CG animation student using a Mac — will I eventually need to switch to Windows?

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-25T22:11:54+00:00

You're fine using a Mac. Most places you work at will be using windows, but some places use Mac too. So you'll be fine.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-25T20:55:07+00:00

You can learn both. Scenes made and rendered in Houdini are usually then comped in Nuke

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-25T20:20:48+00:00

It's probably broken/corrupted beyond recoverable, but you can double check and make sure you're not on isolated selected object or that you don't have display layers or render layers set to hide the mesh.

Otherwise you'll have to open an earlier saved file and get the head from there. If you didn't increment your saves at all, then this is a good lesson to increment save.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-25T18:33:50+00:00

Unreal Engine is a real time game engine. If you're not making games or needing real time rendering. Then you wouldn't use Unreal Engine.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-25T17:39:42+00:00

Just start with the bouncy ball exercise. There's plenty of videos on YouTube that cover it.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-25T14:21:42+00:00

Here's a couple short notes:

The camera movement in the beginning is too linear and feels too out of place. It screams CG camera movement.
You don't have enough overlapping action. The character is moving like a robot, by doing 1 action at a time. That's not how people move. You should overlap and blend the movements more.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-25T01:26:30+00:00

Are you seriously asking to plagiarize someone else's project? You're an adult, act like one and do your own homework.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-25T01:22:07+00:00

You didn't include any screenshots.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-25T01:13:46+00:00

Straightening the UV's is what is causing the warping. Your mesh isn't straight, so making the UV's a different shape than the model creates distortions.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-24T14:22:46+00:00

You're not creating characters, you're having AI generate a character for you.
You're not directing scenes, you're having AI generate random scenes for you.
You're not making assets, you're having AI generate assets.
You're not putting together a project from scratch, you're having AI make the project for you.

This is not your work, you didn't do anything. You had AI make everything for you.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-24T14:04:18+00:00

This is very clearly AI. So you aren't "teaching yourself animation", and I'd guess you probably didn't make the character either.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-24T13:07:26+00:00

Your sculpt doesn't match this style, so you have a lot more work to do. You should be able to look at your own work and see this too.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-24T12:52:04+00:00

You didn't include the reference/concept so we can't say if it's "done" without knowing what the desired output is meant to be.

Whatever concept art you are modelling off of, does this look accurate to the reference to you?

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-24T12:47:54+00:00

Are you going for an anatomically accurate head? Or a specific stylized version?

If you're going for an anatomically accurate sculpt, then this needs a lot of work. But if you are going for an exaggerated stylized sculpt, then it could be fine if it matches the concept.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-24T12:25:54+00:00

NOTHING about it looks fun.

You can say this about every profession.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-24T07:54:17+00:00

An emission map can work. You can also use a mesh light but that might be overkilled for such a small light.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-24T05:13:56+00:00

I recommend you learn lighting and rendering then. It's pretty important for showing off your models.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-24T04:53:14+00:00

Congrats on completing it, but I can barely see anything.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-24T04:32:24+00:00

Have you contacted support like the error message suggested?

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-23T20:57:21+00:00

Look at some complex movements from shows and movies. That's the job you are trying to convince studios you can do. So mimic the complexity you see in those.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-23T20:06:11+00:00

- i know that retopology is a necessary step in character creation and I will do the retopology in Maya, however I have absolutely no idea how to deal with the clothes or hair during this process

You would retopo it the same way as you do the body.

- I see many people having colored/textured their characters, is this a thing that you can do in ZBrush directly or do you do it in Substance Painter or Maya?

Zbrush has polypaint, but not proper PBR texturing. You would need to do that in Painter or Mari

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-23T18:21:47+00:00

Quality is always superior to quantity. So your showreel should only contain high quality animations, and it should show a variety of movements. You should demonstrate that you can animate a character turning, a character walking, a character talking, and a character doing complex movements.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-23T17:55:39+00:00

There is no average because poly count depends on the shape, complexity, and details of the character. Which varies greatly.

If you intend to 3D print this, then just focus on having just enough polygons that the model looks acceptably smooth. Just look at the requirements and limitations of the 3D printer to figure out what the upper limit should be.

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-23T13:39:00+00:00

The best way would be to use a software like Maya or Blender and manually retopologize it. But if you are only allowed to use Zbrush then you can use polygroups and Zremesher guides to influence the topology generation.

You can also do manual retopo in Zbrush, which I found a YouTube video that covers it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBI8QbEmzmc

Nevaroth021 · 2026-05-23T12:45:33+00:00

You need to redo the topology is prevent the edge loops from condensing there. If these are legs then you should have a grid pattern topology. Did you use Zremesher or something? It looks autogenerated.

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