Sculpting in ZBrush Made Simple E-Book

Lukas Kutschera

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 443

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Embark on a creative journey with ZBrush, the leading software for creating characters, creatures, and props in films, games, and 3D printing. This guide will take you through its powerful yet user-friendly workflows, allowing you to explore its dynamic organic sculpting, painting, and hard-surface modeling tools.
The first part of this book is dedicated to helping you become familiar with ZBrush’s user interface and learning the very basics, from sculpting brushes and painting the model with Polypaint to setting up lights and rendering images. You’ll also create a demon bust with the help of ZBrush’s concept sculpting tool, DynaMesh. In the second part, you’ll get to grips with the creation of a humanoid character that is optimized for 3D printing. Focusing on anatomy, poly-modeling, and preparing the model for 3D printing, you’ll acquire the skills essential for sculptors. The final part delves into portrait sculpting, where you’ll learn everything from basic facial anatomy to hair creation with FiberMesh.
By the end of this book, you'll have developed the expertise necessary to succeed in the ever-evolving world of 3D character modeling, complemented by portfolio and social media tips for showcasing your standout work.

Leseprobe

Sculpting in ZBrush Made Simple

Explore powerful modeling and character creation techniques used for VFX, games, and 3D printing

Lukas Kutschera

Sculpting in ZBrush Made Simple

Copyright © 2024 Packt Publishing

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ISBN 978-1-80323-576-9

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Contributors

About the author

Lukas Kutschera is a 3D artist known for his digitally sculpted characters and creatures for high-end clients in the VFX, games, and collectibles industries. These clients include Platige Image, Pixomondo, and Hot Toys. He has also earned recognition for his contributions to the Golden Globe-winning TV show House of the Dragon, where he sculpted the show’s largest dragon, Vhagar. Lukas’s interest and expertise in anatomy is evident in his personal artwork, which features digitally sculpted anatomy studies and portraits. Besides his professional work, he shares his techniques and knowledge with up-and-coming artists in his mentorship program.

I want to thank the editing team and reviewers for their diligence and attention to detail in helping me bring this book to life.

About the reviewers

Rasmus Angeria is a 3D character artist with four years of experience. Specializing in ZBrush and proficient in various 3D programs, Rasmus is a dedicated professional currently contributing to the studio Griever Games. Having been an integral part of the studio for three years, Rasmus has played a crucial role in shaping the characters of Forlorn Outcast, a souls-like RPG game, which is scheduled for an early 2024 release. With a keen eye for detail and a commitment to excellence, Rasmus’s sculpted characters stand as a testament to their artistic skill and contribution to the studio. As an adaptable and collaborative team member, Rasmus continues to make 3D characters in the ever-evolving world of digital art.

Mahmoud Hady is an experienced 3D character artist from Egypt, specializing in realistic/hyperreal characters/creatures. He also has experience in polygon modeling (high-poly and low-poly), texturing, shading, and lookdev for assets. Mahmoud has worked on games such as The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria and Sammy and the Little Girl, as well as having worked on multiple commercials/ads for big names in the Middle East, including Uber, Pepsi, Valorant, Big Chips, Lay’s, KFC, Egyptian Telecom (WE), and so on. He has also instructed character modeling for games at the Information Technology Institute in Egypt.

Damiaan Thelen started his ZBrush journey as a hobbyist in 2014. After three years of self-study, he started working as a character artist in the video games industry, where he uses ZBrush almost daily as one of the most integral parts of the character creation pipeline. He is currently the lead character artist for the German game development studio Egosoft.

Maxime Forveille is a French 3D artist currently working as a freelancer. He’s been in this industry for more than 10 years. During those years, he has worked in multiple fields such as archviz (Australia), movies (Justice League and Mowgli, in Canada), and the luxury industry (France). Sharing his knowledge has always been something pleasant for him; that’s why he also teaches 3D software in a few French schools.

ZBrush is one of his favorite tools if not his favorite. Besides the freedom ZBrush brings to sculpting very dense meshes, Maxime also likes the technical aspect and does not hesitate to write his own plugins for ZBrush when he needs to. Some of his biggest missions using ZBrush are to make models that are then printed at a human scale.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part 1: The Adventure Begins: Sculpting in ZBrush

1

Getting Started with ZBrush

Technical requirements

Loading models, navigation, and creating your first sculpture

Loading a starting model

Navigating around your sculpture

Creating your first sculpture

Exploring and customizing the ZBrush UI

Exploring the menus and palettes

Setting some useful preferences

Creating your custom ZBrush UI

Understanding ZBrush file types

ZTools (.ztl)

ZProjects (.zpr)

ZDocs (.zbr)

Summary

Further reading

2

Sculpting a Demon Bust with DynaMesh

Technical requirements

Concept sculpting with DynaMesh

Understanding concept sculpting

Introducing DynaMesh

Sculpting a demon bust

Gathering references for your sculpture

Blocking out the demon

Entering DynaMesh mode

Using hotkeys to access brushes

Sculpting tips

Adding horns

Adding teeth

Adding eyes

Fixing bad DynaMesh results

Exploring character art and design principles

Design principles in the demon bust sculpture

Summary

3

Exploring the Gizmo, PolyGroups, and Masking

Technical requirements

Managing your 3D model

Subtools

Symmetry mode

Using the Gizmo to move objects

Understanding PolyGroups

Using the Selection and Masking tools

Selection

Masking

Posing a character with Masking and Gizmo tools

Summary

4

Exploring Brushes and Alphas

Technical requirements

Learning about brushes

Accessing brushes

Exploring important brushes

Exploring brush modes

Exploring brush properties

Making smoother strokes with LazyMouse

Learning about Alphas

Modifying your Alphas

Creating our own Alpha for the demon bust

Creating your own custom brushes

Summary

5

Creating an Optimized Mesh Using ZRemesher and ZProject

Technical requirements

Creating new topology with ZRemesher

Facial topology

Overview of the ZRemesher settings

Adding subdivision levels and transferring detail using ZProject

Subdividing meshes

Transferring detail between meshes with ZProject

Adding detail to the demon bust

Eyes

Forehead

Lips

Horns

Teeth

Scar

Summary

6

Texturing Your Sculpture with Materials, Polypaint, and UVs

Technical requirements

Exploring ZBrush’s Materials

Standard Materials versus MatCap Materials

Selecting and applying materials

Adjusting material modifiers

Saving and exporting materials

Adding color to your model with Polypaint

What is Polypaint?

Exploring Polypaint techniques and tips

Creating UVs and exporting textures

What are UVs and why do they matter?

Creating UVs with UV Master

Exporting textures using the Multi Map Exporter plugin

Summary

7

Lighting and Rendering Your Model

Technical requirements

Managing lights in ZBrush

Adjusting the lighting in ZBrush

Exploring cinematography and lighting terminology

Rendering in ZBrush

Preparing for rendering

Creating BPR renders

Creating turntable videos

Summary

Part 2: Creating Characters from Scratch: A Comprehensive Guide

8

Sculpting Human Anatomy

Technical requirements

Preparing anatomy references

Gathering references

Loading resources

Blocking out the anatomy

Starting with the skeleton

Adjusting the skeleton

Correcting the base mesh

Refining the anatomy

Useful brushes for anatomy sculpting

Sculpting the upper body

Sculpting the lower body

Sculpting hands and feet

Adding fat deposits

Finalizing the sculpture’s anatomy

Posing your model

Adding asymmetry

Working on the transitions of shapes

Summary

9

Creating Costumes, Armor, and Accessories with Classic Modeling Techniques

Technical requirements

Creating simple costume pieces using the ZModeler brush and primitive shapes

Skirt and hip cloth

Straps

Arm armor

Metal ring

Shoes

Spear

Shoulder armor

Helmet

Creating complex costume pieces using DynaMesh, IMM brushes, and kitbashing

Creating shoulder armor

Creating a helmet

Adding detail to the costume pieces

Metal

Leather and fabrics

Wood

Summary

10

Preparing and Exporting Our Model for 3D Printing

Technical requirements

Creating watertight models and troubleshooting errors

Using Decimation Master to reduce your meshes’ polycount

Checking your mesh for holes and errors

Checking the mesh volume

Fixing a tool that is not watertight

Merging and cutting your model

Merging meshes

Cutting a model

Adding keys, scaling, and exporting your model

Creating a key model

Scaling and exporting your model

Summary

Part 3: Sculpting a Female Head: Tips and Techniques

11

Sculpting a Female Head

Technical requirements

Blocking out the head

Starting points for blocking out the head

Using the Head planes blocking-out method

Refining the head

Eyes and eyelids

Nose

Lips

Ears

Forehead

Cheeks and nasolabial fold

Chin and jaw

Neck

Adding a pose and facial expression

Reviewing tips for sculpting likeness

Choosing a likeness subject

Finding references

Sculpting a likeness

Avoiding beginner sculpting mistakes

Summary

12

Adding Skin Detail, Sculpting Hair, and Using FiberMesh

Technical requirements

Applying skin detail using NoiseMaker, brushes, and Alphas

Projecting 3D scan details

Applying tileable skin textures with NoiseMaker

Adding detail around the eyes

Detailing the forehead

Adding pores to the cheeks and nasolabial folds

Creating the detail of the lips

Creating the skin detail of the neck

Finalizing the skin detail with imperfections and surface variation

Sculpting hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes with brushes

Sculpting the hair with basic brushes

Creating hair with an IMM Curve brush

Sculpting the eyebrows

Adding eyelashes

Sculpting hair with FiberMesh

FiberMesh modifiers

Grooming FiberMesh brushes

Creating a hairstyle

Exporting FiberMesh as curves

Summary

13

Building a Portfolio and Leveraging Social Media

Picking your subjects

Can it generate attention?

Does it showcase key skills?

Is it easy, fast, and fun to create?

Presenting your artwork

Picking the thumbnail

Adding images

Adding videos

Showcasing key skills

Linking your social media

Sharing your art on social media

ArtStation

Instagram

Facebook groups

Additional platforms

Summary

Index

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

Perhaps the most effective way to articulate what ZBrush is about and what it offers is by envisioning scenes such as Godzilla engaging in a fierce battle with King Kong, colossal dragons soaring over fictional cities, or digital doubles of actors executing extraordinary stunts. These scenarios, with their full glory and intricate details, would be impossible to conceive without the capabilities of this software, and its ability to create incredibly detailed 3D models.

Although several digital sculpting programs exist, ZBrush stands out as the unquestionable leader in VFX, games, and numerous other industries. This is not only because of its vast amount of unique and powerful tools, constant updates, and excellent customization options, but especially due to its large and passionate community. This collective enthusiasm makes ZBrush the optimal choice for anyone wanting to start their journey in digital sculpting.

When I first tried ZBrush, it was remarkable to see how fast I could achieve interesting results, without having had much drawing practice or even a formal art background. Since then, I’ve been hooked on the digital sculpting experience. In writing this book, I did so with certainty and joy, knowing that others may become just as captivated, unlocking diverse and rewarding career paths in the process.

As you navigate through this book, I hope the hands-on examples make all those tools and workflows seem less scary and inspire you to start your digital sculpting journey. The idea is to keep things fun so that learning new tools doesn’t become a chore, but instead, you see it as opening up possibilities for creating new and better things.

Who this book is for

This book is for 3D artists, digital sculptors, modelers, and anyone looking to learn about the ZBrush sculpting software. It’s also helpful for professionals switching to ZBrush or expanding their skill set.

While prior ZBrush experience and artistic abilities can aid you, they’re not prerequisites to understanding the book. The book covers the most common and most useful ZBrush workflows and can benefit both beginner and intermediate artists looking to tap into the vast possibilities of ZBrush.

What this book covers

In Chapter 1, Getting Started with ZBrush, you will learn how to navigate ZBrush and get started by loading a model and doing a simple sculpting practice.

In Chapter 2, Sculpting a Demon Bust with DynaMesh, you will explore one of ZBrush’s most powerful sculpting tools, DynaMesh. With this tool, you can follow along in the creation process of a demon bust sculpture, while learning about character art and design principles.

In Chapter 3, Exploring the Gizmo, PolyGroups, and Masking, you will learn about the most essential functionality and tools in ZBrush: the Gizmo tool, Polygrouping, and Masking. These tools will be used for many workflows, allowing you to create your models more efficiently.

In Chapter 4, Exploring Brushes and Alphas, you will become familiar with ZBrush’s vast selection of brushes, Alphas, and customization options. With this information, you will be able to create custom brushes to add detail to the demon bust from Chapter 2.

In Chapter 5, Creating an Optimized Mesh Using ZRemesher and ZProject, you will learn about ZBrush’s most popular retopology tool, ZRemesher, as well as ZProject, which lets you transfer detail between meshes. This is an essential part of many character creation workflows, and you will use it to push the quality and level of detail of the demon sculpture.

In Chapter 6, Texturing Your Sculpture with Materials, Polypaint, and UVs, you will get familiar with ZBrush’s Materials, and its painting tool, called Polypaint. These lessons will be applied in the practical example of your demon bust, so you can put them into action immediately.

In Chapter 7, Lighting and Rendering Your Model, you will learn about lights and how you can create a custom light setup, so you can then render and present your model to your clients or audience.

In Chapter 8, Sculpting Human Anatomy, you will begin the creation process of a gladiator sculpture that will be optimized for 3D printing. This chapter shows how you can establish realistic anatomy for your character, which is a key skill set in many ZBrush and sculpting-related job opportunities.

In Chapter 9, Creating Costumes, Armor, and Accessories with Classic Modeling Techniques, you will proceed to create the gladiator character, while learning various modeling techniques, which will make you a more effective and versatile ZBrush artist.

In Chapter 10, Preparing and Exporting Our Model for 3D Printing, you will finalize the gladiator model, making it water-tight and splitting it into pieces, so that it can be printed without issues.

In Chapter 11, Sculpting a Female Head, you will begin the third and last project of the book, which is one of the most popular sculpting subjects: sculpting a female head. You will learn about various blockout options, anatomy fundamentals, and last but not least, some tips for sculpting a likeness.

In Chapter 12, Adding Skin Detail, Sculpting Hair, and Using FiberMesh, you will proceed with the head sculpture from the previous chapter, adding realistic skin detail and sculpting hair. The last part of the chapter focuses on ZBrush’s hair system, FiberMesh, as an alternative way of creating hair.

In Chapter 13, Building a Portfolio and Leveraging Social Media, you will get tips for building your portfolio and using social media, so you can advertise your ZBrush and sculpting skills to get job opportunities and commissions.

To get the most out of this book

Having some background in digital sculpting or 3D modeling will help make some of the concepts clearer a little bit faster. If you have already used ZBrush before, you may experience a bit less frustration, since ZBrush can be a bit unintuitive at first. However, experience is not necessary to effectively follow the examples provided in the chapters, and with some persistence, you should do just fine.

Software/hardware covered in the book

Operating system requirements

ZBrush 2023 (though older versions work too – I wrote this book using 2022.0.7)

Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit edition), or macOS 11.5 or above

Having a tablet is strongly recommended, as sculpting with the mouse is far inferior and cannot give the same results as using a pen with pressure sensitivity.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “Then, navigate to the Project or Tool menus inside the LightBox editor and find a suitable model for your needs.”

Tips or important notes

If it is possible to collect multiple angles of your reference subject, make sure you do so – it will

help you visualize the three-dimensional shape of your subject better. This holds especially true

when working on a portrait or character likeness, where it is essential to have a high attention

to detail.

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Part 1: The Adventure Begins: Sculpting in ZBrush

In Part 1 of this book, you will be quickly introduced to ZBrush and its UI, after which you will jump right into sculpting. Chapters 2 to 7 explore the creative process of sculpting a demon bust, and you are encouraged to follow along. This will let you try out the tools and techniques of each chapter in a fun and goal-oriented way.

This part includes the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Getting Started with ZBrushChapter 2, Sculpting a Demon Bust with DynaMeshChapter 3, Exploring the Gizmo, PolyGroups, and MaskingChapter 4, Exploring Brushes and AlphasChapter 5, Creating an Optimized Mesh Using ZRemesher and ZProject Chapter 6, Texturing Your Sculpt with Materials, Polypaint, and UVsChapter 7, Lighting and Rendering Your Model

1

Getting Started with ZBrush

Congratulations on taking your first step into the world of ZBrush. In this first chapter, we’ll introduce you to the user interface (UI), navigation, and some other fundamentals of ZBrush so that you can start sculpting as quickly as possible!

ZBrush is known in the computer-generated imagery (CGI) community as a tool that can handle a very high polycount, letting you work on highly detailed models, something that was not possible in other 3D software for a long time. This ability made it a popular choice in the games and VFX industry to create highly detailed, life-like characters, creatures, and environments, and ZBrush remains the number one sculpting tool for characters and creatures up until today.

Another reason for ZBrush’s popularity comes from the developers’ willingness to add tools and find solutions for specialized industries. This ensures that almost every user will find tools that fit their exact needs for any scenario. However, this can result in ZBrush having a lot of tools that most users will never need. To keep this book easily digestible, we’ll only cover what is needed for the main tasks of the average digital sculptor, but it is also important to understand how to navigate through the software.

Compared to other 3D software, ZBrush has a steep learning curve when it comes to its UI and navigation, which can be frustrating at first. However, if you persevere and get past the initial difficulties, you will find that ZBrush will become very intuitive very quickly, and the vast customization options will allow you to streamline your workflow.

In the first section of this chapter, you will learn how to load a basic shape so that you can start experimenting with different sculpting brushes and get a feel for the sculpting experience, as well as learn how to navigate around the 3D space.

The next section will give you an overview of ZBrush’s UI, its various menus, and the various tools and functions that ZBrush offers. Finally, you will explore different camera settings, as well as ZBrush’s file types and when they should be used.

In this chapter, we are going to cover the following topics:

Loading models, navigation, and creating your first sculptureExploring and customizing the ZBrush UIUnderstanding ZBrush file types

Technical requirements

To follow this book, you’ll need to install ZBrush with a valid license. You can find a download link on Maxon’s website: https://www.maxon.net/en/ZBrush.

You do have the option to use ZBrushCore if you want a cheap alternative to get started, although it is missing many of the full features of ZBrush, so most of this book would not be relevant to you.

To have the best possible user experience with ZBrush, make sure to fulfill the following minimum requirements:

OS: 64-bit editions of Windows 10 or 11 (32-bit operating systems are no longer supported)CPU: Intel i7/i9 technology and newer or AMD Ryzen and newerRAM: 4 GB (16+ GB is strongly recommended)HDD: 20 GB of free hard drive space for ZBrush and its scratch diskPen tablet: Mouse or compatible pressure-sensitive tablet, which must support the WinTab API (a tablet is strongly recommended)Monitor: 1280×1024 monitor resolution with 32-bit colorVideo card: Must support OpenGL 3.3 or higher and Vulkan 1.1 or higher

Important note

If you are a professional artist, you will want to get a tablet. Although you can use a mouse and achieve some results, the lack of pressure sensitivity that comes with using a mouse will make certain results impossible or take an unreasonable amount of time.

Loading models, navigation, and creating your first sculpture

When you first get started with ZBrush, it might take a while to get used to the unusual UI and navigation, and experiencing some frustration is not uncommon. This can detract from the awesome experience of using a digital sculpting tool for the first time and getting to see all of its creative possibilities. Therefore, before diving into too many functions and technical aspects, let’s get sculpting first so that you can see how fun and rewarding it is.

Loading a starting model

After launching ZBrush, there are a couple of starting points to choose from. A versatile and powerful one is ZBrush’s content browser called LightBox. Alternatively, you can also load a basic shape, such as a sphere or a cylinder. Let’s look at both options.

LightBox

LightBox has a great variety of models, including everything from simple shapes to faces and full human and animal bodies. You can access it by pressing the , key. Then, navigate to the Project or Tool menus inside the LightBox editor and find a suitable model for your needs:

Figure 1.1 – LightBox and its many resources

Some of the models might be similar to what you want to create, saving you a lot of time and providing you with a great starting point.

Now, let’s look at loading a basic shape, which we will use to start our first sculpting project.

Using a basic shape for your sculpture

Basic shapes can be a good choice if they have a similar shape to your desired result. For example, you might want to sculpt a wedding ring, which makes a Ring3D model a suitable shape to start the modeling process.

Since we just want to test out some sculpting brushes, we will be using the Cube3D shape. Follow these steps:

Navigate the menu on the right side of the canvas, which is the Tool palette. There, you can see a list of icons, including a star. If you click on the star, an overview of 3D models and 2.5D brushes appears (the latter are irrelevant to the focus of this book). In this example, we will pick a Cube3D shape and drag it onto the screen:

Figure 1.2 – Picking Cube3D from the basic shape menu

However, when you drag the shape onto your screen, you will only see it as a flat 2D shape. Here, our cube just looks like a square. This is because when you launch ZBrush, you are not automatically in Edit mode:

Figure 1.3 – Edit mode disabled (left) and enabled (right)

In order to switch to Edit mode (also known as 3D mode) and start modeling/sculpting, you need to hit T on the keyboard. You can now left-click and rotate around the model in 3D space.

Important note

ZBrush 2.5D launches in 2.5D mode, which means you can’t modify any shape, model, or ZTool until you switch to Edit mode by hitting T on your keyboard. This often causes frustration because you won’t be able to start sculpting until you enter Edit mode. The Edit mode button, above the Undo slider, will appear orange if it is enabled.

Also, if you accidentally draw something on the canvas in 2.5D mode, you can clear the canvas again by pressing Ctrl + N.

Now, before you can actually modify the shape, there is one more thing you need to do, which is click Make PolyMesh3D in the Tool palette. After you use this command, the name of your subtool changes from Cube3Dto PM3D_Cube3D:

Figure 1.4 – Using the Make PolyMesh3D command to enable the shape for modeling/sculpting

At this point, you should have a cube on your canvas, but you now need to know how to navigate the scene and how to move around the cube and view it from any angle.

Navigating around your sculpture

Navigating in ZBrush is not always intuitive and can be frustrating, but with practice, you can move around your model smoothly and work more effectively.

Here are some of the basic movements:

In order to zoom in and out, do the following: press Alt and hold, then right-click and hold; now, release the Alt key and drag the mouse while holding the right-click to zoom in and out.In order to rotate around your model, right-click and move the mouse.In order to move horizontally and vertically, do the following: press Alt and hold, then right-click and hold, then move your mouse at the same time.

You can perform all these movements with left-clicking, instead of right-clicking, as well. However, when left-clicking, you have to click on a space in the canvas to be able to navigate, while right-clicking works also when your mouse is hovering over a mesh.

Important note

If you use the right mouse button to navigate, you do not have to click on a space in the canvas, but you can also click on subtools in the scene and navigate regardless.

Another essential function is the Frame command – if you ever want to bring your camera back to your model, you can hit F on the keyboard or click on the Frame button on the Icon toolbar on the right side of your canvas:

Figure 1.5 – Using Frame to bring the model back to full size in the center of the canvas

As frustrating as ZBrush’s way of navigating can be at the very beginning, it will become intuitive quickly, so keep at it! Next, you can finally start sculpting!

Creating your first sculpture

At this point, you can start sculpting. Some things will probably still be confusing, and a lot of the tools and functions will be explained a bit later, throughout the book, but for now, try to focus on getting creative with the tools you have. Let’s start by experimenting with some of ZBrush’s many brushes.

Using sculpting brushes

Open the Brush menu by pressing B and select any brush. You can pick a ClayBuildup, Standard, or DamStandard brush if you want a very basic sculpting brush, but of course, you can experiment with all of the available brushes. To use the brushes, simply apply pressure with your pen on the model, and you will see the effect. Now, you can get a feel for the sculpting experience in ZBrush and see how you can get interesting results very quickly:

Figure 1.6 – Experimenting with different brushes in ZBrush

Brushes will be introduced throughout the book, but they are covered in detail in Chapter 4 if you are interested.

Adding resolution to your sculpture

You may press Ctrl + D a couple of times to subdivide your model, adding resolution to it. Make sure that your ActivePoints (mesh resolution) count does not get too high, though, since it will affect performance. Anything beyond 10 million points will make ZBrush increasingly slow, depending on your PC’s hardware:

Figure 1.7 – ActivePoints count, showing the density of your mesh

You can find more information about subdividing in Chapter 5.

Getting creative

At this point, you can spend any time you like sculpting, experimenting, and getting used to working in ZBrush.

When you hold the Alt key while sculpting, you will put your brush into Subtract mode, carving away from it, instead of building up forms.

Additionally, you can hold Shift to enable the Smooth brush, which lets you smooth out the surface. Again, this will be covered in more depth in Chapter 4, but for now, these commands will give you a lot of possibilities for sculpting something unique and interesting.

Also, you can undo your last brush stroke(s) by pressing Ctrl + Z or dragging on the Undo slider (above the canvas) that stores the last steps:

Figure 1.8 – Undo slider for restoring an older state of the model

This concludes the first section of this chapter. You learned about LightBox and primitive shapes as starting points for sculpting in ZBrush. After that, you practiced navigating around your model and finally tested some of ZBrush’s sculpting brushes on a cube model. Next, we will take a closer look at the UI with its numerous menus and tools.

Exploring and customizing the ZBrush UI

The ZBrush UI contains a 3D canvas, where you can view and work on your models. By default, it should look like this (though I have changed the UI color to allow for better readability in print):

Figure 1.9 – The ZBrush UI

The buttons around the canvas are assembled there to be easily accessible; however, these same buttons can also be found in the ZBrush menus. If you click on a menu, it will open and show multiple sub-menus for you to explore.

Clicking on the Divider Space icon on the left and right sides of the screen (marked with a circle in the following screenshot) will create additional space, allowing you to drag and dock menus onto this space and keep them open and easily accessible:

Figure 1.10 – Before (left) and after (right) adding space on the left side of the canvas

To do so, left-click and drag the circle symbol in the upper-left corner of the menu, move them to the side of the canvas, and then release to dock them there.

Let’s look at the menus and see the wide range of features ZBrush has to offer.

Exploring the menus and palettes

All of ZBrush’s functionality is organized in menus at the top of the screen. You can move each menu to the space around the canvas to keep the menu open for faster access to its tools; this allows for greater efficiency when frequent access to a particular tool is needed.

In the following list, all of ZBrush’s menus are briefly explained. For the sake of a complete overview, no menu is left out, regardless of its importance, but you may skip parts of this section for now and come back to it when you want to look up specific information.

That being said, the menus are located in the top bar, as marked here:

Figure 1.11 – Top-bar menus

Here are the menus and their tools and benefits:

Alpha: These are grayscale images that you can use with your brushes to achieve specific effects on the surface of a sculpt (for example, Skin Detail, Rock Surface, Fabric Weave). The Alpha menu lets you create your own Alphas, modify existing ones, and import and export them. Here, we have the same brush, but equipped with different Alphas:

Figure 1.12 – The effect of different Alphas applied to a plane

Brush: These are the main tools used for sculpting and modeling. ZBrush has a wide variety of brushes; some of them are more common, while others have unique attributes. As you can see in this screenshot, brushes can produce very diverse results:

Figure 1.13 – The effect (and versatility) of different brush strokes applied to a plane

The Brush menu lets you create, modify, import, and save brushes. While there are many modification options in this menu, the Stroke menu has even more options; we will go into detail about brushes later on in the book.

Color: This menu allows you to choose and apply colors to your models. This can elevate the visual, as you can see in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.14 – The effect before and after color is applied to a model

Document: This menu lets you modify the document – that is, the canvas: the main working space in ZBrush. You can set dimensions, import images, and export them as a .zbr file (which will be explained later in this chapter). The canvas is the area inside the rectangle:

Figure 1.15 – ZBrush’s canvas

Draw: This menu contains many of the most important settings for how tools in ZBrush behave. Because of their importance and frequent use, some of the tools are accessible around the canvas. The most important features are Radius, Intensity, and Falloff brushes, as well as the Color and Material mode buttons (RGB, M, and MRGB). There is also the Perspective (Focal Length) option and other essential camera options.

Here are strokes with the same brush with the same Alpha but with different brush options from the Draw menu:

Figure 1.16 – The result of different brush functions available in the Draw menu

Dynamics: With ZBrush 2021, a new feature called Dynamics was introduced. This tool allows you to run simulations on meshes, which can be used to create different physical effects. One common use for this tool is creating realistic-looking clothing through the simulation of wrinkles. The wrinkles of the following dress were not sculpted but simulated by the press of a button:

Figure 1.17 – Creating wrinkles with the Dynamics functionality

Edit: This menu contains the important Undo and Redo functions. An Undo/Redo slider is also visible in the default UI, containing the same functionality:

Figure 1.18 – Modifications of a sphere undone with the Undo slider

File: Navigate to this menu to load, save, and export different file types from ZProjects to ZTools, canvases, and more.Layer: This palette contains information about the canvas and lets you create multiple canvases, which you can blend together to create a final image. This feature is not relevant for classic modeling or sculpting projects but might be useful for 2D artists.Light: This palette lets you adjust lighting in your scene by allowing you to create and orient multiple lights. These can be useful when creating renders inside ZBrush to present your model in the best possible way. You can see the effect of a custom light setup in a portrait sculpt here:

Figure 1.19 – A sculpture with default lighting (left) and the same sculpture with lighting of different colors and directions (right)

Macros: Allow you to record a sequence of actions, helping you speed up repetitive tasks.Marker: Markers let you record the position, size, and orientation of an object. Once you place an object on the canvas, it becomes converted to pixols (https://docs.pixologic.com/getting-started/basic-concepts/the-pixol/) and can’t be edited after another tool has been applied. Using markers lets you recall an object later so that you can redraw and edit it.Material: This palette allows you to create, modify, and save materials that determine how your 3D models are displayed on the canvas. Materials affect how your model reacts to light and can have a strong visual effect. Here is the same model with different materials applied:

Figure 1.20 – The result of different materials on the same model

Movie: This palette allows you to record videos and create simple animations. This is a great way to create and export previews of your model for yourself or clients.Picker: This palette gives you options for adjusting how your brushes function in ZBrush. This is a useful way to create very specific effects, but it may not be needed much in regular workflows; however, it is another tool to cover any sculpting scenario.Preferences: This menu contains a wealth of settings for all areas of ZBrush. From optimizing performance, managing quicksaves, and customizing the UI to saving hotkeys, this menu covers a lot. We will go over the most useful options later in this chapter.Render: This palette allows you to set up render settings for your 3D model so that you can maximize the quality of the images and present them according to your intention. You can create different render passes such as Depth, Ambient Occlusion, or Subsurface Scattering and export these to composite a final image in Photoshop or your image-editing software of choice. Rendering your model will calculate things such as shadows in a more realistic way, like so:

Figure 1.21 – Before rendering (left) and after rendering with more realistic shadows (right)

Stencil: Stencils let you mask out areas of your model based on grayscale images called Alphas. This lets you sculpt certain areas without affecting others, creating the desired look.Stroke: This menu, as with the Brush palette, gives you options for customizing your brush. You can create a variety of brushes that function in different ways. Some of these options will be covered in more detail later in the book.Texture: This menu lets you import, modify, and export textures. This way, you can apply color information from textures created outside of ZBrush to your models and get them to the next level. You can also add textures to the Spotlight tool here, which is handy for manually projecting color onto your models. Instead of painting a model in ZBrush, you can also import textures and apply it to a model:

Figure 1.22 – A model with imported textures from the Substance 3D Painter texturing software

Tool: This menu contains a list of all the individual 3D models in your scene, called subtools. Different functions help keep these subtools organized, but there are also options that allow you to duplicate, delete, or insert 3D models, which makes this one of the most essential parts of the Tool menu.

It also features the DynaMesh modeling tool, which is a great tool for concept creation and a more dynamic way of sculpting. Plus, the NanoMesh and Deformation menus offer unique ways to create certain effects on your 3D models beyond the more basic sculpting tools by adding meshes on the surface of your model or by simply applying deformations such as bending, inflating, or polishing.

Other useful parts of this menu are ZBrush’s Polypaint color system and its FiberMesh hair system – these are very powerful tools that will be introduced throughout this book, showing their effect in a practical application:

Figure 1.23 – The Subtool palette, containing all models of the ZTool

Transform: This palette contains options to move, scale, and orient your model, as well as navigate the canvas. Other essential options are displayed on the right side of the screen (if you are working with the standard UI). One noteworthy option is Symmetry Settings, which allows you to work on your model symmetrically and is one of ZBrush’s most important functionalities when it comes to character and prop creation. Symmetry can be applied along multiple axes, as well as in a radial fashion:

Figure 1.24 – Symmetry along one axis (left) and radial symmetry (right)

ZPlugin: This palette comes with an array of tools and plugins that cover a number of important functions for the professional artist (for example, 3D Print Hub, Scale Master, UV Master). These will be introduced in later chapters.ZScript: ZScript is a scripting language built into ZBrush and can be used for tutorials, macros, and plugins. It’s a great way to automate repetitive tasks and add new functionality via ZPlugins.Help: In this palette, you can find links to online resources, such as documentation and tutorials for new functionality. Other links give access to customer support, such as ZBrushCentral (a community for passionate sculptors) and ZClassroom (ZBrush’s learning resource):

Figure 1.25 – ZClassroom

Some of the functions that are available in these palettes are also included in the vertical toolbar on the right side of the canvas, as seen in Figure 1.26. Let’s take a look at some of the more important ones:

Command

Function

1: BPR (Best Preview Render) + SPix (SubPixel) slider

Renders the model, adding shadows and other properties, based on the render settings, set up in the Render palette in the Render Properties menu. The SPix slider improves the quality of the render.

2: Scroll

Lets you move the document/canvas.

3: Zoom

Lets you zoom in on the canvas.

4: Actual

Repositions the canvas in the center of the window, resetting any zoom that was applied.

5: AAHalf

Halves the size of the canvas.

6: Perspective Distortion

This button enables the Dynamic Perspective mode, which creates perspective distortions, making closer items appear larger. The degree of distortion depends on the focal length set up in the Draw palette.

7: Floor Grid

Lets you see the floor, allowing you to assess the position of your 3D model in 3D space.

8: Local Symmetry

Shifts the anchor point of Symmetry mode from the center of the scene to the center of the object, which lets you work with Symmetry mode on objects that are not located in the center of the ZBrush scene.

9: Lock Camera

Locks the camera, which can be useful if you want to preserve a certain viewing angle on your model.

10: XYZ/Y/Z

XYZ lets you rotate around your models in a normal way on all axes, Y lets you rotate only around the y axis, and Z lets you rotate only around the z axis.

11: Frame

Positions the selected subtool in the center of the canvas.

12: Move

Lets you move around the canvas as you normally would using your pen or mouse.

13: Zoom3D

Lets you zoom in on your models as you normally would using your pen or mouse.

14: Rotate

Lets you rotate around your models as you normally would using your pen or mouse.

15: Draw Polyframe

Turns on Wireframe mode, which lets you see the topology of the selected subtool.

16: Transparency

Lets you see the selected subtool through other subtools in the scene, similar to an X-ray effect.

17: Ghost

This is an extra feature for transparency, changing the shading of the active subtool from a darker to a brighter shading. This can help visualize your models in a different way and becomes a useful alternative to the default Transparency mode.

18: Solo

This will isolate your active subtool and make every other subtool on the canvas disappear. This is great for working on an isolated subtool without other subtools obstructing the view.

19: X-Pose

This function “explodes” your subtools, moving them away from each other to be distributed around the center of the canvas. This can be useful for visualizing your subtools individually.

Figure 1.26 – Vertical toolbar buttons and explanations

At this point, you should have a rough overview of the tools at your disposal. As previously mentioned, ZBrush has a wide variety of different tools that serve different industries, so some of them will be irrelevant for character creation and sculpting workflows. This list should serve as an overview that you can come back to at any point; the practical use of the most important tools will be introduced in the following chapters, up until the end of this book.

Setting some useful preferences

There are a few preferences that can help you get the most out of your ZBrush experience:

Go to Preferences | Interface | Button Size and try lowering the size value. With a smaller Button Size value, more space will become available to maximize the canvas, allowing you to see more of the model and its detail.Go to Preferences | Mem and increase MaxPolyPerMesh to a higher number (up to 100, depending on your PC’s capabilities). This will allow you to create meshes in higher resolution for projects where a high level of detail is needed.Go to Preferences | QuickSave and adjust the following:Maximum Duration: The length of time after which ZBrush will automatically save your project. This can help avoid the need to manually save files frequently. You can adjust this value, but it is recommended that you do not set the value too high, or you can disable it altogether; this is because ZBrush will crash in certain circumstances without quicksaves, which could potentially lead to you losing a lot of work and time.Rest Duration: In case you interrupt your work in ZBrush, this is the number of minutes after which ZBrush will make a quicksave.

These preferences are a good starting point for maximizing your canvas size, removing limits on mesh density, and preventing loss of work and time through quicksaves. You may need to adjust more preferences according to your specific needs as you become more familiar with the software and establish your workflows.

Creating your custom ZBrush UI

One of ZBrush’s strengths is the amount of customization available and how easy it is to build a custom UI. A custom UI will allow you to save time by making frequently used commands more accessible without needing to open menus. While it may seem like a small difference, this will eventually add up to a lot of saved time, and the sculpting experience feels smoother through it as well.

In order to build and save your custom UI, do the following:

Go to Preferences | Config | Enable Customize:

Figure 1.27 – Enable the Customize option

Hover over any button (almost all buttons are customizable) and select it using Ctrl + Alt + left-click. Then, drag it to any free space around the canvas. As you place new buttons and your custom UI grows, ZBrush will automatically reduce the size of the canvas, so be mindful to only pick what you frequently need:

Figure 1.28 – Before (left) and after (right) adding elements to the UI

Once you are done building your UI, go to Preferences | Config and turn off Enable Customize.Now, you can hit Store UI – this will save your UI as your new custom UI, and ZBrush will launch with this UI from that point forward. Alternatively, you can also select Save UI and simply save it and load it at a later point again.

Here, you can see my custom UI. If you compare it to the standard UI with the same button size, the canvas is smaller. If you work with a large computer screen, it might not be an issue, though, and the improved efficiency might make it worth it:

Figure 1.29 – My custom UI

Important note

If you are just getting started with ZBrush, there is little benefit in downloading custom UIs or spending a lot of time planning and building one. Rather, add commands and buttons over time as you access the same tools frequently. That way, you keep your UI slim and don’t overcrowd your workspace.

You should now feel comfortable navigating the ZBrush UI and creating your own custom UI. While you will only start to learn about most of the tools in this book in future chapters, you can start building your custom UI from the very beginning of your journey. Eventually, you will find ZBrush to be very intuitive and efficient, allowing you to spend the most time sculpting and producing results.

In the next section, we will explore the file types that ZBrush uses – the purpose of each type can be unclear for beginners, so clarifying them now will help you to save everything you need while avoiding saving unwanted content.

Understanding ZBrush file types

In this section, we will examine the main file types used in ZBrush: ZTool, ZProject, and ZDoc. This topic can be confusing in the beginning, so hopefully, an overview of the properties, as well as the pros and cons, will allow you to use them effectively. You will be able to store all the information you need but not in excess, reducing file size and saving hard drive space on your PC.

ZTools (.ztl)

ZTool files are the main ZBrush tool files used to store the sculpting, painting, and texture data associated with a 3D model in ZBrush. Layers, Morph Targets, and everything applied to your 3D models (subtools) will be saved.

You can save your file as a ZTool by clicking Tool| Save as (ZTool).

ZTools will save the active tool, which consists of every subtool displayed in the subtool list. The subtools saved are the ones shown in the area highlighted in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.30 – All the content saved in a ZTool file

Note that newer ZBrush versions are able to open old .ztl files, but you cannot open a ZTool created in a newer ZBrush version than the one you are using.

ZProjects (.zpr)

When you save a project, ZBrush creates a single file that includes all the loaded ZTools. You can work on one ZTool as your main project, but if you are working with multiple ZTool files at the same time, ZProjects will save every loaded ZTool in the session. Beyond that, the ZProject will also save canvas (document) information, timeline animation, and the camera:

Figure 1.31 – All the content saved in a ZProject file, marked with rectangles

ZProjects are a great format to save your whole ZBrush session so that at a later time, you can reopen it and continue your work exactly where you left off.

The ZProject file size will be considerably larger than a ZTool file, so unless you need that additional information saved, choosing ZTool over ZProject will make more sense. You can save your ZProjects by clicking File| Save as (ZProject).

ZDocs (.zbr)

ZDocs store information that is visible on your canvas (the canvas being the area on the screen where all the sculpting and painting is happening). Sculptors and modelers can export ZDocs and the associated canvas information to save images of their 3D models to be presented to their clients or to be further edited in software such as Photoshop:

Figure 1.32 – All the content saved in a ZDoc file, marked with a rectangle

This format will not store any 3D model, so avoid the mistake of trying to save your sculptures using the ZDoc format. It will simply save the pixels displayed at the time on the canvas. This can include your visible subtools, as well as any modification you made to the canvas itself, such as background colors, gradients, and dimensions. You can save your ZDocs by clicking Document | Save as (ZProject).

The Document menu also contains Import and Export options, allowing you to import and export flat images. This is useful for creating previews or work-in-progress shots of your models for yourself or clients.

Now that you understand the properties of different file types, you’ll be able to use them in many ways. The biggest takeaway is to avoid saving files as ZProjects if all the needed information is already included in the ZTool; this is because ZProjects are large files, and more storage space is required for busy sculptors.

Summary

Congratulations on completing the first chapter! If you are new to ZBrush, getting used to its unique navigation and UI might take a while, but you can feel great about having taken the first step in learning new software that has set up countless artists for a rewarding and fulfilling career.