New to the whole digital art thing.

[system]

Hey all,

I used to sculpt semi-professionally (in the old fashioned non digital way) back in the late 80’s to mid 90’s. Due to some bad decisions as to who to sculpt for and some disappointment in my sculpting speed I decided to get a “real job” to pay the bills and pretty much stopped sculpting. Since then I’ve only dabbled here and there because up till lately I have found sculpting a little depressing because I really wanted to do something with it and just couldn’t find my way.

A year or so ago I stumbled across some vids on the good old youtube regarding zbrush and all those old passions started flaring up again. The things I see some of you guys doing just makes me weep. In some of the vids I’ve seen I see lots of things that could be huge time savers over traditional materials. The whole mirroring thing blew my mind the first time I saw it. In the old days I noticed that if you looked at a sculpt you were doing in the mirror…it tricked your eyes somehow and you could now see symmetry errors that you couldn’t see with your own eyes. I even got good at working on a sculpt while looking at it in a mirror.

Anyhoo, I have a few noob questions and I’d like to share some of my non-digital sculpts. I’ve heard that peeps that already have a background in traditional sculpting take to zbrush rather quickly…Is this true?

I’m thinking of getting a cintiq companion as my gateway device for trying to learn all this stuff. I’ve tried doing a little with a mouse and keyboard setup but that feels as natural as cats barking. What device would you guys recommend?

My ultimate goal would be to get some freelance design work someday. (a pipedream at this stage)
How saturated is the market? Would this be an attainable goal if my skillz got up to scratch?

Here’s some of my traditional sculpts. They are all wip’s as I bounce from one to the other when I can find the time.

I appreciate any info, Thanks.

Stylized Frank bust and a Wolvie. Wolvie’s got a quarter for size reference.

Attachments

[Spyndel]

Nice work there. Any kind of tablet is going to be better than a mouse. Cintiqs are certainly nice, but also rather pricey. You could start with a more entry level tablet to get a feel for what your actual needs are in terms of pressure sensitivity, working size preference, etc, and then make a more educated decision before spending that kind of money.

Since you already have real world sculpting experience, you’re basically going to be focusing on learning the technical side of Zbrush, and learning how best to apply what you already know to digital work. The digital realm has its own concerns which you will have to become familiar with, and much will depend upon what you want to do with your zbrush work (digital images, 3d printing, game animation, etc). Familiarizing yourself with Zbrush and how best to go about doing things will take some time and experience as well.

Make sure to review the zbrush documentation:

http://docs.pixologic.com/getting-started/

As well as visit the Zbrush classroom portal for the introductory videos there:

http://pixologic.com/zclassroom/homeroom/

Good luck with your new path!

[beta_channel]

First and foremost, nice traditional work there good sir/ma’am.

Secondly, yeah, if you already know how to sculpt and see forms then Zbrush is really just a new medium with a new tool set. Think clay to scupty. The learning curve is way more shallow than going from an additive to subtractive medium. If you already know how to sculpt you’re 95% there already. Most people spend years getting their sculpting up to par. If your sculpting is already up to par you can probably get up and running in less than 40hrs of actual in software time. Granted, I am assuming you’re already comfortable with another digital platform and understand some other technical stuff, which, from the sounds of it, you do not. So…let’s say 80-160 hrs. Which is nothing, damn near nothing!

Anyway, I’ve taught quite a few traditional sculptors how to use Zbrush, typically takes them less than 30 minutes to be up and jogging. Another few hours and they running. Give them a week and they’re at a full on sprint.

Tablet vs Cintiq - Personally I’d hold off on the cintiq as it has limited RAM (4GB I think…might be 8) and the new version of Zbrush will be 64bit so it will take up all of your RAM. A cintiq is also a rather large initial investment and the hardware will become dated rather quickly, 2 years tops IMO. I would buy a small entry level wacom tablet and see if that suits your fancy. Any one will do basically. I know some people that love the larger tablet area and others that hate it and use the smallest tablet they can find. I personally hated the cintiq’s as I have gotten so familiar with not having to move my arm to see my work…granted, I still use my cintiq for painting and sculpting…but it took a bit of time to get used to that again.

The market is saturated, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find work. Good art is good art. Getting a job doing freelance work is totally viable.

Anyway, welcome to the future, mirror, undo, repeated strokes, layers, save states…ahhh, why anyone works in a traditional medium anymore, I’ll never know. I haven’t had to stretch a canvas in years

If you get started and find yourself stuck shoot me a PM, I’m always happy to help.