Last week was basically spent in getting ready to go out to Los Angeles for the 2nd ZBrush Summit so little, wait, no art got worked on. It was pretty much a mad dash week with ups and downs and the Summit turned out to be a nice break from the rest of the world.
This was the second ZBrush Summit that the people at Pixologic have held and I really hope they decide to have it again next year. Like the first summit this one was held at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Games + Animation. Unlike the first one, I went out
to see this one live and I am so glad I did. It was great. I want to tell you all about it but I don’t want to bore you so I’ll try to touch on the bigger stuff.
The Summit was Friday through Sunday and was jam packed with presentations, interviews, demos, workshops and a lot of great and talented people. Rick Baker, the Monster Maker opened things up on Friday. He talked about his career and what brought him to ZBrush and his experience with it. I found it a bit heartening to hear someone of his talent talk about the stops and starts he had with it since I have had that problem. He was a great choice to get things started, no demo, no presentation, he just talked.
There were so many talented people making presentations, the guys from Face Off, Neville Page and Glenn Hetrick, as well as Ian Joyner, the team from Sideshow Collectibles, Disney Interactive, Riot Games, MPC, The Mill, Furio Tedeschi just to name a few. There was more. There was the first ever ZBrush awards. The winners chosen from and by the community on ZBrush Central. That turned out to be a ‘black tie’ affair. And in the interest of fairness Pixologic handed out ties for everyone, you had your choice of the standard or the bow. I did not get a bow tie.
There was also the sculpt off. The sculpting for that took place on Friday, then voting was on Saturday and the winners awarded on Sunday. After Furio Tedeschi’s talk it was great to see him win the Hard Surface challenge for the Sculpt Off. I am sorry to say that I am not that familiar with the winner for the Organic challenge in the Sculpt Off.
This year they offered Workshops, this was the only part of the Summit that had a fee the rest of the event was free. There were some interesting choices for the workshops and some I would have liked to take except I felt they might be a bit too advanced for me at this stage. But there was one that was designed as being for beginners which I decided to take. I find even if I have experience with something it never hurts to reinforce the basics. In my case, being self taught on ZBrush, I probably didn’t get some basics. Because of that I signed up to take the ‘Digital Sculpting for Artists’ workshop taught by Eric Keller. I’m really glad I did.
By the end of the workshop I didn’t feel nearly as lost as I sometimes do and I learned at least 3 things that I will be using in my future endeavors with ZBrush. And that was really the point in taking the workshop. I just wanted that little extra to help me get past a couple of things that have been vexing me or delaying me.
There was so, so much information being presented that I went back to my hotel with a full brain every night. And I wasn’t the only one. On Sunday, towards the end one guy I met, Brendan, sorry I didn’t get your last name, said something to the effect of ‘who knew sitting in the dark for three days watching presentations could be so exhausting.’ And that really is true. But it was so worth it.
I wasn’t the only one who flew in from out of state to attend the Summit. I met Tyler from Texas who has been travelling around the country just to get to see it. I met Jose from Mexico City who flew in on Friday and went straight from the airport to the summit. And there was Dennis originally from France but I think he now lives in the states though I don’t remember. And then there were the presenters who came in from Canada, Antwerp, South Africa, London and I’m not sure where else. Everyone was so open and excited and
interested that it made the whole thing really enjoyable.
And it wasn’t just the attendees or the community. The guys from Pixologic and the volunteers and vendors were all friendly and open and approachable. You didn’t feel like anyone was on a pedastal or stand-offish or anything like that. They were all a bunch of really nice people that make you want to be a part of the community they are building.
I’m not sure I can pick out a favorite moment of the whole weekend there was so much good stuff happening that it might be impossible. I think I can pick out the best answer to a question this weekend. It was a question asked of Furio Tedeschi. I think the Pixologic Twitter feed has it best.
I think my head is still spinning with all the information and great people and ideas of what to do next. It may take me a few days to get the rest sorted out so don’t be surprised if I’m still writing about it in a week or two. Thankfully the Pixologic team will be posting things to their YouTube site. I did come back with the beginnings of a game plan for really tackling ZBrush and 3D art and animation and even some ideas for my website (the other one, not that other one, that other one) and my home studio.
Of course I did have to pick up some swag this weekend as well. Mementos. I love having the coffee mug because I can take it to the day job and have it as a constant reminder of what I want to do and of the weekend, at least until next year.