Zbrush Research Project

Production Modeling Zbrush Research Project

For my research assignment in my Production Modeling course at Full Sail University I chose to learn how to create my own brushes in z-brush as it seems to be a skill that would prove invaluable in improving my experience and ability to create in z-brush in the future.

2D Plane for experimenting with my brush shape

1. First I found a video that covered the process and took notes on how to go about creating my new brush I found an excellent walk through here.
2. After taking my notes and I went to z-brush and began constructing my new brush.



 I cloned the standard brush to create a new brush that I could edit.

3. I made my 2D plane to experiment with my brush shape with.



I found the Edit curve box as the video instructed to alter the shape of the brush.

I settled on this curve shape because it resembled a ripple which seemed like it would make a useful brush.

After a little experimentation on my own with the brush menu I found a sub menu for samples in which a option to allow buildup was included. I found when I enabled buildup and placed ripples right next to each other they amplified one another as they would if two ripples intersected in real life.

After getting everything set up the way I liked it I saved out the brush as Ripple.

At this point I went to the tool menu and loaded up a sphere 3D as instructed in the video to create my custom icon for my new brush.

This is the way I decided to capture my new brush icon I altered the lighting a bit so that it would catch more than just the center of the ripple.

After rendering the new brush icon I wend to the drop down menu.

I selected my render and saved it out as ripplebrush.psd I moved into photoshop and cut down the image into a square and then saved.

I set the new brush Icon by clicking the select Icon Button.

Here is what the final version of my brush icon looked like.

Here is a short demo of my new ripple brush.