Final Render

The worm is finished! 6 hours and 12 minutes of tutorials and videos later (but more like 10 or 12 hours of actually sculpting for me), it is complete. I must say, I am thrilled with the result. It's good mine is very different to the one in the guide.

The picture here is little so have a look at my project on Behance! Overall, the project was challenging. ZBrush was completely new to me (and most of it still is!), but I feel more confident and comfortable with the basic tools to move onto new projects. I already have another 4 or 5 courses lined up (about 28 hours worth) on ZBrush and 3DS Max, ranging from characters to interior design.

This is only the start of my personal 3D adventures; I've only explored the tip of the ice berg. I can't wait to continue exploring the vast area of 3D modelling and sculpting and sharing my progress here.

Progress

Since my last post, I have made significant progress in terms of detailing and texturing. The main body of the worm is pretty much complete, with little hairs, details and textures added, but the base and slime still need finishing off.

I decided to give the little guy a mohican! He's got bushy eyebrows that aren't well groomed either, to add to his evil, angry, menacing (?) look. I am really pleased with the way this is going; I thought I would struggle a lot but it's turning out to be ok. It is by far from simple, mind you.

I would say this worm will be finished tomorrow, then I can move onto other things. Unfortunately, I won't be including this worm in my portfolio come the time I finish it; the main reason is that I have been following a guide and I'd rather have my own, unique work in there. But this is a starting point from which I will progress.

This is only a short post, as I showed the new updates I made in one picture!

Much Better!

I must say, today has been much better in the ZBrush department. I only completed a few lessons of my current course, but that's because today involved a lot more sculpting rather than watching videos on the various features.

My worm is certainly looking much more like a worm! If you remember what it used to look like...

And now it looks like this! He's an angry little fella'!

I am literally so ecstatic right now, because it (to me) has gone really well and I am so pleased with the outcome. Although my hand hurts now because this is the longest time I've used my tablet for.

That's all for today; I will go to bed happy knowing I am getting better with ZBrush.

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.