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ZBrush 2.0 Tutorial David Alder © 2005

3D Modeler/Game Developer/Engineer www.davidalder.com alder3d@hotmail.com

This tutorial is for private use only. Any commercial use, contact me directly at alder3d@hotmail.com for approval.

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Please Read First!

• I have found many online tutorials and DVD’s covering separate concepts but I wanted to write a tutorial that would guide anyone new to ZBrush from start to finish. It will start from importing into ZBrush, adding detail, painting color, creating Normal Maps and rendering your character in 3D Max. I have learned many shortcuts and tricks along the way and if you follow this tutorial you will learn them as well.

• This tutorial is 24 pages long but it is meant to be taken in steps. Also, I include pictures for almost everything which consists of probably 70% of this tutorial.

• I am not saying that my methods are the right way but it is what works for me and if you follow them you will feel more confident with ZBrush.

• Most important of all study anatomy, get references and have fun!

The Basics about ZBrush -- The 2.5D concept. ZBrush combines 2D and 3D. When you are doing basic sculpting and movement you are in 3D but when you add detail and color with projection Master you are in 2D. This is where 2.5D came from.

ZBrush and the use of the Pixol rather than the Pixel • This is from the ZBrush Practical guide

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Table of Contents

1. Important settings for working in ZBrush 2. Importing an object from Max and Maya and saving your ZBrush file 3. Morph targets, movement, subdivisions 4. Hiding or showing polygons 5. General sculpting, different brushes 6. Adding detail with projection master, or the stencil tool 7. Adding colors to your object. 8. Normal maps and applying them in Max or Maya

9. Applying your texture with the normal Map in Max

10. My most used hotkeys

11. Pixologic hotkey List

12. A list of my favorite anatomy books and references

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Important settings for working

When you first enter the program I would suggest making these setting changes

1. First go to the Document menu and click double, this will give you double the workspace, figure 1.

2. Second, go to the Preferences tab and go down to the mem section, change Compact Mem to your amount of ram, 2 gigs would be great. Change Tool Undo to however many you want, I put it to 30. Change the MaxPolyPerMesh to 10. This is very important because if you want an extreme amount of detail you need to go to subdivision 6 and unless you put it to 10 it won’t let you, figure 2.

Figure 1: Go to documents, double size. Figure 2: Go to Preferences -> Mem and change

Compact Mem to your amount of ram, Tool Undo to about 30 and MaxPolyPerMesh to 10

Importing a Model from Max or Maya and Saving your ZBrush File

• To import a model into ZBrush the format you want to use is obj.

o UV mapping coordinates that you have done in Max or Maya are recognized by ZBrush. Although ZBrush can do UV mapping it is better to do it in an outside package.

MAX

• For Max you have to make sure that you do several settings in the obj exporter or your model will not look right in ZBrush.

• So once your model is done and UV mapped export it with the settings below, figure 3.

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Figure 3: Important Max settings in the obj exporter before bringing your model into ZBrush.

MAYA Maya doesn’t need any special settings at all.

• First make sure that the obj export plugin is loaded • Go to Windows -> Settings Preferences->Plug-in Manager and turn on the obj

exporter. Now select the model and export it as an obj as whatever name you want, no special settings required.

Importing into ZBrush

• Now open up ZBrush and go to the Tool menu and click on import, figure 4, not Load Tool. Load Tool is for ZBrush files with a .ztl extension.

• Your file should appear in the box in the upper left hand corner under the projection master button, figure 5.

Figure 4: Importing your model. Figure 5: Your model will appear in the

upper left corner once it is imported.

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• Make sure your model is in the upper left hand corner and now left click and drag inside of the ZBrush workspace, figure 6. Only do this once or you will have multiple copies of your character, figure 7. If multiple objects appear click control n to clear the canvas or go to document new document to get a clear workspace.

Figure 6: To make your object appear on the work area left click on the screen and stop.

Figure 7: If you left click more than once you will see multiple versions of your model. Press control n to clear the canvas

• To save your ZBrush file make sure your model is in subd 3 or less, it will keep

the file size down, and go to Tool, save as, and save your Ztool file. To load a different document go to Tool->Load and choose your Ztool, .ztl file.

• Now your object is on the canvas and don’t worry it will look very jagged

because ZBrush doesn’t recognize smooth normals from Max or Maya. Right click and select edit mode or click edit in the upper left hand corner, figure 8. Edit mode allows you to sculpt and move your object around.

Figure 8: Once your object is on the screen you have to go into edit mode before you can sculpt or move the object around.

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Morph Targets, Movement, Subdivisions

• Now that you are in edit mode you are ready to start moving your character around and subdividing him

• MOVEMENT Centering of Object- alt double click outside model Rotate – left mouse click anywhere except on character Snap- left mouse click and rotate and hold shift to snap in direction you want Pan- alt and left mouse click Zoom- alt and left mouse click, then let go of alt and move mouse forward or back • SUBDIVISION

• In ZBrush you will be shifting between many subdivisions while sculpting and adding detail

1. To add a subdivision go to the tool menu and go to geometry • I find it better if you grab the little icon in the left corner, figure

9, and move the toolbar to the left side of ZBrush, figure 10. This will help because you can watch your subdivision level while you are working.

Figure 9: The tool menu. Click on the little partial circle icon and move it over to the left.

Figure 10: The toolbar after it has been moved to the left.

2. Now it is time to start subdividing

• Go to Tool - > Geometry - >Subdivisions go to level 6, figure 11. Your model will be very smooth at several million polygons, figure 12.

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Figure 11: Doing subdivisions up to level 6. Figure 12: Your character at 6 subdivisions.

• If ZBrush will not allow you to go to Subdivision 6, then you

forgot to go to Preferences - > Mem and turn up the Compact Memory and MaxPolyPerMesh as shown in figure 2 earlier.

3. Now you need to go back down to Subdivision 1 and save a morph target. To do

this press shift d until you are back to subdivision 1. • Changing Subd levels once you have gone up to Subd 6

• D-up subdivision, shift d down a subdivision

4. To create a Morph Target go to Tool - > Morph Target - > StoreMT. 5. What a morph target does is saves your object’s geometry at that moment. So if

you make a mistake you can click switch and it will go back to this stored Morph Target fixing your geometry if you make a mistake, figures 13 and 14.

Figure 13: This is where you would use the Switch command with a Morph Target.

Figure 14: Once you hit Switch it goes back to the normal looking model.

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Hiding or Showing Polygons

- You are just about ready to start sculpting. But first you need to learn how to hide certain parts of your geometry so you can work on one specific area at a time. • To hide an object I would not suggest that you are in a subdivision level much higher than 3. To hide parts of an object:

• Hiding outside green box– control and shift at same time highlight part of character you want to work on, box turns green, figure 15 and 16.

• Hiding what’s inside red box- control and shift at same time then let go of shift box turns red, figure 17 and 18.

• Unhiding- control and shift click around character

Figure 15: Hiding part of the character that is outside the green box using control and shift at the same time.

Figure 16: The portion of your character that is left. To show the whole character again, press control and shift and click outside the character.

Figure 17: Hiding part of the character that is inside the red box using control and shift at the same time, then letting go of shift.

Figure 18: The portion of your character that is left. To show the whole character again, press control and shift and click outside the character.

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General Sculpting, Masking

- It seems that there have been many steps before you have gotten to sculpting but they will soon become second nature and you will be able to go right to sculpting in no time. - With sculpting the most important commands you will use is the Brush Size or Draw Size, Smoothing, Zadd and Zsub and the Z Intensity, which controls the amount of push or pull the brush will have on your object, or how big your texture will be on the object (later in projection master). - Sculpting Commands Draw Size- right click or use Draw Size at top of screen, this is essentially your

brush size Z Intensity – intensity of brush Zadd or Zsub- The push or pull on your object To use Zadd or Zsub- select the buttons at the top or by default it is on

Zadd, and if you want to use Zsub hold alt and it will subtract Smoothing of object- shift plus left mouse button on part you want to smooth. X, Y, Z – mirrors sculpting onto X, Y, or Z axis, (not an option in projection master)

1. Let’s start sculpting

• The number 1 thing I would suggest before you start sculpting is to have references: an anatomy book, drawings, body building pictures or something that will help you create a character with accurate muscle structure.

- My character already has a good general shape so I am going to start adding

muscle and veins to him. - For starting your muscles I would suggest going into about subd 3.

So first go into about subd 3 (d to go up subdivisions or shift d to go down subdivisions) and choose a good brush size

• I am going to start with a draw size of 45 to start and an Z intensity of about 8.

• If you want to same sculpting on the other side press X, Y or Z to mirror it over your particular axis, in my case the X axis. Now you don’t always want symmetrical geometry so remember to press X again to turn it off.

• After getting a general arm shape, start playing around with the draw size and Z intensity and you will start seeing a good general shape coming, figure 19.

• To add veins I would suggest going into subd 4 or 5 and using a small draw scale with Z Intensity of about 10, at least to get you started. Hide most of the body except for the arm (shift and control at same time) that you will be sculpting,. You will probably need to use shift to smooth the vein to make it look more natural. You should now see a vein in the arm, figure 20.

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Figure 19: A good general arm shape forming. Figure 20: The vein in the arm appearing.

• After some time sculpting you should end up with a good looking character, figure 21. Be patient it is going to take a little while.

Figure 21: Final sculpted character.

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2. Masking Masking is picking a particular area that you want to sculpt and having the paintbrush only affect that area. Masking turns the area black. What is black will not be effected and what is white will.

• To Mask an object hold down the control key and left mouse button and highlight what you want to mask, figure 22.

• To invert the mask, hold down the control key and left mouse click outside the character, figure 23. When you do this make sure you don’t form a rectangular marque/selection.

• To get rid of the mask hold down the control key and left mouse button and form a rectangular box outside the character, figure 24. This will get rid of the mask.

Why would you use this you ask? With a combination of the mask, move and inflate tools you can create spikes, bumps

and much more. • To create spikes or bumps hold down the control key and have symmetry on or off

(X, Y, or Z keys) depending on if you want to mirror the geometry and create several lines on your character, figure 25.

Figure 22: Using control and the left mouse button to mask out your character. The white area is what will be affected.

Figure 23: Clicking control and the left mouse button outside the character to Invert the mask.

Figure 24: Using control and the left mouse button to mask out your character. The white area is what will be affected.

Figure 25: Clicking control and the left mouse button outside the character to Invert the mask.

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• Now invert the mask, figure 26 and go to Tool - > Deformation - > Inflate and

create some bumps, figure 27.

• Now go remove the mask (control, left mouse button, create box outside character) and go into move mode. To go into move mode click move in the upper toolbar or right click and select move.

• Once you are in Move mode click on one of your bumps and pull out. Now you

have a spike. Continue this until you have several spikes, figure 28. With this you can easily create bumps, spikes or distortion in the geometry.

Figure 26: Using control and the left mouse button to mask out your character. The white area is what will be affected.

Figure 27: Clicking control and the left mouse button outside the character to Invert the mask.

Figure 28: Using control and the left mouse button to mask out your character. The white area is what will

be affected.

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Adding detail with projection Master

• This is where a fast processor, hard drive space and a lot of ram come in handy! • (I have a 3.2 ghz processor, 800 MHZ FSB, 2 gigs of pc3200 ram, and 420 gigs of

total hard drive space (1 120gb, 1 300 gb) ) • When you get up to subd 6 you will be in the millions of polygons.

1. Let’s Start Detail. 2. First make sure that your Mem-> Preferences-> MaxPolyPerMesh is set to the max 10. This will allow you to get to subd 6. 3. Once you are in subd 6 go back down to about subd 3 or 4 and select a particular area to work on. I am going to start with the side of my character. So hide everything except what you want to work on then go back up to subd 6, figure 29. You do not want to work in Subd 6 with your whole character showing because it will be in the millions of polygons, in my case 5 million polygons. 4. Once you have gone up to Subd 6 you need to go into projection Master. To do this hit g or click on the Projection Master button in the upper left hand corner. Uncheck Colors and click just Deformation and Normalized, figure 30. Colors will be used later.

Figure 29: Getting ready for Projection Master. Hide everything except what you want to work on and go to subd 6.

Figure 30: Going into projection Master. Uncheck Colors and click just Deformation and Normalized.

5. Now your object is dropped to the canvas. - - Now this is why ZBrush is known as a 2.5D program. You rotate and sculpt in 3D but you add detail and colors in 2D. This is now a 2D image until you pick the object back up. 6. To start adding detail first you need to choose your brush type. Your brushes are in the left corner right below the Projection Master button, figure 31. 7. The default brush when you first go into Projection Master is the single layer brush. This is fine for color but will not add much depth to the detail you are going to add. The most used brush you will use initially is the simple brush. It is a multilayered brush and keeps the most detail. So select the simple brush from the brush menu, figure 32.

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Figure 31: Selecting your brush in Projection Master.

Figure 32: The default brush in Projection Master is the Single Layer brush. This is good for color but not detail. Use the Simple Brush.

8. Now it is time to use the Alpha Menu. Drag the menu over to the left, figure 33. An Alpha in ZBrush is like a height map or displacement map in any other package. White is the highest and black is the lowest. This is where you want to create your own alphas. ZBrush gives you many standard Alphas but you will be using mostly custom made alphas.

Figure 33: Choosing your alpha brush.

9. Creating your own alphas • To create a custom alpha you can use anything from what you made in Photoshop

to pictures you scan in, digital photographs you’ve taken or images you have gotten from the web.

• The most important thing to think about is how tileable you will need the image to be. If you are only going to use it in a little area it doesn’t have to be very tileable but if it is going to be the main skin texture for your entire model then it needs to be.

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1. So first create an image. In my case I will use my M16A2 from my website as an example. Remember the part that you want to use as the texture needs to be white so my picture needed to be inverted. Also make sure that the file you are going to use as a texture is the same height and width or your texture will get distorted, see figures 34 and 35 below.

Figure 34: My M16A2 without modifications. Figure 35: My M16A2 inverted and made a

square image for less or no distortion. 2. If you are going to use a color picture you can import it into ZBrush and it

will convert it to black and white for you or you can convert it in Photoshop first which I suggest.

3. If you are going to convert your image to black and white do not make it a greyscale 8 bit image, ZBrush will not recognize it. Go to Image-> Adjustments and use Desaturate making it look black and white but leave it as a 24 bit RGB color image. If you save it as grey scale you will get no preview, figure 36. If you get a preview of the image it recognizes it, figure 37.

Figure 36: If you have a color image make sure to desaturate it and not change it to greyscale. If your image doesn’t preview then it is not the right format.

Figure 37: If your image is the right format then it will preview in the browser. ZBrush will recognize .PSD files.

4. When you import your textures into ZBrush and you have not customized

them they will most likely be square, figure 38. This could be a problem but you are going to be blending many different types of textures so it shouldn’t be a problem.

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5. To blur and/or round your edges in ZBrush use blur and radial fade (rf) to round the object, figure 39. Blur and rf are located right below where your texture was imported to in the Alpha menu.

Figure 38: If your texture is square you will have to apply a radial fade (rf) to it and possible a blur.

Figure 39: Blur and rf are located right under your texture image. Apply a little rf and blur, if you need it, and now your texture is round.

6. Now it is time to add the texture you imported to your model. 7. To do this make sure you are in Projection Master and uncheck Colors and

check Deformation and Normalized. Now select the simple brush and adjust your Z intensity and Draw Size, select your texture and stamp it onto your character, figure 40. This is before it is picked up. I applied two different textures to show the difference.

8. Now hit g or the Projection Master button and press pickup now. Now the texture is applied to your character, figure 41. Now a texture is going to get slightly blurred when you pick it up. Sometimes worse than others depending on your texture, my gun for instance.

Figure 40: The textures applied to my model in Projection Master before it is picked up.

Figure 41: The model after picked up. Some textures might get slightly distorted, it just depends on the texture. Look at my gun.

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9. Once you have picked up your model and are back in edit mode rotate the

model and you can see that the texture has been applied to the geometry of the model.

10. Now depending on what angle you apply the texture you can see stretching. This is where you will have to apply the texture from various angles to make it look accurate, figure 42.

Figure 42: A rotated view showing the detail and depth of the texture.

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Adding color to your object and exporting the texture. 1. To add color to your object go back into Projection Master and click Colors and

uncheck Deformation and Normalized, figure 43. 2. Now choose a color from the default color palette, figure 44. The color on the right

is what ZBrush uses.

Figure 43 The Projection Master menu. To paint in color just select Colors and make sure Zadd is turned off.

Figure 44: The color palette.

3. To choose many different colors go to the color menu and you will see a bunch of

color many giving you a huge variety of colors to choose from, figure 45. 4. The best way I have found to store many different shades of colors is with a

ZScript called Zwatch by member marcus_civis from ZBrushCentral. To use Zwatch when you are in Projection Master go to ZScript - > Load. It will look like figure 46 below but blank. Add colors and save the palette and it will save your colors.

Figure 45: The color menu with many more colors to choose from.

Figure 46: When painting colors use a ZScript called Zwatch by member marcus_civis on ZBrushCentral to save a color palette.

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5. When painting colors it is pressure sensitive so depending on how hard you push with your Wacom it will get different shades of the color you chose. Even with a mouse it will take two passes to get the color you originally chose, figure 47.

6. To export your colored texture go to Texture - > FlipV and Export the file as a .bmp, .psd, or .tiff, figure 48. I would suggest saving it as a big image, I usually do 4096 x 4096. It is huge but you will get great detail with the texture or your normal map.

Figure 47: When painting colors it is pressure sensitive so you can get varying colors by how hard you push. With a mouse it will take two passes to get the original color.

Figure 48: To export the colored texture from ZBrush go to Texture - > FlipV and Export your image as a .bmp, .psd, or .tiff file.

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Exporting the Normal Maps

Normal maps in ZBrush are easy to do.

1. First, make sure that you open up a model that has a memory of the highest subdivision you will want, I recommend subd 6, and that your whole model is showing. It doesn’t matter what subd you are in when exporting your normal map.

2. Once your model is showing go to Tool - > NormalMap -> turn on Tangent, create an image size, I will use 4096, and select Create NormalMap, figure 49. Because the image is so large it will take about 5 minutes and your character will then turn blue, figure 50.

3. Now go to Texture - > FlipV, and Export it as a .bmp, .psd, or .tiff, figure 51. Your Normal Map is ready to be applied in another package.

Figure 49: The NormalMap creation tool in ZBrush. Select Tangent, choose an image size and click Create NormalMap.

Figure 50: Creating a Normal Map usually takes about five minutes. Once your character turns blue it has been created.

Figure 51: Once your model is blue to go Texture - > FlipV and export your image as a .bmp, .psd, or .tiff file.

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Normal Maps and ZBrush Textures applied in Max

1. First open your original low poly model file. 2. Now open up the Material Editor by hitting M or click on the Material Editor

Icon, , and go to Maps - > Bump - > Normal Bump, figure 52. 3. Now make sure Tangent is selected and click on Normal (where it says none) and

click Bitmap, and select your image, figure 53. Hit the preview button, to see your model with the normal map on it.

Figure 52: Applying the Normal Bump to your model.

Figure 53: Applying your Tangent, bump Normal Map to your model.

4. Now go open the Modifier list and go to Projection, figure 54. 5. This projection gives you many options to choose from: Cage, Face and Element,

figure 55. 3D Max does a really good job of calculating the normal map onto your model surface but I have had to manipulate a few of these options before.

6. Now it is time to render out your model with the normal map applied.

Figure 54: Applying the projection modifier to your model.

Figure 55: Painting your model. Your paintbrush is pressure sensitive so with a Wacom you can get varying color intensities.

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7. Set up some basic lights in your scene and render it out, the normal map should be applied. You might need to manipulate the light intensities and angels slightly to get a really good render, figure 56.

Figure 56: Painting your model. Your paintbrush is pressure sensitive so with a Wacom you can get

varying color intensities

8. To apply the texture you created in ZBrush go to Maps - > Diffuse - > Bitmap and select your image, figure 57.

9. Apply it to your model, hit preview and render it. You are done. 10. Everywhere outside where you painted is going to be white for now because you

haven’t painted any other part of your character, figure 58. Once you paint the whole character it will not be white anymore.

11. You are done!

Figure 57: 7 color menu with many more colors to choose from.

Figure 58: Painting your model. Your paintbrush is pressure sensitive so with a Wacom you can get varying color intensities.

Hope it helped. Please let me know if you have any questions/comments or additions you would like to have seen.

• For displacement maps there are many links on ZBrushCentral.com or go to www.scottspencer.com for a really good Maya and Mental Ray Displacement video tutorial.

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My most used Hotkeys

• MOVEMENT Centering of Object- alt double click outside model Rotate – left mouse click anywhere except on character Snap- left mouse click to rotate and hold shift to snap in direction you want Pan- alt and left mouse click Zoom- alt and left mouse click, then let go of alt and move mouse forward or back • HIDING OR SHOWING POLYGONS Hiding outside green box– control and shift at same time highlight part of character you want to work on, box turns green, figure 18 and 19. Hiding what’s inside red box- control and shift at same time then let go of shift box turns red, figure 20 and 21.

Unhiding- control and shift click around character • SCULPTING / MASKING Right mouse click - shows draw size or different modes

Draw Size- right click or use Draw Size at top of screen, this is essentially your brush size

Z Intensity – intensity of brush Zadd or Zsub- The push or pull on your object To use Zadd or Zsub- select the buttons at the top or by default it is

on Zadd, and if you want to use Zsub hold alt and it will subtract Smoothing of object- shift plus left mouse on part you want to smooth.

X, Y, Z – mirrors sculpting onto X, Y, or Z axis, (not an option in projection master) G – Brings up projection master Masking- control and left mouse button and create box around portion to mask Mask Invert- control and left mouse button outside character Mask removal- control and left mouse button and create grey box outside character

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A Hotkey list from the help menu of ZBrush 2.

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Some of my Favorite References Books 1. Anatomy For Fantasy Artist, Author: Glenn Fabry 2. Anatomy For The Artist, Author: Sarah Simblet 3. Drawing Cutting Edge Anatomy, Author: Christopher Hart 4. Drawing Cutting Edge Comics, Author: Christopher Hart 5. Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy, Author: Christopher Hart 6. Strength Training Anatomy, Author: Frederic Delavier 7. The Book Of Muscle, Men’s Health, Author: Ian King and Lou Schuler Dvd’s 1. Digital Tutors 2. Gnomon Magazines 1. Flex 2. Muscular Development Websites Anatomy 1. http://www.3d.sk/ 2. http://www.fitflex.com/gallery_ronnie.html 3. Ear modeling: Must use IE, Firefox won’t work on this site

http://www.antropus.com/english/tutorelha1.htm_ 4. Feet Modeling: http://www.3dtotal.com/team/tutorials/mayafeet/mayafeet1.asp 5. Low Poly Character Modeling:

http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials/benmathis/benmathis_1.asp 6. Eye Modeling:

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/joanofarc_p2/modeling_of_the_eyes1.asp 7. http://www.steelfitness.com/BETA/photogallery/2001arnold/ronniecoleman/mensindex

.asp 8. http://www.steelfitness.com/BETA/photogallery/2001arnold/ronniecoleman/mensindex

.asp ZBrush 1. http://www.3dlinks.com/oldsite/tutorials_zbrush.cfm 2. ZBrush Central http://206.145.80.239/zbc/index.php? 3. http://zbrush.cjb.net/ 4. http://3d-palace.com/video.php?vid=72 5. http://www.raph.com/3dartists/tutorials/t-3dsmax.html 6. http://www.scottspencer.com

• The tutor who got me started with ZBrush