Using the Zbrush Tools

I've started working my way through some books I purchased, in particular 'Zbrush Character Creation, Advanced Digital Sculpting' by Scott Spencer. So far this book seems great! It comes with a DVD with video tutorials but I'm yet to watch any as the book itself has me glued to the pages.

I spent a few hours on the first tutorial which talks about the importance of Gesture, Form, Proportion and introduces you to the basic tools required to start sculpting. Although I'd had some prior experience experimenting with the different brushes and tools, the first tutorial introduced me to some features I hadn't yet come across. These were features like the lazy mouse and transpose tools. I also managed to use and successfully navigate Subtools for the first time. Surprisingly easy! For me the most fun part of this exercise was actually modeling an eye. There was a lot of satisfaction to gain after using the masking tool in conjunction with various brushes to get a set of realistic looking eyes in almost no time at all. Awesomeness! Bring on tutorial 2!

Zspheres!

My first attempt at Zspheres pre 3.5 Saw 'District 9' on Wednesday and loved the special effects so I thought I'd try making a prawn alien!

Semi successful and fun although I found the process interesting but a little awkward at times.

I think this will be something I'll come back to at a later date. All in all I learnt quite a lot so I'm looking forward to giving it another go!

Ctrl+N

Here's something I did during summer. My imagination went nuts with this one so its probably one of my more personal creations. I titled it Ctrl+N, its a bit surreal but I had great fun making it and it taught me a lot! I'll be sure to use the techniques I taught myself when making this piece during my coming year at Uni. Its always great fun to play with photoshop! I created it for conceptart.org's 'Newborn' contest. I'm starting to find online competitions a great way of improving my skills =)

Comp

I decided to spend some time working on a competition entry for the Imagine FXs 50th issue. Here is what I've done so far. Quite a lot of work still to go...