I understand that the video that was put to promote the latest Zbrush is there for a reason… well. to promote the latest zbrush; so obvisouly all things said will be ‘good things to say’. There were some things that I heard some of the artists say completely contradictory and some very inspiring.
One is that common comment about ‘now the artists don’t need to push verts around or worry about technical stuff!’. This is such bull… every computer artist here knows that we still have to worry about a lot of techincal stuff and even Zbrush itself is a complicated techincal program. Just sculpting doesn’t mean u got it all figured out. You still have to go through pages and pages of tutorials for u to understand what zbrush is all about. It’s not like we don’t have to worry about good topolgy, the way edges face and other technical stuff like that we usually do in our low poly meshes coming from Max or Maya.
If you are in the game industry it’s even worse. You still have to worry about a lot of technical crap! Zbrush is not the liberation of all technicalities! It annoyed me to hear that they advertise zbrush as being the program that will forever put technicalities behind. Creating normal maps, making sure they look right within ur low poly mesh in a 3d package such as maya or max, unwrapping your model to place the texture, etc, etc, etc… technicalities are STILL part of our artistic pipeline. Granted, in a perfect world, there’d be people in game companies that ONLY sculpt. YAY for them. But in most companies, there is no such position.
Now… the last comment, the one that closes the video. APPLAUDS!!! MAN HOW I WAITED FOR SOMEONE ‘with a voice’ SAID THAT!!! What we do in digital art is not about how ‘good’ your “WORK” is… it’s about how ‘good’ your ART is! There is a big difference… I keep seing this very well done characters that look like Gears Of War ripoffs. 80% Work, 20% art. Things are changing and I’m glad… Good ideas and good art is definetely something you need talent for… and also life experiences and the right mentality. If you are sitting in front of your computer everday, and have never gone outside the United States (or ur own ‘first world’ country for that matter); unless you read a lot and are very open minded I guarantee you that your life experiences are really going to hurt your art. Go out there, experience nature, experience other countries, other societies, expand your mind, shun technology every once in a while… as artists you need to nurture the creative self which cannot grow sitting in front of a machine 24/7. Good zbrush work doens’t need to look like Gears of War for it to look good (not to slander Gears of War itself, just the legion of ripoffs)… good zbrush work strikes you as ART! as something that clicks in your mind as being enlightening and awe inspiring… not something vacuous and empty that ‘just looks cool’…
Cheers to all… keep on 3d-ing in the free world!
