How to Improve Your 3D Sculpting Super Fast

In this art video tutorial, we cover how to improve your sculpting incredibly fast by speeding up the failure rate and feedback process. This can be applied to anything, from sculpting, drawing, 3d modeling, etc.
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#ZBrush

[@LindyDesignLab]

Don't be afraid to make a turd, but know when to stop polishing it. Got it.

[@ptootie5657]

Seriously my problem rn, i make a fundamentally shitty design but i proceed to waste 2 hrs polishing it

[@Keji839]

I have used this technique in my sculpts. My first sculpt was the best thing I ever made but it took me 2 months. Now I complete sculpts in half an hour and they look way more professional and refined.

[@Aussie.Owlcoholic]

Thats really inspirational for me, thanks for sharing :)

[@iverex2989]

Same , mine took a month and it was just a bust. My new ones take like three hours. Looking back at my old works, boy they’re all ugly af. I used to think they were good.

[@redphantom2670]

literally the same thing happened to me, i was ok with the result but after the new sculp i went back to see my old sculp and i was like what the hell is this crap.

[@maldambao6126]

Sculpt 1: When someone steals your chicken nuggets Sculpt 4: When someone offers you their chicken nuggets

[@MisterBattery331]

"If you only look at reference, that's kind of like tracing a photo" I really needed to hear that, it never occured to me that solely relying on references could slow my learning but it makes so much sense. Thanks so much, guys!

[@philistineau]

15 minutes?!?!? If that took me a month I’d be proud.

[@ripples1072]

That's kinda good point. If you do this whenever you want to learn how to make something, youll learn to make stuff better and faster.

[@davidnguyen3469]

Flipped Normals: Takes 15 minutes to model a chimpanzee head. Me: Takes 15 minutes just to figure out how to exit 2.5D mode.

[@puppy3908]

15 minutes of rotating the model so that shift doesn't flip my camera sideways

[@TiagoTiagoT]

Are you talking about what they show on the video? That looks like a timelapse to me....

[@davidnguyen3469]

@@TiagoTiagoT It's timelapse alright, but you can see the 15 minute mark when he saves the model.

[@hamzaahmad1801]

Thats so accurate :D

[@TiagoTiagoT]

@@davidnguyen3469 Where are you seeing that exactly?

[@stupid4President]

Nice, Agile creation process: fail fast, maximum learning, short cycles, iterate.

[@Synyster641]

This is mind-blowing, I loved the self-feedback concept and as a beginner I never really thought about it. Thanks!

[@therevoltsband]

This is a really solid "masterclass" so to speak about learning things efficiently. I work in the music industry as an audio engineer but I wanted to pick up sculpting as a hobby and I have to say I can use a ton of this advice on any craft I'm trying to master. Thanks so much for this!

[@Fuge0910]

I just found out about this channel and you guys are amazing, thank you so much for the lessons and advises, it is really helpful and it covers most of the gaps that I had when I spend my time at college . Will support long time :D

[@Gorongirl]

It reminds me of the book The Master and His Emmissary, with image reference being the left brain, and imagination work being the right. Each side needs each other, but the work has to be passed off in stages and not stymied by one type of processing dominating the creation of the work. Great video guys!!

[@ndjxisjenxjix9525]

I dunno if id agree with this. You dont really use inagination is more like muscle memory

[@amrishpatel3501]

I wish I knew this back in Art School years ago. Great advice. :)

[@taraskashuk1069]

Your chanell is such a diamond. Thank you for your work!

[@alexisprojects]

This is fantastic. It feels like common sense, but it's really great advice. I'm going to use this with my drawing as well.

[@Wickedrag0n]

Great video! I’m new to sculpting and loving it all!

[@VoidloniXaarii]

Love your sculpting advice

[@Yipper64]

interesting. I never thought of combining the learning of not using a reference and using it. Like, switching from one to the other over and over. that sounds like it would be good to do.

[@ericdalpiaz410]

love this type of content! thanks!! keep going

[@FlippedNormals]

Cheers Eric!

[@Ludwig6583]

Great video! Thank you very much 🙏

[@fuzzball3980]

As a beginner (i haven't watched the full video so if i repeat what they said sorry) but i think what they said at the start "setting yourself up for failure" is an amazing way to learn, ill give an example from my own experience by willingly knowing i was crap at anatomy i was like well if im crap then ill make it moderately hard to do and so i did my first sculpt and it was awful and the next 4 were awful but there was significant improvements in quality because i learned and memorized something new every time i did this, i'm now drawing 2d anatomy to extend my knowledge because i knew i was crap at that too and ive already seen improvements. Same with when i wanted to uv map a pumpkin(in the process of doing that now) i knew i had never done it but i did it anyway on what i would call i complicated object to uv map and ive learned so much more than just them two things through tackling things i know im crap at. So please take there advice and study those fundamentals but also make sure to have fun a few times like small personal projects like my pumpkin to keep yourself motivated. (: sorry for long post

[@fuzzball3980]

I forgot to mention feedback was an important part of this process(thanks az decay jesse ryferion.blend light.fbx, maria and so many more)

[@tanoyfrommars]

Thanks alot this video was really helpful

[@mikethegamedev]

0:05 i like the number 1, because it looks great for a funny 3d animation lol

[@Roxaro]

nice I will use tons of references and obsorve them and set quick deadlines

[@juhanimattsson]

Great video! Just wondering, how do you set up your tablet for convenient navigating in blender? For example middle mouse button, right click etc. Or are you still using a mouse in addition to the tablet?

[@FlippedNormals]

Yup, middle mouse and right click. That's it 👍 But we use a mix of tablet and pen, depends on the tasks.

[@jackalvarez6301]

u have a new fan!

[@Joerdodd]

Hey! How do you change your brush size so fast? I know the ‘[]’ keys adjust brush size but you seem to adjust much faster in like one click? I’m new to using a tablet and you’re videos are a game changer, thank you!!!! 🙌

[@nvtn8287]

Thanks guys.

[@tatianababinich6205]

Graet! Thanks!

[@alielhawli7566]

Would you apply the same time limits and techniques to whole body sculpts or would you increase the time of sculpting?

[@d100763]

great video - thank you along these lines best advice i heard was from Follygon - you’ll learn more from ten one hour sculpts than one ten hour sculpt thank you for this video

[@joshpolman201]

You guys are really helping my skills along, thank you for all you videos :)

[@FlippedNormals]

Happy to help!

[@Lust4Machine]

This will help me alot wow!

[@FlippedNormals]

Thats great to hear :D

[@jinlinliu8260]

Very good

[@thiagosouza9445]

I would.love to hear about the theory to practice ratio. when someone have like 3hrs a day to focus, how to divide the time?

[@user-gk2ub2on5f]

this video is really useful for me.i make 1 model too long for beauty result.

[@dee6561]

Ehem, thanks for more sculpting videos! I'm sure all beginner character sculpters in any program appreciate more advice!

[@dee6561]

Also, the method of repeated practice rather than spending all time on one hits home in my personal experience.

[@dee6561]

Just what I fucking NEEDED-- save me! My sculpts all have resting Muk-face!

[@GuilhermeMaia100]

Very good advice. I want to start it but one thing... 15 minutes for every study? Like the 4 chimps at the start of the video. All of them had a time restriction?

[@jacobmartincontreras]

Is the 1st one your troll sculpture from the retopo vids?

[@scurvofpcp]

The front view of number 2 looks like they should have glasses.

[@OutOfNamesToChoose]

If you did turn it into a podcast, I would've kept listening for over 2h

[@daluartanvir]

at last! a zbrush video.

[@bohdan_lvov]

BOOO

[@CuT7yFlaM]

Can someone tell me what is that multi picture software? It's really nice to have that on screen floating around.

[@nxgentech]

PureRef, it's free.

[@rosarty7683]

How do you go about keeping what you learned? Even if I do that, I always come to struggle as soon as I tried to learn another thing, and then come back to the first one

[@LuKcYTuToRiAlS]

You keep using it, you Make it a part of your work pipeline, if you are into Character Modeling, then there are a lot of steps you are sure to repeat. But, The problem is when you learn something and never use it again until, lets say 2 months after.

[@James-pb8xu]

Lots of repetition

[@rosarty7683]

@@LuKcYTuToRiAlS yeah, but that's what I'm talking about. If i want to learn how to draw a broad variety of things, I cant repeat everything all the time. But i guess even that is just a matter of repetition and practice

[@moncherryhead7530]

I swear I heard you guys mention what that reference app is at some point, or that one exists and Im trying to find where (if you guys did) mention what it is! the one where you can pull up your reference images and keep them on screen while working without it falling behind the window your working on :O

[@FlippedNormals]

Pureref 👍

[@jamesc2683]

Woah, how did you use PureRef to trace? I did not know you could do this

[@FlippedNormals]

You can set the opacity of ZBrush to be lower and then put pure ref behind it.

[@integragemi7234]

Lol miniature is so perfect based on a true story

[@Hejirah]

8:12 how do you do pores?

[@bohdan_lvov]

Whoa, I think it will be awesome, if you make a follow-up video about *how* to use references. Because often people actually can't understand how it works and trying just to make 1:1 copy of the image without understanding underlying structure of it, simply attempting to copy dark and white spots, which can be beneficial for you pattern-distinguishing ability, but absolutely useless, if you want to draw referencing object in a slightly different camera angle.

[@Synyster641]

I second that :)

[@Yushataram]

Can you do a video on job visa

[@Absovec]

I'm kinda shy to ask about it - but I feel like I'm not completely understand idea. So, correct me if I'm wrong - Training through seetting self to failure is to doing work in the weirdest way of possible, so it's for example - making sculpt without reference, because obviously you won't get good result without seeing object that you sculpting, or doing it in a limited amount of time. Or it's like with homework - first you do it with ref, then without it to solidify all knowledge and understand by yourself how it's all actually works

[@alexisprojects]

It's memory training. 1st sculpt - no reference. 2nd sculpt - lots of references. 3rd sculpt - no reference. THIS is the magic sculpt, because you can see how the memory has changed and how you're noticing form and structure. Really, you could keep going back and forth more times, keep seeing how you improve with each iteration. They ended on the 4th sculpt which was just refining the 3rd sculpt with references. It's a way to force yourself to really notice things. How much would you want to work on a chimp? Who knows, but I see this helping immensely with character sculpting.

[@artofsumit]

How to place those reference images on screen like in this video?? please help

[@FlippedNormals]

Use PureRef :)

[@leecaste]

You can also come back some time later to check your previous practices...if they look horrible to you it means you improved a lot since then 🤓

[@casualartist4202]

People clicking to see how to improve: Me: mmmmm monke

[@plop4493]

Version 1 of that monkey looks kinda cute though

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

There's an inherent problem with self-feedback. How can you tell the difference when you don't know what the difference is? The concept does not work if you don't have any prior frame of reference. Many people would be quite content with example 1 and never move from there, as there's no push for improvement. The same problems described in the video apply to self-feedback. Neither form of feedback is sufficient if neither encourages improvements of any kind and, in many cases, negative feedback of any kind is more helpful than even constructive feedback, assuming the receiver has the discipline to know how to filter it.

[@PeterKoperdan]

You do have a point. However, if you are an aspiring artist and you cannot tell for yourself that #1 is total crap and #2 is somehow wrong, then you have a problem. The problem is that you lack certain basic observational and analytical qualities. Such qualities can be acquired with training and time, but you will probably always be behind other artists that actually have those basic observational and analytical qualities from the get-go. And we are talking pretty basic here. Good artists actually have good to great observational and analytical qualities. You cannot get far without that. And good artists eventually have to rely on themselves to achieve greatness. Also I don't understand why negative feedback should be more helpful than constructive feedback? It is basically "The sculpt is crap." vs "The head is too small.". Surely pointing towards specific problems with something is better than simply saying something is not good. Perhaps you define negative/constructive differently from me..

[@FPChris]

I like #2

[@realjayjobes1849]

3:14- and #2 looks more stoned than murderous like #1 😂

[@tsunayoshisawada5353]

6:10 you say that getting there as fast as possible. I kind of think it is slightly missleading. Because the process itself is not rapid. It takes time to get to that level. But i know you mean by failing a lot --> faster improvement something like that. Just wanted to clarify that, because some people may think doing everything fast or taking shortcuts is making them better in no time. Nice advice nonetheless like always!

[@FlippedNormals]

Thanks for the comment! We dont mean that you should rush it - but rather that you should get out many revisions :)

[@benjaminbaker7714]

When I sculpt, I really get lost in what I'm doing, and I forget to look over at my reference. How can I train myself to look at it regularly?

[@puppy3908]

You could wear a ring or something and everytime you remember to look at your reference you touch the ring which will teach you to remember looking at the reference

[@benjaminbaker7714]

@@puppy3908 thanks for the tip.

[@ripples1072]

Draw from life more

[@PeterKoperdan]

Put a pink postit note on the edge of your monitor - next to your reference - that says "LOOK AT THE F*CKING REFERENCE!!!". It will be pretty hard to ignore. If that doesn't help, make a new postit note every day. If that doesn't help, you are probably a lost cause..

[@Cherrythefruit]

With the One Ring < Without the One Ring

[@Grom84]

what is that reference app?

[@nlxjeffoxnl]

PureRef

[@Grom84]

@@nlxjeffoxnl thanks! was using spotlight inside of zbrush which is meh.

[@staughost]

tldw: try to sculpt without reference = fail , sculpt with reference = do new sculpt trying to fix the failed parts, repeat.

[@bohdan_lvov]

But you understand, of course, that first dude looks like not a troll, but rather as a Doomsday from Batman v Superman, right?

[@lucasbosco3473]

If i remember correctly they both worked on doomsday in Batman vs Superman.

[@bohdan_lvov]

@@lucasbosco3473 yeah, that's why I brought it up.

[@FlippedNormals]

I worked on texturing for Doomsday, but not the design /H

[@gurikasemit]

​@@FlippedNormals that was close...!

[@assafcohen6553]

I didnt really understand this technique. at first you said to not look at reference and then do another sculpt with a reference, ok got it, but then you said to use a reference so im really confuse!

[@FlippedNormals]

1. Do a sculpt without reference to see where you are currently at without any help. 2. Make another sculpt where you use reference. You'll now be able to learn everything you did wrong in the first sculpt, expanding your visual library and understanding. 3. Do another sculpt without reference, but with everything you learnt from the reference sculpt. It's purely an exercise to improve your skills. For portfolio pieces you should use reference for everything.

[@assafcohen6553]

@@FlippedNormals Ok now I get it thanks a lot for the advice I will use this!

[@thumbwarriordx]

Dope Middle-Earth Ogre head tho

[@junechevalier]

The 28 dislikes are from people who never used reference lmao

[@AS-ym2bp]

"Always look at reference" I'm trying to sculpt a wife for myself and I always ask women and their husbands if I can *grab* some reference from them but it usually ends up with me having a black eye and a triple digit hospital bill.

[@Yipper64]

13:15 that rabbit hole goes deep actually. Its not just that people think they are "cool" for not using reference, some in that group will look down on others for using reference. Its this whole competition to these people, you cant cheat or you are a bad person. They shame each other. And then they think their very ideas are so great that they can just sell the very idea of their characters for money. And people pay for it. Because they have this whole awful community of just believing this nonsense.

[@PeterKoperdan]

People buy character ideas? Like for example a RATMAN or something?? What do they use the bought idea for?

[@shakycopyrightedcontent6674]

Cool video! Can you show us how to make Asians next time?

[@matthewdixon8665]

Is that the idea behind speed sculpting?

[@FlippedNormals]

Training your brain to work up shapes fast. Be able to iterate quickly through ideas and also expose yourself to a lot of different subject matter

[@3DAngelique]

Your videos are fantastic. I just wish you had more ad breaks. One ad every 3 minutes simply isn't enough.

[@albiceleste101]

How tf did you make that in 15min seriously

[@Dexter101x]

As with humans, no two chimps are the same

[@bukachell]

monke

[@Hman-wm5qm]

Original looks like Samuel L. Jackson.

[@thinkthink4868]

Good tips. However, unless one's parents are rich, don't fail in business. The debt can be crippling.

[@Ehwen]

Ahh yes time to fail

[@knnoko2712]

If I spend 15-30 minutes sculpting something it won't be even close to what I want. I don't even know how to make shapes become what I want.

[@rezrezzy7781]

I feel so bad, i spend 500 hours on a human head and body :(

[@wittyshenanigans1302]

Rez Rezzy you’re learning it’s fine. What matters is if you have fun and enjoy sculpting :)

[@PeterKoperdan]

You have amazing perseverance! That's a great asset in itself. Just be more smart about using your time. If you don't know how to direct your learning, start by going through a variety of high grade tutorials that catch your interest.

[@EvilMP5]

Like the old saying shit in = shit out

[@TheRealArtDoctor]

Fact if you can sculpt model monkey's you can sculpt model anything

[@tfg_8564]

instructions unclear, turned my new york city into a suzanne.

[@FlippedNormals]

It happens to the best of us..

[@aceb2660]

1st lol

[@NsanePixel]

Please do a Joe Rogan head sculpt.

[@kan50805]

Never mind this is digital

[@FlippedNormals]

The fundamental principles apply for both physical and digital sculpting. The difference is the tool

[@AdamM12590]

I think this could have been avoided to some considerable degree. In the begimning, you mention your initial sculpt was from memory....I think this is the main culprit as to why you started out with a turd. In my opinion, you almost never completely model anything without reference....the brain is not capable of remembering the various contours of a complex object, especially organic. Reference use is not a weakness

[@Noder]

I hate to be that guy, but Chimps are apes, not monkeys. Love the video though.

[@louism8911]

Pretty much you get all the feedbacks/inspirations from God/Jesus because He's an artist. ;)