Appeal Academy

Learn how to create appealing characters At your own pace
+ An ever growing library of new content
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Mentorship Collection

Catalogue of Follygon’s student mentorship is now included in the Appeal Academy for FREE!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Gain access to the library of student mentorship sessions from the Appeal Academy. Includes 170+ videos of in-depth, real-time footage created by Ben De Angelis “Follygon” working directly with the students of the Appeal Academy. Each session includes a wealth of knowledge and tips related to learning the ins and outs of ZBrush, sculpting, and creating appealing 3D characters.

Follow along with Appeal Academy students and their progress through creating a stylized and appealing character from beginning to end. Starting with choosing a 2D concept, learning the basics, and going from zero to a finished and polished 3D character.

An absolutely absurd amount of high quality, educational content that will teach you everything you ever needed to know about sculpting appealing characters in ZBrush.

New Additions

The Appeal Academy includes new tutorials and regular updates completely for FREE.

  • The Appeal Academy is constantly evolving and receiving new, fresh content at no additional cost to members.
  • Receive new tutorials regularly on a variety of topics like Base Meshes, Hard Surface Modeling, and Exercises to Improve your Sculpting.
  • Includes any applicable project files to follow along with the real-time video content covering topics great for beginners and advanced artists alike.
  • If you enjoy Follygon’s videos on YouTube you will love the tutorials added here!

How Does It Work?

  • After signing up for the Appeal Academy you will immediately receive access to all Appeal Academy content taking you through creating an entire appealing character of your choice, plus access to all additional free inclusions with the course.
  • At the end of each lecture you will be provided an assignment to progress you through the steps of creating a character from beginning to end.
  • After completing an assignment, share it in the Follygon Discord server to receive feedback on your work.
  • At each stage of the course you will learn and practice new foundational design principles and the fundamentals of appealing form.
  • By the end of this course you will confidently flow through the steps of blockout, refinement, and polish.

What Is Included?

The Community

  • Gain access to a growing, private community of artists from around the world all seeking to grow and improve together.
  • Talk directly with Follygon, ask questions, and share your work.
  • Join art challenges that are both fun and push yourself to grow.
  • Share your art, ask questions, and get feedback from your peers instantly from an active community.
  • Join live chats and stream what you are working on with fellow artists.
  • Not just a community but a family that can’t wait to meet you!

FAQ

What do the main lectures and bonus content include?

The main series of lectures take you through the entire process of creating an appealing character from beginning to end. The lectures will take you through learning the strong fundamentals of creating appealing shapes. Then you will learn the process for blocking out, refining, and polishing form. Additionally, we will have lectures focusing on sculpting the face, hair, clothing, posing, and more.

Bonus lectures are a collection of ever growing additional resources provided for you at no extra cost. These lectures go in depth on topics such as observation, efficiently using tools in ZBrush, rendering and lighting, and much more. This content is an ever growing library of helpful content, updated regularly with new bonuses for FREE.

But bonus lectures aren’t the only thing included for free with the Appeal Academy. The Appeal Academy also includes free downloads of entire extra courses.

How To ZBrush – An Absolute Beginner’s Guide for students completely new to ZBrush.

Lighting and Rendering in Blender – A course that will teach you how to render professional looking images in Blender while learning the basics of lighting and rendering.

Sculpting The Planes of the Head – A detailed course that will teach you everything you need to know about creating the planes of the head. Learn more information than you could ever need on sculpting the head in this step by step journey with Follygon.

The Appeal Academy Mentorship Collection – A collection of 170+ videos of mentorship footage of students progressing through the Appeal Academy.

Follygon’s Patreon Tutorials – Receive a new tutorial each month at no additional cost to members on a variety of topics like Base Meshes, Hard Surface Modeling, and Exercises to Improve your Sculpting.

Discord Community – What sounds like an extra will surprise you in more ways than one. It’s not just a place to share your art, ask questions, and get feedback, but a place to make lifelong friends.

New content is updated and added all the time. Once you are a member of the Appeal Academy, you receive all future updates completely for free, forever.

Is everything on your Gumroad included with the Appeal Academy?

The Appeal Academy includes nearly everything I have available with only a few things missing that are available separately on my Gumroad. My custom brushes, materials, and ModMesh. Anything else that is missing has been replaced by a newer/ higher quality version of itself.

Every tutorial on my Patreon is included:

  • Exercises to Improve your Sculpting
  • Creating Base Meshes and Blockouts
  • Refinement and Secondary Form
  • Anatomical Proportions and Landmarks
  • Gestural Figure Sculpting
  • Character Posing and Transpose Master
  • From Base Mesh to Bust with Follygon – Part 1 & 2
  • Sculptural Topology and in-Depth Mouth and Eye Creation
  • Sculpting Gorgeous Hair
  • Creating Clean Clothing
  • Creating Stylized Folds
  • Hard Surface Modeling
  • Design and Create a Robot
  • Sculpting a Stylized Fox
  • Transforming Photos into Stylized 3D Characters
  • Sculpting the Planes of the Torso
And then of course the Appeal Academy main lectures, bonus lectures, assignments, mentorship collection of 170+ student reviews, new monthly tuts, and free updates for life. There’s a lot!

How long does it take to go through the content?

Because the course is self paced, everyone will take a different length of time to go through the lectures and assignments. If you were to go through a lecture and assignment each week, the course would take roughly 2-3 months to finish, not including bonus lectures and additional courses included with the Appeal Academy for free.

There are many additional inclusions with the Appeal Academy and for an up to date list please see the above section on what all is included.

Do I need to know ZBrush for this course?

You do not need to know how to use ZBrush. Lucky for you the Appeal Academy includes a free download of How To ZBrush – An Absolute Beginner’s Guide – A course with the intent to get you up and running as quickly as possible.

If you have never used ZBrush, you will want to start there before going through the Appeal Academy’s lectures.

Can I use my own character design for this class?

Yes, but it is strongly advised against. You will see the most growth working from a highly polished 2D character design from another artist that exceeds your own abilities, giving you an opportunity to critically think about the original artist’s intent and learn from their work.

Students that work from another artist’s design that exceeds their own abilities see faster improvement, as well as an overall smoother and easier process.

What all will I need for the class?

ZBrush. Seriously, that’s all you need. And because the Appeal Academy focuses on sculpting from an aesthetic standpoint, the version of ZBrush that you are using does not matter. Everything taught here could be done on a version of ZBrush from over 10 years ago. However, the Appeal Academy covers new tools, features, and updated process as they come out.

Can I use other software for this course?

Yes, use what tool you are most comfortable with. However, do keep in mind that this course is taught using ZBrush. Tools and tips may not translate to other software, but aesthetic and fundamentals will be applicable no matter what tools you are using.

Do you offer personal mentorship?

If you are currently seeking personal mentorship, this service is not offered through the Appeal Academy at this time. However, the Appeal Academy Mentorship Collection is now included for FREE!

The Appeal Academy Mentorship Collection includes 170+ videos of in-depth, real-time footage created by Ben De Angelis “Follygon” working directly with the students of the Appeal Academy. Each session includes a wealth of knowledge and tips related to learning the ins and outs of ZBrush, sculpting, and creating appealing 3D characters.

Follow along with Appeal Academy students and their progress through creating a stylized and appealing character from beginning to end. Starting with choosing a 2D concept, learning the basics, and going from zero to a finished and polished 3D character.

An absolutely absurd amount of high quality, educational content that will teach you everything you ever needed to know about sculpting appealing characters in ZBrush.

See below for examples of two of these mentorship sessions. There are over 170 more waiting for you in the Appeal Academy!

Is there a cheaper option/ payment plans available for the Appeal Academy?

At this time, the Appeal Academy must be paid for in full to become a member and receive all of the great content and benefits listed here.

However, if you are looking for a cheaper option it is highly recommended that you check out the Follygon Patreon. By signing up for The Rendered tier, you immediately receive access to all tutorials on the Patreon. Your continued support there gives you access to not only future tutorials, but also the ability to vote on what will be created next! As well as a behind the scenes look on what Follygon is working on, not shared anywhere else.

Please note that all Patreon tutorials are also available here on the Appeal Academy. As well as future updates and additions at no additional cost to you.

Please note that because the Appeal Academy includes many free downloads of lectures, tools, and entire bonus courses, the Appeal Academy does not offer refunds on course purchases.

Still have a question?

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Testimonials

“I've done 5 years of Visual Art for games, but looking back I found there was incredibly little on how to make proper art. Mostly software and teamwork, but little to no art fundamentals. I never really knew why things looked right sometimes and why it didn't. Ben made me learn more about art in a few months than school did in 5 years!”

Bram Smuldershttps://www.artstation.com/bramofzo

“It just felt like a privilege to have so much time dedicated to me, when most online instructors average around 5-20 minutes max. Usually just 5. Ben speaks down to earth, and doesn't have a holier than thou mentality. I greatly appreciated every feedback, where Ben answered questions specific to my concerns. Thanks for everything, this course set a new standard for online instructors.”

Rico Buehlerhttps://www.artstation.com/mindsettings

“Having an expert look at the specific mistakes I'm making, not only in the forms of the character, but from a workflow perspective, was invaluable. It's always frustrating when a tutorial or lesson you find online will take you through a very specific set of actions to get a result; having someone with a deep knowledge of this process look at MY project and MY issues was incredibly helpful.”

Chris Jenningshttps://www.artstation.com/chrisjngs

“It was amazing to be blocked or unsure how to proceed and then have Ben jump in and show me options on how he would go about next steps. I learned so much this way.”

Andrew Johnstonhttps://www.artstation.com/artdrew

“Even though the lectures are great, for me, the course was even better for the mentorship aspect it had. Personal contact and feedback were more important for me. I believe that having a project is great because you can apply what is learned and improve upon it. Also, you finish the course with a new portfolio piece.”

Luiza Dinizhttps://www.artstation.com/luediniz

“I learned a ton from Ben and enjoyed the course a lot. He is a great teacher, keep up the good work!”

Chris Tellohttps://www.artstation.com/iase

“Before this course I was looking at a few different ones which mainly focused on creating a specific character. I liked the fact that in this course it was about picking a character that you wanted to make as well as it being a mentorship from the man himself. This just adds to the learning process as you get specific feedback on what you are doing right and wrong. I enjoyed this very much I will say out of all online resources this is up there as one of the courses I learned the most from, keep up the good work.”

Joshua Cartyhttps://www.artstation.com/carty_001

“Its useful to get a professional's opinion on what you are doing since there are things that you do wrong or seem wrong but you don't spot them or know you did them. And as someone who's never done a character before, it comes in handy to see what you did well and what needs fixing.”

Caleb Moorehttps://www.artstation.com/ceramicram

Your Guide

Ben De Angelis “Follygon” has a background in sculpting appealing characters for toys and life size figures for production in a variety of styles. Ben has worked on such IP as Pokemon, Barbie, Ghostbusters, Shrek, Hotel Transylvania, Madagascar, Flintstones, Clash of Clans and many more. He’s done heavily stylized characters such as the Looney Tunes, and as realistic as life-like pilots for the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Now Ben works as a freelancer and enjoys spending his free time creating content for others that enjoy digital sculpting. You can see more of Ben’s work at artstation.com/Follygon or YouTube.com/Follygon

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