ZBrushCentral

Zbrush class I taught:)

The below is the work from an 11 week zbrush course I taught at the Art Institute of Los Angeles - California. Students are anywhere from 2nd quarter - 7th quarter and had little to no understanding of zbrush. Each piece is from a different student.

The class was so much fun to teach. A great experiment on my part. I decided to teach zbrush different than I had been teaching it with great results. Instead of me teaching the students zbrush to the students…I had the students teach each other zbrush.

The first week I did a 15 min WOW demo of zbrush.Something to make them see the cool and power of zbrush. I made an orc head in like 15 min and their jaws dropped. I then told them…cool…now teach yourself. I told them of the importance of learning to teach yourself in the world we live in. Not waiting for a teacher to spoon feed you information.

The first week I had them look at the great zbrush “ getting started movies” on zbrush.com. There homework was to watch all of them and do the sword and vase videos. I then broke them into teams of three and assigned them a topic in zbrush…subtools, brushes, etc. I broke zbrush down into logical chunks of information. They then had to go back for homework and research that topic…using anything they could find on the internet. Then come back the next week and teach it to the class. It went great…because it was students teaching each other they listened more and had way more fun. I was there to right the ship if it went wrong and offer some other solutions to problems but they taught it to themselves just using the great zbrush.info wiki and other internet resources like youtube.

It is part of this new philosophy I have as a teacher. The old days of teaching are over…where a teacher has a book for a class…he gives the book to students and then just interprets book to students for 11 weeks. I believe that became irrelevant when the internet happened. Instead of just having that teacher knowledge and expertise…you have the whole world. You just need to teach the students how to navigate that world. Now because of youtube and so many other resources…students should be taught how to self teach. I believe then can learn much better in the long run if you teach a student to teach himself or herself. Especially in today’s quickly changing world of technology. Give a man an apple he will eat for a day…teach a man to plant a tree…he will never be hungry.

So below are the results of a class that taught zbrush to themselves. 99% of all geometry…even the hard surface stuff was made entirely in zbrush. The new hardsurface tools are amazing in zbrush.…Most students didn’t even know how to open 3dsmax. Also I taught them to render and composite there materials and lighting in photoshop. All renders were done in zbrush and photoshop. The results to me are staggering.

Zbrush had been considered a " and then learn this " program. Meaning…learn max and maya first and then zbrush. I however am taking another approach to our program at AILA. I want to teach zbrush first. It is the most artistic program for 3d in the world and I this students will become better 3d artists by learning it first.

Enjoy!

drell.jpg

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final_lenoard.jpg

Garcia_Conrad_q7.jpg

Garza_3rd_quarter.jpg

Howze_Samantha.jpg

jASON.jpg

lawson_quarter03.jpg

Logan Hero Shot.jpg

LouiiTannous_qt2.jpg

Lucero_Nurjett_Quarter_8.jpg

Marshall_Aaron_FINAL_Quarter_Seven.jpg

martinez_abril_qtr3.jpg

olinger_joshua_qtr3.jpg

Padoongpatt_Mike Quarter 8.jpg

Phillips_Sean_5th-Quarter.jpg

sandoval_8th.jpg

Simon_huang_5thquarter.jpg

valmore_riera_quarter4.jpg

Webster_Stuart 6th.jpg

Am I the only one who can’t see the images? Would love to see your class works, as I am a beginner too.

And you are absolutely right about learning by ourselves, I learned much more by searching tutorials myself on the internet for the last months than during my 3 years at school.

hmmm i did have some trouble posting them. But they do show up for me now.

COuld you refresh the post and see if you see them?

anyone else not seeing the images? There should be over 15 images shown

I can only see Amanda Chavez’s image. The rest are not working.

EDIT: Ok, now they are starting to work

Fixed!!! Please Check Again!

Well done…great way too teach Z…Some nice works by your students…
Now you probably have the whole class addicted too Z.

I do…that was what i need from them if they hope to become video game artists. They need to fall in love with the program. They need to become AMAZIng and zbrush artists to even have a chance of getting a job.

That is the degree I teach…Game Art and Design.

Ah now I see them :slight_smile: Thanks
Really cool :+1:

Nice teaching approach, I like that. It allows the students to each have an inner dialogue with each other and how they tackled the problems differently. Seems like it will build a stronger bond with that group as a whole.

So if I read properly, none of these have been retopologized yet?

Excellent approach and results.:+1: …I think that in conjuction with A SOLID education in DESIGN, COLOR THEORY, ANATOMICAL DRAWING, LIFE DRAWING,FIGURE CREATION, TRADITIONAL SCULPTING,and last but not least THE STUDY OF THE OLD and NEW MASTERS, AND THE HISTORY OF ART, your students will have a well rounded education and approach to this ever changing enviroment that we all inhabit and express in and through our art…Some things will and should never change, a solid education in the basics being one of those things.
ART is much much more that a GAME to be played on the computer…and special effects to be seen in movies…It’s a very strong tool that if used properly can change the world for better or for worse, depending on who is teaching it, and the reasons behind why it is being taught.
Just my two cents on the subject of edcucation and ART, for whatever it is worth these days… :slight_smile:
CHEERS :smiley:

Students are anywhere from 2nd quarter - 7th quarter and had little to no understanding of zbrush.
Woah, if I was a 7th quarter student getting my degree in anything even remotely 3D related, I’d be PI**ED if I had little to no understanding of ZBrush at that point in my schooling. Set sail for epic fail.

Hey Nick!

Those images look great. Especially the Mass Effect and Big Sister one.

Was this for your Special Topics class?

Juan! Yes…this was my special topics class.

DustinB: Welcome to the sad world of organized art teaching. Alot of kids don’t get it till way later. I however make sure my campus get’s it 2nd quarter before max and maya.

SpiritDreamer: You are my power beast. When I am weak I will call on your animal strength:)

Arthaven: They did use retopo but not for game poly counts…they used it some times for hard surface. I started them all on that but then as we kept using Hpolish more I found you didn’t even need to retopo to get hard edges.

MightyReg: Glad you saw them…thanks for the help earlier.

thanks for posting these sir :slight_smile:
(it’s a Han)
i thought there were a lot more though!

Great stuff! Awesome teaching approach: you’re not only giving your students a kickstart in ZBrush but you’re showing them a mindset they can use to become good at anything they attempt in life. I think the resulting works are very good.

quote:“Zbrush had been considered a " and then learn this " program. Meaning…learn max and maya first and then zbrush. I however am taking another approach to our program at AILA. I want to teach zbrush first. It is the most artistic program for 3d in the world and I this students will become better 3d artists by learning it first.”

I second that. (that’s what I liked so much about Exodus http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=75354&page=1&pp=15)

:sunglasses: :+1:

I didn’t know you posted our works! Damn… The other classes are pretty good too…

I am going to start posting on Pixolator, I’d appreciate it if you would give me your feedback Nick :smiley:

Updating this thread with the latest work from my intro zbrush class. Most students had no previous zbrush experience. Almost all hard surface work was create in zbrush.

Very fun class. Was only 10 weeks. 4 hours a week. Usually they are 11…we lost a week to holiday.

Thank you Zbrush! I am now officially a zbrush certified instructor. Trying to make you proud.

[trevorTfinal.jpg](javascript:zb_insimg(‘199285’,‘Yamaguchi_Taylor.jpg’,1,0))

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Jose_Reyes_Minotaur1.jpg

brian_sanders.jpg

Big Sister render compilation_Noel_Solomon.jpg

Yamaguchi_Taylor.jpg

that’s a lot of creations. Amazing job and very inspiring to me. Keep pushing.

Thanks! they did great!!!