2D Art's Role in Learning 3D Sculpting

TheLegendaryKing · May 2015

Hello everyone. I was just curious as to how important 2D art is when learning 3D modeling, specifically sculpting in Zbrush.

Is it possible to become extremely good at Zbrush without any 2D skill? It seems that pursuing both paths requires an incredible amount of time, whereas pursuing just one, in this case sculpting, is obviously much better and doable when it comes to a rigorous learning learning regimen.

If you were to watch tutorials and practice strictly in Zbrush without any drawing skill, is there some sort of plateau that you will hit? Or can you follow the same progression as one that has a 2D background (it is understandable that that person may learn faster)?

elpistolero · May 2015

2d skills are extremely important if you are serious about becoming a 3d character artist.

Kevin Albers · May 2015

There are plenty of core skills and ideas that don't relate only to 3D or 2D. Design, composition, color etc aren't really tied to a certain number of dimensions.

However, you certainly don't have to become super skilled at creating realistic drawings of objects in order to sculpt them in zbrush.

AtticusMars · May 2015

Is it possible to become extremely good at Zbrush without any 2D skill?

Yes

It seems that pursuing both paths requires an incredible amount of time, whereas pursuing just one, in this case sculpting, is obviously much better and doable when it comes to a rigorous learning learning regimen

Better to think of it as getting good at art, there's a lot of skillset overlap so doing one will make you better at both.

If you were to watch tutorials and practice strictly in Zbrush without any drawing skill, is there some sort of plateau that you will hit?

Everybody eventually plateaus whether they painted or not. And when you do, in my experience the best thing to do is yet something new, and that can include painting.

Popol · May 2015

Sculpting and drawing are somehow the same thing. When sculpting you practice drawing skills and vice versa.

You can become a decent sculptor even if you don't practice drawing but I strongly believe you will never become an incredible sculptor if you can't draw well.

Torch · May 2015

Atticus and Popol pretty much hit the nail right on the head. This has been debated in a previous thread where someone asked if they could be a Character Artist if they weren't familiar with or didn't practice 2D art.

The general consensus seems to be that you absolutely can be awesome at 3D, but traditional art knowledge (study of form, color, light, composition, etc.) will push your work to a higher level.

EDIT: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=136224

SuperFranky · May 2015

From my experience, they are closely intertwined. Most of the drawing knowledge and skills can be applied to sculpting, from understanding shapes to how to paint strokes you want. It doesn't mean that you have to actually learn to draw, but what it does mean is that you should read every drawing book you can find and absorb knowledge. Like Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, while that book is full of dubious science, it's still a very good book that will help you understand more about shapes, angles etc. And if you want to learn sculpting characters, watch drawing videos on Youtube and apply the things you learn to your sculpting.

pangarang · May 2015

Without any 2D practice, I'd wager you'd only learn the functionality of zbrush's tools. But your understanding of form, proportion, light, shadow will be under developed. There is no tool in zbrush that can give you that kind of understanding.

JordanN · May 2015

I think drawing is very good for helping your brain see shapes that your eyes would usually ignore when modeling.

Even before I model anything, I usually try and draw my object first, so I can look for major contours that make up the silhouette. It also serves as an exercise for dealing with proportions.

FourtyNights · May 2015

I find sculpting A LOT easier than drawing. I used to draw when I was a kid, but those skills withered away once I grew up, because of the lack of drawing.

In 2006 I started a totally different form of art; music. I've been playing guitar for almost 9 years now. Not much drawing since that.

I started 3D sculpting/modeling/texturing in the end of 2012, and nowadays I've got a good hang of the basic modeling pipeline for games. Ever since I started doing this, I haven't really tried to improve my 2D skills.

Especially when texturing, I'm strongly relying on the information on baked textures, photographs and procedural techniques.

2D Art's Role in Learning 3D Sculpting

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