Help! I’ve been a Lightwave user for years and since it seems like everybody and his brother, aunt, uncle, etc., is using Zbrush these days I decided to give it a try. However, after a couple of weeks all I’ve been able to accomplish is a misshapen blob. I’ve watched some tutorials but they haven’t helped much. Frankly I hate video tutorials. Does anyone know where I can find some written tutorials or a book? I purchased Zbrush Core since I couldn’t afford full Zbrush. I can’t find any books specific to core and I suspect a book on full zbrush would just confuse me with things that aren’t available in core. Also, I’m wondering if artistic talent is necessary for a program like Zbrush. Obviously it helps, but is it absolutely necessary, because I have none at all.
Thanks
Hi Newbie,
Firstly your good, relax. Zbrush is a totally differnt way of scuplting a form than poly modelling in Lightwave. Neither are better, but they just have different methodologies.
People new to Lightwave could be just as confused asking “is artistic talent necessary”.
ZBrush is just a different method to build a shape/form. I can’t say I know of a book dedicated to ZBrush Core, but for a lot of the main creating a single shape/form, ZBrush Core can do a heck of a lot of the main things that ZBrush (Pro?) can do too. General books on sculpting clay (or maybe even stone) will give you ideas about creating the form itelf.
So with ZBrush Core it’s maybe more about starting to think about the shape you want to end up with. You would maybe use the “Move” brush to get the starting overall shape, and then start to refine it using the other brushes, like Dam Standard (for hard carved lines), Clay Buildup for quickly adding/removing mass from areas, Inflate to quickly add volume to an area, Snakehook to add, err, protrusions/appendages quickly, Trim Dynamic to start to carve flat surfaces, and HPollish to emphasise flat or curved areas (not exactly how it works, but a reasonable starting idea). Scupltis Pro is a “mode” that can help you forget about having too much or too little geometry in an area to create a usable shape, by adding or reducing geometry on the fly. This means yo can carve intrecate detail into a flat plain, without having to subdivide it to heck and back, but it doesn’t make the most neat. production friendly topology. (the full ZBrush gives you more tools to make this topology into a more production ready layout)
ZBrush Core possibly gives more freedom to experiment with form than Lightwave, but it is probably not quite as precice with how every polygone and point is as in Lightwave.
Thanks for the reply. I’ll keep plugging away at it.