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Home Design Design Tutorials Zbrush Tutorial ZBrush sculpting
 

ZBrush sculpting

ZBrush sculpting

Introduction to ZBrush sculpting

In this article, we are going to learn about ZBrush sculpting. Sculpting in Zbrush is done primarily using brushes, but many modifiers affect the brushes and the way we sculpt. Brushes can be modified using several controls such as Gravity, Wrap Mode, Density, etc. Along with that, there is also alt mode that can change or reverse the brush’s behaviour, which can change the effect on sculpture. There are also many stroke modes which change the behaviour of the brush. In sculpture, when you have some jagged edges, you might want to smooth them, and there are various ways to smooth the geometry.\

 

 

Steps of ZBrush sculpting

Here are the following steps mention below

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Step 1: Go to Document in the menu bar and then select New document with WSize on, which will make the canvas size the same as the viewport size.

ZBrush sculpting output 1

Step 2: Start with the A Load tool option.

ZBrush sculpting output 2

Step 3: Navigate to the stored tool if you have any, or you can select some primitive tools like a sphere as this tool will better demonstrate various brushes.

ZBrush sculpting output 3

Step 4: Then drag the tool inside the viewport

ZBrush sculpting output 4

Step 5: After creating the sphere, go to edit mode. This mode will allow you to sculpt the 3D object. When you place a primitive 3D object in the edit mode, it will automatically be closed in the tool palette.

ZBrush sculpting output 5

Step 6: Enable the perspective button to which will apply perspective foreshortening to a 3D object. Also, press Floor to activate the perspective floor grid, which can be activated per axis, and by default, Y-axis is enabled.

ZBrush sculpting output 6

Step 7: By default, the standard brush is selected, so let’s start sculpting with it and look at some settings. Draw size determines how large the brush is. Z Intensity, on the other hand, determines the depth. While the focal shift determines the falloff of the brush

ZBrush sculpting output 7

Step 8: Next is the stroke mode when we change to freehand though it is similar to dots mode by placing multiple instances, it also connects those instances by reducing the spacing between the dots, and it might be slower than the dots stroke.

ZBrush sculpting output 8

Step 9: Spray stroke is used to apply a random pattern of different sizes and color intensity over the cursor drag path. Placement, scale, color, and flow parameters adjustment can be made depending on the look you want.

ZBrush sculpting output 9

Step 10: Let’s switch to clay brush or press B – C – L, and when we fill the area near the ear, it gives us artifacts on the back.

ZBrush sculpting output 10

Step 11: To avoid this problem, go to Brush -> Auto Masking and turn on BackfaceMask.

ZBrush sculpting output 11

Step 12: Now, when we fill the ear, the problem is gone.

ZBrush sculpting output 12

Step 13: In the Strokes menu, there is an option for Lazy Mouse, which enables you to created decorative shapes with less precision as you can see a line along the curve you draw. You can adjust the lazy radius to increase the effect.

ZBrush sculpting output 13

Step 14: Now, let’s see about brush symmetry which can be toggled on and off using the X key. If you want to know whether you are in symmetry mode or not without looking other side, then you can see that when we are in symmetry mode, there is a and extra circle inside of the main circle, and when symmetry mode is turned on, then that circle is gone.

ZBrush sculpting output 14

Step 15: When we see in the transform palette, we can see that we can also activate symmetry along the Y and Z-axis.

ZBrush sculpting output 15

Step 16: To demonstrate radial symmetry, we can select a sphere tool and then activate radial symmetry with radial count on any of the axis to get some interesting effect.

ZBrush sculpting output 16

Step 17: Back to our face tool, when we look at the draw size, there is an option for dynamic. If it is on, then the brush will scale according to the model.

output 17

Step 18: If we double click the word dynamic, then it toggles it, then the size of the draw will depend on the screen, which is useful if we want to smooth parts of the models quickly.

output 18

Step 19: There is also an option to turn on remember dynamic mode per brush, which will remember whether you have turned off or on the dynamic mode on that brush.

output 19

Step 20: Similarly, you can also remember to draw size per brush.

output 20

Step 21: Now we know that pressing shift while sculpting smooth the geometry, but we can change this brush. Let’s select smooth peaks brush or press B – S – P. There will be a warning, then skip it until restart. When we start smoothing on the neck, it does not work.

output 21

Step 22: But when we work on the chin, it works.

output 22

Step 23: Suppose if you want to smooth the neck, we can press alt while pressing. Pressing alt is also called inverting brush effect.

output 23

Step 24: Most brushes have an alt mode; as we can see in the standard brush when we draw, the first two-stroke is in normal mode, which build-up, and the third one is in alt mode, which removes.

output 24

Step 25: But there are some exceptions like DamStandard, which by default digs in, and then in alt mode, it creates a crease in the opposite direction.

output 25

Step 26: When we use move brush in this alt mode, then it pulls the geometry directly from the surface instead of relative to the camera view.

output 26

Step 27: Then, we select an alpha

output 27

Step 28: Turning on alpha, it stamps the same image along the curve.

output 28

Step 29: Now turn on Roll in Stroke modifier

output 29

Step 30: So the brush finishes one copy before finishing the other copy.

output 30

Step 31: The roll modifier works better with the brush, which has continuity, as shown.

output 31

Step 32: Another way is to select the DragRect stroke type, which places one instance of the stroke, and you can control the size using the cursor.

ZBrush sculpting output 32

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned how to sculpt in Zbrush. Firstly, we have started with loading a tool, then we starting working on various brush modifiers. We have also looked at symmetry and dynamic mode. Then we looked at how alpha and strokes affect the sculpture.

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to ZBrush sculpting. Here we discuss how to sculpt in Zbrush, and we have started with loading a tool, then we starting working on various brush modifiers. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –

  1. ZBrush Plugins
  2. ZBrush Tools
  3. What is ZBrush?
  4. Zbrush For free

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