I’ve been using Zbrush since around 2007. “What the hell is Zbrush?”, you say. Zbrush is an intuitive digital sculpting program created by Pixologic. If you have been watching almost any big-budget motion picture for the last two decades, you have seen creatures and special effects created in Zbrush. Now it’s a staple of the visual effects industry and product design. Back in 2007, I was lucky enough to know and work with Clint Burgin of Clay Box Studio. He taught me, and a handful of other sculptors I worked with at the time, the basics of the program. It was a tricky thing to wrap my head around. The user interface was very difficult to understand at first, but once I got it , the vast potential of digital sculpting blew my mind. I don’t use it for everything, and I am no where near a master of it yet, but I can get around the interface, and I know enough from taking classes to make some cool shit. I still love traditional clay, but I cannot understate the power and speed of this sculpting tool. Yes, I see Zbrush as a sculpting tool. The end result of these 3D-models, for me, is a physical sculpture, which I use traditional clay(s) to finish, and old school molding practices to create a physical product, like bronze. As I have gotten older, with bits of my body hurting more these days, sculpting in physical clay on a daily basis can be physically exhausting if I don’t take a break here and there. However, Zbrush is something I can see doing well into my 80’s, with ease!

I want to share some of my favorite aspects of using Zbrush, creating some H.R. Giger-inspired biomechanical stuff. I will be creating videos while I work on a few Zbrush projects. Be sure to check back often to see more as they’re added. I have just acquired a new screen recording software that makes it a breeze to record my rambling while I work in Zbrush!

Video 1: Making Simple Zbrush Alphas