15 Tips To Master Zbrush

Three A-list artists share their tips to give your ZBrush skills that Hollywood finish.

01 SET WORK SCREEN

A very basic but important thing to do is set your work screen in a way that lets you utilise it fully. Go to Document in the toolbar and set the size of your document monitor resolution to make sure there are no unused areas. You can also change the ZBrush screen from grey to gradient black for a consistent background screen. Thirdly, I would suggest that you change the material from MatCap Red to MatCap Grey or basic grey material. Gaurav Kumar

02 CUSTOMISE YOUR UI

This is a very effective way to increase the speed of your work. Go to Preferences in your toolbar, select Config>Enable Customize. By pressing Ctrl+Alt you can move any button, pallet or brush onto your ZBrush interface. Once you’ve added your most-used brushes and options to your UI go back to Config and click Save UI and Store Config. This will help to make your creative process easier and faster. Gaurav Kumar

03 USE THE TIMELINE

This is a great way to move quickly from one angle to another. When working on a large model it becomes difficult to see it from all sides, so you can go to Movie in the toolbar and under Timeline turn on Show. This will put the timeline camera on the top of the screen, so you can position your model and click on the timeline to add a keyframe. This can be done in any position that you may need to see again or work on quickly, and you can move through them quickly using the arrow keys. Gaurav Kumar

04 CREATE BASIC FORMS IN LOW SUBDIVISION

Create most of the shapes of the model in the lowest subdivision so that the forms can be made correctly with the least poly. It’s much easier to manage and edit a lighter mesh than a heavy one. Always try to sculpt in the same flow of muscles or skin to make the model look real. Gaurav Kumar

05 TRANSPOSE SMART MASKING