The objective of this Mentorship Program is to bring you from any level of skill to a fully rendered Stylized character.
Start with a concept art and get to the final render. Get constant feedback from your mentor. Make a production-ready piece. Your best one so far.
Student Stories
I loved the fact that it was a start-to-finish program and I have a great sense that I actually achieved something as well as having learned a lot along the way.
Brendan McCaffrey
3D artist, Ireland
I've never stayed up so long at night having so much fun in making 3D! The feeling of improvement the course gives to you it's the best thing for me. Thanks to the overall organization and Marlon's human and technical skill the process of trial and error was not frustrating, but funny and challenging.
Francesco Gianfreda
3D Art student, Italy
My skills have improved, I am able to face new and more complicated projects. I have learned a lot these weeks, I will be waiting for next courses.
Juan Ureña
3D Art enthusiast, Spain
The instructor speaks quite clearly and is easy to understand even if you don't speak native English, plus there are resources provided by the course itself. In addition, the method of creating the character is comfortable and gives very good results even when texturing it. Also the community and the fact of being able to upload your work to topics every week and that people see it and give to you feedback I liked it a lot.
Tifa C. Moles
3D Character Artist, Spain
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
What you will get out of it
Have you ever wanted to have a process to follow with your characters?
Desired feedback when you see that something is off, but you're not quite sure what is it?
Have you struggled with finishing your project?
We know how it feels when you've got all the passion, but lack tools and methodology.
That's why we're bringing you the Mentorship Program, where you will get both: Structured System + Feedback = Character Mentorship Program
The program consists of two main parts: content + 12 weeks of regular feedback
Part 1: Stylized Character Program
Total duration of video content: 14 h 20 min
Battle-proof Methodology for Stylized Characters
Full Process in HD video
14 + hours of step-by-step pre-recorded videos in HD covering all the tools and techniques
Anatomy + Organic Sculpting + Hard Surface
Learn how to work with the three building blocks of any character, make believable faces, clothes, hair, armor and accessories.
All Files For Download
Download step-by-step ZBrush and Marmoset files and look at the progress
Lesson 1: Custom Interface and intro
Lesson 2: Sculpting the head
Lesson 3: Sculpting the torso
Lesson 4: Sculpting the legs
Lesson 5: Refining the body
Lesson 1: Sculpting the hands
Lesson 2: Refining the head
Lesson 3: Blocking out the hair and cap
Lesson 4: Extracting the jacket
Sculpting hands and faces are the two important lessons you will take away from this module. You will learn how to sculpt a hand in a relaxed pose, starting from the index finger. You will understand head-body proportions and micro details that contribute to an appealing face for a character.
Lesson 1: Extracting the t-shirt
Lesson 2: Extracting the pants
Lesson 3: Starting the boots
Lesson 4: Adding elements to the boots
We will be modeling clothes in Zbrush. In this module we will learn how to extract different pieces of clothes and how to make sure they are topologically-correct. Our goal is to make sure you can implement this process on any character of your choice.
Lesson 1: Shoulder plates
Lesson 2: Creating the weapon
Lesson 3: Building the kneepad
Lesson 4: Beauty pass
Lesson 5: Organizing the file
We're doing all the hard surface modeling in Zbrush, too. Hard surface details of the stylized character we chose for the program are not limited to a weapon, so you will see a variety of hard surface elements covered.
You will learn what makes a truly appealing character and know how to navigate:
Facial asymmetry
Perfect profile view
Proportions of the lips and the face
Character look and personality from different distances
Whether you are working on a female character or you're modeling a male character, you will know how to masterfully sculpt a face in Zbrush in a way that serves your character best.
There are so many reasons why you should never present your character in a T-pose or an A-pose. By doing so, you will lose an opportunity to showcase the strengths of your project and demonstrate its full beauty. After completing this module you will make an overall pass and add tiny details that will add textures and story to your character. Remember, you are an artist, and every piece you create is telling a story, so in this module we're taking the most important steps to finishing it.
The first thing you will need to do if you're planning to texture your character is to create UVs for it. You might find some difficulties, so we will go through the whole process and try to address the most common issues and demonstrate how to solve them, too.
In this module you will grab the textures polypainted in Zbrush and give them a final touch by creating additional maps. After finishing character texturing in Substance Painter, you will render in Marmoset.
Part 2: Mentorship + Feedback
Total LIVE Q&A hours: 18 h
LIVE sessions
Group Q&A sessions every two weeks ZBrush mastery sessions Recordings of all the sessions Optional 1:1 feedback LIVE
Individual paintovers
When you post your progress on Art Heroes forum, our instructors will suggest improvements with paintovers and gifs, to make it visual. You can post as many times as you like!
Community Access
Connect with the rest of the Art Heroes tribe on discord channel and community forum.
Bonuses (also included!)
Bonus 1: Substance Painter + Marmoset mini-course
Total duration of video content: 2 h 10 min
UVs and Polypainting
Starting with UVs, take your character to the next level. Texture and create a professional render with the extra support we provide within the two extra mini-courses.
Render in Marmoset
Two bonus mini-courses of the program show how to use Substance Painter and Marmoset to make your character complete: we cover materials, tools and workflow, starting from your Zbrush sculpt.
Posing + Presentation
Learn how to present your character to give it maximum exposure and show the winning angles.
Bonus 2: ZBrush Fundamentals
Total duration of video content: 7 h 15 min
All Zbrush fundamentals
Perfect for complete beginners + to refresh your knowledge and close the gaps
Participate in LIVE Q&A
Got practical questions you can't find an answer to on the forums? Ask our community! Or even better, come to weekly office hours to clarify with the instructors in-person.
Build small projects to practice
Polish new tools & knowledge on small projects
Student feedback
I learned lots and way faster than just by looking around random videos on YouTube by myself. The instructor gave very good advice and the pace of the course was just right.
Momoko Okabe
CG Artist, Vancouver
I loved the length of the videos, it covered enough for me and then let me go off and figure stuff out for myself. Seeing as the character I had was not the same as in the videos, there was a lot of room to go my own way, and for me that was good, as I had done enough step-by-step courses and some things don't stick that way, but using what I was taught in the videos on my own character brought up new challenges and locked a few things into place for me.
Sean Olsen
3D Artist, USA/Ireland
The workflow and the constant corrections from the instructor gave me another view of my work process. The best thing about the instructor was that he made the hard and tedious processes simple.
Julio Padula
3D Artist, Buenos Aires
First of all, it was fun, and I learned a lot during this course. As well as improving my sculpting skills, the biggest part for me was the actual feedback, where I got feedback directly on my model.
Art Director and co-founder at Art Heroes, Marlon has been a part of some of the world's best teams, from EA, Blur, Goodbye Kansas, and RealtimeUK. Marlon specializes on digital humans and one of his big passions is creating stylized characters
Daniele is a specialist in collectibles and statues and WACOM ambassador in Italy. He's been working in the industry for over a decade and has taught thousands of students in live workshops.
Alfredo Baro
Course Instructor
Character artist and modeler, Alfredo is a year-round instructor at Art Heroes. He currently lives in Mexico, freelances, and constantly works on personal projects.
Instructors Gallery
Meet our students!
AND LEARN WHAT IT'S LIKE STUDYING WITH ART HEROES
Brendan McCaffrey (Ireland)
Martin Carillo (Ecuador)
When you complete your final project, you'll receive a certificate of completion (and a little gift from us)
Certificate of Completion
One year access
Access to all the learning materials, live feedback recordings and online community
Individual Feedback
Receive individual feedback from the industry's top experts
Networking with other artists
Meet other students from the program who are also going through the program with you
What makes this Program unique
Prices and enrollment
Spaces are limited. Enroll now to guarantee your spot.
Not sure if it's the right fit? Try the program risk-free for 14 days, and if something doesn't look the way you wanted, request a refund. No questions asked.
Does this Program work for anyone?
Short Answer: Only for artists who are ready to do the work. Long Answer - Here at Art Heroes we like saying that there are five levels of artists:
1
THE DREAMER
You know about the industry and you've opened Zbrush, but there's been too many distractions for you to actually learn any software to navigate it
2
THE Tester
You've been playing with ZBrush, Blender, or 3DS Max, but never really finished a project, although you've achieved some progress. And you're starting to like what you see!
3
THE Intern
If a studio was to hire you, you'd get an intern position, because you know a lot about everything, you've got a few pieces in your portfolio, but you're still lacking the level + experience.
4
THE Junior
You're fairly good and a few projects of yours have been received pretty well. You may have even 3D printed some or done a few commissions. Several years in the industry gave you some experience, but you're still struggling with deadlines and understand that you need to improve your quality.
5
THE MASTER
You're in the industry to stay. You do what you love on daily basis, and - the best part - you are paid for it. Your clients are really grateful for the quality you deliver, and you're proud your work. What once seemed an unachievable height is now your reality.
Going from being an Intern or a Dreamer to being a Master is simply a matter of taking the right action AND having the right processes in place.It all starts with committing to yourself, your art, and making the decision to be this person.
And we'd love to show you how.
In case we haven't met yet, my name is Marlon, I'm the Art Director of Art Heroes and I look after the student success at Art Heroes.
It took me years of hard work to master my skills.
I've had months of artistic plateau when I was asking myself "what's the next step?" "am I not good enough?" "how do all these people make great art and I can't?" "how can I break through?"
Although I've struggled, I managed to do all this:
Marlon Nunez
Art Director @ Art Heroes
Collaborate with some of the world's top studios, from Blur to GoodByeKansas
Make characters for iconic projects (like Tyrion of Game of Thrones cinematic)
Learn how to grow my art profiles on social media (to 24K on Instagram)
Get published in major industry magazines (like 3D Total and 3D Artist)
Travel the world with my family while working remotely
And the only way I've been able to move further was by getting the right mentors along the way
...Someone I can ask questions
...Someone I can learn from
...Someone who is further in their career than I am
I don't believe you ended up here by accident. You, surely, are looking for an improvement
You know you've got what it takes to become the master artist, and you are right.
But let's face it: you can't start working with top clients before you master your skills and reach the level.
That's why in 2020, we are opening a Stylized Character Mentorship Program
Whether you are:
Lacking tools and knowledge of software
Missing good workflow to move faster
Don't understand "what's wrong" with your characters
Need a better grasp of anatomy
Have never done a full character from scratch and just don't know how the process works
Or simply just don't know what to start or how to go about improvements to get to a job...
We've got you covered
When you join Stylized Character Mentorship Program, here's what you get access to
2 full pre-recorded programs
ZBrush Fundamentals + Stylized Character Program, a total of 21 hrs of video
12 weeks of unlimited feedback
Ask what we think, and we will be blunt
Q&A sessions
It's like being in 3D art school, but we're not giving you grades
Community of artists
Private Art Heroes Forum where you can connect with others
We run our programs in intakes so that you start and finish with the same group of artists.
That's why we have to be strict about cut-off dates.
FAQs
Official start date is November, 1, but as soon you complete your enrollment, you will get full access and can start learning.
The bulk of the program is offered as pre-recorded HD-quality videos. There's a private community of the program where you are able to get your questions answered, as well as live sessions.
Feedback is offered in private community of the program and on weekly group Q&A sessions.
Yes, you are eligible for a certificate upon course completion and submission of your final project. You can choose to get a digital certificate and opt-in for a physical copy, too.
With an estimate about 3-4 hours of workload per week, it will take you 12 weeks if you start as a total beginner. If you have experience with Zbrush and don't need to go through fundamentals, expect to finish within 1-1,5 months (together with your final project).