Learn Zbrush-Ultimate course 4 beginners/intermediate

Agree with the Pavlovich videos (a bit like Michelangelo teaches you digital sculpting - can be overwhelming - might be a better as a second course, after you have a grounding in zbrush). Scarecrow course on linkedin/lynda was also great - esp. on integrating maya or 3ds or blender with zbrush and substance painter - an overall workflow. My favorite starter course is by Milivoj Popovic on Udemy (intro to sculpting with zbrush). He slowly introduces concepts and workflows with projects, so that you master one concept at a time. https://www.udemy.com/course/sculpting-in-zbrush/

I did my first ‘fulfilling’ course at Udemy.com. Sometimes they have courses on sale for £9.99, so watch out for it...I think there is one on now. https://www.udemy.com/course/sculpting-in-zbrush/ I tried loads of different courses and this one did it for me. It demystified everything...the instructor is a legend. I highly recommend it.

https://www.udemy.com/course/sculpting-in-zbrush/

That's the only tutorial she's used

I am in the basically same boat as you. My day job is an engineer so Im familiar with cad and 3dprinting in a way similar to you. Ive been learning for a few months and here is what I would recommend. It works for me.

Im teaching myself digital sculpting right now and its a totally different skillset. Yes its all CAD but the softwares used are hugely different. Especially if you want to go to a more organic feel. You move from very parametric softwares to a very freeform way of doing things where rough proportions are what you pay attention to.

People are saying pick up blender/zbrush (learning to drive either is fine but the sculpting skills transfer so it doesnt really matter)). I wont say much on that other than learning to drive the software is not the same as being able to sculpt (jk this turned into a whole paragraph). Much like solidworks; driving it does not make you an engineer. There are skillsets you want to hone. For learning to drive blender there are tons of free youtube stuff out there ( i personally dont like using youtube its too all over the place for me). I like udemy or paid places. I have to spend less time hunting, and I value my time highly. I personally am using Zbrush right now. Yes blender can do what it can do, kinda. But zbrush is just better and it feels better to use. You can get onetime license (\~900 usd flat cost), monthly (\~40), or just pirate it lmao. They have a free trial so you can do that. On youtube for zbrush michael pavlovich^(1) has a really good free tutorial series but its very cut and dry. On udemy there is a class from from milivoj popovic^(2) i think is pretty good (udemy there is always a sale never pay full price for a class you can usually find it for like 10-20 bux). He is a little less cut and dry and has some good follow thrus and practice exercises. The one Im like the best currently is from gnomon workshop (50/month but you can easily do the course in a month and know enough to solve most problems) by madeline scott-spencer^(3) . She has lots of good files to work with still just as technical but focusing a lot giving you a project the whole time that is probably a bit closer to what you want to sculpt vs like bananas lmao. At the end of the day its about finding someone who works for you.

ok so that was software.

skills are stuff like anatomy and jsut practices. Im learning because i want to sculpt monsters ands things inspired by Kingdom death. there are tons of people on youtube doing speed sculpts of basically anything you can think of. I like wathcing those to give me an idea of how people block things out and how they think and problem solve for forms they want. I recommend a hard anatomy course also it really helps a lot. speedchar has a few good free ones but they dont go into as much detail as I want. Raf Grasseti^(4) just dives in and shows you how to sculpt muscles and things. He isnt super detailed in the sense that he goes over insertions and everything but Its often recommended. Another one Im working thru is from victory3d llc^(5). a lot more technical goes over insertions and muscle names in first half of course then does a full sculpt. There is tons of stuff out there like free materials and reading and books ( in that vein i got a trial membership to scribd for a month they have a ton of material on there for free to download with a membership, i grabbed what i thought looked interesting then cancelled before getting charged).

people like flipped normals on youtube. they also have market place. I find them kinda eh, not really my style of learning.

pureref is a really good software to have for collecting references look into that. its free

Additionally i just subscribed to a ton of art subreddits (stuff like r/zbrush, r/ImaginaryMonsters, r/art, etc.) and people on artstation (esp other mini sculptors) for inspiration. i try to sculpt a little every day and have to constantly remind myself to not get discouraged because of all the people out there who are really good lmao.

1 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkzopwqcFevYP1Nm3wIKsyH-jQTkk8AhS

2 https://www.udemy.com/course/sculpting-in-zbrush/

3 https://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials/introduction-to-zbrush-2021

4 https://gumroad.com/l/YGTL

5 https://www.udemy.com/course/human-anatomy-for-artists/

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just a quick reminder do not pay full price on udemy straight up not with it. they are basically always on sale or you can find a coupon. those are basically the "true price"