hi everyone ,
Just a question to any and all those professional ZB artists out there:
when you were first learning ZB how many days and / or hours per week would you practice , and how long would it take for a beginer to become an expert and be able to create some of this fantastic art thats on display here.?
Any insights or reverlations into your finely tuned work flow would be most appreciated !!
Many Thanks…!!!
I cant blame you for asking this question. I know many of the works posted here can be intimidating especially for someone just starting out. My advise is that you keep in mind that this is a process and an art form. Hopefully, you will be bringing some prior art making experience from the outset. General knowledge of anatomy and form is a huge plus. But even this really depends on the type of work you will be attempting to produce. In terms of the technical side, just take it a day at a time and try to increase your knowledge base anyway you can. Enjoy the process of learning new skills instead of looking at it as producing end results. Eventually, you will string together enough skills to produce what you want. Like anything, the more you put in the more you get out. I know it’s cliché but in this case it cant be more true. I know this is very general, but I hope it helps.
From zero it takes a year or two to be able to create top row art. It’s not only Zbrush, it’s Photoshop, external render engines, and a few other technical areas, plus composition and the other artsy fartsy stuff to make things look desirable and create googly eyes and the ohhh and ahhh and the five stars and that jazz. Did I mention talent… Without talent there are still more technical jobs, but then it’s down to math and programming, animating, rigging and things along that line and no Zbrush at all. And if that technical CG is not interesting, then there are other things in life… But yes… as all things… you can master it in one to three years.
Best of luck
Lemo
many thanks for your insight. I was wondering how long it normally takes from concept to finished art work. And also are ZB artists highly sought after? and what would it normally take to work full-time as a ZB artist? would you know what the best place in the world to do this kind of work? I know , I know too many question!!
thanks
Is this a Void-Comp test? Has it started yet? A tortoise, what’s that? …
ha ha
let me tell you about my mother…
It took me 3+ years to learn Maya…, and I am STILL learning…, I have played with ZBrush at school…, I am in the same boat…, I know Illustrator, Photoshop and some After Effects…, (My cousin sent me the Adobe Masters Collection for Christmas) I am a lone animator trying to do it ALL so don’t give up we artists have a streak of madness within us…, :lol:
The CGI realms very big,you have.
C4D,Maya,Max,XSI are all a like.
Autodesk Maya and Max also makes mud .mud is like zBrush.
Then there are app’s like Vue,mass.
and countless other plugs.
For app’s like C4D,Maya zBrush is a plugin.
There are web sites like cgtalk.
where every ones wants a job at ILM.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/index.php?
thay have portfolio’s like this one
http://omen2501.cgsociety.org/gallery/
You have a lot of studios, a lot.
1000’s of CGI Artist sends them there stuff.
There are CGI Schools also.
For $$$ you can sell stuff at sites like.
http://www.turbosquid.com/
http://www.renderosity.com/
Then there are games.
When I got in to CGI 10+ years a go I did not grasp just how big the CGI Realms where.
My fist 3D app was truespace I learned the app well enuff to created a character with in 3 months
working 12 hours a day.
I still work 12 to 16 hours a day.
No I have no life.
But I have a lot of kool CGI toys 
[
](javascript:zb_insimg(‘147490’,‘untitled-164.jpg’,1,0))
well thanks for all your input. i have enclosed my very first attempt using a combination of ZB and Vue , the spaceships are ZB and the rest is vue, let me know what you think, cheers
Nice sky!
Lemo
I’ve found that learning poly modeling outside of ZBrush helped me greatly. I do this as a hobbyist in my spare time but I have been in traditional art, oils, acrylics, watercolor, pencils and pens since I was a child. I find ZBrush the most exciting of all.
Don’t forget that in addition to what you see posted here, ZBrush is in my opinion the finest painting program going. Often that is overlooked.
Vue is one of the programs that led me to ZBrush. Now I’m overwhelmed with software but Vue and ZBrush come into play the most often. I use Silo for base modeling and it helped me greatly with the basics of modeling and proper UV’s.
With Vue, ZBrush and Silo the sky is the limit. I have Lightwave but only use it for rendering on occasion. It is still not as user friendly as I’d like but ZBrush was easy to pick up and get results.
its nice to hear from so many different perspectives…!!
i am using the Maya-zbrush- vue method at the moment with textures painted using painter 11.
there is so much too learn but i have to try to balance all of those hours in front of the computer with some excercise…!! as my legs fall asleep!
keep them coming…
Id say if your serious about 3d you should ditch vue.
Its just so fake.
Its the best looking on the image you posted but i know that it only
takes a few minutes to set this up.
You should rather dig into boxmoddeling then vue.
Its easier to build spaceships that way.
“it takes a few minutes to set up”
are you kidding? that image took most of the day “to set up”
personally vue is a great tool for learning how light and colour react in certain situations and about compostion within the image. I know it makes images have that “CGI” look , but as part of your learning experiance it certainly cant hurt to know.
heres another image i made again using MAYA then ZB then rendered in VUE and again it took most of the day.
I didnt intend to insult your work its just that vue does most things by itself.
The ecosystems landscapes skies water almost everything works by its own.
Of course you can tweak as much as u like but u dont have to.
When u look at your first image youll maybe see that the spaceships and
the house with the two characters dont fit into the realistic looking background.
You say you want to learn zbrush and i think it would be of more
use if you digged into how mental ray works rather than using vues lightning system.
disco is right, if you really want to be pro at cg, box modeling is something you need to master like yestrday, it dosnt mean you need to drop learing vue, but you schould focus more on modeling ;] Starting with zbrush, and not the standard modeling, was one of the biggest mistakes that i did when i was starting, the second one was that i didnt use enoght references, and i was to lazy to memorize human anatomy.
Have fun with ZBrush but they are right about not overlooking the basics.
Vue will however do renders as good as any in the right hands. Until recent versions that was not true. Many have not touched it since older versions and do not know. They should go to the galleries. I see nothing better in other galleries personally. It is the wrong choice for interior renders however.
i think this discussion has shifted away from the orginal question, and it appears there are purists here who think that using Vue is “cheating” which i accept and i am learning to use an external rendered,however with the new version of vue its like painting with trees which is rather therapeutic after a long session with Maya.
tyrellcorp .the CGI realms are as large as the world with all the politics, gods ,kings & qweens ect ect in CGI just like the world.
There are a trillions this vs that app threads.
Pros are hardcore.
Hobyist are more laid back.
Post a Poser render at CGTalk you will be crusified.
Even thou Vicky is one of the best meshes ever made and i have yet to see any of the crusifiers = her.
Over time your learn all the politics there just as important as knowing the app’s.
Do you know what ILM stand for ?
ILM is the GOD Industrial Light and Magic
in a one man show that artist does it all
in a big pipe line there will be one artist models another artisit maps another artist textures ect ect
to master Maya zBrush Vue ect ect will take more then most can do
most might master 2 or 3 parts of Maya
sence you want to turn pro i am going to be tuff here about your render
i apoligize
i would make every thing blend better
the way it looks now it looks like a .jpg back ground and clips art of the ships n stuff added.
even thou it wasnt it does not blend well.
looks like the geen building bobing in the water but no waves
ships that big would make waves in the water
is those bigs ships going to land on that small landing pad
Gravity is Negative 9.8 meters per seconds squared
a space ship that big would have bigger rockets
if your going pro and model space ships would not hurt to look over real world “Aerospace engineering” rocket science.
Anyways i have rambled on enuff
good luck
