Sample head sculpt rendered in ZBrush 2019

Links of Interest — 3/6/19

Howdy y’all! Texas has finally received it’s cold-nap for this winter, and I’m plagued with a sinus infection. (Yeah me!) I have spent my morning either in bed or consuming cold-fighting products such as orange juice, cold medicine, and tea with probiotics.

Remember The Alamo!

Beyond that, today is an extremely important day in Texas history. Today Texans commemorate the Battle of the Alamo. It was 183 years ago Texan revolutionaries had defeated Mexican troops in the Battle of San Antonio on December 7th, 1835.

After the victory, Texans fortified the mission fort Alamo in San Antonio, as it served a bulwark (along with the Presido La Bahía in Goliad, Texas) against any future advancements of the Mexican Military. American volunteers came to San Antonio to help with the effort, including the likes of Davey Crockett, William Travis, and James Bowie.

There was disagreement among Texans as to wether or not the Alamo could be successful defended. General Sam Houston (who would later become President of Texas and Governor when Texas joined the United States) wanted to pull the munitions and demolish the Alamo while Major Green B. Jameson felt that Texans could successful thwart any attacks from the Mexican Army. Unfortunately the Alamo defenders lacked the support and reinforcements to make a successful defense.

On March 6th, 1836, Mexican President Santa Anna, with over 1,000 Mexican troops, ended a 13 day siege of the Alamo (otherwise known as the Battle of the Alamo) and massacred 189 Texans.

This defeat of the Texans led to inspired their victory and capture of Santa Anna himself at the Battle of Jacinto, where they led with the battle cry, “Remember the Alamo!” Soon after, Santa Anna signed a peace treaty at Velasco, Texas, in which he recognized Texas’ independence in exchange for his freedom.

Battle of the Alamo Reenactment/San Antonio Living History Facebook Photo

Every year (until the Alamo site becomes “reimagined” into a bi-national, politically correct tribute) the San Antonio Living History Association reenacts the 1863 Battle of the Alamo.

ZBrush 2019 is Here!

Courtesy of ZBrush Central. Artist Joseph Drust

I’ve been lately getting back into ZBrush, a 2.5D painting, 3D modeling, and sculpting program, and after roughly a decade, it’s finally clicking. I can finally model stuff that looks recognizable. I’ve been using ZBrush 2018. This version was a pretty strong offering, integrating Sculptris Pro into the core program.

ZBrush 2019 has just been released today, with some fanfair. This year will start Pixoligic’s subscription model, which new users can pay monthly or every six months. Current owners with an original perpetual license (which wasn’t cheap and can still be acquired) can upgrade to 2019 for free.

New features in ZBrush 2019 include: The new Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR) system (think FreeStyle in Blender), Spotlight v2.0 with Snapshot3D, ZRemesher v3.0, SubTool Folders, Universal Camera, etc.

Learn more about ZBrush 2019 via the following link, http://docs.pixologic.com/features/whats-new-in-zbrush-2019/

You can also watch the ZBrush 2019 World Premiere on YouTube. It is 2+ hours long!

The Joy of Learning ZBrush

My girl sculpt following the head sculpting tutorial

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m finally getting 3D. More importantly, I’m finally turning the corner with ZBrush. One set of video toutorials that have really helped me learn ZBrush has been Steve James’s head sculpting tutorial over at ZBrush Classroom. I encourage everyone just getting started in ZBrush to visit ZBrush Classroom.

https://pixologic.com/zclassroom/workshop/head-sculpting-with-steve-james