Essential ZBrush offers a detailed overview of the popular digital sculpting tool as well as a guide to mastering digital sculpting. From the basics of ZBrush to the creation of a number of models that demonstrate hard surface sculpting, realisitic organic sculpting, and environmental sculpting, this book provides readers with the tools to produce high-quality digital sculpts. With this text, the reader will explore the various ZBrush palettes, brushes, and settings, and learn how to customize the interface; discover how to create a base mesh using ZSpheres; find out how to use normal and displacement maps in both 3ds Max and Maya; understand the importance of properly posing your models; explore a variety of production-tested pipelines and workflows; learn how to create and apply materials to your models. Includes companion DVD with more than 3 hours of video tutorials showing how to model and texture the image shown on the front cover! It also contains full-color versions of the images in the book.

Beginner's Guide to ZBrush is an essential resource for newcomers to this powerful software, packed with detailed instructions and tutorials.

Taking into account that many of today's digital artists -- particularly 3D character animators -- lack foundational artistic instruction, this book teaches anatomy in a coherent and succinct style. A clear writing style explains how to sculpt an accurate human figure, starting with the skeleton and working out to muscle, fat, and skin. Insightful explanations enable you to quickly and easily create and design characters that can be used in film, game, or print, and allows you to gain a strong understanding of the foundational artistic concepts. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Learn to work effectively and creatively with all versions of ZBrush! ZBrush is used by top artists in Hollywood to model and sculpt characters in such films as Avatar, Iron Man, and Pirates of the Caribbean. In addition, this amazing technology is also used in jewelry design, forensic science, aerospace, video games, toy creation, and the medical field. Written by Pixologic's in-house ZBrush expert Paul Gaboury, this full-color, beautifully illustrated guide provides you with the ultimate tips and tricks to maximize your use of all versions of ZBrush. Reveals numerous little-known tips and tricks that exist within ZBrush, but often go unexploited Shares an abundance of helpful techniques and insights that the author has acquired from years of helping professional artists in various industries Offers dozens of version-neutral solutions and shortcuts in areas such as sculpting, texturing, posing, rendering, and more Features "Artist Spotlights" from several ZBrush experts, offering their how-to's for using the feature-rich software in today's studios Improve your productivity and quality of work with this helpful, easy-to-understand resource.

A stunning, content-rich update to this top-selling ZBrush guide! This second edition of ZBrush Character Creation has been fully updated for ZBrush 4, the newest version of this fascinating and popular 3D sculpting software. ZBrush enables users to create detailed organic models using a brush-based toolset and tablet. The startling results look as though they've been painted with real brushes and oils, and ZBrush is increasingly popular for use in film, game, and broadcast pipelines. Author Scott Spencer is embedded in the ZBrush community and his movie credits include Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix and the upcoming The Hobbit. Learn Spencer's invaluable techniques for texturing, chiseling, posing, costuming, and more with his newest ZBrush guide. Explains ZBrush 4, the newest version of the revolutionary software tool for creating 3D organic models in a way that appears to be traditionally painted or sculpted Shows you how get the most out of ZBrush, from the fundamentals to new tools for texturing, chiseling, and costuming Offers plenty of insights and professional techniques for creating characters for films and games, drawing from the author's own experience on such films as Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix and The Hobbit Demonstrates the author's own techniques of using traditional sculpting and painting concepts and applying them to digital art for greater artistry Discover the beauty of ZBrush with this colorful, in-depth guide.

Tips and techniques for bringing reality and creativity to your game characters and art As video games evolve, the bar moves ever higher for realism, one of the most challenging artistic frontiers is creating realistic human characters. In ZBrush Studio Projects: Realistic Game Characters, ZBrush expert Ryan Kingslien zeroes in on specific areas of concern for game creation: human body style, faces, skin texturing, clothing, shoes, weaponry, and putting your character into a game environment. Throughout the book Ryan offers tips and insights that provide readers with the depth and breadth they need to bring reality and creativity to their game characters and art. Projects start from the beginning, just as they do in the studio, with the author to guide you step by step through attributes and tools. Projects encompass multiple disciplines to obtain finished, professional results.Although some step by step explanations are given, projects serve more as a guide for readers to complete their own version of the project. Each project comes with support files to validate results Covers one of the most unique challenges for game artists -- sculpting realistic and moveable human characters for a game environment Brings you up to speed on ZBrush, the top digital sculpting tool used to create characters and props in such games as Rock Band and World of Warcraft Covers body style, faces, skin texturing, clothing, shoes, weaponry, and how to put your character into a game environment Provides in-depth techniques and tips for everyone from aspiring digital sculptors to high-level professional ZBrush artists Includes a DVD with supporting files from the projects in the book, as well as videos that illustrate concepts Build the next game-winning action character with ZBrush and this professional guide! Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Professional modeling is the foundation of every aspect of the 3D production pipeline and is essential to the success of any 3D computer graphics project. [digital] Modeling is unlike any other modeling book you’ve seen—it gets to the core of what it takes to create efficient production-ready models and demystifies the process of producing realistic and jaw-dropping graphics. Taking a software-neutral approach, it teaches you the essential skills and concepts that you can apply to modeling in any industry 3D software, such as 3ds Max, LightWave 3D, Maya, Modo, Silo, XSI, ZBrush and other leading programs. Modelers, animators, texture artists, and technical directors can all benefit from the valuable information covered in this jam-packed guide containing years of industry knowledge. Simply put, if you work in 3D, you must have this book. In this inspiring and informative guide to modeling, industry veteran William Vaughan teaches you how to: Master modeling techniques to produce professional results in any 3D application Use the tools of a professional digital modeler Control your models polygon-count as well as polygon-flow Create both organic and hard surface models Understand a modeler’s role in a production environment Gain the knowledge to land a job in the industry as a digital modeler Model using specific tools such as LightWave and 3ds Max in over 6 hours of video training in the accompanying downloadable lesson files (see below for details) And much more! All of Peachpit's eBooks contain the same content as the print edition. You will find a link in the last few pages of your eBook that directs you to the media files. Helpful tips: If you are able to search the book, search for "Where are the lesson files?" Go to the very last page of the book and scroll backwards. You will need a web-enabled device or computer in order to access the media files that accompany this ebook. Entering the URL supplied into a computer with web access will allow you to get to the files. Depending on your device, it is possible that your display settings will cut off part of the URL. To make sure this is not the case, try reducing your font size and turning your device to a landscape view. This should cause the full URL to appear.

Getting Started in ZBrush is a gentle introduction to ZBrush, today’s premier digital sculpting program. Beginning with the fundamentals of digital sculpting as well as a thorough introduction to the user interface, Getting Started in ZBrush will have you creating a variety of professional-level 3D models in no-time. More than just another button-pushing manual, this comprehensive guide is packed with start-to-finish projects that ease you into the workflow of the program, while at the same time providing tips and tricks that will allow you to achieve certain tasks much more quickly. After progressing through the tutorials, you will be shown how to customize brushes, materials, scripts, and the interface so that you can utilize these tools to their full advantage. Special consideration is given to ZBrush’s integration plug-ins with Maya and 3ds Max, allowing you to properly import and export your models in all programs. Texturing, painting, mapping, decimation, baking, and topology are also fully covered so your Zbrush creations can come to life without sacrificing that high-resolution look. Ease your way into this complex subject with this straight-forward approach to ZBrush Perfect your technique with step-by-step tutorials that allow you to create high res models from start to finish. Expand your knowledge by visiting the companion website, which features video demonstrations, project files, texture and model files, scripts, customized menus, brushes, and additional resources.

A compilation of key chapters from the top Focal game art books available today - in the areas of Max, Maya, Photoshop, and ZBrush. The chapters provide the CG Artist with an excellent sampling of essential techniques that every 3D artist needs to create stunning game art.Game artists will be able to master the modeling, rendering, rigging, and texturing techniques they need - with advice from Focal's best and brightest authors. Artists can learn hundreds of tips, tricks and shortcuts in Max, Maya, Photoshop, ZBrush - all within the covers of one complete, inspiring reference.

Digital sculpting is the use of tools to push, pull, smooth, grab, pinch or otherwise manipulate a digital object as if it were made of a real-life substance such as clay. Mudbox is the premier sculpting solution for digital artists, in that it allows them to naturally and easily sculpt detailed, organic characters and models in a way that feels like traditional sculpting. This book guides CG professionals through the process of creating amazing digital sculptures using the Mudbox arsenal of ground-breaking digital sculpting and 3D painting tools, and porting the models into their Maya or Max work. Artists will explore tried and true, traditional, sculpting techniques and learn to apply them to digital sculpting. A series of in-depth tutorials are incluced, each challenging them with progressively more complex models as they go on. Unique to this book are topics specific to fine art sculptors transitioning from traditional sculpting to digital sculpting. information found nowhere else for professional sculptors shows them how to successfully integrate digital sculpting into their workflow. Associated web site with: support files, models, materials, and textures for completing the tutorials in the book.