Best products from r/ZBrush

First thing you will want to do is use Z-remesher under the geometry tab ( this will re-mesh your face with some helpful edge flow.


after that it is basically your preference ,



some people like working on on very low polygon models and then subdividing and refining what they roughed out.

if you have used a program like mudbox prior to zbrush this would probably be the way to go because mudbox has a Lovely Lovely layering system that helps prevent destroying volumes you have already established with the smooth brush.

as far as brushes go I think everyone has their favorite, way of approaching things.

clay tubes is a really nice one, as is the clay brush, each can give you a specific look as you sculpt. Personally I am fond of the clay tubes brush with a square alpha. but the standard and clay brush are just as good.

in addition to the build up brushes I also tend to use the dam standard brush to score or dig in and then smooth out the transition. the Face has a Ton of plane transitions So I tend to use it to keep things as crisp as possible when I start smoothing. ( note: having control over your brush strength is important, just because the tools are torqued up to 11 does not mean you have to use them that way.)

also one thing to make note of, you may not see the Dam_standard brush as an option when you press B there are more brushes that you can add to the pop up menue though the lightbox. ( click on the lightbox button top left and then from the drop down browser there should be a brushes tab in the standard folder)


once you have the topology at a density that you like and found a brush you can work with, masking and Poly grouping specific parts of the mesh can help separate things that would normally be almost too close to work on separately. I use this mainly on the Mouth. I follow the method in Scott Spencer's book ZBrush Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy

he basically has you dig in a hole where the mouth is to be and drag a mask selection on everything from the middle of the hole down . then he has you polygroup that mask so you just have to CTRL +SHIFT Click on it and it will auto isolate select the polygroup. its quite handy for adjusting and moving the upper/bottom lip independently of each other.



Hopefully this helped, have fun messing with all the brushes.

I would also love to know what mounting arm setup that is. Thank you!

edit: I ask because I've been looking for a mounting arm just like this for my MSP16. I have several ergotron arms, but all of their products i've seen dont seem to come in this configuration. Thanks again! (trying to find it myself, but if you wouldnt mind providing a link that would be excellent!)

edit: Haha, just found the post on your twitter and eveyone is also super stoked about the arm. I found a couple arms that seem similar. (had to zoom and enhance your pixel >:])

Is this the model arm that you have in your setup?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Thinkwise-S100-full-motion-desk-mount-gas-LCD-monitor-arm/1235953226.html

theres also this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SSMHB4U/ref=s9_acsd_al_bw_c_x_2_w

If so it would be a great help to know what you at least searched for the actual vesa laptop adapter that holds the tablet in place! Also, did you happen to paint your stand? I havent seen any mounting arms with any option other than silver/black.

Good start, nice job. This is basically how I learned anatomy: [Dynamic Anatomy] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0823015521/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518229124&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=dynamic+anatomy+by+burne+hogarth&dpPl=1&dpID=51IuMvcdUbL&ref=plSrch)


And really I just went through it page by page and drew everything. Everything! By the time you are done, you'll have a solid grasp of human anatomy, or at least a damn good start.

 

I learned this approach from one of my heroes, Frank Frazetta:



>When Ralph [Mayo] took over he pulled me aside and said, “Frank, you stuff is great, but you need to learn some anatomy.” When I was in school with Falanga the emphasis was on feeling, not on the nuts and bolts, so I really didn’t understand what he meant by ‘anatomy.’ So Ralph handed me an anatomy book and when I went home that night I had decided to learn anatomy. I started with page one and copied the entire book – everything in one night, from the skeleton up. I came back the next day like a dumb kid and said, “Thank you very much, I just learned my anatomy.” Of course Ralph fell over and roared with laughter. “Frankie, you silly bastard! I’ve been studying for ten years and I still don’t know anatomy, and you went home and learned it last night?!” But the thing was I had learned an awful lot. I had the ability to absorb things and he saw an improvement in my work right away. It amazed him and that meant a lot to me. From that point on I developed pretty rapidly: I started to do things with figures that made sense. I worked for Mayo and Standard for a few years, doing things like “Looie Laziebones” and all the funny animal stuff.

-Frank Frazetta



 


Here's an old WIP character I made that shows some of my anatomy work, though not perfect by any means and stylized, being just a big muscle bound brute (no armor/clothing pictured here either):
http://jpe3d.cgsociety.org/art/maya-zbrush-shezmu-musculature-sculpt-816692

That looks about where I started, and still am to be honest. Someone mentioned to start learning your anatomy and physical landmarks. I couldn't agree more with that. That's the thing that will help you a lot. One thing to check out id the 12 Days of Realism video list from Ryan Kingslien: https://www.ryankingslien.com/category/12-days-of-realism/page/2/

He is great at breaking down the process of realism and I adopted a lot of what he does in my own workflow. Also if you have the money I suggest looking into these two books.:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0990341100/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1909414247/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They're expensive, but they are so useful. The first helped me a great deal to learn more about muscle structure which make up the body. Good luck to you!

This is a great start! Anatomy is a tough subject to nail down. The biggest thing I can say to you is to work on your forms. It appears to me that you are falling into the trap that a lot of new artists do when starting with anatomy in ZBrush and thats "carving" in the muscle definition rather than building up the forms that create the muscles. By building the forms up in order form deeper muscles to surface muscles you will end up with a lot of the "Creases and lines" between muscles that a lot of people identify with being "ripped" or "shredded"

When I'm doing anatomy I like to use the clay tubes brush to build up base forms, hPolish to setup my plane breaks, and than the clay brush to do a final refining pass.

One of the best books I can recommend about true anatomy that looks at it for what it is and avoids the artists personal style is "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist" by Stephen Rogers Peck (http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Anatomy-Artist-Stephen-Rogers/dp/0195030958/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1406854979&sr=8-2&keywords=anatomy+for+the+artist). Its a little known gem among most people and its super cheap. this guy really knows how to break down the subject into terms for an artist and avoids unnecessary detail.

Keep up the practice!

first of all, dont go on other people drawings, excpeciallly if their subject are strongly characterized, some heads and faces have some featues that could be really hard to achieve and could drive you in the wrong direction, also, you must get comfortable with yout tools, the best way to do is practice and having lower expectations, i mean you dont nedd to go photoreal and anatomically perfect in the first intances of your work, just observe, try to figure out whats right and whats not on basic forms, to figure out anatomy you have to referr to the most correct and in depth kind of images, so its better to look in Anatomy Techinal books like the one in the link below.


also check out the first link. those are the face planes you should manage to achieve a good head shape to work on, regardless of what is your final objective.


https://www.google.com/search?q=head+planes&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjYxtXK2MblAhWdAGMBHV-vCu8Q2-cCegQIABAA&oq=head+pla&gs_l=img.1.0.0j0i30l9.4574.6704..8209...1.0..1.81.716.11......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......35i39j0i131j0i67.I4_VGkkVpmI&ei=be26XZjcA52BjLsP396q-A4&bih=558&biw=1088



https://www.amazon.it/Anatomy-3D-Artists-Essential-Professionals/dp/1909414247/ref=asc_df_1909414247/?tag=googshopit-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=85615193063&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1277251964093564846&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=20621&hvtargid=pla-195166974795&psc=1

I would suggest picking up a couple anatomy books and simply copying them. Like I said, you'd be surprised at how much this teaches you. First, take a look at Bridgman's guide It's very loose and probably easier to learn from because of it. But there is complete accuracy in the looseness of his drawings, so I know I learned a ton about the figure from him.

Secondly, I'd pick up Richer's Artistic Anatomy This is a ton more informational, and the drawings are much tighter, but spot on figures and great info. This is one of my teacher's favorite reference books, and he's been published in Spectrum 13 times, and worked for George Lucas.

you can get the basic wacom tablet thats small for a couple dollars linked below that way you can get your feet wet not spent a lot of money and just upgrade later. This model also comes in a medium and large size and yes you need a tablet no matter what you would nto draw on a piece of paper useing a piece of charcoal would you ? Thats exactly what its going to be like drawing with a mouse. you can email me if you need any help man I love helping people with zbrush im available 24/7 stovant@gmail.com

http://www.amazon.com/One-Wacom-CTL471-Samll-Tablet/dp/B00CW900X4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457997152&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=wacom+tablet&psc=1

This was my starting point for learning anatomy: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/158180931X . All I can say is reference books, and more reference books. I appreciated Apesos take on learning and memorizing anatomy, especially helpful if you have a significant other who will let you find and trace the muscles while you learn them. Spend time LOOKING at muscle structure as well. Just realized the post is 3 months old, made any progress?

I have the Gaomon PD1560 pen display, seems pretty good and considerable savings over Cintiq. Only gotcha is it doesn't have a resident driver like Wacom; you have to make sure their pen utility is running.

https://www.amazon.com/ZBrush-Characters-Creatures-Kurt-Papstein/dp/1909414131

not bad, but it does assume a certain level of knowledge with zbrush that i don't always have so i have to do a fair bit of my own research. It can be a little dated on some of the steps too. With sculptris pro finally being integrated things got a lot easier and with a different workflow.

If you want a taste of concept art, I recommend this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Big-World-Concept-Video-Games/dp/1624650201

Fairly awesome resource for a pretty low price, and if you happen to live in the North Texas area, the author teaches Concept Art at a community college here.

Im new to zbrush, but have done a fair amount of sculpting in clay. This book has proved really helpful in understanding the way clothing will react when wrapping around the human, or any other form.

https://www.amazon.com/Drawing-People-Portray-Clothed-Figure/dp/1581803591

I found this to be a pretty good compromise in price and performance.

https://www.amazon.com/UG-2150-Monitor-Display-Pergear%C2%AE-Resolution/dp/B00RCMFN6A

I picked up this book: http://www.amazon.com/ZBrush-Professional-Tips-Techniques-Gaboury/dp/1118066804/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410063579&sr=1-1&keywords=zbrush

It doesn't specifically cover how to sculpt a car, but it has lots of good info about creating hard surfaces and curves that you'd be making when you wanted to sculpt a car.

Buy something like this then: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00MIBN71I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It changed my way of drawing :)

I walked the same path. Forget everything you know.

Introducing Zbrush was a good place to start learning how to use it.
Youtube have tutorials on almost anything that you would like to learn.

IMO go lower in resolution. Focus on form first before you do any detailing. I would also highly suggest diving into this book and making it everything you think about:

https://www.amazon.com/Constructive-Anatomy-Dover-Artists/dp/0486211045

edit: another great one: https://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Anatomy-Expanded-Burne-Hogarth/dp/0823015521

I really like 'Anatomy for Sculptors Understanding the Human Form'.

Ok so i just discovered amazonglobal they ship to south africa i found this one would you reccommend it? https://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Drawing-Pressure-Sensitivity-Carrying/dp/B074DTP2V4/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1WJAWC79JANJO&keywords=wacom+intuos+drawing+tablet&qid=1555244628&s=gateway&sprefix=wacom+intuo%2Caps%2C464&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1

I don't know what drawing with no clear path in mind is gonna do but this is pretty much all you need right now at this very moment https://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Sculptors-Understanding-Human-Form/dp/0990341100 , there should be PDFs all over the internet if you don't have the money. You could also try https://anatomy4sculptors.com/art/