ZBrushCentral

Young artist seeks for Advice from his heros..(you guys)

Community
#1

Hello there :cool: ~

Its an honor to finally be apart of an Art forum that i admire so much~
I am new to Zbrush, and i am seeking for any advice that you have for me. I understand that there’s tons of tutorials and FAQs on Zclass and etc, but i’m more so looking for advice based on your individual experience; things that you did throughout your life to help better yourself as an artist/3d artist.

But :wink: before you do so, please allow me to give a mini background of myself. …and hopefully it’ll help you to see where I’m at , and maybe you’ll know what things i need to pay attention to since i’m past the basics (software wise).

So …For the past 7 months, I’ve been coming to Zcenteral with no account, just to read threads, artist interviews (my favorites) and contests. Thanks to this community and the books that i’ve been working through, my vocabulary of the terms that are used in the CG soiecty has increased haha…Dorky, i know- but lets face it, when i first came to Zcenteral & picked up that thick manual book of maya for the first time…i saw pure coding and nothing else :lol:

However, I’ve created an account last week, and i recentaly got my Zbrush license (4 days ago…yay!)

I’m an Abstract artist, and I mostly enjoy fantasy art- the landscapes, characters, and color scheme

I’m still in Highschool (senior, 17 yrs old), & in the fall of 09 i’m heading to SVA (School of Visual Arts), as a freshmen to major in computer animation :smiley:

So here are the things that I’ve been doing for the past 9 months to help better myself overall as an artist/3d modeler:

--Studying/drawing the human anatomy & skeleton figure as much as i can (usually 1-2 hrs a day)- sucks that i don't have all the time in the world (yet) since i have to deal with physics, math, history and all that fun testing stuff in highschool... but when i do study the human anatomy, I work out of books by Hogarth and John Raynes -- I've done some hands-on scuplting of anatomy-

I only was able to do 2 scupltings of the torso

--Learning Maya & using Maya 8.5 PLE

Resources: online lessons on lynda.com & books such as “The Game artist guide to Maya” & “Game Art for Teens”, and most recently, Ive been just learning/messing around in Zbrush

So thats basically what I’ve been doing and will continue to do so, and i cant wait to get some hardcore practicing at SVA in the fall…

What you see below is a painting that i did for school… I also used color pencils and pastels as well…the title is “Monster Tree” bc its a monster in the shape of a tree, and he uses his fruits to lure in his prey. This is an example of my abstract “alien-like” creatures.

The 2nd and 3rd photo you see are different views of my very first model that i played around with in Zbrush (after going through the essentials in Zclass)… … I used the simple brushes that were already given to me and Z-sheperes to create the base mesh…

reason why i displayed a painting and my sculpting together is so that when you see the model, you can get the sense of my style~

*** Please feel free to critique it*** - i encourage you too~
i know that I’m very new to zbrush, and that my work isn’t all that great but its never too early to get critiqued on.

I have an ever-lasting journey ahead of me as an artist, and im very excitied to take the first step right here, right now on Zcentral-

Thankyou everyone and Enjoy!! :cool:

Painting: Monster Tree

#2

It sounds like you’re on the right path on several fronts. Keep up studying life drawing if you can, even though time consuming. Keep a sketchbook of course and make sure to add to it every day. If you’re working as a sculptor (my background) you need to spend a least a couple hours in the shop every day if its your passion.

The most important thing I can say on the general advice category is practice, practice, practice. Whatever is your passion. It takes thousands of hours of practice to draw or sculpt effortlessly. (At least it did for me.) I haven’t seen any other great shortcuts. I saw you mentioned Hogarth. He is a good one to study. If you’re going to move into animation, you want to get your hands on The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. Many of the principles of 2D animation will apply to your 3D work.

As far as abstract design goes, you have your heart in the right place. You considering the why’s and how’s (like what and how it eats) of the creature as well as its illustrative qualities. This will help you in the long haul. (I personally don’t do much abstract work because I find it doesn’t communicate as well in the games industry.) You might consider hybrid-izing your style with both the real and surreal to get a better reception (just my opinion.)

Your Zbrush work is pretty good for just four days at it. My suggestion would be to look at some of John Cherveka’s work (Skullbeast on this forum.) He has a style that you might find attractive and can learn from. His deviantArt account is: http://skullbeast.deviantart.com/. As far as your specific subject, “Monster Tree”, and I was your AD, I’d would consider taking parts of it to seem a little less random and more organized (even if it’s an alien organization.) You may want to lead your audience from the graspable realality away to the horror of the unreal. (Again, this is a matter of opinion, but since you asked . . .) I favored Lovecraftian horror for that reason, he grounded his intial work in the real, material, and scientific before he unleashed the “weird” horror on you.

Keep up the interesiting work!
-K

#3

Thanks Kerwin for the advice and links~
I really appreciate it

#4

Also, if your considering a career in animation, I recommend you add Glen Villpu to your list teachers to consider. His course of anatomy and drawing study really zeros on the “fluidity” that many ADs look for. http://www.vilppustudio.com/

-K