Starting Off

Well, my first working day went okay. I was a tad optimistic at first, thinking I could get to grips with ZBrush quickly. I started off following a book on how to create realistic games characters; it has a step-by-step guide on what to do, but not how to do it, if you get me? This didn't go down so well - I ended up doing the first step about three times because I was having difficulty working ZBrush's interface and navigation system.

So, instead I bought a one month subscription to Digital Tutors. It's fairly reasonable at roughly £30 a month, but obviously, like with most subscription based companies, you can save money if you buy 6 months or a year up front. Digital Tutors is amazing; I am currently working my way through a 6 hour course on the introduction to ZBrush. It teaches you how to navigate around the program, sculpting, texturing and much, much more. Each lesson is between 5 and 12 minutes long, so it doesn't feel laborious at all. It's actually very enjoyable.

The first few lessons are basic ones, such as basic sculpting, painting and deforming geometry. It's only in the later lessons where the bigger project starts. So, from the first few lessons, I messed around with the different tools and made a silly looking alien-type creature.

It's not brilliant, but like I said, I was just getting to grips with the different brushes, tools and the interface of ZBrush.

The current course I am following consists of 44 lessons; I have just completed lesson 24 (day two, now). I am slowly getting used to the program, but jeez, there is so much to learn and so many features! I am building up to sculpting a worm, which is what the course guides you through while teaching you the basics of ZBrush.

So, I've still got the teeth to sculpt and the main facial features, along with the slime and base the worm sits on. But so far I believe it is going really well, albeit rather confusing a lot of the time!

I'll probably post updates every couple of days, to document my progress.