Written by Taoan, 2022 Cohort
Due to the pandemic, I spent most of the time with my laptop at home during the holidays. Though most of the time I was playing video games, watching fun videos and game streaming of my friends, I also did some learning related to my major, like watching tutorials of modelling and making some progress on my 3D model for the portfolio. That’s why I want to talk about digital sculpting today.
Digital Sculpting is by no means new to the tech game. It was widely used in different industries, like films, animations, games etc. I will approach it from the modelling side and make a comparison with traditional sculpting.
For the 3D Artist, digital sculpting software such as Zbrush offers a different workflow to build 3D models. The traditional way is modelling based on the topology of the 3D objects and some complex structures. It’s hard to make it from basic cubes or other simple shapes (the term topology refers to the geometric surface characteristics of the mesh). By comparison, digital sculpting software allows us to sculpt on objects without considering the topology (if you want the 3D models used as animation or game assets later, you still need to re-topologize it), like playing with clay. Besides, digital sculpting software helps modellers to craft accurate details intuitively in the model with a graphic tablet.
As for the comparison with traditional sculpting – I had a clay sculpture course when I was in university, though I was still an amateur – both of them have their pros and cons. On the one hand, traditional sculpting has a lot of materials, some of them are hard to keep in a good condition to sculpt (such as clay, you need to keep it wet all the time), some of them are hard to modify (you cannot add the stones or woods back if you cut excess material). You do not need to spend time on keeping the materials or be concerned about modifying your models if you are making digital sculptures. On the other hand, traditional sculpting allows artists to touch their works, so they can go about it more intuitively and focus on their modelling crafts, unlike digital sculpting, which requires first getting used to working with a tablet and learning how to use the software.
All in all, digital sculpting increases the work efficiency of 3D artists and allows them to create more accurate details on their models.