Day 6

Introduction to Zbrush Digital Tutors

Mesh Creation Zspheres

– To start creating geometry with Zspheres, select the Zsphere tool from the Tool palette, draw it on the canvas then enter edit mode (T).

– To create new Zspheres enter draw mode, move the cursor to the deisred position on the model and LMB + Drag to draw a Zsphere at the desired size.

– Use the move mode to drag the new Zsphere to the desired position.

– Link spheres connect Zspheres; they cannot be edited directly but can be converted to Zspheres.

Use the tool palette + draw mode to create Zspheres

– Once created Zspheres can be scaled with the Scale mode.

– Zspheres can be rotated with the rotate mode. By clciking on the Link sphere chain with the rotate mode active you can rotate and entire chain of Zspheres.

– Hold Shift while drawing Zspheres to create a Zsphere the same size as the previous Zsphere.

– Click on a link sphere while in draw mode to create a new Zsphere from a link sphere.

– Hit A while in Zsphere mode to view an adaptive skin, which is a low-poly mesh applied over the Zsphere model.

Press A while Zsphere modelling to view an adaptive skin preview of the geometry being created.

– The Tool > Adaptive Skin subpalette contains setting for the adaptive skin. The Density slider determines how many subdivision levels ie how many polygons are in the adaptive skin.

– Tool > Adaptive Skin > G Radial modifies the number of spanes or polygon rings created in the adaptive skin, and has a similar effect to the Density slider.

The subdivision level of the adaptive skin can be modified using the density slider.

– Once you’re happy with the Zsphere model press Tool > Adaptive Skin > Make Adaptive Skin to create a polygon mesh from the Zsphere model. The new tool will appear in the tool palette called eg Skin_Zsphere_1. The model can now be sculpted normally.

Pressing Make Adaptive SKin creates a polygon mesh form the Zsphere model and adds it to the tool palette.

Day 4

Introduction to Zbrush Digital Tutors

Basic Sculpting

– Sculpting Brushes can be found in the top left of the Left Shelf, or by pressing B.

– Specific brushes can be selected by pressing the first letter of the brush name followed by a specific letter eg to select ClayTubes press B > C > T.

Sculpting brushes can be found in the brush palette or by pressing specific letter combinations.

– The red rings represent the Draw Size and Focal Shift of the brush, and can be modified using the Draw Size and Focal Shift Sliders. The Draw Size Slider can also be brought up at the cursor position using S, the Focal Shift Slider using O.

– A Focal Shift of 0 will produce a very sharp edged result.

The cursor shows the draw size and focal shift, and can be modified by using sliders or the hotkey S and O.

– the ZAdd and ZSub buttons change between raising or lowering the mesh when sculpting. Holding Alt + LMB will switch between modes.

– the Z Intensity Slider controls the strength of the brush.

ZAdd and ZSub control what happens when sculpting, while the Z Intensity slider controls the strength of the brush.

– By default Shift + LMB is the Smooth Brush which can be used to blend sculpting. Other brushes can also be set to the Shift modifier.

Hold shift to activate the sculpting-smoothing brush, which smooths geometry.

– The Move Brush works by clicking and dragging geometry in or out. It is good for quickly reshaping a mesh but can lead to undesirable geometry if not careful.

The move brush can quickly reshape a model.

– Symmetry can be turned on using Transform > Activate Symmetry. Specific Axes can be selected using the X Y Z buttons or the X, Y and Z keys. Symmetry can be axial or radial (use the RadialCount Slider to vary how many instances are sculpted).

Radial and axial symmetry can be switched on to sculpt multiple areas of the mesh at the same time.

– RMB brings up a Quick Menu with many common commands and sliders.

RMB brings up a quick menu with easy access to most of the common drawing and sculpting commands.

– Strokes and Alphas can be combined with sculpting brushes to get different results:

– Dots and Freehand produce similar continuous results.

– Spray and ColourSpray apply randomised instances of the brush and alpha.

– DragRect and DragDot allow for precise positioning of alphas on the mesh.

Strokes and alphas can be combined with sculpting brushes to get different effects.

Day 3

Introduction to Zbrush Digital Tutors

Setting up reference images

– These steps are specific to this model:

– draw a cylinder primitive

-in the Initialize palette set X and Y size to 20

– in the Deformation palette rotate by 90 degrees in the X axis

– subdivide several time

– Make PolyMesh3D

Preparing the start of the model.

– under the Draw Menu there is a palette specifically for grids and reference maps. Options include which faces to assign Maps to (Front-Back, Left-Right, Up-Down), and an option for using one Map for both planes (one).

buttons for assigning reference images to different planes around the model.

– Map1 / Map2 brings up the texture palette to select an image.

– If the image you wish to use isn’t in the texture palette, go to Texture > Import and the images will be available next time you click on Map1 / Map2. Other options are enabled once a Map is loaded.

Once an image is imported it can be applied to any of the reference map buttons.

– Draw > Snap > Snap to Mesh snaps the reference map to the size of the mesh on the canvas.

Snap to Mesh makes the reference image the size of the mesh on the canvas.

– Draw > (F-B/U-D/L-R) > Adjust allows for changing the reference map’s colour, contrast and cropping.

reference maps can be cropped and adjusted within Zbrush.

– To make the reference map visible through the mesh use Draw > Fill Mode 1 / 2 / 3, or the Front button.

Use the fill mode slider to change how visible the reference map is during sculpting.

– once reference maps have been set they can be all switched off at the same time using the floor button on the right shelf.

– Reference images can be created from a model using Draw > Snapshot to Grid, which creates a texture map for each of the six planes.

Use the Snapshot to Grid button to create reference images from a 3D model.

Day 2 Part 3

Introduction to Zbrush Digital Tutors

Setting display options.

– Draw includes several palettes relating to the canvas view.

The draw palettes lets you change viewport and floor settings.

– Transform > Transp makes every subtool except the active tool transparent.

Use the transparency button to make subtools except the active one transparent.

– Transform > Ghost makes the transparent subtools more visible.

– Transform > Xpose (Shift + X) button explodes the model until pressed again, allowing you to see what subtools the model is made of.

Xpose explodes the model into its component subtools.

– some Tools eg Xpose feature a small X Y Z that can be turned on and off, affecting which axes the tool  works on.

– the Frame (F) button centres the canvas on the 3D model.

The frame button focuses the canvas on the model.

– the See Through slider makes the whole Zbrush interface transparent, allowing you to eg load up an image in a search engine that can be seen as reference while sculpting.

The Zbrush interface can be made transparent to see reference images on the desktop.