Using 3D Programs to Enhance your Art
3D digital art is a massive beast to tackle, something that seems monumental in scope when you first start learning a new program (or two, or three, or more…) and the amount of work that must be put into learning and remembering it all often may result in you wondering- is it even worth it?
Well, whether you decide to jump into the industry, do it as a hobby, or just want to add another set of skills to your repertoire, I’m here to tell you it is worth it- even if 3D art isn’t your speciality, and ESPECIALLY if you happen to be an illustrator or other form of 2D artist. So here is a list and explanation of the many simple things you can learn to do using 3D programs to enhance your 2D art, as well as various bits of information that may or may not be helpful to anyone listening.
Anything mentioned in this post should work with practically any art program, with what you decide to use depending entirely on your funds and personal preferences. I personally use Maya, Z-Brush, and Arnold for 3D work as an animation student with access to all of the above, and I use mainly Procreate for digital illustration.
Using 3D programs to create lighting references
You can utilize lighting and rendering within 3D programs to improve your lighting skills in 2D art, as well as create and fine tune a reference however you need instead of searching for the perfect reference for hours. You also can position and know exactly where the light is hitting from, what color it is, etc because you have full control over all aspects. Using a basic model with your own lighting setup, among many other references, can quickly and vastly improve your lighting within illustrations. Below I have an preview render image of a lighting setup I created in Maya with a default model exported from Zbrush, and the initial blockout of a piece using the lighting as one of my references.
Blocking out scenes with 3D programs
Another way to utilize 3D programs for illustration is to block out your scenes in 3D, and use the images generated as the basis for your piece. This is especially useful for concepts with a lot of parts to keep track of, or when you are doing sequential art such as a comic and need the surroundings to stay consistent. I would recommend skipping extra details and just blocking out the area with basic primitives such as cubes to make sure the perspective and layout is properly done if you plan on drawing over or painting over the background, but it’s also entirely possible to create a 3D render and make it seem like part of the painting or piece itself instead. (Although the second approach takes quite a lot more time, knowledge, and skill within 3D art.) Blocking out your scene can also help with making sure character interactions as well as movements make sense within the space, and can make your work feel more grounded when the backgrounds of comics and other sequential art are consistent in both perspective and structure. The blocking out of basic backgrounds is especially helpful in 2D animation- programs such as Blender are perfect for merging 2D and 3D illustration and animation.
Studying and improving anatomy using 3D programs
Using and learning sculpting skills can vastly and rapidly improve your skills in anatomy and structure when it comes to practically anything you can think of. It’s especially useful for the study of muscle and bone structure, and learning to sculpt or at least practicing sculpting basic forms in programs such as Zbrush can lead to a better understanding of the body from any and all angles. In some cases, you can learn quite a bit from just observing a professionally made 3D model and drawing on top of it to mark out major bone and muscle landmarks. You don’t necessarily have to sculpt it yourself (and it won’t help you at all if you do so without references) but I would recommend doing so just for the sake of learning how to create those forms when considering them in 3D. Actually sculpting and slowly practicing creating those forms in 3D can lead to you learning the structure much faster than you would from just observation, especially if you are a more hands-on learner like I am.
Using 3D programs for posing reference
Finding the perfect reference for a pose you are drawing, and at the angle needed no less, is always a massive challenge. You can skip the searching with a simple rig and a little bit of time to block out the pose you’re working with properly. I personally recommend the endo rig, which can be found here. That one is built for Maya, but there should be plenty of free rigs to choose from for your own posing needs, especially for Blender- make sure you look into rigs specifically and not just models as well, as not every model available will have a rig included to actually pose the character. A simple rig like this works wonders for just getting the basic forms and gestures of a pose down, and once you have moved the rig and created the pose as intended you now have a reference for a character’s pose that can be viewed from all angles- which is good both for deciding what perspective would work best in the piece, making sure the pose doesn’t appear broken, and for keeping a pose consistent in all angles for comics or anything where the character will be viewed in the same pose from multiple angles. Below I have a very quick, loose sketch of a character next to the pose I used as reference:
Creating a 3D reference for your own character
If you’re willing to combine a few of these ideas into one effort, it’s definitely worth it to create a 3D model of your own character if you have trouble with drawing certain aspects of them from different angles. Creating a model, either via modeling or sculpting processes, will give you a visage of your character viewable from all angles that remains consistent no matter what- and especially can be useful if you ever need someone else to draw them as well. A 3D reference is the best reference to have if you want your character grounded in reality (or at least, consistent in the space they are in.) For an example, I often had trouble drawing the face of a dragon character of mine from the front but after creating a quick, simple sculpt of the face, pictured below, I now have ample reference to draw the perspective of the snout properly. You don’t have to get super detailed to have something useful- sculpt what you need and move on from there!
There are many, many other ways to use 3D programs to enhance your 3D art outside of what I’ve stated here- it’s a vast world to explore and learn. In the end, it’s a powerful tool to add to the toolbox of any artist, both to work in a new medium, ms to support skills you already may have.
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