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Sculpting/Modeling General & Software Question

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#1

Hi guys,

What is the best software for Sculpting/Modeling?

I’ve always been pretty good at traditional drawing - though i’ve never really been trained nor am I a professional artist and have not really studied human anatomy (though it’s hard for me to draw something out of nothing, however, i’m pretty good if i have a reference to look at)… does sculpting/modeling require you of being a top notch traditional artist? or can one get better by simply practicing to sculpt/model with a software? my goal is character sculpting/modeling (but not for professional purposes; more for personal enjoyment and as a hobby)

I’m currently getting into Poser since it’s a nice gateway and a quick way of being able to come up with something decent… while learning modeling/sculpting character from a higher end software.

What are some of the better software for sculpting/modeling? Something that is high end, but also easy to use.

I know the gnomon school uses zbrush and i have seen glimpses of the software through google. Its clay platform seems like a more natural way of modeling/sculpting… but i’ve also heard a lot about mudbox… for character modeling/sculpting, what software would you guys recommend? and i know these days, a lot of your work can be imported/exported to other software to do other jobs, so i’m asking purely from the modeling and sculpting aspect.

Is it true that it’s better to model/sculpt the character in zbrush, and do the texture in mudbox? or how about software such as maya and 3dstudiomax?

And which software is better for animation? which has a better workflow and easier mechanics?

sorry if this is too much questions all at once and thanks in advance! :slight_smile:

#2

I’m not going to answer all your questions but there are a few things I can say for sure.

Drawing skills always always always help.

You will need a pen tablet. Wacom are the most widely used but there are others that are just as functional.

Don’t worry about what product you will ultimately use. They all have their strengths and weaknesses and it is very hard to predict which will best match your work in the end. (Most people here would consider Poser a joke as far as sculpting is concerned.)

So start with something free. Top of the list from Pixologic is Sculptris: http://pixologic.com/sculptris/ It will allow you to just sculpt without worrying about a lot of technicalities that will eventually crop up if you want to move to animation or game design. Most models out of Sculptris will move into a 3d printing environment fairly easily.

This forum thread is a good one for hints, tricks and a sense of what you can do with Sculptris: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?143454-My-beta-testing-doodles&highlight=michalis Look on Vimeo for a couple of thorough Sculptris tutorials.

There is also Blender, which is open source and has sculpting tools. Blender is a very powerful animation program with a steep learning curve and an excellent rendering engine. www.blender.org

If you have an iPad check out 123d Sculpt. http://www.123dapp.com/sculpt