ZBrush: Simple Dragon, Part 1 – Block

1. Primitive Block
2. Maya Block
3. Sculpt Block

The Lightbox window manages different ZBrush Assets; you can find the DynaMesh_Sphere under the Projects tab.

If you are using version 4r8, please make sure you have ZBrush 4r8 installed with the Patch 2 upgrade . The Patch 2 update fixes many bugs and unfortunately makes our UI crash in earlier versions due to backward compatibility reasons.

Video Notes

This video shows how to install the Custom UI and Custom Hotkeys.

The Custom UI adds extra buttons to the window and gives two new menus which you’ll see docked to the left side panel. ZBrush is a relatively simple 3d program but it’s various buttons, and cumbersome interface can make it seem much more complicated. So the C3dC Custom UI takes the necessary buttons and places them in one easy to use location.

The Custom Hotkeys add extra hotkeys to those buttons that may be missing shortcuts. To find the hotkey of a button, hover over it with your mouse and the tooltip will let you know if one exists.

To see the default location of a button hold Ctrl while hovering over it. The tooltip will show the menu path in dark gray at the bottom of the description.

You can find the appropriate hotkeys notated at the bottom of each video. Both the default and C3dC hotkeys will be included.

Download The C3dC ZBrush UI And Hotkeys.

Another scene default to set early is the Angle Of view on the camera. The default ZBrush camera has quite a wide angle lens so setting it to 25 will give the camera a longer lens and is better suited to modeling. The Angle Of View should be set once per project file.

To fix make sure that Edit Object (t) is on and hit Clear Layer (ctrl n) to clear the unwanted models.

Navigation Free Rotate (Orbit) – Alt+Right-click & drag
Navigation Move (Track) – Alt+Click & drag
Navigation Scale (Dolly Zoom) – Alt+Click & drag

You can also hold shift to snap to the 90-degree angle views…

Navigation Constrain 90 Degrees – Alt Click+drag, press Shift

And roll the camera too…

Navigation Rot Around Z – Shift, Click, release Shift, drag

You can also change from the perspective mode using

Perspective Orthographic Toggle – p

Load the maps for the front side and top views using the C3dC Mesh > Image Planes section then Front-Back, Up-Down, Left-Right and the first map.

There’s a few settings within that UI, best to turn the Projection Lines to zero to disable the projection lines. Enhance Opacity Image Plane (alt n) and Enhance Factor Image Plane (shift n) control the transparency of the model and images.

Simple Dragon Image Planes

1. Import the image plane as a texture
2. Load the texture, so it’s currently active
3. Add To Spotlight
4. Turn Spotlight Projection Off

You can move spotlight around with its dial controls, scale and opacity are the most helpful. You can toggle the dial on and off using…

Edit Spotlight (z)

To toggle spotlight on and off use…

Turn On Spotlight (shift z)

Simple Dragon Image Planes

.zpr files contain everything in the scene and most closely resemble .ma or .mb files. There are two other file formats that you can use, .ztl where you save the current tool only and document .zbr which is a 2.5 D file, don’t save as .zbrs!

For most people, it’s easiest to save as .zprs which will include everything in the scene including the image planes and textures.

The Move (w), Scale (r), and Rotate (e) modes in ZBrush all fall under the one Gizmo (manipulator). Although they can be toggled to transpose tools with more functionality it’s easiest to think of the Gizmo as these modes combined into one tool.

Find Subtools under Tools > Subtool. The layout there can’t be moved.

You’ll usually dock the Tools menu screen right. You can think of the Subtool layout as the Outliner, and there are no hierarchies or groups.

Since it’s common to work within one subTool Zbrush uses a lot of masking which is like Freeze in Maya or Mudbox. In ZBrush the masks appear as darkened areas on the mesh.

To Split objects is the similar to Maya’s Extract. Use Split Unmasked Points (alt ctrl shift e) to split the unmasked selection into a new subtool. Or Split To Parts (alt e) to split by shells.

To move between subtools hold alt and click on the new subtool, a small brush size may help (s). The selection will switch to that subtool, you can also hold Subtool And Popup (n).

Draw Pointer (q) exits out of the Gizmo back to brush mode.

Append Subtool (ctrl a) will add a new subtool at the bottom of the list. You can use it to append a cylinder to our current subtool.

Change the brush size with Draw (Brush) Size (s)

To combine subtools together, you can use Merge Down (alt d), that will merge the current subtool to the one below in the subtool list.

To delete a subtool use Delete Subtool (alt ctrl shift d).

The brush is easy to use, click and drag out your object. Remember you can click and drag through all the primitive options at the top of the window.

To exit the tool select any regular brush.

In this video, you can see the basics of Taper and Bend Curve. It’s a good idea to get to know the deformers, and we’ll cover them on a page after the Simple Dragon series.

Mask Inverse (ctrl click background)

Masks can also be painted with the Mask Pen (hold ctrl (alt 1)), but beware if you deselect a mask Deselect Mask (ctrl drag background) the mask can only be recovered with undo. You can save masks as maps, and in most cases, it’s just better to use Polygroups which you’ll see later.

The Move Brush (2) is almost identical to Maya’s Grab brush. It’s easy to click move the mesh planar to the camera. You can also use alt to pull or push from the surface normal.

In this case, we’ll use it to make a simple cut. It uses a form of Dynamesh to add lots of detail to the underside of the cut.

Clip Curve Brush (9)

The Gizmo has an unfortunate problem with symmetrical scale, so we’ll just turn off the symmetry and mirror it in the next video.

Hopefully, Pixologic will fix this bug in the future.

Mirror Flip Object (ctrl shift m)

Will flip the object like a negative scale on x.

Mirror And Weld (shift m)

Will mirror from +x to -x which is the reverse direction from most Maya defaults. ZBrush handles mirroring very well and will add extra mesh lines if none exist.

Here you’ll see how Mask By Polygroups help use to work on indiyidual pieces of this subtool.

Mask By Polygroups (shift p)

To see Polygroups be sure to have PolyFrames on

Draw Polyframe (shift f)

Unlike sets you can only have one polygroup per face.

Draw Polyframe (shift f)30
Draw (Brush) Size (s)30
Smooth Brush (hold shift (any brush))30

The image plane transparency can be adjusted with,

Enhance Opacity Image Plane (alt n)
and
Enhance Factor Image Plane (shift n)

Divide Mesh is the way you can add more detail; it’s the same as Poly Smooth in Maya. ZBrush’s has added functionality where it keeps each level, and you can navigate up and down the levels, similar to Mudbox.

Higher Res Division (shift d)
and
Lower Res Division (shift d)

To Dynamesh, the button must be on, then ctrl drag the background with no mask.

We like to think of Dynamesh like a giant sieve which cuts from each grid angle. Where the quads from each plane meet the mesh will have triangles. Because of the density of the Dynamesh objects, the triangles aren’t much of a problem while sculpting, particularly in the blocking phase.

Be sure to exit Mask By Polygroups (shift p) after the Dynamesh so you can smooth the joins.

You’ll use ZRemesher (ZBrush’s Auto-Retopology tool) to create the final sculpt base mesh. But Dynamesh is handy in the block stages while the form is constantly changing.

Relax (alt r) and Polish (alt p) are handy tools for global smoothing, you’ll see those later in the video.

There are 3 ways of saving files in ZBrush. While starting it’s best to use Save Project…

Save Project .zpr (ctrl s)

as the other modes, document and tool can potentially lose data.

1. Close Maya
2. Install GoZ from inside ZBrush
Preferences > GoZ > Path To Maya
and then
Preferences > GoZ > Force Reinstall
3. Load Maya, a new ZBrush Shelf should appear

GoZ is new and improved in 4r8 (and also in version 2018), it’s 4 to 10 times faster and supports polyframes as sets.

We’ll leave the details for another more comprehensive video, but you can see a quick workflow here.

Also shown at the end of this video is ZRemesher (alt ctrl shift z), this is ZBrush’s fantastic auto-retopology tool.

Because of ZBrushes Dynamesh ability, many artists use fast block workflows to concept models with great speed. This video shows the fundamentals of this workflow.

The downside of a Mask/Move/Dynamesh workflow is that it can create lumpy models that are difficult to cure without a lot of experience sculpting. But it’s certainly one of the fastest ways of working once you’ve some experience.

We find Fast Block Workflows are ideal for busts and experimentation. However while blocking more complex shapes like whole characters and arms, we’d suggest using Maya to block out the forms before coming to ZBrush for the joining processes.

The resolution of Dynamesh can matter, and it’s relative to the Grid Size, here we’re using the whole gird so you can lower the resolution to 64 which will make it easier to smooth.

C3dc Mesh > Brushes

The tool functions include…

Weighted Smooth Mode
Weight Strength
Min Connected Points
Polish Strength

You’ll also see how Snakehook Brush (ctrl 2) can extrude points with curved lines, Snakehook is great horns, hair, and branches.

You’ll see how Clay Buildup used in tandem with H Polish Brush (5) can be very useful.

Some people confuse zRemesher for creating regular base meshes, and while in some cases it may be handy for generating animation base meshes quickly, in most circumstances manual quad draw will achieve superior results in Maya. But for simple prop objects, or for sculpt base meshes that will have more density, ZRemesher is a massively powerful tool.

It is possible to sculpt Dynamesh types of topology right through until the final stages but having a clean grided mesh is superior in most cases.

Over the next few pages you’ll see how having a solid Sculpt Base Mesh gives you a command over your mesh as you can surf up and down the division levels too. Smoothing issues are less problematic than with Dynamesh which will have tris all over the 45-degree sections of the mesh. In the block this is not such an issue, but later those areas of the mesh can get frustrating.

In this video, you’ll see how to divide the mesh and switch levels. You’ll be using this principle a lot in the next class.

Dividing the object will add four times the detail with each division. And the divisions are always quads. The extra detail will be handy while adding the more subtle details.

To add a new division use Divide Mesh (ctrl d)
To navigate down the levels use Lower Res Division (shift d)
To navigate up the levels use Higher Res Division (shift d)

You can also delete lower and higher levels, removing higher levels will erase the detail stored there.

Delete Higher Division (ctrl alt shift (up arrow))
Delete Lower Division (ctrl alt shift (up arrow))

Dynamic SubDs are useful when you don’t want to add detail but would like to see the mesh smoothed correctly. Say you’re coming from Maya and have a few objects to sculpt, but you’d also have various subtools that you’d like smoothed, but you won’t need to work on them.

They can also be handy because they won’t have to calculate extra points on the mesh, so it’s keeps the project file size down.

This video concludes the Blocking Stage; the next class will take have you detail the character with various sculpting workflows.