Animation Software

From the Manufacturer

The ZBrush interface. Image by Hyun Kyung Up.

Designed by artists for artists, ZBrush makes it easy to create exciting illustrations and production assets. View larger image.

ZBrush is an Award Winning digital sculpting and painting program that has revolutionized the 3D industry with its powerful features and intuitive workflows. Built within an elegant interface, ZBrush offers the world’s most advanced tools for today’s digital artists. With an arsenal of features that have been developed with usability in mind, ZBrush creates a user experience that feels incredibly natural while simultaneously inspiring the artist within. With the ability to sculpt up to a billion polygons, ZBrush allows you to create limited only by your imagination.

Designed around a principle of circularity, the menus in ZBrush work together in a non-linear and mode-free method. This facilitates the interaction of 3D models, 2D images and 2.5D Pixols in new and unique ways.

ZBrush gives you all of the tools needed to quickly sketch out a 2D or 3D concept and then take that idea all the way to completion. You can create realistic renders directly in ZBrush with lighting and atmospheric effects. With the many powerful export options, you can easily prepare your model for 3D printing or use within any other digital application.

Because ZBrush users are enabled by its powerful software processing, you can sculpt and paint with millions of polygons with out having to worry about purchasing expensive graphics cards. It is for this reason why ZBrush is used by everyone from art enthusiast to major film and games studios.

Leave technical hurdles and steep learning curves behind, as you sculpt and paint with familiar brushes and tools.

Some of the 2.5D painting and detailing tools in ZBrush.

ZBrush has 2D, 2.5D and 3D brushes for painting scenes and sculpting models. Shown here are some of the 2.5D features. View larger image.

Key Features and Benefits

Sculpting Brushes

With over 30 start up brushes to sculpt with and the ability to create an endless assortment of your own custom brushes, it's easy to see why sculpting in ZBrush is not only powerful but incredibly easy as well. The natural brush strokes you get when sculpting across millions and billions of polygons gives the user the feeling like they are sculpting on a real piece of clay, or wood, or stone, or real any surface you can think of. The wide range of brushes you will find in ZBrush were created with real world sculpting techniques in mind. Maybe you want to sink your fingers into a soft piece of clay to rough out general forms. Or maybe your want to chip off pieces of stone with a metal chisel. However, simulating real work sculpting tools isn't all you can do with the brushes you find in ZBrush. With tools like symmetry, repeat and hundreds of other custom controls you can now sculpt details like stitching in fabric, hard mechanical edges, and so much more. When using ZBrush's dynamic range of brushes the control you have over your surface is limited only by your imagination.

Shadow Box

Develop truly creative concepts. Limitless creative control is what Shadow Box brings to the process of creating a three-dimensional base mesh. Use the advanced masking brushes to paint a silhouette of your idea on any of the three sides of Shadow Box and the mesh will appear at the center. Carve out holes in the surface of the mesh by simply erasing any part of the masks; the surface at the center of Shadow Box updates instantly. Combine radial symmetry, your own custom alpha textures, reference images and masking curves to build complex forms in a matter of seconds. Whether you are sculpting a specific model or just exploring shapes, Shadow Box offers a unique method for quickly establishing an editable base mesh for sculpting.

Mannequin

A good pose is the essence of a great composition. Rhythm, gesture, weight and balance are all key to any work of art. Use the new Mannequin sample projects to find that perfect pose for single or multi-character models. The ZSphere Mannequins can easily be edited to fit any character or creature you need. Create an entire scene in just a few clicks! In no time, you'll have established perfect visual harmony and you'll be on your way to sculpting a masterpiece.

Match Maker

The amazing new Match Maker brush deforms the shape of a surface so that it fits perfectly against other objects. The brush is incredibly easy to use and the results are stunning. Within seconds you can craft complex parts and make them all fit perfectly together.

PolyPaint

PolyPainting allows painting on a model's surface without first assigning a texture map. A texture map can be created at a later time, and the painted surface can be transferred to the map. PolyPainting offers significant advantages compared to standard workflow. The resolution of the texture map need not be decided in advance. This is particularly valuable if you find you need more detailing on an area than you thought you would. Instead of repainting a new, larger texture map, you can simply transfer the existing surface painting to a new, larger map, with no rework necessary. Similarly, the UV unwrap needs not be fixed in advance. If one unwrapping proves unsatisfactory, simply create a different unwrapping and transfer the surface painting to that map. Removing UVs from your model frees up system resources and allows you to work with even more polygons! To understand how polypainting works, first consider a 2048 by 2048 texture map, which provides reasonable resolution. It has a total of a little over 4 million pixels. If you work with a 4 million polygon model, then in terms of surface painting, simply assigning each polygon a uniform color gives the same amount of information as the 4 million pixel texture map. (Actually, somewhat more, since significant parts of texture maps are typically left blank.) So, with polypainting, you can put all of the painting details directly onto the model's polygons, and then transfer that detail to a texture map when the painting is complete.

SpotLight

The innovative SpotLight painting system enables image editing in ZBrush and then allows you to project the image to the surface of the model using the intuitive sculpting brushes. SpotLight goes beyond being just a texturing tool. Imported images can be altered, layered, and precisely positioned. Adjust the hue and intensity, color match other images, clone, tile, and color key to create entirely new images. Use these images to project color on any part of your model. Use symmetry to apply skin color, tattoos and more to both sides of a face or character at once!.

Timeline

Your model’s presentation is as important as the quality of its form, details and the paint applied to its surface. ZBrush 4 offers an elegant solution for showing off your work, whether you want to share it with the world online or present it to a director for approval. Using a timeline system, you can store multiple camera views and animate between them. This can be used to create advanced turntable animations or as a workflow enhancement. Animate between morph targets and model poses to verify facial expressions and UV texture maps. Rig your model with ZSpheres and see how your model moves. Using layer animation you can even animate between variations of textures and PolyPaint. Import a soundtrack for precise animation synchronization or build your demo reel within ZBrush. The timeline interface includes options such as auto magnification, jump cuts and easing. Your work deserves the best possible presentation; the timeline features give you the power to show off your work in a professional way! All of the primary ZBrush features can be animated: Layers, SubTool visibility, background colors, Polyframe display, ZSpheres, camera angles, subdivision levels, and more. You can export the animation of your mesh using the MDD format for use in other 3D packages such as modo. This makes realistic facial animation easy and fast!.

TransPose

TransPose provides a simple and intuitive way to rapidly pose a figure. View larger image.

Creating realistic poses to abstract deformations has never been so easy. TransPose lets you quickly isolate parts of your model which can then be deformed, positioned, scaled and rotated with incredible actuary. No need for complicated rigging or tedious painting of weights, just select and pose! Achieve realistic muscle deformation as you bend a limb into a flexed position, then quickly return your geometry back to its original position. TransPose gives you the freedom to explore 3D sculpture is a new and natural way.

ZSpheres

ZSpheres allow you to quickly create a base mesh with clean topology, which can then be sculpted into any form. The power of ZSphere lies with in their simplicity. From a single ZSphere you can easily grow new ones, which can then be scaled, moved, and rotated into any form. Now you can enjoy creating the geometry for your characters while posing in real time. ZSpheres also provide a special drawing mode called ZSketch. When used in this way they act like adding strips of clay to a real-world sculpt, making it incredibly easy to build up new ideas in the digital workspace. Finally, ZSpheres are also used for ZBrush's re-topology feature. With this you can make simple edits to a model's topology or even create brand new topology (such as a trench coat or other form fitting clothing) on top of an existing model.

Surface Noise

Surface Noise gives you unprecedented control over the look and feel of your 3D surfaces. You can apply an endless variety of noise types directly to any surfaces regardless of polycount while maintaining the strength, size, and color of the noise you want to work with. Surface Noise gives you the ability to create looks that would be impossible or too time consuming to model. You can apply noise to your whole model or only to the selected areas. Creating rusted metal, stucco, chipped paint, battle damage and more is just a click away with Surface Noise. You can also apply noise to all of your brush strokes. Paint, sculpt, and mask using any style of surface noise. Build and save libraries of different noise types, which can then be applied instantly to any mesh! Because this is a nondestructive process you can turn noise on and off, as well as change the look of the noise you are using at any point in your modeling process.

Changing layer intensity affects how strongly details appear on the model.

Layers give creative freedom by making it easy to blend or hide sculpted and painted details. View larger image.

Hundreds of free materials are available, easily changing the way your surface reacts to light. View larger image.

3D Layers

Layers allow for a non-linear workflow. Artists are able to work with a model at many different stages of development simultaneously. Artists can add details such as a reptile's skin scales then turn those details off and refine the major forms underlying them. If a director is calling for more damage on a piece of armor simply dial up the intensity of that layer. If you want to see that same mesh with out any damage at all just turn that layer off. With ZBrush 4, 3D Layers also now support PolyPaint as well as sculpted detail.

Materials

In ZBrush, the appearance of any surface is affected by several things - its base color, its texture image (if it has one), the lighting that falls on the surface, and its material. The material changes the way the lighting reacts with the surface so that it may appear - for example - shiny, bumpy, reflective, metallic or transparent. There are many preset materials in ZBrush to give you control over a scene. In addition, each material can be modified to create new materials. The material editing workflow has been improved so that different materials can be blended together using transfer modes such as screen, multiply and difference. Use the Fresnel settings to blend multiple materials based on the angle of viewing incidence.

MatCap

What if you could create a surface material and lighting environment simply by painting an object so that it looks like you want it to look? What if you could create that surface material by sampling points from an existing image that already features the material and lighting environment you want? For a great many (probably the majority) materials and lighting environments, this is exactly what MatCap (Material Capture), allows you to do.

Complex models are easily built from many SubTools. In this case, mose of the pieces were created using Shadow Box and the new clipping brushes. View larger image.

SubTools

SubTools permit a single (logical) mesh to be treated as many independent objects. Like polygroups, they split a single model into several different components, but the emphasis on SubTools is allowing you to work with each component as if it were a separate mesh. SubTools increases the amount of polygons you can work with by allowing each SubTool to have as many polygons as your system can handle. For example, if your system can handle 8 million polygons for one SubTool you can have a model equal to 32 million polygons by having 4 SubTools of 8 million polygons each. SubTools may also be combined using the ReMesh feature to achieve Boolean-type results. They may also be easily duplicated, merged or welded to create complex shapes. Details may be projected from one SubTool to another such as if you wish to transfer details from a hero sculpt to a game model for creating a normal map. Visibility controls make it easy to see one SubTool through another if desired and the new Solo mode allows you to instantly isolate the current SubTool for when you don't wish to be distracted by the rest of the model's components. .

Mesh Extraction

Mesh extraction is a fast and powerful way to create new parts to your model. Using existing geometry you can quickly and easily create a jacket, a helmet, gloves, whatever your character may need! Mesh Extractions works by isolating parts of one model and, in a sense, duplicating that as another mesh. It also 'cleans' the edge of the extracted mesh to create a smooth, even boundary. Just paint a selection on the area you want new geometry to be created from and simply extract!.

Along with the hard surface sculpting brushes, Projection Master is a great way to create architectural details. View larger image.

Projection Master

Projection Master is a unique feature of ZBrush that allows you to use all of the 2D and 2.5D brushes in sculpting, texturing, and otherwise working with your 3D model. The concept behind Projection Master is simple. While working with a 3D model (usually a very high-resolution one-the more "standard" 3D tools are usually used when sculpting low- and medium-resolution details), you activate Projection Master to convert the visible portion of your model into pixols on the canvas. This simply samples the depth of your model at each visible point on the screen, and adjusts each corresponding pixol to reflect the depth, color, material, etc., of the model at that point. The model is then temporarily removed from the canvas, leaving you to work with the pixol-based representation of the model. This process is referred to as dropping the model to the screen. Being able to use any paint brush to affect the final geometry of the model opens up a huge number of possibilities. For example, you could use the Blur brush to smooth out a section of the model that is too rough. Or you can project other complex pieces of geometry into your mesh to create complex details as easily as a brush stroke.

HD Geometry

The next evolution in digital sculpting! With the ability to divide your model up to a billion polygons, now your limits are based only on what you can imagine. You can focus your attention on specific area of your 3D creation while ZBrush handles the rest of your model in a very system friendly way. This is why you can achieve a billion polygons without having to worry about purchasing expensive graphics hardware. ZBrush’s powerful memory handling allows you to sculpt with out limits! HD details may also be transferred to a color, normal or displacement map for export to another package.

Best Preview Render

ZBrush 4 adds the new Best Preview Render option which gives you the power of rendering with advanced shadows, ambient occlusion, subsurface scattering, fibers and transparency directly on the ZBrush canvas. Multi-pass rendering is available, allowing you to export alpha and depth channels as well as ambient occlusion, diffuse color, and shadows as separate images for compositing in your favorite image editor.. or even your compositing software! Best Preview Render can be used with the timeline to render animation straight from ZBrush! Now your favorite MatCap materials can appear in your animated work. .

Multi Map Exporter

The new Multi Map Exporter plug-in is free for ZBrush 4 users and makes creating and exporting your many texture maps easier than ever before. Within a single menu you can establish custom settings to create displacement, normal, ambient occlusion, cavity and texture maps, exporting them all at once. It even supports multiple UV sets!.

PaintStop

PaintStop is a powerful addition to ZBrush's extensive plugin library which configures your user interface and settings to give you the true to life feel of using real world art tools. In addition to the many brushes, pencils, and paints that are available in PaintStop, you can choose from a variety of different canvas types to change the look and feel of your final piece. Download PaintStop for free from the ZBrush plugin library.

UV Master

UV Creation has never been so easy! UV Master is a free plugin which will create very efficient UVs for your models with a single click. Any artist can now quickly and easily create excellent UV maps. This free ZBrush plugin clearly represents the ZBrush ideal of maximum artistic freedom with minimal technical hurdles! With UV Master's cutting-edge technology you can leave all the technical work to the computer. Because the UV maps generated by the plugin can be in one UV island you will be able to understand your model's UVs in any 2D image editor and paint or edit them like you would do with manually unwrapped UVs. Amazingly, what needs mere minutes with UV Master could take hours in other dedicated solutions! Just load your model, click Unwrap and you're done! If you need more control over this automatic process, use the Control Painting mode to restrict seams creation in specific areas of your model or paint areas which will attract seams. Just a few broad strokes will add more power to the process with minimal effort. In addition, UV Master's density mode lets you define areas where you need more or less pixel space for your texture -- without the need to locally scale or stretch your UVs by hand. For example you can give more density to the face and less on the back by simply painting the areas before clicking Unwrap!.

ZProjects

As your ZBrush creations become more complex, you'll find that saving all the meshes, textures, alphas, materials, timeline animation and camera positions at once is easy thanks to the new ZProject format. When you load a saved ZProject in ZBrush 4 you'll be able to pick up exactly where you saved as if you had never left!.

GoZBrush

GoZBrush (or GoZ) has been extended and improved in ZBrush 4. Send your models to Autodesk Maya®, Autodesk 3DSMax®, Luxology modo® or Maxon Cinema4D® with a single button. Make any change you need in your 3D animation software, such as editing the topology or generating a new base mesh and then send it all back to ZBrush for further sculpting. Your ZBrush project will be automatically updated using the changes, without losing the work that you've already done in ZBrush. Using GoZ, the texture maps you make in ZBrush are instantly transferred and applied to your model in your 3D rendering application. These include diffuse, normal and displacement maps! GoZ now even supports the simultaneous exchange of multiple SubTools. GoZ lets you focus on your creative process by removing the tedious and technical hurdles of 3D data exchange between applications. Support for additional 3D animation software will soon be added to GoZ with the help of the GoZ SDK.