What this book covers
In Chapter 1, Getting Started with ZBrush, you will learn how to navigate ZBrush and get started by loading a model and doing a simple sculpting practice.
In Chapter 2, Sculpting a Demon Bust with DynaMesh, you will explore one of ZBrush’s most powerful sculpting tools, DynaMesh. With this tool, you can follow along in the creation process of a demon bust sculpture, while learning about character art and design principles.
In Chapter 3, Exploring the Gizmo, PolyGroups, and Masking, you will learn about the most essential functionality and tools in ZBrush: the Gizmo tool, Polygrouping, and Masking. These tools will be used for many workflows, allowing you to create your models more efficiently.
In Chapter 4, Exploring Brushes and Alphas, you will become familiar with ZBrush’s vast selection of brushes, Alphas, and customization options. With this information, you will be able to create custom brushes to add detail to the demon bust from Chapter 2.
In Chapter 5, Creating an Optimized Mesh Using ZRemesher and ZProject, you will learn about ZBrush’s most popular retopology tool, ZRemesher, as well as ZProject, which lets you transfer detail between meshes. This is an essential part of many character creation workflows, and you will use it to push the quality and level of detail of the demon sculpture.
In Chapter 6, Texturing Your Sculpture with Materials, Polypaint, and UVs, you will get familiar with ZBrush’s Materials, and its painting tool, called Polypaint. These lessons will be applied in the practical example of your demon bust, so you can put them into action immediately.
In Chapter 7, Lighting and Rendering Your Model, you will learn about lights and how you can create a custom light setup, so you can then render and present your model to your clients or audience.
In Chapter 8, Sculpting Human Anatomy, you will begin the creation process of a gladiator sculpture that will be optimized for 3D printing. This chapter shows how you can establish realistic anatomy for your character, which is a key skill set in many ZBrush and sculpting-related job opportunities.
In Chapter 9, Creating Costumes, Armor, and Accessories with Classic Modeling Techniques, you will proceed to create the gladiator character, while learning various modeling techniques, which will make you a more effective and versatile ZBrush artist.
In Chapter 10, Preparing and Exporting Our Model for 3D Printing, you will finalize the gladiator model, making it water-tight and splitting it into pieces, so that it can be printed without issues.
In Chapter 11, Sculpting a Female Head, you will begin the third and last project of the book, which is one of the most popular sculpting subjects: sculpting a female head. You will learn about various blockout options, anatomy fundamentals, and last but not least, some tips for sculpting a likeness.
In Chapter 12, Adding Skin Detail, Sculpting Hair, and Using FiberMesh, you will proceed with the head sculpture from the previous chapter, adding realistic skin detail and sculpting hair. The last part of the chapter focuses on ZBrush’s hair system, FiberMesh, as an alternative way of creating hair.
In Chapter 13, Building a Portfolio and Leveraging Social Media, you will get tips for building your portfolio and using social media, so you can advertise your ZBrush and sculpting skills to get job opportunities and commissions.