It never hurts to up your game. Whether you want to learn from seasoned vets, or are a seasoned vet yourself, CG art tutorials are a quick way to uplevel your skills. Platforms like Cubebrush provide you with endless banks of knowledge so that you can expand your artistic skillset wherever, whenever. Here are just a few top rated tutorials:

The Ultimate Guide: Digital Painting Like a Pro II

With thousands of followers on Cubebrush and over 170K subscribers on Youtube, Xia Taptara is a highly sought-after celebrity in the CG art world. Taptara is a concept artist currently working as an art director at the Monk Studio. Having previously worked for a number of other heavy-hitter studios, Taptara is a seasoned expert with tons of knowledge to share.

Tutorial Details

This package is for beginners and intermediate-level artists looking to boost their abilities in digital painting. It includes over 15 hours worth of video tutorials in which you will learn some of the following and more:

• Multiple scenes using 3 different points of view (POV) to enhance your own perspective
• Two- and three-point perspective to create environments
• Organic surfaces using applied geometric forms
• 28 facial expressions and 5 different facial expressions from one face
• 18 angles of hands and fists

Other Great Tutorials by Xia Taptara

Volume 1 of Taptara’s digital painting series also contains over 15 hours of video tutorials as well as original PSD files. In this first set, the focus is on smaller-scale objects such as male and female figures, as well as textures, and shadows. 

Another great series is his basic character drawing tutorial pack 2 that is great for beginners. It includes two hours of video tutorials that touch upon digital painting and drawing, as well as important Photoshop techniques.

Make an Office Environment

With over 15 years of experience in the 3D gaming industry, Thiago Klafke is a highly skilled artist who has worked on a range of games, from Overwatch to games for Nintendo DS. Klafke’s main area of expertise is in environment design, for which he has basic and advanced tutorials available on Cubebrush.

Tutorial Details

The tutorial consists of 27 hours of the recorded process of the office environment design and creation from start to finish. In it, Klafke touches upon:

• Modular environment design
• Baking tiling textures at various polygon counts
• Creating props and materials
• Lighting
• Post-processing in Photoshop

Software used includes Autodesk Maya, Adobe Photoshop, Unreal Engine 4, and XNormal.

What Other Artists Are Saying

With an average of 4.9 out of 5 stars, these tutorials are known for being comprehensive and simple to follow. And in case you do run into issues, Klafke is quick to respond when you leave a comment on his tutorial page.

Model and Texture a Stylized Dungeon for Games

3DMotive is its own platform that provides high-quality training by game industry pros, focusing on how-to video. Tutorials are created by numerous expert artists with a variety of different backgrounds and specialties.

Tutorial Details

The tutorial walks you through the process of creating a small dungeon environment in multiple steps:

• Modeling low poly assets
• Different techniques of UV mapping
• Define materials in ZBrush
• Render tiling texture flats in Photoshop
• Painting textures for various assets

What Other Artists Are Saying

Subscribers of 3dmotive rate their course highly and enjoy their beginner courses, particularly those that focus on 3DMax, as well as their intermediate and advanced courses. Of all 3Dmotive’s tutorials, those that focus on the hand-painted style are high in demand.

Biped Rigging - Course Assets

The artist antCGi has over 20 years of industry experience and shares much of their knowledge at no or low cost. They specialize in digital art, rigging, and animation services, as well as making video tutorials using mainly Maya and Photoshop.

Tutorial Details

This tutorial runs through the process of ‘rigging’ using Maya. It begins with the basics and slowly incorporates more advanced systems to help you build your own complex rigs. The bundle includes course assets that are used in the 17 Youtube videos provided and covers the following and more:

• Joint fundamentals
• Connections and constraints
• Control creation
• Blendshape-based facial rig
• Space swapping
• Global controls

What Other Artists Are Saying

With a handful of excellent reviews and an average of 4.8 stars, antCGi’s rig courses are known as some of the best out there. If you have other antCGi’s bundles, you may end up purchasing this particular one as chances are you’ll find them incredibly helpful and will want to learn more.

Marvelous Designer 6: Making A Jacket From Scratch

Madina Chionidi is a freelance character artist based in Stockholm, Sweden, who specializes in character art and has experience working for Guerilla Games and EA DICE. Her tutorials on Cubebrush feature realistic accessories such as garments and backpacks.

Tutorial Details

The beginner-intermediate tutorial walks you through a step-by-step process of creating a winter jacket in Marvelous Designer 6. Topics include:

• UI and navigation
• Pattern setup and manipulation
• Garment layering
• Symmetry utilization
• Seam taping and management
• Internal line tools

What Other Artists Are Saying

With an average rating of 5.0 stars, Chionidi’s tutorials are praised for teaching all of the essentials Marvelous Design newbies need. Though there are only a handful of tutorials currently available, Chionidi’s easy-to-follow style makes every customer return.

ZBrush for Ideation 300+ Video Series

Michael Pavlovich is an industry vet with a focus in 3D concept art pipelines for gaming. With over 100K subscribers on Youtube, Pavlovich is a popular teacher in the CG world, especially for all things ZBrush.

Tutorial Details

This bundle contains a whopping 300+ videos with over 30 hours of instruction, as well as several downloadable files to use to follow along. Outlined in the Intro video, Pavlovich covers hundreds of different topics in ZBrush, including:

• Interface and menus
• Document canvas
• Brush basics such as navigation, symmetry, saves, etc.
• Geometry distribution
• Masking basics
• Plugin install

What Other Artists Are Saying

Pavlovich is widely known and regarded, so it’s no surprise his tutorials are always rated well and raved about. Pavlovich is known for being the best in the business, creating comprehensive and valuable tutorials for the CG community.

Prepare for Part 2

Whatever your interest is, Cubebrush has you covered. Still wanting more? Discover other tutorials in Part 2 of this article!