Japan is a country well known for its old tradition, knowledge of handcrafted arts, but also for embracing innovation and future technologies. ZBrush has always been a tool of choice for the Japanese video game industry, but today it is being used for much more.
The Pixologic team has been visiting studios in Japan and participating in trade shows for several years. This time, we wanted to share our latest visit with all of you and let you in on the events we’ve been a part of this summer. Let’s enjoy the trip together!
Wonder Festival 2017 Summer
The Wonder Festival (or WonFest) is the world’s largest trade show for figurines. It’s twice a year with 55,000 attendees in a single day. If you love figurines, it’s the place to be. Japanese artists are able to show their unique and creative skills and mind blowing pieces of art. ZBrush is now a key factor in figurine creation and you see booths using it everywhere. We also did a presentation of the latest features of ZBrush 4R8 with the Live Booleans as well as the VDM features, to name a few, making a huge impact on the visitors.
Here is a series of photos from the event:
Keos Mason came to our booth to say hello and show their work using ZBrush for figurines. They sold all their figurines in no time!
Fukui-san doing a ZBrushCore presentation. He also wrote a fantastic book about ZBrushCore!
ZBrush was on multiple booths to test the digital sculpting for figurines.
A small selection of figurines on display on our booth provided by manufacturers like Kotobukiya, Max Factor, Good Smile Company, Vertex, QuesQ, Hobby Japan and cute 3D prints by Fukui-san
Our ZBrush 4R8 presentation, crowded as usual
Gorgeous figurine made with ZBrush by Ke-san
One of the figurines selected for the WonderShowcase, made with ZBrush
A figurine from Prime1Studios, sculpted by Keos Masons artists with ZBrush
Thomas with the two 1:1 statues of ToLoveRu Darkness at 1:1 scale, created by DesignCoco, next to our booth!
1:1 scale figurine created by Sakaki Kaoru, sculpted with ZBrush
ZBrushMerge 2017
In addition to our ZBrushSummit, we now have ZBrushMerge for Japan. This is a similar event taking place on a single day where artists are doing presentations and live streaming. For this edition, we had PlatinumGames for a NieR: Automata presentation, talented ZBrush artist Yuuki Morita, Square Enix for a Final Fantasy XV creatures presentation and Keos Masons from Canada showing their workflow and artwork. Things were started off with a special ZBrush 4R8 presentation. The on-site audience was composed of 1/3 of students and 2/3 artists and professionals who were glad to see interesting workflow and processes.
You can watch the presentation on our YouTube channel (In Japanese only, except Keos Masons presentation)
Jin Matsudaira from PlatinumGames doing his NieR:Automata presentation
Influential illustrator Yuuki Morita in action!
Keos Masons did an impressive presentation on their workflow with ZBrush
The presentation of Takeshi Shiba of Square Enix. No Alpha, only pure sculpting!
Meetings and community
Of course, during our trips, we enjoy visiting studios. This year we stopped by several, including FromSoftware, CyGames, Schools like Digital Hollywood or Tama Art University, Toy manufacturers like Kotobukiya, Successful entrepreneurs like Danny Choo who is using ZBrush to create his SmartDolls. (They are super impressive in real life!)
We also enjoy meeting artists and having great dinners with them, which is the best way to learn how they are working and what they are looking for. Since ZBrush is an art tool made by artists for artists, such discussions are precious to us!
Dinner with Okada-san, Fukui-san, Sakaki Kaoru, Kouji Tajima, our COO and marketing director as well as our translator. All these artists have been Top Rowed at ZBC!
Let’s eat some Yakitori after the the ZBrushMerge show!
Our visit to the Danny Choo office and store.
One of the SmartDolls next to her ZBrush model
So lucky to visit FromSoftware offices. Such talented artists!
Tama Art University, where students can learn traditional art as well as digital arts with ZBrushCore
Source: ZBlog
