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The weekly tutorials for this workshop will be presented as a mixture of video, text and assets. Please read the requirements carefully below.
Week One: Lets get it clear! Figuring out our destination and creating a game plan to get us there
Week one is about figuring out our destination and creating a game plan to get us there. What is our job and how does it affect others? We will begin by obtaining a clear understanding of what the modeling department does. From there, we’ll delve into designing a character and understanding the key elements that need to be clarified before proceeding as well as why we need production check lists!
Brushes, lets move beyond the standard brush. Exploring ZBrush through one of its most powerful features - the brush palette. What do brushes do and how can we use them to our advantage. Control over stroke, alpha and tool.
Assignment: Create a texture library by trying different brush features. (Min 10 different)
Week Two: Creating a base mesh for our character using Zspheres
- ZSpheres as a mesh generator not as a sculpting tool
- ZSpheres for topology: head, hands
- Attractor ZSpheres & Unified Skin
- Modeling with Image Planes
Assignment: Design and create base mesh for your character using Zspheres.
Week Three: The sculpt, knowledge is power
- Resources, seeing is believing. So why don't we have more of it?
- Foundation is king!
- Sculpting form vs. details
- Dynamic Levels of Resolution
- Layers and morphs, why are they your best friends
- Polygroups, Uv regions - how can these help me?
- Broken models, why they happen and how to fix them
- Masks how they work and why you'll use them often
- Using the canvas as a sculpting medium.
Assignment: Sculpt character form based on design you've created
Week Four: Refining your sculpture... retopology
- Hands and feet explored, why we should sculpt these first
- Wrinkles, subcutaneous... what's that and why should we pay attention to it
- Compression and how it affects what we do
- Gravity why it's important
- Stencils... Converting an alpha into a stencil
- Retopology. How do we create a base mesh that will work for animation and production?
- What is good topology?
- Projecting details
Assignment: Refine character Sculpt base you've created and retopologize
Week Five: Bringing it all together
- Detailing and UV's... let the fun begin!
- Layers revisited
- Sculpting HD
- UVs in ZBrush
- GUV, AUV
- Import UVs... what's the difference?
- Zproject - how can it help me detail?
Assignment: Finish detailing and UV's for your character
Week Six: Texturing Your Model
- View port texturing, use of brushes, alphas…
- Texturing on your UVs
- Vertex texturing
- Map size
- ZApp Link
- Zproject
- painting by hand
- Using photos
- Imageplane 3
Assignment: Create textures for your character
Week Seven: Dynamic Displacements
(Students should have a finished or near finished model by this point)
- Exporting from ZBrush
- Difference maps: Displacement, Bump, Normal maps
- Multi-displacement Plug-in
- Importing original base mesh, do I need to do this?
- Practicum - Create Displacements and Normal maps for your character
- Transpose explored
- Creating a dynamic pose for your character
Assignment: Create Dynamic pose for your character and Displacement / Normal maps.
Week Eight: Rendering and Lighting in ZBrush and wrapping it all up
- ZBrush Materials
- Light Settings
- Shadows
- Fog
- Markers
- Material transparency
- Layers
- Turntables
Assignment: Create a pretty picture and turntable of your character.
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Level of Ability
You will need a good understanding of 3D, Photoshop, and have basic painting skills. This workshop is not aimed at beginners. This is an intense workshop aimed at students who are able to commit at least ten hours a week to this class while being mentored by a master artist.
Hardware and Software Requirements
ZBrush 3.1, Photoshop, Corel Painter and a 3D package of your choosing.
A broadband connection will be needed for downloading the weekly video lessons.
Some of the sample scenes are hardware heavy, so its recommended to have a minimum of 2 GB of RAM.
Other Requirements
Students need to be familiar with web navigation and browsing, as well as email.
Students need to be familiar with using a bulletin board system (such as CGTalk.com) as well as how to upload attachments to postings for review.
Suggested Reading:
- Anatomy For The Artist by Jeno Barcsay
- Designing Movie Characters by Richard Rickitt
- Vertebrates by Kenneth V. Kardong
- The Human Figure – An Anatomy For Artists by David K. Rubins
- Complete Guide To Drawing From Life by George B. Bridgman
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