CG Instruction
Starting with my first published tutorial in Highend 3D Magazine in 2004 I have enjoyed a successful career of teaching computer graphics to a diverse range of students. Many of my students have gone on to successful careers at Disney, Marvel, Blizzard, ILM, Digital Domain and other successful feature film, game, and many other studios and art companies world wide. I see their names in the credits of blockbuster movies and video games. I have a lot of fun teaching and I believe my students and I have all become better artists together. In 2020 I taught online ZBrush courses for artists at The Smithsonian Institute, and UWorld. I have teamed up with Tomas Wittlesbach and Tony Rodriguez to teach Zbrush to Jewelry makers. We have created a web-based artist community called ZBrush Jewlery Workshops I have been an instructor at the Gnomon School since 2007 teaching courses in Digital Sculpting, Creatuire Design, Introduction to Maya, both on campus and online. I also teach recurring workshops on ZBrush and Substance Painter at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art. And I have been a guest lecturer at Harvard Medical School. I've given talks at the Pixologic booth at SIGGRAPH, taught workshops at Pixologic's annual ZSummit, as well as 3D Printer World.
I've authored and edited a number of books on computer graphics, dozens of magazine articles for leading industry magazines such as 3D Artist and 3D World, and I've recorded numerous video series for The Gnomon Workshop, Pixologic's ZClassroom, Otoy, Lynda.com and Clarafi.com.
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Below is a list of links to some of the teaching materials I have authored or collaborated on:
ZBRUSH JEWLERY WORKSHOP
- ZBrush Fundamentals (subscription required)
- ZBrush Core
-
ZBrush Core Mini
LECTURES
The Gnomon School of Visual Effects
- Presenter for Gnomon's ZBrush Sunday: CREATURE DESIGN WITH ERIC KELLER & LUCA NEMOLATO
- Presenter for Gnomon's ZBrush Sculpting Workshop: SCI-FI DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT event in 2017
- Presenter for Gnomon's Anatomy Lab: Entomology for Creature Designers Event in 2015
VIDEO SERIES
Entomology Animated
- Rainbow Scarab Beetle Modeling Project - Ongoing YouTube series demonstrating my process for reserching and modelling an anatomically accurate Rainbow Scarab Beetle (Phanaeus vindex)
- Amblypigid Model
- Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly
Gnomon Workshop'
- Introduction to Maya 2020
- Introduction to Maya 2019
- Modeling and Rendering a Realistic Jumping Spider
- Introduction to the UV Toolkit in Maya 2018
- Introduction to Maya 2017
- Introduction to Maya 2016
- Hyper-real Insect Design
- Maya Viewport 2.0 and Shader FX
- Octane Render for Maya
Otoy
- Octane Unity Guides - 15 free video guides on Otoy's website that explain how to use the Octane integration in the Unity Game Engine
- Octane for Maya Master Class on YouTube - 76 free video YouTube guides that demonstrate the features of Octane for Maya. These are official Otoy videos integrated into the Ocatbe documentation.
Clarafi.com
- Introduction to ZBrush for Scientific Visualization
- Integrating ZBrush into the Scientific Visualization Pipeline
- Bringing Corals to Life: Building Dynamic Rigs for Animation in Maya
- Modeling and Rendering Organic Structures in ZBrush and Photoshop: Branching Corals
- Intermediate Scientific Visualization with ZBrush: Drosophila Head
- Generating ZBrush Texture and Displacement Maps for Rendering in Maya: Brain Coral
- Controlling and Simulating 3D Fluids: Maya Fluids and Bitfrost
Lynda.com
- ZBrush 3 for Windows Essential Training
- Maya Lighting and Rendering with mental ray
- Creating Textures and Shaders in Maya
Vimeo
- ZBrush 4: Ten Minute Tentacle
- ZBrush 4R7: Mantis Head Demo
- ZBrush 4R6: Standard Material Creation
- ZBrush 4R6: MatCap Material Creation
- ZBrush 4R6: Layering Materials
- ZBrush 4R6: Lightcap
- ZBrush Acromyrmex Sculpting Demo
BOOKS
Author:
- Maya Visual Effects: The Innovator's Guide (2nd Edition)
- Maya Visual Effects: The Innovator's Guide (1st Edition)
- Introducing ZBrush (1st Edition)
- Introducing ZBrush 4
- Introducing ZBrush 3rd Edition
- Mastering Maya 2009
- Mastering Maya 2011
- Mastering Maya 2012
Tech Editor:
- ZBrush Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy
- ZBrush Creature Design: Creating Dynamic Concept Imagery for Film
- ZBrush Professional Tips and Techniques
MAGAZINE ARTICLES
- 3D Artist Magazine: Create Killer Nature Renders
- 3D Artist Magazine: Create Stunning Nature Images
- 3D Artist Magazine: Simulate Macro in Maya with Octane
- 3D Artist Magazine: Maya: 12 Ways to Improve your Modeling
Above is a ZBrush podcast interview I did with Solomon Napolean Blair.