master creature sculpting in zbrush
Krystal Sae Eua reveals her workflow for speed sculpting animals in Zbrush
How to speed sculpt a stunning ibex using Zbrush
sculpting a really detailed creature takes days – but it’s still amazing how far you can get in an hour. In this tutorial, I’ll explain the Zbrush workflow I use in my professional work as I run through the process of sculpting a realistic animal: in this case a Nubian ibex – a desert dwelling, goat-like animal.
We’ll begin by creating an underlying skeleton for the model using Zspheres, matching the proportions of a real ibex’s skeleton. Once this is done, we’ll use Zbrush’s Adaptive Skin system to turn the Zsphere object into a normal mesh, which we can then begin to sculpt using some of the standard brushes.
Along the way, I’ll explain some of the techniques I use to mark out the anatomical landmarks of the sculpt, artistic principles such as focusing on the major forms before the fine details, and practical considerations such as when to stop sculpting symmetrically and move the ibex into its final pose. The sculpt itself was one I created during a one-hour masterclass for Anatomy Lab, a live event held at Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Games and Animation in Los Angeles last year. You can download my actual Zbrush sculpt from the Vault via the link below. In this article, I’m only providing a brief overview of the process, but if you want to see everything I did, you can watch the recording of the event on Gnomon’s Livestream channel at www.bit.ly/anatomylab.
Gnomon holds masterclasses and speaker events most weeks, and they’re usually free, so if you want more training like this, it’s worth keeping on eye on the Events section of the website: www.gnomon.edu.