I have been looking into a lot of modelling techniques; specifically characters and discovered that a lot of products in the gaming and digital entertainment industry are 'sculpted', using digital sculpting, or 'clay'. Two of the main software packages are Autodesk's Mudbox and Pixologic's ZBrush. Although Autodesk has a huge range of 3D software packages, in terms of digital sculpting ZBrush has been around for considerably longer and therefore in my opinion has more to offer in terms of the interface, tools and work output. I have been looking into this as I am interested in roles such as content creator and character designer, specifically in the gaming industry. It was interesting to find out that a lot of products that I know of were made using ZBrush, such as the PS3 game Little Big Planet, as well as the 2010 blockbuster Avatar and many other games games such as Assassin's Creed 2. So it appears that a lot of content for computer games can be created using software such as Autodesk's 3Ds Max, Maya etc, motion is created using either Key framing actions, or Motion Capture (as mentioned in my 3D Animation blog), or by combining the two using programs such as Autodesk's Motion Builder and Maya.
From this, I have been looking into the best way to explore ZBrush and digital sculpting. Here are a couple of links which have been very useful:
This website is great as it is updated regularly and is hosted by the creators of ZBrush. It includes interviews, case studies, examples of work as well and tutorials and hints and tips. I am currently going through the video tutorials and will soon be experimenting by making a game style character (as mentioned in my 3D Technology blog)
A great online and printed magazine, which also features interviews (currently following the work of Cedric Seaut), case studies and tutorials. This website also provides free models, something which I am taking advantage of in my 3D Animation module)
This is a large magazine, which has been published exclusively on ZBrush. This includes a DVD which has over 20 tutorials on it, with over 10 hours of videos. This was published in November and will b of great help.
This website has been very useful and also contains many video tutorials for ZBrush. It covers similar ground to that of the Pixologic website, but as they are different tutorials, its always good to see how other people navigate and use the software.
At this stage, there seems to be a a lot of research into the modelling, sculpting sector, with relevance to games as this is what I am interested in. Animation is also an interest of mine, so some more research should be done in this area also.
I will soon look into a couple of case studies, before creating my Web Diagram by using Prezi.
Links:
Pixologic website: LINK
3D Total website: LINK
3D World - ZBrush Essential 'bookazine': LINK
CG.tutplus - ZBrush additional tutorials: LINK
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