ZBrush Character Creation Advanced Digital Sculpting

Gesture, Form, and Proportion (ZBrush Character Creation) (Sculpting, from Traditional to Digital) Part 1

One of the most exciting aspects of ZBrush is the way it allows the artist to interface directly with the model and create in a spontaneous and organic fashion, just as if working with balls of digital clay. Thousands of years of artistic tradition have given us a wealth of techniques when it comes to […]

Gesture, Form, and Proportion (ZBrush Character Creation) (Sculpting, from Traditional to Digital) Part 2

Form Although ZBrush excels at adding fine details to a model, form is always of primary concern when sculpting. Many sculptors rush to the detailing phase while overlooking the importance of developing the form, anatomy, and structure of the model. This makes for a weaker sculpture overall. Take Michelangelo’s David, for instance; it’s a perfect […]

ZBrush Interface General Overview (Sculpting, from Traditional to Digital) (ZBrush Character Creation) Part 1

At first glance, the ZBrush interface (see Figure 1.13) can be a daunting sight, especially if you have previously worked in software like Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max, or XSI. The truth is, it looks far more complex than it actually is. Many menus you won’t often visit, and a few will form the backbone of […]

ZBrush Interface General Overview (Sculpting, from Traditional to Digital) (ZBrush Character Creation) Part 2

Alt and Shift The Alt key activates the alternate mode for nearly all ZBrush brushes. When sculpting with ZAdd on, holding down Alt will cause the brush to carve away instead of building up form. The Shift key serves as a way to access the Smooth brush. In ZBrush you cannot directly select the Smooth […]

Using the ZBrush Tools (Sculpting, from Traditional to Digital) (ZBrush Character Creation) Part 1

In this section we’ll explore the ZBrush sculpting tools by creating a lion head door knocker from a 3D Plane tool. This tutorial will expose you to many of the ZBrush sculpting brushes, modifiers, and masking tools. In ZBrush you can work with models, tools, or documents. For sculpting characters we’ll focus on tools and […]

Using the ZBrush Tools (Sculpting, from Traditional to Digital) (ZBrush Character Creation) Part 2

Adding Subtools Now that the basic form of the lion is established, let’s add the ring to his mouth. Adding the ring at this stage will allow us to sculpt the forms of his mane and mouth around the ring so it appears that the two parts are interacting. 1. To add a subtool, you […]

Using the ZBrush Tools (Sculpting, from Traditional to Digital) (ZBrush Character Creation) Part 3

Finishing Your Model The following list represents some of the edits made to this sculpture to bring it to completion: •    Added the tear duct to the eyes. These little details are extremely important, even on a stylized eye such as this. •    Raised the ears higher on the head to give a more feline […]

An Approach to Sculpting (Sculpting in ZBrush) (ZBrush Character Creation)

In this topic we’ll continue to explore the tools and techniques for sculpting in ZBrush. We’ll start by using a ZBrush primitive sphere as a base to sculpt a human skull. This allows us to lay a solid foundation for the rest of the sculpting tutorials because it illustrates both the power of the ZBrush […]

The Brush Menu (Sculpting in ZBrush) (ZBrush Character Creation) Part 1

The Brush menu contains all the real-time sculpting tools that you will use while working on an active tool in the document window. These brushes can be used on the model at multiple subdivision levels while you freely rotate in Edit mode. You may notice under the Tool menu there are several brushes listed, including […]

The Brush Menu (Sculpting in ZBrush) (ZBrush Character Creation) Part 2

The Brush Menu ZBrush 4 introduces many new options under the Brush menu. Here you will find some familiar options as well as some new additions. In this section I will briefly describe each submenu. Curve Curve controls the edit curve for the currently selected brush. We will use this to create a custom brush […]

← Previous Entries