ZBRUSH RETOPOLOGY WORKFLOW TUTORIAL

45+ OF THE BEST MAYA TUTORIALS AROUND

I was planning on calling it a day already with my last post but man, this is the best find so far in my book. Over at Instantshift.com, they have some amazing.. let me say this again.. amazing tutorials. From what I have seen so far, they’re all free. I love free shit! Don’t you?
They have a bunch of “Making of”, “Walkthroughs“, “Workflow” guides and much more. Even if you’re not looking for tutorials, they have so much more to offer the everyday “multimedia” addict. Like me, and most likely like you too.

The tutorials cover modeling characters, environments, particle effects in Maya, rendering techniques, caustics in Maya, rendering realistic eye balls, how to grow flowers in Maya, Sprites.. this is really the best source of tutorials I have ever found. Very nice quality information here. Thanks to Instantshift.com for posting this ridiculously helpful article.

MUDBOX 2009: LEARN FROM THE BEST

CG Talk has a few Mudbox related items I’d like to share with you. First up, freelance artist, digital software trainer, author and digital sculpter Wayne Robson shows us how he does a 20 minute concept sculpt in Mudbox. Check out the video below to see his “alien monster-like thingy” come to life. Only use ZBrush? It doesn’t matter, the techniques used are transferable into other sculpting programs.. just watch.

Here is how this tutorial video came about:

“I’ve had a lot of emails asking about how I approach head concept sculpts and get them down in 20 – 30 mins or so. So here’s a detailed video in real time explaining why and how every approach is made as I sculpt. Hopefully it gives some insight into my way of working for fast creature concepts for those that asked for it. Its only one of a number of ways I work, but with practice is something anyone can do in mud with ease.”

“I’ve kept it in real time so that its easier to see exactly what is going on at what point and why. Once at this stage normally I’d retopologise the sculpt and do the ‘proper’ one and take it to a finer level. Remember that my way of working may or may not suit you and isn’t set in stone…”

Wayne

I also wanted to share with you the new Mudbox blog over at Autodesk. This is really good stuff. And it’s all free which makes it kick ass! I really got to start producing some new work though. I’ve been spending all my time looking for things to blog about and watching tutorials instead of working on my portfolio for 2009. These links are inspiring so I think I may try to do some quick 20 minute sculpting concepts. OK, maybe 40 minute concepts.. yea, that sounds more my pace. I haven’t tried characters since school so.. this may be interesting.

ENVIRONMENT SKETCHING WITH FENG ZHU

I thought it was only fair since I added a tutorial of how to design characters, I should also include a tutorial on how to sketch environments. This tutorial comes from the master himself, Feng Zhu. At VanArts, we were encouraged to learn as much as we could from some of Feng Zhu’s workflow as most of us wanted to do environments, not characters. So we watched and we learned, and then we watched some more. It’s really amazing to see this guy in action. It looks like he is mostly scribbling but somehow it turns into art in the end, every time.

So who is Feng Zhu? Well, he is a concept art director and he works on just about everything in the entertainment industry. From video games, movies, TV commericals, magazines and more. This guy is one of the best if not THE best in the industry. This guy is definitely someone I look up to.

Recently, Feng Zhu has opened the FZD School of Entertainment and Design in Singapore. Can’t afford to move to Singapore and take some classes with him? Yeah, me neither. It sucks but at least he has some free tutorials for you to watch on YouTube and he also teamed up with the Gnomon Workshop on multiple DVD’s. I’m thinking about buying some myself.

Check out more on Feng Zhu on his website…

CHARACTER DESIGN STUDIO BLOG

Are you into designing characters? Do you want to be a character artist or a concept artist? Look no further than the Character Design Studio. I don’t know how many free lessons they will release on this blog but if you find this lesson informative, you can buy the whole DVD set online.

I remember getting instruction in character design from Nic Tay, who was the Art Director of Need for Speed at EA Blackbox at the time. His instruction was awesome and I still remember most of it, although I have not put the skills he taught us to good use in a long time. But what I took most from the experience was knowing the tools and the workflow to generate a great concept art piece. Basically understanding what tools the professionals in the industry use. The ‘cool grey’ markers, gouache etc. He taught us how to draw lightly and then gradually build each layer of the characters form until somehow, it turns into a masterpiece. Well, his did. Mine pretty much just turned into a piece.. of dookie.

So when you get a chance, head on over to the new Character Design Studio Blog and follow the site in the days/weeks to come to see if more free tutorials become available. If they don’t, you may want to consider purchasing the DVD’s if you’re really confident you want to pursue this as a career.

MUDBOX REALTIME NORMAL MAP DEMO

When I started modeling my first environment at VanArts, we had some problems with the ZBrush licenses so I ended up downloading a trial of Mudbox instead. This program totally saved me as it was the perfect tool for what I wanted to do. I wanted to create a cave environment for my demo reel and Mudbox was a perfect fit for me. I loved how similar Mudbox was to Maya, so I was able to learn it very quickly.

The other day I found this demonstration on Mudbox 2009 someone did for Autodesk. It shows a crazy feature at the end of the video that is truly special, you have got to see it. I found this on a forum on some site I had never seen before, 3DM3.com. Ever heard of it? I wanted to make sure I give this site credit and to tell you that this site is frackin‘ amazing!
There are so many awesome free tutorials for you to learn from. Tutorials for Maya, 3Ds Max, ZBrush, Lightwave, XSI Softimage and some other programs I haven’t heard of. Definitely bookmark this site because I think this site is on the level of Polycount, and CGSociety. Very well made, incredibly useful content and a enthusiastic community of CG artists. I don’t know why I didn’t know about this site before. I thought I had found just about every site I could and then this one comes out of no where. But it’s a good find so I’m happy to share it with you.

DIGITAL-TUTORS 40% OFF HOLIDAY SALE

Attention Game Art Students of all skill levels! And of course, any game artists out there that like to keep their skills up to date and those who just like to learn new ways of using their favorite modelling program. Digital-Tutors is offering DVD tutorial bundles with a 40% discount! Whether you use 3ds Max, Maya, XSI, Modo, Houdini or if you just need help trying to figure out that ridiculous rig, head over to Digital-Tutors and save some money on DVD bundles with instruction by industry professionals. Yes I know, these DVD’s are very expensive but they are also totally worth it. Especially with this discount so if you have some extra cash or if you know someone who could benefit from one of these DVD bundles, head over there now. The sale ends December 29.