New Artist

[system]

Hello, all.

I am going to download the demo for Zbrush. I have aspirations of one day owning a miniatures company, and I would like to learn how to design miniatures using a PC, rather than clay sculpting. With that said, I have never, ever, done any kind of 3-D graphics design, but I am really interested in trying it out. How hard could it be, right? :rolleyes:

Well, I know it is a skill and I was wondering if it would be beneficial for me to take a class or find a tutor prior to actually trying my hand in this field.

Is there anyone who just picked up a computer program and started tinkering with it and made significant progress? I am sure there is.

I would love to hear your suggestions and comments.

Cheers!
BH

[Disco_Stu]

Many of the real good guys just teach theyrselfes.
Do all the tutorials first then maybe join a mod team or such and without
noticing you have plenty of skills classes will help to pick it up quicker
but if your not in a hassle you can teach it to yourself… at least
to a degree

[Zenneth]

Study basic arts, and the rest should come naturally.

As for the process of miniaturization itself,
look for rapid prototyping and/or 3d print.

[goast666]

Exactly what the others said.

Zbrush is a tool, a means to an end. If you can sculpt in real life, you can sculpt in Zbrush. Now the reverse isn’t exactly true though…not far off, but not exactly true. Working without undo’s, layers, symmetry, etc doesn’t happen in real clay, and more so with any kind of subtractive material like stone or wood.

To tell you like your mother and father probably did when you were a little kid; practice makes perfect…time on task…etc, etc, etc.

There are a couple of good books to get you started, as well as a ton of tutorials and training vids right on www.pixologic.com

Zbrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting
Scott Spencer

and

Introducting Zbrush
Eric Keller

Those two books are great for learning and having lying around.

Hope that helped,