So I got around to picking up a demo copy of ZBrush.  I also bought a book called ZBrush; Character Creation; Advanced Digital Sculpting, by Scott Spencer and published by Sybex.  Great book, bursting with tutorials and tips and processes and probably everything you could ever want to know about how to use the program.  Chapter 1, after discussing theories of sculpture in general and applications within the program, throws the reader into a tutorial to create a ‘Lion Head Door Knocker’ from a simple 2d plane.  So here we have my first piece done in Zbrush.  I’m pretty happy with it as a first start, even if it is a little rough.  There’s still so much to learn,  and I can see how becoming familiar with the various brushes could help me to create a more refined look.  The grey image shows the model with a standard material applied, and the other image shows the object placed on a door, a composite image I made using painting and photo textures.

LionHeadDoor

For those who don’t know, ZBrush is a “revolutionary” “new” software solution to the 3d modeling process.   Actually ZBrush was the first entry in it’s category, which has been joined by other programs such as Mudbox and Modo.  I even spoke to some industry vets in the early days of its application who dismissed it as a novelty and something that’s fun to use and has no viable studio application.  In short, what these programs allow you to do is to treat a 3D model as a piece of clay for the purpose of “sculpting” the object.  And that really is what it allows you to do.  There are innumerable different “brushes” or sculpting tools, all customizable, including tools such as rakes which are used in real life clay sculpting, and many more tools that have no real world equivalent, such as tools that allow you to add material or gouge in specific shapes and pull pieces of the model around.  The level of control and detail is unprecedented and fully infinite. Gone are the days of pulling vertice’s around – ZBrush offers a much more organic and natural approach to object building, and is a software tool used in countless big name productions, both videogames e.g. Gears of War 2, and movies e.g. Avatar.  To have your mind blown, check out these stunning examples of master work at ZBrush Central: Turntable Gallery