3d sculpting is both a fun and intuitive way to create characters in 3D.

This class is designed to teach you the essential 3d sculpting skills you need to get started.

3D sculpting offers a fast and intuitive way to translate a character design into 3d either for use within an animation or as a standalone illustration.

In this class, I’ll be covering everything you need to know as a beginner taking your first steps in 3D sculpting.

At its most basic level, 3d sculpting is very accessible but it also comes with a number of complexities which can create confusion for beginners. To start with, the number of available brushes can be overwhelming. Which do you need to use and why? And then there are the technical elements like dynamic topology and remeshing to understand.

I’ll be covering everything in this class in a logical way which gradually builds in complexity as you gain knowledge and confidence with the various tools.

We’ll start out by sculpting a simple rock to get comfortable with the basic concepts.

Once that is complete, we’ll move on to sculpt two different types of coral which will each introduce additional tools and techniques.

You’ll then be ready to put your new skills to use as we sculpt a cute seahorse character based upon my provided design.

Finally, we’ll bring all of the elements together to assemble our final scene and render the end result.

What you will learn:

This class covers all of the essential brushes and techniques required to get you sculpting quickly in 3d.
You will learn how to start sculpting from various primitive objects or from more detailed base meshes.
We cover sculpting at different resolutions and how to adjust them using techniques such as Dyntopo (Dynamic Topology), and Remeshing.
You will also learn how to translate a 2d design into 3d.
By the end of this class, you will have all the skills necessary to sculpt simple characters and environments of your own.

What you will create:

By following along with the class, you will sculpt a 3D seahorse character within an underwater environment before creating a final, fully rendered, image.

Good to know:

This is a beginner level class using the free 3D software application Blender.
No prior sculpting experience is required but a familiarity of Blender’s interface would be very helpful.
If you are new to Blender, I would recommend starting out with my Into Animation: Blender 3D Essentials for Animators class which will provide a solid foundation to build on.
This class has been updated to remain fully compatible with Blender 4.3 or higher.
I have provided the seahorse design in the class resources section but, if you would like to model a character based upon your own design, consider starting out with my Into the Ocean: Character Design Essentials class.
The Blender software application can be downloaded for free from: blender.org

By the end of this class, you’ll have all of the skills necessary to sculpt simple characters of your own.

Let’s get started!

Once you have finished this class, don't forget to check out the other animation classes here on Skillshare.

Nienke Berger

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