In case you missed it, just before the vacation I released A guide for sculpting faces.

Here's a quick preview of what you will find in it:

You can grab it here:

https://nimlot.artstation.com/store/WXNJ/a-guide-for-sculpting-faces

or  here:

https://gum.co/faceguide

The first 3 videos were already available on my Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/nimlot) and today I've sent the full tutorial to all the patrons who pledged 50$ or more over time.

The tutorial is split into 5 videos, lasts a bit over 12 hours and covers up the whole process...from replicating a scan then build up a nice topology ready for animation and moving into sculpting a likeness in the end.

Most of the tutorial is in Zbrush but we cover up retopo in Topogun, uvs in RizomUV and some baking in Marmoset Toolbag. 

What will you get:

 - 5 videos that sum up a bit more than 12 hours of explained process.

           1. Intro and scene setup

           2. Copying a scan using dynamesh

           3. Making topology and uvs ready for animation

           4. Making a likeness

           5.Microskin details and refinement

 - Final ztl file

 - Pureref board with plenty of useful information and references 

Cheers!

I've been working lately on a barbarian. It all started when I decided to make a head based on a concept by Cedric Peyravernay that he did for Diablo 4...especially since I never made dreads and wondered how I would approach those to get a believable result in realtime.

 So obviously the head was made first and then decided to go further and actually make a full character. The head still requires more refining, the dreads will have some metal pieces hanging in them etc. Will get there when we will push the high poly further.
For now the head looks like this.

Now lately I've made a demon foe that will fight this barbarian in the final composition.

More images and what not on my artstation:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lVJ0VV

Now this brings us to the Barbarian wip...what we have so far in the high poly. I went through multiple iteration on different parts of him...meh...designing......right now we're here with the high poly but I'm quite sure a lot will change till end.

As always the whole process for my personal work have been streamed on twitch...so please join me there if you wanna hang out and see my workflow:

https://www.twitch.tv/nimlot26/

Also all the videos are saved and available for my patrons on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/nimlot 

Cheers!
  

It's been a year since I've started my mentorship program on my Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/nimlot ). Things have slowly got into a good place. My students made some amazing artworks already and things are going really really well. I must say I'm proud of their progress. Of course every student came with a certain amount of knowledge and some learn faster than others, but in the end if they all continue to work hard I see a bright future for them all. 

I wanted to write this blog for a long time...to show you guys some of the work my students did and some of the before and after images so that you folks will understand their progress and how much attention to details you need to put in your work. I want you to understand that everything falls in place if you put enough effort and you're paying attention to all the details. 

So I'm gonna start chronologically

Thomas joined my mentorship just to learn my workflow for making hair. He spent a bit more than a month working on this hair and I think he did an amazing job.  He was one of the those artists who really paid attention to the smallest detail possible. If you can believe before posting this hair he was having second thoughts about the quality and was not really happy about some of the strands not being identical to the reference. 

If you want to see more of his work and more images and videos for this hair go  check his artstation: https://www.artstation.com/sykutera 

The second artist to finish some work under my guidance was Ziel. Ziel was a constant follower of mine on Twitch and always asking for feedback. At some point he decided that the 5 min I spare during the streams is not enough so he joined the mentorship. 

Ziel made this nice cyberpunk girl. More images on his portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/pzielinski 

So let me show you some before and after for this project

The head:

And the overall character: 

Now Ziel finished this girl character and his skill jumped a lot. The next character is coming along and I really think he did a really good job so far. He also went for a Viggo Mortensen likeness and he nailed it pretty fast, especially since he struggled so much while working on the first character.

Check this out: 

Next one in line to finish some work during my mentorship was Rachid. 

Rachid is one of those many who join some 3d school and think that once they will be done with that they will actually get a job in the industry....which rarely happen. He started the mentorship with the idea to make characters but after a while we decided that the fastest way to get into the industry is as a prop artist....so he started working on some props. 

The first one to finish was this really nice potion. More of his stuff you can find in his folio: https://www.artstation.com/rachidj 

The next work completed was Natalia's Morrigan head. From all my students I think she made the most progress. She started with almost no skill in anatomy and ended up making a really good likeness on Natalie Portman and a really good hairstyle for her. 

You can see more images and videos here, including a nice gif with all the 204 iterations for the head:  https://www.artstation.com/natalia_stolarz 

Now let me show you her progress. She went through more than 200 iterations of the head to get from aliens to a believable human.

Now she's working on the low poly for Morrigan's body which looks great so far. This will end up as a really good character when it will be done. 

The next student to finish an artwork was James. James was pretty much in the same boat as Natalia when it comes to human anatomy. He also went from aliens to believable humans. 

He finished this badass dude. More images and videos on his folio: https://www.artstation.com/velvetfury3d 

Now let me show you some before and after:

The most recent student to finish a character was Raul.
Raul came with a lot of sculpting experience since he worked for a long long time on printing stuff. I was trying to lure him to the dark side of game art since a long time ago but he just decided a few months ago to take this leap of faith. 

I really love this character that he made...a dumbass police officer in the Dishonored style. You can see more of his work here: https://www.artstation.com/art 

 

In conclusion I will give you the same advice I give to all my students. Don't worry about how much time you spend on your personal projects...worry only about the quality. The speed will come in time. Each project will make you understand the workflow better and get faster and faster but the only way to get in the attention of the recruiters is to have top notch artworks. Keep working and don't despair if your work sucks. It can only get better....but it's a grind not a speed run . Take your time and make amazing characters and props.

Cheers!

Getting closer and closer to call the texture done for this one

The whole process was streamed and can be viewed in my saved videos on Twitch if you're a subscriber.

https://www.twitch.tv/nimlot26/videos?filter=highlights&sort=time 

Summer sale for my Gumroad products. Use code "sun" at checkout for a 35% discount.
Cheers!
https://gumroad.com/nimlot26 

Last night I reached one of my dreams from a few years ago... 10k followers on Artstation. To celebrate this here you have a 50% discount on all my products on Gumroad. Thank you all for the constant support!
 Use code 10k when you checkout
 https://gumroad.com/nimlot26 

I've set up my Patreon in the last few days. 

If you guys look up for a game characters/props mentorship join me!

https://www.patreon.com/nimlot

Before anything else let me tell you a few things about me because some of you have no idea who you're trashing. I've had my first contact with the 3d world more than 20 years ago. I've been a noob for a long long time because of the lack of tutorials and resources on the internet. I've got my first 3d job 15 years ago and my first game industry one 11 years ago.  In this 15 years that I've worked in the industry I've always tried to help people grow. I've mentored artists all my adult life and most of them are doing very well in the industry. Last year I've ended a very well paid contract with Warner Bros Games because of some health issues and decided to put a bit more effort into helping people. I've started streaming daily and I made a target to help people grow. I have a few tutorials on the internet for a few bucks that I gave away for free a lot of times for the artists that couldn't afford them. I've refused a job at GAI because I wanted to share my knowledge for free....to help this community grow. I've never considered myself a good artist but I've always been a hard working guy and this is exactly what I've always said to everyone who ever reached out for any kind of guidance. Putting the effort is the most important aspect of being a 3d artist. 

The previous post appeared as a reaction of the fact that one of the guys who is constantly on my twitch and who grew a lot in the last year posted his latest character (which btw is a really nice character) but because he doesn't have a lot of followers was stuck with 14 likes in latest in between a sea of "10 minutes artworks". He had no chance to make it to trending and actually have an opportunity for the right people to see his work. But you all don't consider this a problem. Right?

Some of you reacted badly to my previous post and even took it and rant about it in social media without even reading the whole thing and I urge you to go and reread it(or read it) until  you understand what I was saying there. I was not referring to artworks that lack skill. I was referring to artworks that have 0 amount of work put into it. You remember your first tutorials when you were learning a new software? Those ones. The 3 brushes in Zbrush, the simple cup in 3ds max or Maya, the torus in Blender and so on.....Hell even artwork is art+work...you know...actual work.  But then again you took one phrase out of the context and started trashing me for no fucking reason. Have you actually read what I said in that blog? Did you even spent 10 seconds to understand what I was trying to say?

You're all offended and shit like we're not aiming for the same thing....seeing ART on Artstation. Are you mad at me for what? For being honest? I've showed in that post the fact that I did the same kind of crap when I was young but I never even thought about posting it on any kind of 3d site and even if I would I would have went for the forums where I could get some help to improve my skills because you need to put actual effort into your art...the less skill you have the more time you need to spend working and trying to understand how to create something.

You called me jerk, rude and arrogant because I pinpointed what all of you know....Artstation is turning slowly into Devianart by being overwhelmed by beginners that think that every single thing they can make in 10 minutes is called art (see the amount of DAZ3D posts that get here every day). I've said my point of view and you considered that it's easier to trash me rather than think a bit. Your comments won't help anyone grow. For growing you need feedback and that's not something you will get on Artstation nor from people who believe that every single thing you make in 3d needs to be on Artstation.

I've never insinuated that people without skills should not post on Artstation nor did I denied anyone the right of sharing whatever they think it's art. I just said that art takes time and passion....2 strokes in zbrush is as much art as a simple box made in 3ds max and even people that have no clue about 3d can make one of those.  There is a big difference between lack of skills and lack of work and you all know it. I've always said that if you put the effort you'll be rewarded but if you're making a torus and call it art then maybe Artstation is not the place where you should image host your stuff. If you really wanna grow as an artist there are multiple places where you can post your WIPs and actually get some feedback and guidance....some of them linked in my previous post. But who cares, right? We're all reading between the lines here and taking things out of the context.

I wasn't talking about this because I'm fucking amazing and they're not......I'm a fucking mediocre artist and I've been a noob just like everyone else...most likely for more years than they will ever be...no one is born with experience....I was raising this problem because I want them to understand how much effort it takes to make 3d stuff...to make them understand that Artstation is not the place where you can throw all your trials and 10 minute artworks....no one will give you feedback here....no one will appreciate your effort if there is no effort. This is a site where you should post your best work so you can present a portfolio to whoever want to hire you or want to see what a great artist you are.
But of course....I'm arrogant right? Trying to push people to work harder and get better is arrogance... Right?

As many of you seen I've posted yesterday one of my first sculpts in zbrush from 13 years ago as a "joke". Well...it was not really a joke...it was a cry for moderation on Artstation or at least for junior artists to understand that this is not the place where you post your WIPs and first sculpts. Every single artist in this world was at your level at some point(and as you've seen, me included) but 99.9% of them never posted these first steps over the internet, or if they posted it they did it on the forums where you can actually get some feedback. Unless you have a blog on Artstation these "artworks" should never be here. The level of feedback you get in your artwork comments it's basically non existent. Go to zbrushcentral.com , polycount.com  or whatever social media site where you can find a group dedicated to feedback, make a sketchbook and ask for guidance. That will work.

Artstation is your businesses card...it's the place where you show off your amazing artwork so that people in the industry can see you and reach up to you with job offers. By posting this kind of stuff you're just making things worse...for you and everyone else since we all have to navigate all this junk posts to actually find some proper artworks. Some will come and say that sure...you can stay on trending or picks so you won't have to deal with this....you can, but for sure you will loose a lot of nice works just because those people don't have enough followers and exposure....so they will never make it to trending, not to mention picks. In the end you come to Artstation to see ART not potatoes (well most of you come for boobs but that's another discussion that we will have to have). 

My advice, and I've said it many times on my streams, is to work hard, improve your skills, post all over the internet when you actually have something that took you more than 10 minutes to make and that actually would inspire people or show a real progress on your skills. Don't get fooled by those 5 friends of yours that hit the like button to support you....if your work is trash it should not be on the internet. Doing 3d is not something that you learn overnight and you're not gonna create masterpieces in 20 minutes in Zbrush. You need to grow, you need to learn how to build volumes and shapes, you need to learn how to make your things look good. You can show those early tests to your friends or family but here on Artstation you have to post artworks that will land you a job. This is your portfolio man, not your junkyard. I have a full folder with old stuff that never been posted anywhere on the internet and that's because I knew how much I suck. I understood that I have a lot of work to do before asking for any kind of feedback or hunting for likes. If you've been on my stream lately(especially last night) you've seen some of my old stuff....you know I was just like you.

Now go and delete all that junk from your portfolio and start working on some proper models. You will thank me later. 

Btw Happy Valentines! I love you all even if sometimes is rough love. 

PS: I'll show you some amazing stuff from my past just to understand what you should never ever post on Artstation