HOW DO I MODEL HARD SURFACES IN ZBRUSH?
Joe Chattleworth, UK
When Zbrush was first introduced, it was used predominantly for organic work. However, with the introduction of Dynamesh and the Zmodeler brush, more people have been using it for hard surface work. I’ll be going through a few techniques using a robot I built from scratch entirely in Zbrush.
The major pieces were blocked out using a primitive shape such as a sphere or cube. I used the Move brush to get the rough shape. Then I used the Clip Brushes to clean up the edges. Holding down [Ctrl] + [Shift] will clip the model to a straight or curved line. Tap [Alt] once to curve it or twice to achieve a sharp angle. Some shapes, such as the collar, were created by modifying primitives in the Initialize tab. I used a Ring3d shape and adjusted the parameters before converting it to a Dynamesh shape.
The face panels were masked and extracted from the modified cylinder. Then I used Zremesher to get clean topology. You can then use either Panel Loops or Qmesh to give the panels some thickness.
For clean extrusions when using Dynamesh, it helps to mask the areas you want to extrude or cave in. Group by pressing [Ctrl] + [W], then isolate the group using [Ctrl] + [Shift]. Under Panel Loops, use the Group Loop function. One loop should suffice, then select the area again and use the Transpose tool to move the selection in the direction you want.
Once you have all your major pieces blocked out and assembled, things like pipes, bolts and small plates can be added with insert meshes. Zbrush comes equipped with a good library of these.
For panel lines, using brushes like the MAH brush holding down [Shift] during stroke work will ensure a straight line.
If you want to go further and have separate panels (like on the robot’s torso), use the Slice Curve brush to split the mesh into different poly groups and then use Panel Loops to get a nice effect.