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Section Title
In this series of 7 articles, I was asked to
produce a beginner’s guide to Zbrush which
assumed that the user does not know a whole
lot about the program or how to use it. These
articles aren’t meant to take the place of either
the help files, or proper training, but should give
you an excellent starting point to get you into the
world of ZBrushing.
Basic techniques
Showing and hiding polygons
There are many reasons why you might want to
hide part of your geometry while working on it.
These range from simply wanting to concentrate
on a particular area you are working on, to
wanting to improve the performance of your
image at high polygon counts. To hide some
polygons, first take one of the default models
provided with Zbrush (a selection of them are
available on the splash screen) to test with.
Hold down Shift + Ctrl and drag over the area
you wish to keep. This will then hide everything
else on this tool. To remove more polygons
from this area simply do the same as before, but
before releasing your left mouse stop pressing
the control key. The previously green selection
box will now turn red to let you know that this
area will be hidden.
You can also have your selection changed from
the default box dragging type to a lasso type.
You can find this in some of the interface layouts
and also in the Transform Palette. This then lets
you select much more complex shapes than are
available with the default box drag type (Fig02
and Fig03).
Brushes
ZBrush’s brush set is arguably one of its most
powerful features, along with its ability to handle
truly staggering polygon counts. There is a
different brush for literally any job you might
think of and many of them have more uses
than they first seem to. Brushes are controlled
by the ZIntensity slider - with 0 being no effect
on the model and 100 being a massive effect
on the model - and are used along with Zadd
(this makes the geometry be pulled outwards)
and Zsub (which pushes the geometry into the
model). You can also change the way a brush
reacts with your fall off, which is controlled by
your focal shift.
can also use the move tool at this point to move dealing with Zspheres as this makes things a more than the one you may want to, so it makes
things into position so it matches what you see whole lot easier. A larger size brush will mean things less confusing to have a very small brush
size (Fig09).
Wayne Robson
For more from this artist visit:
http://www.dashdotslash.net
Or contact:
wayne@dashdotslash.net
“When moving areas For all of you out there
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Introduction
In the last article, after giving a very basic
overview of some of the main features of
ZBrush, we made our basic Zsphere base
mesh. So in this section we will continue with
the project by taking this base mesh and starting
to sculpt it. This part of the series will introduce
you to some of the common brushes used in
ZBrush for low and medium resolution detailing
(Fig01).
Modelling
First of all we need to make sure that we move
some of the vertexes around on our base mesh.
This will allow us to make sure that we have
resolution where we need it, as opposed to
where we don’t. As the polygon count increases
by a multiple of 4 each time we subdivide
our model, we need to bear in mind that it is
important not to waste polygons where they
Wayne Robson
For more from this artist visit:
http://www.dashdotslash.net
Or contact:
wayne@dashdotslash.net
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Introduction
Up until now in this series, we have been
creating what amounts to a fairly generic
medium-resolution sculpture that could be
turned into a whole host of different creatures.
The advantage of knowing h+ow to block out
common forms such as these is that each time
you sculpt something in ZBrush that is human
or ‘human-esque’, you will be refining what you
learned the last time you did something vaguely
similar. It is in this way that we improve as
digital sculptors. Making mistakes is a positive
thing, because without them we would never
learn and improve. So an artist who never
makes mistakes is an artist who never grows
artistically (Fig01).
sphere primitive that is available in your tools separate SubTool. So look at the bottom of will move, with the other end acting as a pivot
menu by left clicking on your current tool. This the ‘SubTool’ section and click on the ‘Append’ point. By dragging by the edge of the centre
will bring up a pane that contains many other button. Once again, this brings up your pane circle you will be able to drag the whole action
primitives and tools (along with any others that with the other ZBrush tools in it. You should line itself into place. Clicking in the centre of
you have currently loaded into ZBrush at the see your sphere polymesh on the very top line, each circle works in a similar way. Clicking and
time). Select the sphere primitive and it should so select that and it will then be added to your dragging in the centre of either of the two circles
appear loaded into the viewport on its own. At current model as a SubTool. You will notice that on the ends of the action line transforms the tool
this time we can’t use this sphere because it is the size and position is all wrong at the moment, in a uniform way (depending on the whether
still a ‘primitive’ and not a polymesh that we can but don’t worry as we’ll be sorting that out next! the Move, Scale or Rotate is currently active).
sculpt (Fig03). Clicking and dragging on the centre of the
Our next big job is to resize and position this centre circle will transform in certain directions.
To make this primitive into a polymesh, simply eye in the correct place. Before we continue, So if, for example, you had the Scale transform
look at the very top of the tool menu and press let us recap again on how the transpose lines active with the action line vertically on the centre
the ‘Make polymesh3D’ button. This will then work for our transformation tools, such as Move, line of your model, and you dragged on the
generate your polymesh from the primitive Scale and Rotate. At the end of each line you centre of the circle at either end, it would scale
sphere and load it into the viewport in exactly will see a circle with another in the centre of the up or down the entire model in a uniform way.
the same position as the primitive was. So line. By left-clicking and holding down we can While dragging, using the centre circle would
it looks for the entire world as if nothing has drag the transform line into position by doing scale the model horizontally, but not vertically
happened! So now we have a sphere that we so on the edges of any of the circles. If you (Fig04).
are going to make into not one, but two eyes. drag by the ones on either end then that end
You may have noticed that the main model that
we were working on is also visible in the tools
menu near the top. If you click on this now then
it will once again become active in the viewport
and we can start putting the sphere into the right
place as one of the eyes.
Continuing with
Sculpting
Holding down the Ctrl key, paint a mask for the
clavicle (as shown), remembering that if you
hold down Ctrl + Alt you can paint to remove
an area from your mask (Fig05). Using your
Standard brush (with the default settings),
simply run it over the area to block this in.
Then smooth the bottom area of this where it
intersects with the chest area (Fig06).
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Introduction
By this point we’ve got to the stage where we
have the more important things, such as the
head shape, eyes and part of the chest, blocked
in. So now it’s time to start the process of pulling
everything together. Hopefully you have been
practicing the steps that we’ve done so far
and have created your own characters, so you
should start to be feeling a lot more at home
with ZBrush by now. There is literally hundreds
of direction this model could take from this point,
from a design point of view alone. The beauty
of using such low resolution bases, such as
the one we made using Zspheres, is that we
aren’t walled into any decisions made during the
polygon stage of modelling.
We need to start moving on towards the back medium resolution forms. Any corrections I
Back to Modelling
area of the sculpture and start to roughly block leave towards the end, once the main design
Pick up your clay brush with no alpha active and
in the forms we need, before adding some and character has been nailed down. If any
Zadd set to 50. We’ll be using the ‘Dots’ stroke
details to make him look a little more like our areas are hard for you to get right then don’t
type and I’ll be stepping the brush size up and
final character. You will notice I don’t go into worry, as at the end of this series 3DCreative
down as I need to. Let’s start this session by
fine detail at this stage as I’m basically only will be making a free video of the modelling
adding some mass to the shoulder blades. As
concerned with the main forms, masses and sessions I did on this character available!!
this sculpt doesn’t have the benefit of arms to
tell us where they should be or orientated, we’ll
start by making them fairly neutral and we can
change the latter once he’s posed near the end.
Once you’ve beefed this area up, as shown, it’s
time to beef up the area between the shoulder
blades running up the neck and round to the
front. The Trapezius can be tricky to get right for
those without some anatomical understanding,
as it inserts into the top of the shoulder blade
and runs in a diamond-like shape up to the base
of the skull, and also wraps around to the front
of the Clavicle. I would strongly advise having
some sort of anatomical reference handy when
doing anything human- or animal-based. You
him. Also add more mass to the arches, running out of shape. This should run from behind the
the length of his skull from the area where they ear (if he has any ears, that is!) to the end of
intersect the brow part of the skull. As a result the clavicle in the centre, below the neck. These
of changes to the head, pay attention that the basic landmarks help to keep your ‘human-
Sternocleidomastoid muscle doesn’t start to look esque’ digital sculptures looking a little more
realistic, although no one expects you to make a
masterpiece first time out (Fig.02)!
Facing Up
Add more weight to the cheekbones, lower chin
area and the fold of skin between the chin and
base of the neck. You ideally want him to look
almost as if he has a larger lower jaw than upper
one, as shown. Let’s isolate the head area to
make it easier for us to work on it undisturbed.
So, turn on the frame mode (a shortcut of Shift +
F toggles it on and off, by the way!), press down
Control + Shift and left-click on the head area of
proper side on view), pull the mouth edges back section of the tools palette.) Using the move
a touch (Fig.05). brush again, pull the brows into an angry-looking Again, paint a mask over the eye socket area
position, as shown before unmasking the area. and then invert it by either going into the
Step back up your subdivision levels again and If you find the transition of the brow to the upper masking section of the Tool palette or by holding
paint a mask over the eye socket areas, then eye area a bit too harsh, use your smooth brush down the control key and left-clicking outside
blur this mask by holding down the Shift key on a lower subdivision level before stepping your model. Then, using a smaller move brush,
and left-clicking on part of the masked area. up again and smoothing out any areas that still start to pull the eyelids into a more pleasing
Mask off the lower jaw and make sure you are
totally masking the lower lip, and then pull the
upper lip down to meet it. As we are closing
the mouth he’s not going to need any teeth.
Then start to pull the almost-beak shape of the a lot at this stage in the modelling process. It’s more interesting until later on. Start by carving
front of his mouth area out, as shown. Do this not as harsh as the square-shaped clay tubes the area in and then add mass between these
in a combination of a side view and a ¾ view and less washed out than no alpha set at all, carved in areas, as shown, and smooth things
(Fig.08). as in the clay brush (when its set to its default) out as they travel towards the deltoid. Taking
(Fig.09). the Slash1 brush, carve in some lines, as
Back to the Chest shown, beneath the deltoid where the Pectorals
Select your clay tubes brush but change the Use this to beef up the front of the Deltoid and intersect under the deltoid (again, as shown).
alpha from its default to Alpha 01, which is the carve some indentations into the Pectoral area. The Pectoral muscles are in 5 strip-like sections,
1st round alpha. I save this out and have it set These striations aren’t technically “correct” and I often pull a line in near the armpit on
as a custom brush on my set up as I find I use it but they do help the chest area to look slightly the Pectoral area to help add a bit of interest.
Smooth these out a fair bit once done (Fig.10).
defining areas as these are best to sculpt to fit fine detail (as we are about to do) (Fig.13)! practice what you learned this session and the
the character or creature that you are doing and Take it down in size till it’s fairly small (there’s a previous ones on models of your own design to
not a “one size fits all” approach. If you do then certain amount of trial and error to this part so get as comfortable with them as you can. We’re
it will only end up with a string of fairly identical have your Control + Z undo keys ready till you going to do a lot of work next time so make sure
looking models with very little variety (Fig.12)! have it set the way you want!) and start to gently you are comfortable with the tools we’ve used
carve in fine lines over the top of the ones you so far before next month (Fig.14). Catch you all
Slashing Away… previously carved in, using the Slash1 brush. in part 5!
Change to your Slash2 brush; this brush is After carving in each ‘group’, smooth them out
rather special in that it not only slashes like the towards the ends until they fit in with the forms Wayne Robson
Slash1 brush but also makes one side of the of the model correctly. The effect is subtle but For more from this artist visit:
slash protrude while the other stays level. So, will help our end result a great deal. http://www.dashdotslash.net
overlook – I use it on just about every model We’ve done quite a lot this session and he’s wayne@dashdotslash.net
and never cease finding new ways to use it from starting to resemble our final sculpt quite a bit
Created In:
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Introduction
Now that we have our forms blocked out from
the previous articles, we can now move onto
adding some finer details to help bring this bust
to life! Load up the model that we’ve been
working on so far and set the Slash2 brush as at least in passing for those of you unaware stress so that we can add folds in these areas.
your active brush, with the dots stroke selected. of it, is the pectoral muscles that fan out in 5 This isn’t a simple concept to grab at first and
sections from the clavicle (collar bone), all the comes with practice and observation. There’s
A Short Anatomical way down the sternum. In our model we will be no “short cut” to be totally honest and it’s
Diversion exaggerating these quite a bit to give a more something every organic artist is always striving
It’s time to start taking into account human interesting look to the chest area. As mentioned to improve (Fig.03)!
anatomy now, especially now that we are in the before in this series, the better you know your
detailing stage. While you can use a selection anatomy the more you can use it to bend and So start to hunt out areas where the skin will
of alphas on your model to give it some skin shape it to your will and create believable- stretch from one area to another, or be under
detail, the problem I personally have with this looking models (Fig.02)! stress, and use your Slash2 brush to add some
is that anyone with the same set of alphas as stress wrinkles to denote stretching skin. Areas
yourself will have a similar look to their models. Abreast of the that I added these wrinkles to include the area
So I prefer to detail by hand and use only default Situation where the 2 sections of the clavicle come
alphas available in ZBrush itself, for a couple of With your Slash2 brush active, start to make together, where the skin stretches near the
jobs here and there. The plus points of this are some very light lines where these 5 sections sternocladomastoid, and the centre of the neck.
that you end up with a unique look to your skin join to the sternum. Once done, wash them Now make some deeper slashes to show the
texture, and it’s also very good practice (Fig.01)! out again about 70% by smoothing out, holding different sections of the deltoid muscle. In most
down the Shift key. We need to start taking into humans this isn’t very visible, unless they’ve
One area of anatomy that I do want to cover, account where the skin will fold and be under done some quite heavy training. But in this
case, as it’s a creature we’re making up, we
are allowed to go as nuts as we like! After
essentially ‘dividing up’ the deltoid, smooth
things out again a little to help the forms to work
together (Fig.04).
Continue to work your way around the entire torso and neck area adding
these stress wrinkles until you’re happy that they look ‘right’. Take special
care in the area where the pectoral feeds under the deltoid, as you can
add some nice wrinkles and folds in this area.
Heads Up!
Now we’ve started to add some early details to the torso (and are by no
means finished with it yet!), we can also make sure that the head area is
just as detailed to keep things in balance. I personally prefer many times
to “nail” the head area – personality and looks-wise – as it gives me lots
of ideas and information as to what sort of look the body area needs. But
keep in mind that every artist works their own way to achieve the look that
they personally want as part of their style (Fig.06).
The first area I want to address to give the
character… well, more character, is the eyes.
At the moment they are a bit too wide open and
surprised, so use masks (as detailed earlier in
the series) close the eyes a bit to give him more
of a mean look.
start to drag out some fine wrinkles. Start with the eyes before moving on
to the area where the brow meets the nasal area (Fig.09).
Please make sure that you follow the direction of the skin. Skin, like a
tree, has a “grain” – go against it and it will give you nothing but badness!
However, work with the flow of the skin and the anatomy and you’ll get
mush better results each time. Work between the brow on the fine folds
there, as well as the main folds on the brow itself.
Drag rectangle stroke with the Standard brush outlined what amounts to (for me) 38 minutes
Wayne Robson
selected (you can also use the layer brush for work. Although the parts we are to do in the last
For more from this artist visit:
this turned very low down). Using a ZIntensity two articles take up the same timeframe, they
http://www.dashdotslash.net
of 14 and in ZAdd mode, drag this circle out in are much more repetitive and hence a lot easier.
Or contact:
the centre of the eye. I should warn you that the So practice what we’ve done so far and keep
wayne@dashdotslash.net
chances of you getting this bang on the money experimenting!
first time are slim, so have your Ctrl + Z undo
shortcut keys handy! This gives us a nice effect
on the shape of the eye itself and provides us
with some nice highlights. Like a lot of things
in digital sculpting (and traditional sculpting),
subtle things can really help with the look of a
sculpture.
Created In:
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Introduction
In the previous articles in this series we have
gone from a very simple base mesh generated Tidying Up
from ZSpheres, to the stage where we now Before we start the skin detailing in earnest, I’d
need to start adding some fine detail. Although like you to go over all of your medium resolution
this takes the most time by far, for the most forms and make sure that they are tightened.
part it is very repetitive. I’m not a big believer in Be sure to sharpen them up and make sure
simply dragging out alpha with detail already in it that they look correct to your eye before
all over the model, as this does not give you the continuing with this tutorial. It’s a lot easier to
required amount of control. It can also end up do this now than to come back later (although
giving us a very “samey” look. So to help further not impossible). So please make sure that you
your ZBrush skill set, we are going to add the are happy with the direction that your model is
skin detailing by hand in this article. This is by taking, and that you feel you have gone as far
far the most rewarding way to do it, and gives as you can in the time that you have allowed so
the added benefit of letting us add the detail that far. Pay particular attention to areas with a lot
we want (rather than the detailing that we may of detail, such as the eyelids; if you feel that a
be “stuck with” from a set of alphas) (Fig.01). fold, crease or wrinkle needs to be added then
Detail Pass 1
Select your Inflate brush with ZAdd set to
a ZIntensity of 10, alpha 58 active and the
freehand stroke type. We are going to use this
Now add your cross hatching at a slight angle (between 5 and 15 degrees
or so seems to look best for me). Once you’ve done this, the skin in that
area shouldn’t look as shiny and boring as it did a moment ago. But,
rather importantly, the detail is still flat. There’s no life to it at all because
real skin isn’t uniform in nature, nor does it have all wrinkles of the same
depth. It varies and it’s that randomness that helps to give it a sense of
realism. It’s that random nature of raised and recessed areas of varying
depths that we need to capture in any high frequency skin detailing.
So to do this, change the alpha on your Inflate brush to alpha 35 and turn
Use your Inflate brush now to add a sense Up until now we’ve kept the clavicle very visible detail to the neck, use your Displace brush and
of stretching skin running from the back of to act as a reference point, but now, using our draw out a few lines running towards the deltoid
the cranium towards the top of the back and Clay brush and Inflate brush, we can get the and clavicle (Fig.06).
shoulders. As you will have guessed by now, pectoral muscles to run into it a bit better. Keep
digital sculpting isn’t just modelling something smoothing and stepping down the subdivision Now work over the entire model and tighten up
and adding detail, but rather a process of levels if you need to. This will suddenly help to every line and medium resolution detail. This is
continual correction and refinement. If you feel pull the design together a whole lot more. Again, actually easier that it sounds; it’s just a matter
you can improve an area, do it! If you feel it go in and tighten the skin folds that run from of taking areas that have become washed-out-
needs to be further tightened up, then again, under the deltoid to keep all the detail in synch looking and sharpening them a little. Due to the
go and do it! That’s what digital sculpting (and with each other. We are aiming for the model length of this article I can’t cover every single
traditional sculpting) is all about – this search for to have detail of the same density all over, with line, although the free video released in the next
the elusive “perfection” (Fig.05). a few spots having tighter detail. To add more article in the series covering the whole workflow
will help you if you find you get stuck!
After you have covered the entire torso with this cross-hatching effect, it’s
time to go in with your Inflate brush again. Start to inflate and add mass
between these wrinkles - being careful not make each one identical. This
is going to take you a bit of time, but the final effect is worth it and it’s also
great practice to get used to the feel of the brushes in ZBrush. We will go
back over these again to add mass to the very small wrinkles once the
model has been posed in the next article, so for the moment don’t go into
too much fine detail with your Inflate brush (Fig.07).
Detail Pass 2
This is where we add the important second layer of skin detail to really
help the model to look better. So take your Displace brush, with the Now use your Slash1 brush to tighten areas up again, especially on the
DragRect stroke type and alpha 22 selected, and start by dragging a front of the torso. I know this can get repetitive, but it’s important not to
couple of areas out on the brows. The ZIntensity of our ZAdd is set to 11 leave the tightening stage out after each set of detailing, otherwise the
for this. Now start to spread this detail back (making it smaller as you do mode will end up looking washed out and the details and forms “muddy”.
so) towards the back of the head (Fig.08). Finish off the pectorals by going back over with your Inflate brush and the
“lines” alphas from before, and drawing some very fine (almost invisible)
Turn the ZIntensity down to 4 and drag some larger areas across each details on them (Fig.09).
deltoid, as shown. Then continue to add this detail all over the back of the
torso and back of the neck (if you find you lose some definition after this, Once you’ve used these techniques all over the model and taken it to a
feel free to add it back in again). level with which you’re happy, we can call this part of the modelling done.
In the next article (and the last in this series) we’ll pose our model and
then correct the anatomy to better fit the pose before rendering it out.
Remember to keep practicing what you’ve learned and try to apply it to
your own models (Fig.10).
If you want to try another style of skin detailing for high frequency skin
details, take a look at my site (www.dashdotslash.net) and you’ll find
a two-part video on a different type of detailing that you can do. It’s
approached in the same two-layer way, but with a totally different skin
texture. See you all next time (Fig.11)!
Wayne Robson
For more from this artist visit:
www.dashdotslash.net
Or contact:
wayne@dashdotslash.net
Created In:
ZBrush
Introduction
Well here it is: the final part in the ZBrush series
for beginners. It doesn’t seem too long ago that
we had part one, does it? In this series so far,
we’ve taken a very low polygon base mesh,
made with ZSpheres, and turned it into a digital
sculpt that is within the reach of most people
starting out (although I have made the model a
little bit of a challenge, too, so that it helps push
you to your limits as a new ZBrush user!).
In this last article we will be taking the sculpt
that we completed in the last article (Fig.01) and of it. The knowledge within the seven articles
Posing the Model
posing it. After we’ve done that, we will need in this series contains everything that you need
We are going to pose the model using the
to fix the anatomy a little to help it flow with the to know in order to create your first completed
“Transpose Master” plug-in, made available
pose. Once that’s done I’ll then give you a quick digital sculpture. I hope that you’ve enjoyed
for free by Pixologic. If you haven’t got it
outline on the theory behind the preview panel, following this tutorial series as much as I have
already, just head over to Pixologic’s website
so that you can export out some nice renders writing them for you.
and download it (it comes with full installation
instructions). Transpose Master, by default,
steps each subtool in your model down to its
lowest subdivision level to enable you to pose
the entire model, including its subtools at the
same time (Fig.02).
its lowest subdivision level by hand anyway, geometry), left-click and drag it by the edge of intensity either for that matter), or we can use
mainly because I’m a big believer in “helping” one of the circles. If you do this with either of topological masking to help us move faster.
a computer out by not making it work too hard. the end circles, then that end will be moved as
Go to the ZPlugin palette and open up the you drag; however, if you left-click and drag the Topological Masking
Transpose Master section, and then hit the outside of the centre circle then the entire action Simply put, a topological mask is a type of
“TPoseMesh” button. line can be moved (Fig.05). mask that we can create in ZBrush that will
follow the topology and edge flow of our model
All of the subtools have now been temporarily Action lines are used with masks that mask off as we create it. To create a topological mask,
grouped together in one mesh for us to pose, areas we don’t want to be affected by whatever simply hold down the Ctrl key while in one of
and this does have a particular quirk that I’ll transform we do on our mesh. These can either the transform modes (move, scale or rotate),
outline in a moment. Transpose Master makes be masks painted by hand (or from a texture and drag along the geometry (Fig.06). You will
use of the transform functions (move, scale
and rotate); by using topological masking we
can mask off, along the polygon flow of the
model, different sections and then pose them.
You will notice that Transpose Master also puts
your model in orthographic mode, instead of
perspective. For some models this can be a
good thing (for example, when you need to line
up a full body pose), but for our model it’s no big
deal, so we can turn perspective back on again
by hitting the “P” key.
Action Lines
As actions lines are the one thing we must
know how to use in order to pose our model, it
is worth covering them briefly in this tutorial. An
action line is a line with three circles on it and
two of these circles act as a sort of pivot point.
To move an action line itself (as opposed to the
pose the torso of our model. Rotate it to one sculpture in a front facing pose, some parts
side from a front view a little, before aligning of the anatomy are now “off” after the posing
the action line along the spine and left-clicking (Fig.13 and Fig.14). A good example of this is
and dragging in the centre circle to finish off our the trapezium; at one side it is slightly bulged
pose. Go back to your plug-in palette and hit the out when it would actionably be extended. So go
“TPose > SubT” button, and ZBrush will do all to these areas and put things right to match the
the work for you and will put each subtool back pose itself. Work out if each muscle should be
into its own place – posed and ready! Step each extended or contracted, and correct accordingly
model up to its highest subdivision level and (Fig.15, Fig.16 and Fig.17).
take a look at the pose (Fig.11 and Fig.12).
Setting up a Nice
Correcting the Pose Preview Render
You will notice that, as we modelled our digital The model is finished now, but you can refine
it further if you wish to tighten up any areas
that you feel need it. Now there’s not a lot of
point making a nice digital sculpture if no one
can ever see it but you, so let’s set up a quick
preview render and explain how the settings for
them in the render palette work (Fig.18).
Anti-Aliasing
To get a good quality render, exit the edit
mode and clear the canvas by hitting Ctrl + N,
then double the size in your document panel
(assuming you want a render at the same size
that you’ve been working at) (Fig.20). If you
want one that’s bigger, adjust this accordingly. Once you are happy with your render, export it
Draw your model back on the canvas and by going to the document palette and hitting the
position it (after making sure you’ve pressed “Export” button.
the edit button!). Now for the important bit: hit
the AAHalf button and this will reduce the size The Video
of your render by 50%, and the anti-aliasing As I’ve mentioned a few times in this series of
will make the whole thing a lot smoother and articles, while working on this model I recorded
of a higher quality. You may notice that it also the process directly after the creation of the
softens the details; this is one of the reasons ZSphere rig to the text that you see above. It
why I sculpted a bit deeper and harsher than seemed a great shame for this to stay on my
you may have expected at the time. It’s a simple computer, eating up space and gathering dust,
way of compensating for the anti-aliasing effect! so the guys at 3DCreative have kindly agreed
Inspiration
So is this technique any good for other models,
or is it simply a “one trick pony”? Well, to answer
any niggling doubts you may have, I’ll close
this series with a couple of speed models that
I’ve done using the exact same base mesh
and workflow. Neither of them took more than
two hours from beginning to end, and hopefully
they’ll show that everything from humanesque
monsters, to more warped and strange ideas,
can be created using this method (in fact,
there’s no limit to what you can make – the only
limits are the ones you impose on yourself!)
(Fig.21).
I hope you’ve enjoyed this series, and if so I’d surface sculpting to organic and environment
like to plug my book Essential ZBrush, which will sculpting, so please support an artist today
be available soon from Wordware Publishing, and buy a copy for yourself (maybe even two!).
and will be found in all good book shops (it’s Many thanks! (Fig.22).
also available on pre-order from Amazon). It
covers the creation of an entire scene using Wayne Robson
ZBrush, along with how to get your model, For more from this artist visit:
normal and displacement maps etc. into Maya www.dashdotslash.net
and 3ds Max, as well as covering ZBrush from Or contact:
the ground up. There’s everything from hard wayne@dashdotslash.net