ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting

A stunning, content-rich update to this top-selling ZBrush guide! This second edition of ZBrush Character Creation has been fully updated for ZBrush 4, the newest version of this fascinating and popular 3D sculpting software. ZBrush enables users to create detailed organic models using a brush-based toolset and tablet. The startling results look as though they've been painted with real brushes and oils, and ZBrush is increasingly popular for use in film, game, and broadcast pipelines. Author Scott Spencer is embedded in the ZBrush community and his movie credits include Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix and the upcoming The Hobbit. Learn Spencer's invaluable techniques for texturing, chiseling, posing, costuming, and more with his newest ZBrush guide. Explains ZBrush 4, the newest version of the revolutionary software tool for creating 3D organic models in a way that appears to be traditionally painted or sculpted Shows you how get the most out of ZBrush, from the fundamentals to new tools for texturing, chiseling, and costuming Offers plenty of insights and professional techniques for creating characters for films and games, drawing from the author's own experience on such films as Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix and The Hobbit Demonstrates the author's own techniques of using traditional sculpting and painting concepts and applying them to digital art for greater artistry Discover the beauty of ZBrush with this colorful, in-depth guide.

Table of Contents:
Foreword xv Introduction xvii Chapter 1 Sculpting, from Traditional to Digital 1 Gesture, Form, and Proportion 1 Gesture 1 Form 4 Proportion 7 Best Practices for Digital Sculpting 7 ZBrush Interface General Overview 8 Masking and Visibility Brushes 15 Using the ZBrush Tools 16 Creating a 2.5D Pixol Illustration 17 Sculpting a Lion’s Head 18 Adding Subtools 22 Refining Your Model 25 Finishing Your Model 30 Creating a 2.5D Pixol Illustration 30 Chapter 2 Sculpting in ZBrush 33 An Approach to Sculpting 33 The Brush Menu 35 The Brush Menu 38 Saving Custom Brushes 43 The Clay Brushes 44 The Polish, Planar, and Trim Brushes 47 The Écorché Approach to Sculpting 49 Saving Your Work 51 Sculpting the Skull 51 Measuring with the Transpose Line 53 Roughing in the Shape of the Skull 54 Sculpting the Forms of the Facial Mass 55 Sculpting the Muscles 58 Adding the Eyes 62 Sculpting Skin and Fat on the Face 66 Adding the Neck 69 Sculpting the Neck Muscles 69 Sculpting Ears 71 Chapter 3 Designing a Character Bust 79 ZBrush and Working with Imported Meshes 80 Optimizing Meshes for ZBrush 82 Increasing Polygon Counts with Local Subdivision 86 Importing and Preparing a Mesh for Sculpting 87 Using Polygroups to Organize Your Mesh 88 Setting Up GoZ and Subtool Master 94 Installing GoZ 94 Sculpting a Character Bust 94 Adding Geometry Using Mesh Insert 99 Advanced Techniques: Sculpting the Demon Beast 102 Adding Geometry for the Horns 108 Refining the Character Bust 112 Chapter 4 ZBrush for Detailing 119 Form and Details 119 Alphas 121 Alphas and Strokes 125 Alphas as Stencils 129 ZAppLink Stencils 132 Importing Images to Use as Alphas 133 Sculpting Alphas in ZBrush 135 Details and Layers 136 Detailing the Stingerhead with Alphas and Stencils 139 Sculpting Fine Details with HD Geometry 148 Creating Bump Maps with HD Geometry 152 Another Take on Detailing 156 Chapter 5 Texture Painting 163 UVs in ZBrush 163 The Texture Menus 166 UV Projection Texture Method 169 What Is Polypainting? 170 Painting a Creature Skin 172 Color Theory 172 Making a Custom Spray Brush 174 Blocking in Temperature Zones of the Face 175 Mottling Pass 176 Base Color Washes 178 Temperature Adjustment 179 Projection Master for the Stinger 181 ZAppLink 184 Baking Polypaint to UV Texture Space 187 ZAppLink Views 188 SpotLight for Texture Painting 189 Polypaint with HD 196 Extracting Maps from the HD 197 UV Master Plug-in 198 Control Painting Tools 200 Chapter 6 ZSpheres 205 Introducing ZSpheres 206 Drawing a Simple ZSphere Chain 207 Moving, Scaling, and Rotating ZSpheres and Chains 210 Building a ZSphere Biped 211 Making Hands and Feet 216 Adaptive Skin Controls 216 Adding Edge Loops to the Head 220 Chapter 7 Transpose, ZSphere Rigging, Retopology, and Mesh Extraction 225 Moving and Posing Figures with Transpose 225 The Action Line 226 Topology Masking 229 Posing a Figure 230 Posable Symmetry 235 Transpose Master 235 Retopology 237 Preparing for Retopology 237 Using the Topology Tools 238 Importing Topology: Three Methods 241 Project All and the ZProject Brush 242 Importing a Mesh Directly 246 Changing Topology with GoZ 248 Topology Tools Advanced Applications 250 Building Accessories with Topology Tools and Mesh Extraction 250 Making a Shirt with Mesh Extraction 254 Adding Suspenders with ZSphere Subtools 256 ZSphere Rigging 258 Transpose Measuring 262 Chapter 8 ZBrush Movies and Photoshop Composites 267 ZMovie 267 Recording the Screen 267 Turntable Animations 270 Introducing the Timeline 271 ZBrush to Photoshop 278 Setting Up the Canvas and Placing the Character 278 Creating Render Passes 279 Photoshop Compositing 283 Loading the Renders as Layers 283 Punching Up the Details 284 Painting Eyes 286 Finishing Touches 288 Chapter 9 Normal Maps, Displacement Maps, Maya, and Decimation Master 295 What’s a Difference Map? 295 Displacement Maps 296 Normal Maps 297 Exporting Directly from ZBrush to Maya Using GoZ 297 Installing GoZ 297 Exporting to Maya Using GoZ 297 Exporting to Maya Using Displacement Maps 301 Rendering Displacement in Maya with mental ray 302 Exporting Your Model from ZBrush Manually 305 UVs and Vertex Order 306 Generating Displacement Maps 310 Accessing Your Original Mesh Shape 311 Making 16-Bit Maps 311 Making 32-Bit Floating-Point Maps 313 Multiple Maps per UV Region 313 Displacement Menu Options 313 Processing Displacement Maps for Use in mental ray 315 Setting Up Your Scene for Displacement 316 Setting Up Single 32-Bit Displacement Renders in Maya 316 Setting Up Multimap 32-Bit Displacement Renders in Maya 322 Setting Up 16-Bit Displacement Renders in Maya 324 Applying Bump Maps in Maya 325 Common Problems When Moving into Maya 326 Troubleshooting Renders and Artifacts 327 Normal Maps 328 Rendering Normal Maps in Maya 330 Maya Normal Map Setup 331 Cavity and Ambient Occlusion Maps 333 Creating Maps Using Multi Map Exporter 335 Exporting with Decimation Master 338 3D Printing 340 Chapter 10 ZSketch and Hard-Surface Brushes 343 ZSketch 343 Hard-Surface Sculpting 361 Hard-Surface Brushes 361 ShadowBox, Group Loops, and Matchmaker 366 Create a Ray Gun 375 Appendix About the Companion DVD 395 What You’ll Find on the DVD 395 Chapter Files 395 Bonus PDFs 395 System Requirements 396 Using the DVD 397 Troubleshooting 397 Customer Care 397 Index 398

About the Author :
Scott Spencer is a freelance character sculptor and designer. He is currently at the Weta Workshop in New Zealand, where he is working on Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. He has created creatures and characters for film, games, and collectible figures. His credits include Iron Man, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Golden Axe, and Species 3. He is also a leading digital sculptor, longtime beta tester, and consultant to Pixologic. Scott Spencer is a freelance character sculptor and designer. He is currently at the Weta Workshop in New Zealand, where he is working on Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. He has created creatures and characters for film, games, and collectible figures. His credits include Iron Man, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Golden Axe, and Species 3. He is also a leading digital sculptor, longtime beta tester, and consultant to Pixologic.