ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting

ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting

Released June 2008
Publisher(s): Sybex
ISBN: 9780470249963

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Book description

ZBrush's popularity is exploding giving more CG artists the power to create stunning digital art with a distinctively fine art feel. ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting is the must-have guide to creating highly detailed, lush, organic models using the revolutionary ZBrush software. Digital sculptor Scott Spencer guides you through the full array of ZBrush tools, including brushes, textures and detailing. With a focus on both the artistry and the technical know-how, you'll learn how to apply traditional sculpting and painting techniques to 3D art while uncovering the "why" behind the "how" for each step. You'll gain inspiration and insight from the beautiful full-color illustrations and professional tips from experienced ZBrush artists included in the book. And, above all, you'll have a solid understanding of how applying time-honored artistic methods to your workflow can turn ordinary digital art into breathtaking digital masterpieces.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. Letter from the Publisher
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. Foreword
  5. About the Author
    1. Cesar Dacol
    2. Ian Joyner
    3. Jim McPherson
    4. Zack Petroc
    5. Alex Alvarez
    6. Ryan Kingslien
    7. Svengali
    8. Fabian Loing
    9. Image Contributors
  6. Introduction
    1. Who Should Read This Book
      1. What You Will Learn
      2. Hardware and Software Requirements
    2. How to Use This Book
      1. The Companion DVD Videos
    3. How to Contact the Author
  7. 1. Sculpting, from Traditional to Digital
    1. 1.1. Gesture, Form, and Proportion
      1. 1.1.1. Gesture
      2. 1.1.2. Form
      3. 1.1.3. Proportion
      4. 1.1.4. Best Practices for Digital Sculpting
    2. 1.2. ZBrush Interface General Overview
    3. 1.3. Using the ZBrush Tools
      1. 1.3.1. Creating a 2.5D Pixol Illustration
      2. 1.3.2. Sculpting a Lion's Head
      3. 1.3.3. Adding Subtools
      4. 1.3.4. Refining Your Model
      5. 1.3.5. Finishing Your Model
      6. 1.3.6. Creating a 2.5D Pixol Illustration
  8. 2. Sculpting in ZBrush
    1. 2.1. An Approach to Sculpting
    2. 2.2. The Brush Manager
      1. 2.2.1. The Brush Modifiers
      2. 2.2.2. Saving Custom Brushes
      3. 2.2.3. The Clay Brushes
      4. 2.2.4. The Ecorche Approach to Sculpting
    3. 2.3. Sculpting the Skull
      1. 2.3.1. Roughing in the Shape of the Skull
      2. 2.3.2. Sculpting the Forms of the Facial Mass
      3. 2.3.3. Sculpting the Muscles
      4. 2.3.4. Adding the Eyes
      5. 2.3.5. Sculpting Skin and Fat on the Face
      6. 2.3.6. Adding the Neck
      7. 2.3.7. Sculpting the Neck Muscles
      8. 2.3.8. Sculpting Ears
  9. 3. Designing a Character Bust
    1. 3.1. ZBrush and Working with Imported Meshes
      1. 3.1.1. Optimizing Meshes for ZBrush
        1. 3.1.1.1. Common Topology Issues
      2. 3.1.2. Increasing Polygon Counts with Local Subdivision
    2. 3.2. Importing and Preparing a Mesh for Sculpting
      1. 3.2.1. Using Polygroups to Organize Your Mesh
        1. 3.2.1.1. Using Polygroups to Move the Mouth
      2. 3.2.2. Sculpting a Character Bust
      3. 3.2.3. Adding Geometry Using Mesh Insert
        1. 3.2.3.1. Advanced Techniques: Sculpting the Stingerhead
      4. 3.2.4. Adding Geometry to an Existing ZTool
    3. 3.3. Editing the Mesh in Maya
    4. 3.4. Working Back in ZBrush
      1. 3.4.1. Adding Details Back to the Imported Mesh
      2. 3.4.2. Refining the Character Bust
  10. 4. ZBrush for Detailing
    1. 4.1. Form and Details
    2. 4.2. Alphas
      1. 4.2.1. Alphas and Strokes
        1. 4.2.1.1. The Stroke Menu
        2. 4.2.1.2. Using LazyMouse to Texture Large Areas
      2. 4.2.2. Alphas as Stencils
        1. 4.2.2.1. The Stencil Menu
      3. 4.2.3. ZAppLink Stencils
      4. 4.2.4. Importing Images to Use as Alphas
        1. 4.2.4.1. Baking Changes to the New Alpha
      5. 4.2.5. Sculpting Alphas in ZBrush
    3. 4.3. Details and Layers
      1. 4.3.1. Detailing the Stingerhead with Alphas and Stencils
        1. 4.3.1.1. Using Stencils for the Eye Wrinkles
      2. 4.3.2. Wrinkle Dynamics
        1. 4.3.2.1. Adding Pore Detail
        2. 4.3.2.2. Projection Master for Detailing
        3. 4.3.2.3. Adjusting the Detail Intensity
      3. 4.3.3. The Bump Viewer Material
    4. 4.4. Another Take on Detailing
  11. 5. Texture Painting
    1. 5.1. UVs in ZBrush
      1. 5.1.1.
        1. 5.1.1.1. Importing and viewing UVs
    2. 5.2. The Texture Menus
      1. 5.2.1. UV Projection Texture Method
      2. 5.2.2. Image Planes in ZBrush
    3. 5.3. What Is PolyPainting?
    4. 5.4. Painting a Creature Skin
      1. 5.4.1. Color Theory
        1. 5.4.1.1. Temperature
        2. 5.4.1.2. Saturation
        3. 5.4.1.3. Optical Mixing
        4. 5.4.1.4. Temperature Zones of the Face
        5. 5.4.1.5. Airbrush Techniques
      2. 5.4.2. Making a Custom Spray Brush
      3. 5.4.3. Blocking in Temperature Zones of the Face
      4. 5.4.4. Mottling Pass
      5. 5.4.5. Base Color Washes
      6. 5.4.6. Temperature Adjustment
      7. 5.4.7. Projection Master for the Stinger
    5. 5.5. ZAppLink
      1. 5.5.1. Baking PolyPaint to UV Texture Space
      2. 5.5.2. ZAppLink Views
  12. 6. ZSpheres
    1. 6.1. Introducing ZSpheres
      1. 6.1.1. Drawing a Simple ZSphere Chain
      2. 6.1.2. Moving, Scaling, and Rotating ZSpheres and Chains
    2. 6.2. Building a ZSphere Biped
      1. 6.2.1. Making Hands and Feet
      2. 6.2.2. Adaptive Skin Controls
      3. 6.2.3. Adding Edge Loops to the Head
  13. 7. Transpose, Retopology, and Mesh Extraction
    1. 7.1. Moving and Posing Figures with Transpose
      1. 7.1.1. The Action Line
      2. 7.1.2. Topology Masking
      3. 7.1.3. Posing a Figure
      4. 7.1.4. Posable Symmetry
    2. 7.2. Transpose Master
    3. 7.3. Retopology
      1. 7.3.1. Preparing for Remeshing
    4. 7.4. Using the Topology Tools
      1. 7.4.1. Importing Topology
      2. 7.4.2. Project All and the ZProject Brush
      3. 7.4.3. Topology Tools Advanced Applications
    5. 7.5. Building Accessories with Topology Tools and Mesh Extraction
      1. 7.5.1. Making a Shirt with Mesh Extraction
      2. 7.5.2. Adding a Rope with ZSphere Subtools
  14. 8. ZBrush Movies and Photoshop Composites
    1. 8.1. ZMovie
      1. 8.1.1. Recording the Screen
      2. 8.1.2. Turntable Animations
    2. 8.2. ZBrush to Photoshop
      1. 8.2.1. Setting Up the Canvas and Placing the Character
      2. 8.2.2. Creating Render Passes
    3. 8.3. Photoshop Compositing
      1. 8.3.1. Loading the Skin Image and Adding Shadows
      2. 8.3.2. Creating Selections with the Masking Layer
      3. 8.3.3. Creating the Dead Eye and Specular Shine
      4. 8.3.4. Punching Up the Details
      5. 8.3.5. Finishing Touches
        1. 8.3.5.1. Depth of Field
        2. 8.3.5.2. Lighting Effects
    4. 8.4. An Alternative Approach to Compositing: The Making of "Fume"
  15. 9. Rendering ZBrush Displacements in Maya
    1. 9.1. What's a Difference Map?
      1. 9.1.1. Displacement Maps
      2. 9.1.2. Normal Maps
    2. 9.2. Exporting Your Model from ZBrush
      1. 9.2.1. UVs and Vertex Order
    3. 9.3. Generating Displacement Maps
      1. 9.3.1. Making 16-Bit Maps
      2. 9.3.2. Making 32-Bit Floating-Point Maps
      3. 9.3.3. Processing Displacement Maps for Use in mental ray
    4. 9.4. Setting Up Your Scene for Displacement
      1. 9.4.1. Setting Up Single 32-Bit Displacement Renders in Maya
        1. 9.4.1.1. Creating a Displacement Shader
        2. 9.4.1.2. Setting Up the Render Settings
      2. 9.4.2. Setting Up Multimap 32-Bit Displacement Renders in Maya
      3. 9.4.3. Setting Up 16-Bit Displacement Renders in Maya
    5. 9.5. Applying Bump Maps in Maya
    6. 9.6. Common Problems When Moving into Maya
      1. 9.6.1. Troubleshooting Renders and Artifacts
  16. 10. ZMapper
    1. 10.1. Normal Maps
    2. 10.2. ZMapper
      1. 10.2.1. Starting ZMapper and Generating a Normal Map
      2. 10.2.2. The ZMapper Interface
      3. 10.2.3. ZMapper Control Types
      4. 10.2.4. ZMapper Configuration Files
      5. 10.2.5. Using the Render Region Feature
    3. 10.3. Arbitrary Meshes
    4. 10.4. Cavity Maps
      1. 10.4.1. Using ZMapper to View UVs
    5. 10.5. Rendering Normal Maps in Maya
      1. 10.5.1. Maya Normal Map Setup
    6. 10.6. ZMapper for Blend Shapes
    7. 10.7. Raycasting Plateaus and Silhouette
  17. 11. ZScripts, Macros, and Interface Customization
    1. 11.1. Contrasting ZScripts and Macros
      1. 11.1.1. Recording Macros
    2. 11.2. Anatomy of a ZScript
      1. 11.2.1. ZScripting Fundamentals
        1. 11.2.1.1. Managing Memory Blocks
        2. 11.2.1.2. Making a ZScript into a Plug-In
      2. 11.2.2. Anatomy of ModelViews, a Pop-Up Menu ZScript
        1. 11.2.2.1. Subroutines and What They Do
        2. 11.2.2.2. The ModelViews Button
        3. 11.2.2.3. Making ModelViews into a Plug-In
      3. 11.2.3. Debugging a ZScript
      4. 11.2.4. Recommended ZScripting References
    3. 11.3. Hotkeys
      1. 11.3.1. Making Custom Hotkeys
    4. 11.4. Customizing the Interface
      1. 11.4.1. Setting a Save Hotkey
      2. 11.4.2. Setting the Interactive Light Hotkey and Button
    5. 11.5. Making a Custom User Menu
      1. 11.5.1. Changing Your Default Document
      2. 11.5.2. Changing the Startup Material
  18. A. About the Companion DVD
    1. A.1. What You'll Find on the DVD
      1. A.1.1. Chapter Files
      2. A.1.2. ZBrush Trial Software
    2. A.2. System Requirements
    3. A.3. Using the DVD
    4. A.4. Troubleshooting
      1. A.4.1. Customer Care

Product information

  • Title: ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: June 2008
  • Publisher(s): Sybex
  • ISBN: 9780470249963