This is Joseph Drust. Welcome to ZBrushCore.
In this tutorial, we will cover the basic functionality of ZBrushCore
for use with conceptual sculpting.
ZBrushCore is a powerful application that allows you to generate designs
quickly and easily as you would in 2D but in 3D.
Using various brushes and features, you can quickly design in 3D
with a fast process to bring ideas to life.
Here are examples of different busts generated using ZBrushCore.
Once you launch ZBrushCore, you get a window like this at the top.
This is Lightbox.
Lightbox is ZBrushCore's file management system.
Here you will see a series of starter projects you can load
You can also open files you have previously created.
For this tutorial, we will use this HeadPlanes model.
To load this, click on that.
Then double click and that will load the file under the scene.
Now you have your model loaded.
Before we talk about sculpting functions, let's talk about navigation.
To rotate your model in ZBrushCore, simply click on an empty space on your canvas
and drag and that will perform a rotation.
As you are performing this if you hold down Shift,
this will allow you to lock into specific angles.
If you hold Shift and are close to the front, this will place your model in a front view.
If you hold Shift and are close to the side, this will place you in a side view.
Using this option, you can rotate your model around and then snap to certain views.
In addition to just rotating, you can also pan your model across the canvas.
That is done by holding down the Alt button, then clicking in an empty spot.
Hold down Alt and then click and drag and that allows you to move your model.
Now you can move and rotate.
Now in addition to moving and rotating, you can also zoom in and out of your model.
One option to do this is to hold down the Alt button, click on your canvas
and hold down and release Alt and drag and this allows you to perform a zoom.
That process again: hold Alt, click on the empty spot on your canvas,
release Alt and drag and that will perform a zoom.
In addition to using these hotkeys to control your navigation,
there are buttons here with the same effect.
This move button, if you click and drag it, will perform that move.
The scale button, if you click and drag it, will perform that zoom.
The rotate button, if you click and drag it, will perform that rotate.
You can use those processes to navigate around your model as you work.
Now you have navigation down, we can talk about the brush system.
Down at the bottom are a series of brushes.
Come over and click on a brush and that brush will be loaded.
Here I have the ClayBuildup brush selected.
With a brush selected, if you come across your model and simply click and drag,
this performs a sculpt function.
As you can see here with the ClayBuildup brush,
I am sculpting in a positive direction on my model.
With this brush, if I hold down Alt and drag, I am going to sculpt in a negative fashion.
This way you can come through and sculpt positively
then hold down Alt to sculpt negatively and describe forms on your model.
In addition to just sculpting the surface, you can also smooth the surface.
To do this, hold down Shift and click and drag to smooth those areas.
To recap, just click and drag to create a positive stroke.
Hold down Alt and drag to create a negative stroke.
Hold Shift and drag to smooth the surface out.
All these processes will use the pressure sensitivity of your device.
If I do a light stroke here,
you can see I am getting light build up.
If I really press down, I will get a strong stroke.
You can come through and use those to your advantage
to get nice shapes and forms on your model.
In addition to just sculpting brushes, there are also brushes like Move.
If I come down and select the Move brush, and now come across my model and drag out,
this allows me to move the surface, stretching out the surface as I move it.
Then you come back in and smooth those areas out.
This allows you to create silhouettes and shape your model really fast.
Notice that I am doing this process with symmetry.
If I use that Move option on one side,
it also happens on the other side.
To toggle symmetry, just press X on your keyboard and this will turn it on and off.
X turns it off and I am now just affecting one side of the face.
If I hit X again, it will turn it on and now I affect both sides of the face.
You can always disable symmetry if you do not want it on.
If you make a mark on your model that you do not like,
you can undo this process by holding down Ctrl + Z.
If I hit Ctrl + Z, I undo those processes I just created.
If you undo too far, hold Ctrl + Shift + Z to redo the action.
Using Ctrl + Z, I can go all the way back down to the original version of my mesh.
Now we have covered navigation and brushes, there is one more thing to talk about.
That is DynaMesh.
I will come across this model and hold Shift and smooth out some of these forms.
Taking out some of the angular shapes and smoothing it down like so.
Now I have something like this, I will select the Move brush.
I change the brush size to make it a little bit larger.
Do this by going to the Draw Size and changing the slider.
You can also hold down S on your keyboard to get this Draw Size option here,
and change it like this.
Using these options, I enlarge my Draw Size and start stretching the model.
I will do a large stretch here so I will pull this out quite a bit.
As I pull this out, it will start looking a little blocky in this area.
This is because we are stretching the material of the model.
If I come through and go back to the ClayBuildup brush and get a small Draw Size,
I want to sculpt something from here all the way to that nose.
When I start sculpting, it is pretty crisp and clear.
When I get to that area that is stretched, my stroke will depreciate.
I get this chunky effect.
ZBrush has a process called DynaMesh, which is its digital clay.
This redistributes the clay on our model and removes this stretched area.
DynaMesh is located under the Tool palette in the Geometry tab under DynaMesh.
It is this large button here.
This model already has DynaMesh active.
I can come off my model to the canvas,
I can hold Ctrl and drag out a box and when I release, it will reapply DynaMesh.
This will redistribute the surface of the model.
Now if I perform this stroke again, it is very clean at the top
and as I go down the nose, it keeps that consistency.
This process of re-DynaMeshing your model allows you to redistribute that clay.
If I come through and undo his nose change here,
then go back to the Move brush and get a large brush size.
I pull this out to get a really big volume on the surface
then smooth that down.
Then I come in with the ClayBuildup brush, go back to a smaller Draw Size,
then start drawing this out.
At any point, if I start distorting the model too much, like this,
you simply hold Ctrl and drag off,
and redistribute the polygons through that DynaMesh functionality.
Now this is all redistributed and I can come back and sculpt in this area again
and I get the same resolution sculpting here as I do sculpting here.
That is the process of using DynaMesh.
One more thing to talk about is masking.
I will go back to this version of my model and hold down S to get my Draw Size larger.
Then I hold down Shift and smooth out all the features.
I will make him smooth throughout.
Just holding down Shift and applying pressure to those different areas to smooth the mesh.
Now I have something like this, I will hold down S for a smaller Draw Size.
I want to come through and apply some masking.
I will use this process quite a bit when working on this bust
to describe different forms such as noses and ears.
To apply a protective mask to your model, hold down Ctrl for the mask pen.
With the Mask pen selected, if you come across your model and click and drag
you will get this Mask effect.
This will protect any area with this mask on from your sculpting.
If I come with the ClayBuildup brush and drag across,
that masked area has been protected from my sculpt.
You can use this to your advantage to describe transition areas on your mesh.
Let's undo that sculpt and go back to the mask.
I want to pull an ear out of the model.
If you hold down Ctrl, it will give us the Mask pen.
While you are holding Ctrl, click off the model and your mask is inverted.
Holding down Ctrl and clicking off the model will allow you to flip the mask.
Now I have flipped the mask for this ear,
I can use this ClayBuildup brush and pull the volume of the surface out.
It gives me this effect.
Now I can clear the mask, by holding down Ctrl and clicking off the model.
Then I can hold down Ctrl again and click off the model to apply re-Dynamesh.
Now I have an evenly distributed surface across the mesh.
Now I can come through and have this quick silhouette of that ear described.
Now I can come through and sculpt on it, pulling on different forms.
After you have a handle on these functionalities,
you just need to start playing.
This video has been sped up.
It is a time lapse going through busts using the functionalities we talked about.
When you model with ZBrushCore, think about working with clay.
You can scrub the surface out, change the design entirely on the fly
and just keep fleshing out different ideas.
This time lapse will go through different busts,
random heads that I saw shapes with when I was working with the digital clay.
I just flesh out those ideas and if I like, scrub out and start again.
You see the power that this application has for realising your ideas.
Sit back and watch
and I look forward to seeing what you create with ZBrushCore.