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First model- Dragon's Head

ZBrush Artworks
#1

Hi, everyone! I’ve been lurking the forums for several days now, but I’ve held off on making a post until I had a model of my own to show. Something to christen my first post. :smiley:

I’ve had Truespace 5.2 for over a year now and I’ve never been able to accomplish anything of any merit. It’s nice enough for animation and rendering, but it has few tutorials that present modeling techniques in any doable manner. Thankfully, I’ve finally found Zbrush! Man oh man is this program great! And this community is so active and helpful! Very nice. :smiley:

I’ve still only got the Zbrush 2 demo right now, but the full version is on its way across the country in a mail truck, just waiting to be united with my computer and release me of the demo’s constraints. :sunglasses: :+1:

I can’t believe how intuitive Zbrush was while making this model. It probably helps that I’ve been obsessively downloading video tutorials and watching them lately. :wink:

I can’t wait to really get into this program and make some great things!
I’ll be starting in Southern Adventist University’s Character Animation program this fall. I know there are some students there that use Zbrush for their projects, so speak up if you’re one of them!

And without further adieu- the dragon head!

Pity I can only remember it in pictures, since I couldn’t export it with the demo version. Just as well!
You’ll notice some creases on the ear tip and a pretty ugly crease where the ear joins the head. I’m guessing the latter is due to my haphazard zsphere placements in the beginning, making for wonky geometry from the start of things.
Still quite a bit more detail I would’ve liked to add to the model, but that would’ve just made me that much more sad to close the program and lose it. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for taking the time to look at what I’ve made!
If you know any cool video (or pdf) tutorials besides the ones from Kurv and the ones on the Pixologic site, just show the way! ^^

#2

HI Tidalias,

Read the Practical Guide, there are tons of great tutorials in helping you to build a lizard dragon, you can take their guide and twitch the wa you like it.
Also go to google and type dragon, search for dragon heads images as for your reference. It helps heaps. :wink:

#3

I think a big tip (something I didn’t get until it was pointed out to me) was canvas size. under document, enlarge your canvas, larger then default, hit AAhalf button (upper right corner) and then draw your tools, and or render, it will give you a such a smooth look, even with low poly count. P.S mess around with those buttons in the upper right, for you can zoom in and out if need be, it makes such a big difference. Also, don’t be afraid to just hit buttons, you won’t break the program, it will reset when you restart it, unless you save your user prefrence under “prefrences”. Good Luck, and so far so good!

#4

Thanks for the tips, guys.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t do any of the canvas size adjustments with the demo version, and since I knew I’d have to lose the whole thing in the end, I didn’t bother with references and just worked out of my head for fun. But you can be sure I’ll take your tips into account as soon as the full version arrives and give it my all! :smiley:
I noticed a small dragon tut thread in the similar threads link at the bottom of this thread. Certainly something I’ll have to check out, as well as search the forums for more of.
Thanks for the input, much appreciated!

#5

Yes Tidalias, I actually DIDN´T notice the expiration date on that thread…:roll_eyes:
-and you´re right about the artist probably not being around anymore:laughing:
This IS really a great site, with lots of helpful and inspiring people, that´s great for us newbies.
-and ZBrush is an incredible tool, I´m just learning myself, and only have the trialversion.
It´s frustrating not to be able to save,…and import too´, but real fun anyway
Great start, keep it up…:+1:

#6

Hehehe… s’aright, I’ve done it plenty of times myself. :smiley:
You’re right, this forum is one of the most helpful forums I’ve ever been a part of. So many others are just teeming with jerks. Maybe Zbrush has some inheirent purifying property, eh? ;D
I’ve been eagerly checking the mailbox every day since I got the email that my order had been shipped. I can’t bring myself to model anything else until I’ll be able to save it.
Here’s to hoping you can get ahold of the full version eventually, too! Noobies unite! :D:+1: