from your head to paper. This also doesnt come out of nowhere. The brain is great as working with barely roughed out ideas, but paper doesnt allow that :P Everybody can imagine a kickass fire-breathing dragon playing metallica on top of a Volcano on Mars (I quite like the image myself) but only a few can portray it.
Why?
Because to do so, you need to learn how reptilians are structured, their anatomy, their typical poses and so on. Then you need to learn the visual vocabulary of electric guitars. How to stylize them. Researching on typical Metal fans outfits and gear would be a good idea too. Then you need to look at National geographic pictures of Volcanos, and learn what makes them cool.
So, for every original concept that seems 'already formed in the head', theres is reearch to do and things to get familiar with before putting it on paper. Great concept artists either have alot of these things in their head already (fantasy artists know dragons and reptilians well so they can skip that part), or, they are very good at finding the necessary info that they lack.
On the other side of the spectrum, you have people who always end up drawing the same thing over and over again because thats 'what they are good at'. Those usually consider that they 'know how to draw', but never progress and get surpassed by more dynamic artists very quickly.
Good luck! Its fun to do.
As for breaking art down into smaller problems, I never have really taken this approach which is probably my biggest problem, I am one of those kids that tries to draw the outline first, yeah horrid right? I think I'ts time to grab a new pad of paper and start over with the basics, Thanks a lot man.