ZSketch

The power of ZSketch combined with the power of ZBrush brushes - ZBrush Artist : Ty Shelton.

About ZSketch

ZSketch is a new technology based on the ZSphere which will let you freely create your models without restrictions. ZSketch can be used in three different ways: By using a ZSphere skeleton which will become an armature for the ZSketch ZSpheres By using just a single ZSphere and then, create your model in the 3D space. By adding a ZSphere as a subtool to any mesh, put in sketch mode and draw directly onto the other subtool.

Each technique has its own usefulness and choosing one or the other will depend on your needs or simply, the way you prefer building your mesh.

Please, keep in mind that ZSketch is based on ZSpheres and even if the way you will use the created ZSphere is not hierarchy-based, it’s important to create strips of ZSpheres like you would apply strips of Clay on a real model. Avoid going forward and backward on the same stroke.

Creation of these strips of ZSpheres can also be combined with smoothing. ZBrush provides several different Smooth brushes for sketching that will have a different affect to your mesh.

In the new ZBrush your Default Smooth brush will be defined by holding down the shift key and clicking on any of the smooth brushes. For example, if you hold down shift and click on Smooth1 then this brush will always be used for smoothing when shift is held. If you wish to change your default smooth brush from Smooth1 to Smooth2, hold down the Shift key and select the Smooth2 brush. Now Smooth2 will be your default Smooth brush from here on out. The properties (such as Z Intensity or the Smoothing Curve) of the currently selected Smooth brush can now be changed on the fly. Simply hold down Shift to activate the Smooth brush and adjust the desired settings.

ZSketch with a ZSphere Structure

This method is based on a ZSphere skeleton. The first step will be to create a traditional ZSphere model. When this structure is finished, the strip of ZSpheres through ZSketch will be ready to be apply.

Create your ZSphere Skeleton.
In the Tool palette, open the ZSketch menu and click on the Edit Sketch button (Shift+A): your ZSphere will change color.
Be sure to have Edit>Draw mode on.
In the brush palette, the traditional sculpting brushes are replaced by the ZSketch tools. Pick the tool of your choice and start sculpting. The description of the brushes is available below.
By pressing the “A” key, or clicking in the Tool >> Unified Skin palette >> Preview button, you will see a mesh that is in preview mode. By default, ZBrush is using a Unified Skin to generate the model.
Press the “A” Key again to go back to the Edit Sketch mode and continue your 3D sketch.
If needed, press the Tool >> ZSketch >> Optimize button: it will remove the unnecessary ZSpheres, like the ones inside the model.
Repeat all these steps until your model is done. When you are finished sketch click on the “A” key to preview your mesh and then click on the “Make Unified Skin” to create a new mesh that will be put into the Tool Palette.

Sketch freely in 3D with ZSketch

This method will give you the traditional feeling of building with clay. , When you are starting with nothing you will build up a surface by adding strips of clay on top of each other. The process of sketching is the same in ZBrush with a ZSphere structure except that with this method, you will create freely in 3D Space.

Create a single ZSphere
In the Tool palette, open the ZSketch menu and click on the Edit Sketch button (Shift+A): your ZSphere will change of color.
Be sure to have Edit>Draw mode on.
In the brush palette, the traditional sculpting brushes are replaced by the ZSketch tools. Pick the tool of your choice and start sculpting. The description of the brushes is available below.
By pressing the “A” key, or clicking in the Tool >> Unified Skin palette >> Preview button, you will see a mesh that is in preview mode. By default, ZBrush is using a Unified Skin to generate the model.
Press the “A” Key again to go back to the Edit Sketch mode and continue your 3D sketch.
If needed, press the Tool >> ZSketch >> Optimize button: it will remove the unnecessary ZSpheres, like the ones inside the model.
Repeat all these steps until your model is done. When you are finished sketch click on the “A” key to preview your mesh and then click on the “Make Unified Skin” to create a new mesh that will be put into the Tool Palette.

3D Sketching on a SubTool

This method will sculpt onto any subtool that is appended with the ZSphere. This is a great workflow for adding form and shape to subtools. This process will use the subtool surface to align the ZSketch strokes. It is best to first scale down the ZSphere to be inside the other subtools.

Append a single ZSphere to any Subtool.
Scale the ZSphere down to be inside the subtools so that you can not see the appended ZSphere.
In the Tool palette, open the ZSketch menu and click on the Edit Sketch button (Shift+A): your ZSphere will change color.
Be sure to have Edit>Draw mode on.
In the brush palette, the traditional sculpting brushes are replaced by the ZSketch tools. Pick the tool of your choice and start sculpting. The description of the brushes is available below.
By pressing the “A” key, or clicking in the Tool >> Unified Skin palette >> Preview button, you will see a mesh that is in preview mode By default, ZBrush is using a Unified Skin to generate the model.
Press the “A” Key again to go back to the Edit Sketch mode and continue your 3D sketch.
If needed, press the Tool >> ZSketch >> Optimize button: it will remove the unnecessary ZSpheres.
Repeat all these steps until your model is done.
When complete click on Make Unified Skin.
A new Tool will be added to the Tool Palette.
Append that new tool to your previous selected Tool that was used to sketch on. The new Unified Skin will be positioned where the sketch was applied.

Creating a 3D Model from a ZSketch

When your ZSketch model is done, you can generate the final mesh, which will become fully sculptable with all the ZBrush sculpting tools. This model is based on the Unified Skin, this is using the Voxel technology to create the 3D model.

In the Tool palette, open the Unified Skin menu.
Set the Resolution of the final model. Increasing the value (128 by default) will increase the resolution of the final model, but will also increase the processing time. (Higher resolution settings are usually only needed if your model has very small ZSpheres that are not being included correctly in the skinning calculation. If your preview skin simply doesn’t have enough polygons for the detail that you’ve created, use a higher SDiv setting instead.)
You can add up to 4 Subdivision levels to the Unified Skin Mesh via the SDiv slider. This setting must be set before clicking on the preview button in the Tool>Unified Skin menu. If the setting is at 4 then there will be 5 levels to your Unified Skin when created. Important: SDiv is ONLY used to set the number of levels that the model will have. While the preview is active you then use the Tool>Geometry menu to move between levels.)
Change the Sphere density slider (Sdns) to increase the density of the ZSphere strokes on the Unified skin generation and then, reduce the ring effect. In essence this will add ZSpheres between two ZSpheres when the mesh is previewed. For example, if you change this setting to 50 then when the mesh is created there will be 50 ZSpheres added between each ZSphere to create a smoother mesh but maintain the silhouette of your sketch. (I think an image would be best here as well.)
Click on the Make Unified Skin button to create a new ZTool, which will be added in the Tool palette.

For more information, see Unified Skin

Using a ZSphere Armature

If you have created a ZSphere armature tool with the intent to sketch on top of this ZSphere mesh then an Adaptive Skin can be used. The projection of the sketch into the Adaptive Skin is done locally per ZSphere radius. The quality of the Adaptive Skin will depend on each underlying armature ZSphere.

First, draw a ZSphere out on the canvas in edit mode. Draw out a ZSphere model such as a human or animal.
Open the Tool>ZSketch click on the Edit Sketch.
Sketch on the underlying ZSphere armature (Shift+A).
Click on the Edit Sketch button to leave sketch mode.
Click on the Show Sketch button or click Bind. This will display the sketch ZSpheres in the new Ghost Transparency.
When you see the sketch in the Ghost Transparency and can see the underlying ZSphere armature you can press ‘A’ to project the sketch into the Adaptive Skin.
The projection quality is set by the radius of each individual ZSphere of the armature. If you getunsatisfactory results in parts of your mesh then the underlying ZSpheres’ radius should be enlarged to better capture the sketch.

New Unified Skin

The Unified Skin has been improved greatly to give the capability to create smooth polygroups with edge looping around desinated parts of your mesh. The new features and preferences will improve the result of your ZSketch models. With the new Polish and Border feature you can sketch out anything imaginable and have a smooth polygrouped mesh after.

The new Polish Surface, Border, and Allow Tri will only be available when using ZSpheres or in ZSketch mode.

Polish Surface- This will apply an over-all smooth polish to the entire surface.
Border- This will add border edges around each polygroup. If the setting is set to 6 then there will be 6 rings of border around each polygroup.
Allow Tri- When using Border and this slider you will be allowing triangles in your mesh when the Unified Skin is created.