ZBrush is used by top artists in Hollywood to model and sculpt characters in such films as Avatar, Iron Man, and Pirates of the Caribbean. In addition, this amazing technology is also used in jewelry design, forensic science, aerospace, video games, toy creation, and the medical field. Written by Pixologic's in-house ZBrush expert Paul Gaboury, this full-color, beautifully illustrated guide provides you with the ultimate tips and tricks to maximize your use of all versions of ZBrush.

• Reveals numerous little-known tips and tricks that exist within ZBrush, but often go unexploited
• Shares an abundance of helpful techniques and insights that the author has acquired from years of helping professional artists in various industries
• Offers dozens of version-neutral solutions and shortcuts in areas such as sculpting, texturing, posing, rendering, and more
• Features "Artist Spotlights" from several ZBrush experts, offering their how-to's for using the feature-rich software in today's studios

Improve your productivity and quality of work with this helpful, easy-to-understand resource.

Foreword xii

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1 Understanding the Basics 1

Customizing Your ZBrush 2

Customizing Your 3D Brush

Fly-Out Window 2

Customizing Your LightBox Tabs 3

Adding a Folder Shortcut to LightBox 4

Adding a Texture or Alpha to a 3D Brush from LightBox 5

Recovering Your Subdivision Levels 6

Using Reproject Higher Subdivision 8

Using Relax Deformation 10

Using Local Subdivision 10

Creating a Custom Tileable Alpha with 2.5D 13

Using Alphas to Create Meshes 17

Creating Wallpaper 20

Creating Your Own Palette 25

What’s Next 26

Artist Spotlight: Joe Lee 27

Artist Spotlight: Magdalena Dadela 35

Chapter 2 Special Project—Creating Accessories for a Bust 43

Creating the ZMan Logo 43

Placing the ZMan Logo on the Hoody 48

Creating the Zipper 49

Making the Zipper Shape 49

Making the Zipper Mask 50

Creating the Stand 52

Completing the Stand 55

Creating a Skin Texture 57

What’s Next 59

Artist Spotlight: Morgan Morey 60

Artist Spotlight: Zack Petroc 68

Chapter 3 Sculpting—Developing Your Next Piece 75

Using Hard-Edge Brush Techniques 75

ClipCurve Brush with BRadius 76

ZSketch Brushes for BaseMesh 78

Adjusting and Creating Brushes 81

Using a Custom Brush with Tilt 81

Creating a Stone Column 84

Creating a Surface Noise Brush 87

Understanding the Power of ShadowBox 88

Getting Started with ShadowBox 88

Silhouette Drawing with ShadowBox 89

Using ShadowBox to Create Accessories 92

Making Difficult Items with ZSpheres 93

Creating Chain Mail 93

Creating a String of Bullets 97

Using Morph Difference to Create Thickness 99

Artist Spotlight: Tomas Wittelsbach 102

Artist Spotlight: Vitaly Bulgarov 110

Chapter 4 Sculpting Hard-Surface Details 115

Creating a Hose Component 115

Creating the Front Eye Piece 128

Using NoiseMaker for Patterns 135

Artist Spotlight: Sebastien Legrain 138

Artist Spotlight: Steve Warner 146

Chapter 5 Adding a Splash of Color 151

Understanding the Basics of Polypaint 152

Using AO to Colorize 153

Using Mask By Cavity to Paint Out Detail 156

Painting with UV Master 157

Texturing with Projection Master 160

Using Photoshop to Paint 163

Using ZAppLink 163

Using GoZ Photoshop 167

Using SpotLight 170

Adjusting Hue 172

Masking Out a Texture 174

Using the Pin Feature 175

Texturing a Face 178

Artist Spotlight: Michael Defeo 181

Artist Spotlight: Rudy Massar 188

Chapter 6 Working with Scan Data 193

Starting with Scan Data 193

Understanding How to Manipulate Scan Data 194

Capturing Color from the Scan Data 198

Making the Back Mesh of the Ball Cap 201

Sculpting the Hair with FiberMesh 205

Artist Spotlight: Mike Jensen 211

Artist Spotlight: Bryan Wynia 215

Chapter 7 Posing—Bringing Movement to Your Work 221

Setting Up a ZSphere Rig with a Single Subtool 221

Rigging a Single Subtool with Sculpted Detail 226

Using a Rig with Transpose Master 227

Creating Multiple Poses with Layers 229

Assigning Multiple Poses to the Timeline 231

Exporting Blend Shapes from ZBrush to Maya 233

Artist Spotlight: Geert Melis 236

Artist Spotlight: Marco Menco 240

Chapter 8 Special Project—Creating Hockey Skates 245

Creating the Laces 245

Using the CurveTube Brush 245

Using ZSpheres 248

Using a Custom Stitch Brush 250

Creating the Model Used for the Alpha 251

Creating the Alpha from the Model 252

Using Decimation Master to Reduce Poly Count 254

Artist Spotlight: Joseph Drust 258

Artist Spotlight: Christopher Brändström 264

Chapter 9 Rendering—Bringing Life to Your Image 271

Rendering a More Realistic Eye 271

Creating the LightCaps 272

Adjusting the Materials 273

Creating the Second Material 276

Adjusting the Shadow Settings 276

Creating an SSS Material 280

Adjusting the Lights 281

Building the Material 281

Making Adjustments to the Render 285

Using the Filter System with BPR 288

Artist Spotlight: Mark Dedecker 292

Artist Spotlight: Julian Kenning 296

Appendix About the Companion DVD 303

What You’ll Find on the DVD 303

Chapter Files 303

System Requirements 304

Using the DVD 304

Troubleshooting 305

Customer Care 305

Index 306

Paul Gaboury is the ZBrush Lead 3D Application Engineer for Pixologic, the makers of ZBrush. He helps clients such as Pixar, Disney, Hasbro, Sideshow Collectibles, Weta Workshop, and others incorporate ZBrush in their pipeline and recommends features that will improve their efficiency and the quality of their projects. Paul is an accomplished digital sculptor and also travels the world to demonstrate ZBrush at studios and schools. In addition, he was the technical editor on Introducing ZBrush 4; ZBrush Character Creation, Second Edition; and ZBrush Studio Projects: Realistic Game Characters, all from Sybex.