Learning, turning and churning

I have spent the past few weeks getting stuck into some great Zbrush training videos from Eat3d - it`s all well and good chewing your way through manuals and reading lengthy tutorials on the web, but with a slightly addled brain such as mine, nothing helps it sink in more than by watching it in action. With my trusty Wacom in hand I set out with a cube and saw how far I could take it.

This is from after a half hour of pushing and pulling my virtual clay around. As you would expect the topology isn`t too pretty - it did originate from a cube after all.

This is the result of taking the alien head into 3d-Coat and retopologizing it. If you haven`t checked out 3d-Coat yet, let me just say how abso-frickin-lutely amazing it is. The retopology tools are brilliant and the voxel sculpting is insane. I thought Zbrush was like working with clay, 3d-Coat just feels totally natural. Unfortunately, due to the nature of voxels, the resulting mesh is somewhat fugly - but then that`s what the retop tools are there for, right?

This is where I am at currently, back in Zbrush. I decided to feminize the alien somewhat, as you can tell from the Angelina Jolie pout. I think the lips are a bit too prominent so may back them off a bit.

My tip of the day: don`t focus too much on one area at first - get the main forms blocked in and turn, turn turn: look at the model from every angle. What looks great from the front does not necessarily look so hot from the side.

Overall I`m loving getting to grips once more with Zbrush - I haven`t really touched it much for a few years and can see how it has come on in leaps and bounds in terms of development and usability. I used to be put off by it`s somewhat quirky interface but find now that it all sorta makes sense. I guess the video tutorials are really helping. Right...onwards and upwards.

Wicked Wacom this way comes

Having dabbled in the past with El Cheapo graphics tablets, usually by the likes of bargain PC peripheral makers extraordinaire Trust - I had been itching to try something with a bit more quality and precision, mainly for use in Photoshop and Zbrush. I therefore searched around and decided to shell out £70 on a Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch I was originally a bit worried that it may be too small for my needs but having worked with it for a few weeks now it`s perfectly serviceable for my current needs.

Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch

This model cost a little more than the Bamboo Fun Pen as it doubles as a huge touchpad, similar in use to what you`ll find on a laptop. Not only that but the pressure sensitivity of the pen on the Pen and Touch is twice that of the Fun, being 1024 as opposed to 512. Does it help? No idea but it sure is nice to use. I can make the gentlest of brush strokes and it appears to be perfectly translated to my screen. The four customizable buttons on the tablet itself come in very handy too - mine are set up to double as mouse clicks left, right and buttons ALT and CTRL, therefore most navigation controls are easily accessible without having to bother with the keyboard. The little red tab you can see on the above picture is where you store the pen when not in use and is a handy addition.

One small flaw is that the texture of the surface of this tablet is supposed to simulate that of paper and is therefore a bit rougher than usual. What this means in effect is that the pen nibs do tend to wear out alarmingly quickly and therefore, after 2 weeks of moderate use I`m already on my second one. It does come with four and replacements aren`t too expensive.

Overall a great piece of kit if you`re on a budget - not quite in the same league as an Wacom Intuos4 Small Pen Tablet but remember this is a fraction of it`s price ;-)