ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting

355 Pages·2008·31.59 MB·English

by  Scott Spencer

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ZBrush Character
Creation:
Advanced Digital Sculpting
Scott Spencer
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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ZBrush Character Creation
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ZBrush Character
Creation:
Advanced Digital Sculpting
Scott Spencer
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Acquisitions Editor: Mariann Barsolo
Development Editor: Pete Gaughan
Technical Editor: Ryan Kingslien
Production Editor: Elizabeth Ginns Britten
Copy Editor: Elizabeth Welch
Production Manager: Tim Tate
Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley
Vice President and Executive Publisher: Joseph B. Wikert
Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde
Media Associate Project Manager: Laura Atkinson
Media Associate Producer: Angie Denny
Media Quality Assurance: Josh Frank
Book Designer and Compositor: Chris Gillespie, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Proofreader: Nancy Bell
Indexer: Nancy Guenther
Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed
Cover Image: Scott Spencer, Hector Delatorre
Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 978-0-470-24996-3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Spencer, Scott, 1975–
ZBrush character creation : advanced digital sculpting / Scott Spencer. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-470-24996-3 (paper/dvd)
1. Computer graphics. 2. ZBrush. I. Title.
T385.S662 2008
006.6'93—dc22
2008009613
TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley
& Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written per-
mission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated
with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
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Letter from the Publisher
Dear Reader,
Thank you for choosing ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting. This book
is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding
authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching.
Sybex was founded in 1976. More than thirty years later, we’re still committed to pro-
ducing consistently exceptional books. With each of our titles we’re working hard to set a
new standard for the industry. From the paper we print on, to the authors we work with, our
goal is to bring you the best books available.
I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear your com-
ments and get your feedback on how we’re doing. Feel free to let me know what you think
about this or any other Sybex book by sending me an email at [email protected], or if you
think you’ve found a technical error in this book, please visit http://sybex.custhelp.com.
Customer feedback is critical to our efforts at Sybex.
Best regards,
Neil Edde
Vice President and Publisher
Sybex, an Imprint of Wiley
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To my parents, for making all things possible, and to Bill Johnson
and Paul Hudson for their guidance, inspiration, and friendship.
Acknowledgments
There are so many people who bring a book like this to life; I would like to try and thank
each of them here. This includes those with a direct hand in the editing and layout as well as
those whose support makes this kind of endeavor possible. First off I’d like to thank Karl
Meyer, Brian Sunderlin, and Gentle Giant Studios for giving me a place to learn and grow
as well as make cool stuff; Meredith Yayanos for her loving support, Jim McPherson for his
keen eye and expert artistic guidance. Thanks to Richard Taylor, Tania Rodger, and the gang
at Weta Workshop for their friendship and constant inspiration. I would also like to thank
Andrew Cawres and Freedom of Teach for the tools and assistance to grow as an artist.
Thanks to Ryan Kingslien for serving as tech editor and a constant source of informa-
tion on the inner workings of ZBrush as well as his keen eye for sculptural form. Ofer Alon,
and Jaime Labelle at Pixologic; Kyle McQueen who will forever be renaming .tif files in his
sleep, Alex Alvarez, and everyone at Gnomon. Thanks also go to Belinda Heywood and the
team at Secret Level.
I’d also like to thank Rick Baker and Dick Smith for inspiring me to pick up clay for
the first time. I must also thank those friends who have shared techniques and critiques;
Zack Petroc, Meats Meier, Scott Patton, Cesar Dacol, Ian Joyner, JP Targete, Mark Dedecker,
Stefano Dubay, Hector Delatorre, Nobu Sasagawa, Bill Spradlin, and Ricardo Ariza.
A very special thanks to Eric Keller for his input and bringing this book to me. I also
must thank the wonderful team at Wiley who helped me through the process and were
always professional, patient, attentive, and helpful to the process. Thanks to Mariann Barsolo
for starting the process and helping it along. Thanks to Pete Gaughan for guiding the direc-
tion of the book and helping to keep it on track and clear. Thanks to Liz Britten for her mas-
terful copyediting and layout, bringing the final product to light.
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Foreword
There are rare moments in history when a renaissance is conceived and the whole paradigm
of a particular medium is changed forever. Through the celebration of subtractive carving or
additive sculpting, these various art mediums have established a whole new cultural iconog-
raphy and have created treasures through the art of sculpture.
A new artistic renaissance is quietly unfolding around us, establishing a medium of art
no less powerful than those that have developed before it. As the unique artistic tools that
are Photoshop, Painter, the tablet, and the stylus have forever changed the conceptual
designer’s palette of techniques and injected a freedom and spontaneity into artists’ work,
so has the development of 3D modeling packages allowed sculptors another wonderful tool
in their equipment.
As each new renaissance delivers to the world master craftspeople and artisans operat-
ing at the pinnacle of their chosen discipline, Scott Spencer has chosen to master the medium
of 3D digital modeling and become a master craftsman in his own right. Scott is an excep-
tionally talented person who draws from an innate gift and understanding of the sculpted
form and pairs this with his complete grasp of the technical complexities of software pack-
ages, digital technology, and cutting-edge 3D software. Scott has become well recognized for
his work within the high-end creative merchandising field, primarily working within Gentle
Giant (one of the world’s leading merchandising and collectibles business), but he has also
carved his own distinct career with the tutoring of 3D digital modeling and sculpture to stu-
dents and professionals alike.
I have had the great pleasure of getting to know Scott over the past four years and have
watched in awe as his skill and artistry has tasked the 3D modeling tools at his fingertips
into creating dynamic figurative sculptures worthy of any gallery.
It is, therefore, a wonderful thing to be invited to write a foreword for Scott’s book on
ZBrush and the art of 3D modeling. I find Scott to be an inspiration as he wields his craft. It
is Scott who I have turned to when considering our own artists at Weta Workshop becoming
proficient in the field of 3D digital modeling, as I know there is no better tutor from whom
we can all learn and who is part of this amazing new renaissance within the art of sculpture.
—Richard Taylor
Weta Workshop
Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand
Richard Taylor and his partner Tania Rodger began what would become Weta Workshop
Ltd. in New Zealand in 1994. Taylor won four Academy Awards for his work on The Lord
of the Ringstrilogy, for which Weta performed the gamut of digital production from com-
positing to animation of CG creatures. Over the past 20 years, the company has provided
physical and digital effects for many films, advertisements, and television shows, including
the Hercules and the Xenaseries, as well as feature films including Master and Commander;
I Robot; Van Helsing; The Last Samurai; The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch,
and the Wardrobe;The Legends of Zorro; and King Kong.
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