Learning how to Zbrush, Y'all. Part 1

During my career I have been lucky enough to work in a multitude of disciplines. However, the discipline that I have the least experience in is character modeling. So I decided to remedy that.

While I have dabbled in character modeling in the past this is the first time seriously using ZBrush. I have to say, I am loving it. I should have done this earlier...

I knocked out some "quick" head sculpts to get familiar with the basics of sculpting and Zbrush interface nuances.

My first sculpt was basically me fumbling around the tools. I used the basic Standard, Move, and Clay Buildup brushes as well as the CurveTubeSnap for the hair. I think my biggest obstacle was figuring out how to rotate the object in the viewport.

My first head sculpt at 3/4 view

My first head sculpt front view.

With my second head sculpt I discovered the DamStandard brush. I spent way to long on the hair.

My Second Head Sculpt. Featuring the DamStandard Brush.

I had a very specific hair style I was trying to accomplish with my third head sculpt. I decided to try using the FiberMesh feature. Everything was going swimmingly until I tried to render out a very expensive set up. After that the rendering broke and for some reason I can not get the FiberMesh or rendering to work anymore. Instead of spending time troubleshooting it I decided to move on to my next head sculpt. Once I figure out what I broke I will revisit this one and finish the hair.

Ignore the hair. Its broken. I kept it in the render because I did not sculpt the head or ears and as bad as this looks, it looks better than not having the hair.

For my fourth head sculpt I wanted to dive into brush alphas so I decided to go with an Orc. Nothing fancy, just your basic orc. I was watching the Fallout series when I got to the hair and was inspired by the ghoul gang outside New Vegas. Suddenly, my basic orc had a bit of a personality.

I call this guy Orck-A-Billy

I started the hair in the same I did my first two head sculpts. However, it did not quite mesh with the more realistic look that the skin textures gave me so I switched my process about halfway through. You can still see the "tube" shapes a bit. Not sure if I like that or not...

Orck-A-Billy...Get it? I switched the R and O in the word Rock-A-Billy

This is also the first sculpt were I used any kind of organized process. I blocked everything out with DynaMesh at 128. I then went back in with DynaMesh at 256 to further sculpt out the details. I then cleaned everything up with ZRemesher, divided the geometry and ProjectAll-ed it a few times to maintain the detail. Finally I went in on the divided mesh for the final details including the skin textures from playing around with the brush alphas.

Well, I found Orck-A-Billy clever. I guess you don't have to find it funny. I just hope you like the sculpt.

However, the repetition of going back over the 128 Dynamesh settings with a higher resolution started feeling like a slog and I started to get distracted. That can really be dangerous for me once I start incorporating materials into the process. I think for my next sculpt I am going to start out my blocking phase with 256 DynaMesh and see how that goes.

and yes, I totally looked at the Japanese Rock-A-Billy culture for reference.

Overall, I liked this sculpt even though there are parts that could be more polished. I obviously chose not to do any eyes yet. I will tackle those when I get into the materials.

I budgeted myself for three months of ZBrush. These images are the result of the first three weeks. I hope to post more stuff as I get deeper into it.

Thank You for reading this post. Thank You Very Much.

Orck-A-Billy has left the building